Ashton Chen and director Qin Pengfei take to the skies for their latest venture, with martial arts icon Iko Uwais tagging along for the ride.
Wings of Dread is the latest in several airplane set actioners to come from China, with Oxide Pang’s High Forces (2024) and Jingle Ma’s Battle of the Wolf (2025) both featuring a lone hero going up against an assortment of villains on a hijacked plane.
What sets Wings of Dread apart is that our lead doesn’t have to do it alone, with him being backed up by a small team of Chinese Air Police officers who end up combining their forces to take on the hijackers.
This slight variation from the formula is also what raises Wings of Dread above the other two films mentioned. Not to say that the film is perfect, which I will come to later, but the inclusion of additional heroes enables directors Chen and Pengfei to offer up a variety of fight scenes that don’t solely focus on the same hero each time. My main gripe with the recent Battle of the Wolf was, no matter how great Zhou Wenzhou was, the action eventually became stale.
Ashton Chen stars as Gu Chaoyang, an Air Police Officer who is having some relationship troubles with his flight attendant girlfriend Dong Lu (Nita Lei). Currently off duty, Chaoyang decides to hitch a ride on a flight Lu is working so he can get a chance to talk to her. So far, so Die Hard (1988).
Amongst the assortment of weird and wonderful passengers, notorious criminal Qin Cheng (Tao Hai) is being escorted back to China. Although the flight crew have been assured of their safety, it isn’t exactly a surprise to find out that a group of terrorists, led by Paquet (Iko Uwais), have infiltrated the plane in order to free Cheng. To aid their escape, they have additionally placed a bomb on the plane. Now it’s up to Chaoyang and his fellow Air Police Officers to protect the passengers as well as put a stop to Paquet’s plan.
Considering Wings of Dread was made for streaming, it would be silly to expect it to compare to a big budget actioner, but directors Ashton Chen and Qin Pengfui almost pull it off. The level and quality of action on display certainly puts it on par with anything currently being shown in cinemas.
What slightly lets the production down is the typical genre cliches inherent in the action/disaster genre, with the majority of characters falling into archetypes rather than being fully formed characters. There’s the warring couple, the arrogant passenger, the annoying child as well as the coward who would throw everyone under the bus in order to save themselves. To be honest, I’m a sucker for disaster movies, so I was easily taken in, overlooking how thinly written the characters were because of how well the supporting cast play them.
Surprisingly, for a film clocking in at a mere 85 minutes, it does take a little time to get into the thick of the action, with the first 3rd of the film being used to set up the plot and characters, with some ill advised humor being thrown in for good measure. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the humor falls flat, although one particular visual joke during a car based fight scene will certainly raise a laugh.
There is also the typical overdone patriotism that is filtered through the majority of Chinese actioners these days. It honestly comes off as cringe-worthy that after getting seven bails of shit kicked out of him that Ashton Chen would even have the energy to exclaim the virtues of the Chinese Air Police Force, but that’s exactly what he does.
Thankfully, this is mostly kept to a minimum, only happening towards the end of the film. Luckily, Ashton Chen is such a bad ass that such dialogue can be forgiven. Similarly to his previous collaborations with Qin Pengfui, Chen’s handful of fight scenes are beautifully choreographed, with the variety of villains putting him through his paces. Typically for a Pengfui film, he excels at creating close quartered fight scenes, with an airplane being the perfect setting for his action style. I say a Pengfui film, but it is important to note he co-directed along with Chen. Now I’m not sure who handled what, but there is a fair amount of behind the scenes footage during the closing credits that show Chen directing.
While I mention Chen’s fight scenes, all the action on display is well choreographed, with everyone getting their opportunity to shine. Wei Zhang and Qiankun Li are on board as action/fight choreographers, with both being regular Pengfui collaborators, working on the likes of Curbing Violence (2024), Blade of Fury (2024) and The Bodyguard (2024). Their action scenes in Wings of Dread are easily on par with any of those films mentioned.
Whilst Ashton Chen was enough of a draw for me, to many the selling point of Wings of Dread is that it co-stars Iko Uwais. Sadly, Uwais is inexplicably dubbed into English by another voice artist. The reason for this must either have been financial or be down to availability. Although it is disappointing, Uwais still shines where it matters, with his martial arts skills coming out in full force as he squares off against Chen in one of the film’s best set pieces. What raises this fight above others is that at the same time the plane is flying through an electrical storm, causing both Uwais and Chen to fight against the turbulence as much as against each other.
Uwais has also brought on a member of his own team to assist with the action choreography, with Rama Ramadhan working alongside the aforementioned Wei Zhang and Qiankun Li. Ramadhan has assisted in numerous Uwais productions going all the way back to The Raid (2011), so it is understandable why Uwais would want him involved.
Chen and Uwais aren’t the only selling points here, with many of Pengfui’s regular collaborators making up the supporting cast. Qu Jingjing from The Bodyguard (2024) gives sterling support as a fellow Air Police Officer, with her getting one of the film’s most memorable fight scenes, with her facing off against Hong Shuang in the tight confines of the plane’s toilet.
The underrated Liu Fengchao once again faces off against Chen as one of the film’s villains. His role here isn’t as memorable as those he played in the likes of Black Storm (2024) or the more recent The Sin Trade (2026), but he still gets to show off his martial arts skills when the time arises. Fengchao has quickly become a personal favorite, with him always giving a memorable turn. I was happy to see that he was finally given a leading role with The Butcher’s Blade (2026) which used him to its full advantage, not only giving him several awesome fight scenes but having him play a morally complex character.
Wings of Dread may not be Chen and Pengfui’s best collaboration, but it still has more than its fair share of quality action scenes to make it an enjoyable actioner. It certainly surpasses the previously mentioned Battle of the Wolf and the bigger budgeted High Forces, with Chen and Pengfui focusing more on their strengths and giving the audience what they want.
Considering the frequency of their output, I doubt it will be too long before we have another Ashton Chen or Qin Pengfei film on the horizon. Iko Uwais on the other hand already has a handful of films he is either working on or is ready for release. Skyline: Warpath will see him reteam with his Triple Threat (2019) co-star Scott Adkins, whereas Survive the Night finds him alongside his Wu Assassins co-star Lewis Tan once again. Somehow he has found time to feature in the upcoming Road House 2 as well as planning to face off against fan favorite Tak Sakaguchi in Pendekar: Warrior.
I would urge viewers to view Wings of Dread on its own merits rather than comparing it to other Uwais movies. This isn’t The Raid, and it would be silly expecting such. Instead it is merely an entertaining actioner and further proof that not all Chinese web movies are disposable.
Plot: 3/5
Acting: 3/5
Action: 4/5
Overall: 3.3/5