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| “ | Stuart: Now, I'm gonna crack you on the top of the head with the butt of my gun. If you try and block me or stop me, move out of the way, she's gonna pull that trigger. Do you understand me? DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?! Sam: Yes. Stuart: Good. You stay still. Stay still, and you smile. Smile like you want me to hit you. Smile like you're happy. That ain't a proper smile, mate. And we all wanna see a nice smile! Don't we? SMILE! That's it. Say "cheese". Say it. Go on. Say "cheese", and all this stops. Say it, Sam Nelson. |
„ |
| ~ Stuart wrathfully threatening Sam Nelson after losing his patience with him. |
| “ | Sam, it's over, mate. We're done. [...] I gotta get Lewis to the hospital, remember? Come on! YOU CAN COME WITH ME! You come out now, OR I'LL F-CKIN' DRAG YOU OUT! DO YOU HEAR ME?! [...] There's no point! IT'S OVER! Come on, Sam! If I'm going down, you're going down with me! | „ |
| ~ Stuart's villainous breakdown as he hunts and tries to kill Sam for ruining his plans, knowing he'll be arrested for the hijacking anyway. |
Stuart Atterton, also known as Gerald Taylor, or simply Stuart, is the main antagonist of Series 1 of the Apple TV+ British drama-thriller miniseries Hijack.
He is an operative for the The Cheapside Firm and a terrorist who leads 4 other terrorists in the hijacking of flight KA29. It is revealed that they hijacked the aircraft so they can hold the passengers hostage in order to force the British government to release Edgar Janssen and John Bailey-Brown, the leaders of the Cheapside Firm, from prison.
He is portrayed by Neil Maskell who also portrayed Simon Chord in Open Windows, and Arby in the original UK verison of Uptopia.
Personality[]
Stuart is a terrorist with a strict demeanor, not at least pretending to be kind to anyone, even some of his fellow hijackers. He is also very wrathful, repeatedly assaulting attendants, especially Sam Nelson, yelling at him to "smile like you want me to hit you" before he hits him with his gun. He is also prone to angry outbursts, as at the start of "Not Responding", he has just killed a passenger and pulls an attendant to the phone and holds him at gunpoint while shouting at him to warn everyone to get in their seat in 10 seconds otherwise they die.
However, Stuart also shows some humanity in him. He is shown to care a lot for his little brother, Lewis, who's also a hijacker with him. When he's injured, Stuart gets a passenger who is a doctor to medically care for him. He is even willing to land the plane and sacrifice the whole mission just to get medical attention and save his brother. When Stuart discovers Lewis sabotaged his treatment so he could die, the former is shown to be extremely overcome with grief, almost crying.
Despite that, it is shown that despite his "tough-guy" nature, Stuart in reality is getting closer to the edge of a panicked breakdown, as not only was he forced to hijack the plane, but the plan constantly hit major obstacles, including initiating it way earlier than needed, Stuart having to shoot a woman, and Lewis dying. By the time the passengers are saved and most of the terrorists are arrested, Sam is still in the plane looking for Stuart. Upon seeing he's escaped, Stuart reveals himself and attempts to hunt down and kill Sam in a final suicidal attempt to take him down, becoming a fully deranged and broken shell of a man he used to be.
Biography[]
Past[]
Stuart is the older brother of Lewis Atterton. Their dad, Peter Atterton, was a loyal member of the Cheapside Firm, an internation organized crime syndicate. However, he eventually sold them out to the police. As such, the Firm sent a hitman, Terry Reid, to kill him. Lewis was the one who found his dad, Peter, dead in the hall. He presumably was saddened, as well as Stuart. At a certain point, just like his dad, Stuart and Lewis both became operatives for the Cheapside Firm. However, when the firm's leaders get arrested, Stuart & Lewis are assigned to hijack flight KA-29 in order to coerce the U.K government to release them.
Hijack[]
Final Call[]
Stuart and his colleagues board flight KA29 and wait to initiate their plan to hijack it. However, when a bullet of one of the hijackers is found in a bathroom by another passenger, Stuart is forced to initiate the hijacking early. He holds the Captain's girlfriend hostage, which works, granting him and the terrorists full control over the plane, that is before Sam comes along and tries to offer help, his first step to try and manipulate the terrorists.
3 Degrees[]
While they are talking, two men attempt to ambush the terrorists, but Sam helps stop them. After doing this, Stuart speaks with Sam in private. Stuart is firm that they don't need any help, but Sam notes how their plan has gone wrong in the first hour alone. In response, Stuart takes Sam's passport and starts shouting at him. He and his colleagues take Sam to his seat in order to unlock his phone. He also has the 2 'hero' passengers tied and beaten, and has the cabin crew declare their final warning to the passengers, as any further resistance will result in casualties.
As they enter Iraqi air space, a call from their air traffic control comes through. Sam tells Stuart that they need to let the Captain communicate with the Iraqi air traffic control, or they’ll shoot them down. Stuart panics and sends in the first officer, unable to trust the Captain anymore. But Iraq only wants to speak with the Captain. The Captain refuses to cooperate, so he and the terrorists drag him into the cockpit. He speaks with Iraq, confirming that they are safe.
Draw A Blank[]
Stuart then orders the passengers to not get out of their seats at all anymore, as they are getting out of control. Meanwhile, Sam and Allen attempt to communicate via an in-flight game, but Stuart catches on. As such, he hits the pilot over the head for this disobedience. Stuart then punishes Sam, forcing him to smile before hitting him with his gun. All of the screens are subsequently switched off. Stuart then calls someone, presumably an operative of the Cheapside Firm, and tells them that the operation has commenced and that the plane is in control. Then the cabin crew asks to serve food and drink. Stuart only allows them to hand out bottles of water, though.
However, Sam hatches a plan with Hugo to take down one of the terrorists to prove if the bullets they're using are real or blanks. Another passenger, Nasir, also fights a terrorist, Jaden, who won't let him give his uncle his insulin. Sam then attempts to disarm Terry, and gets into a fight, with another man joining in to fight Terry. Stuart notices the ensuing chaos on the plane and makes a move, as he switches his blanks for real bullets, and walks to economy class. All that is heard after that is a shot that is not shown, presumably either Marcus shooting a blank at Sam, or if Stuart shot a passenger.
Not Responding[]
Continuing on from the last episode’s cliffhanger ending, it’s revealed that Stuart was the one who fired his weapon, killing a female passenger, Sheena Francis, in the process. This act helps Stuart to take back control of the plane. He then takes a flight attendant, Arthur, and forces him to order everyone to be seated and silent, otherwise another passenger gets killed. The dead body is then removed from view by the terrorists.
Angered by how many times his plan has gone wrong, Stuart lashes out in the cockpit, damaging the pilot’s headset during his tantrum. He then finds that Lewis, one of the hijackers, was stabbed by a passenger. Stuart calms him down and tells him to seek first aid from one of the cabin crew. However, as they enter Romanian airspace, and ignore their air traffic control warning, two Romanian jets appear beside the plane. As such, Stuart orders all the blinds to be closed.
On the ground, many U.K officials and government organizations are cracking down on this hijacking. One of them, DI Daniel O'Farrel, discovers that Stuart and Lewis Atterton are brothers and part of the Cheapside Firm, and organized crime syndicate in the U.K. The Foreign Secretary is then informed that all the terrorists, including Stuart, are British citizens. As such, she informs the Romanian government about it, and they call of the jets.
Less Than An Hour[]
Stuart checks up on Lewis' condition. The onboard doctor, David, says that Lewis is stable, and Stuart is happy with that and tells David to stay with him and gets back to work. Meanwhile, the Home Secretary has been handed a latter detailing the terrorists' demands. The terrorists want the two leaders of their crime organization, Edgar Janssen and John Bailey-Brown, to be released from prison before the plane lands. If they don’t comply, then all 216 passengers aboard the flight will be killed.
Sam then talks to Stuart again, telling him that he should land the plane to get medical attention for Lewis, or he will die in less than an hour, as Sam says that's what David told him. Stuart doesn't believe Sam, and goes to ask the doctor what he thinks, and threatens to kill more passengers if Sam's lying. However, Sam gets the message to David, who also tells Stuart that Lewis has less than an hour. Stuart wants to land the plane in order to save his life, but the other hijackers, especially Jamie, aren't quite so warm to the idea.
Stuart ignores their advice and goes ahead with his plan. He speaks with Captain Allen and the co-pilot, Anna Kovacs, on how this landing would work. Anna then speaks with the Hungarian air traffic control to get permission to land, while secretly telling them that the plane is still hijacked. The terrorists are suspicious, but Anna works through, and they begin to descend to land.
However, the other terrorists are still not compliant with Stuart's landing. Jamie keeps arguing with the others, saying that Stuart has no power to make this decision. In a panic, Terry, the older hijacker, orders David, the doctor, to convince Stuart not to land. He also tells Sam that the Firm will kill the terrorists, Sam, and all their families if the plan goes even slightly wrong.
After even Lewis says he doesn't want Stuart to land it, Sam tells Stuart to abort the landing. Stuart is against that and gets mad at Sam for his change of mind. Sam says that Lewis doesn’t want to land either. When they visit him at the back of the plane, Stuart discovers that Lewis has sabotaged the treament so the former wouldn't land. Stuart is distraught about this, touching Lewis' dead body, while staring in grief.
Comply Slowly[]
On the ground, Edgar and John are released per the hijacker's deamnds. However, Janssen makes it perfectly clear that if anyone follow them, passengers on KA29 will be killed. When this agreement is broken, Janssen sends Stuart, who is still shocked from his brother's death, a message to kill a passenger and send a photo of them. At first, Stuart attempts to choke out Deevia, the flight attendant. However, Sam suggests they just send a photo of the passenger they already killed. Stuart agrees, and the photo is sent to Janssen, who sends it to Daniel to prove that they mean business.
However, Janssen orders another murder from Stuart, as he thinks the police have purposely blocked a road to stop the former. Meanwhile, Edgar and John head to an airfield with plans of leaving the country. There are military personnel that confront and attack them. However, they are actually look alike decoys. The real Edgar & John move to a different vehicle and Edgar sends a cryptic message, "NOW", to Stuart.
On the plane, Jaden discovers the passengers have been passing a note around, which says "Get ready to shake things up!" Jamie brings it to Stuart, who recieved Edgar's message, to ask who did it. Stuart points out Hugo and Sam and assaults both of them. Stuart then goes on a maniacial rampage, yelling at the passengers for someone to volunteer to be killed.
However, the passengers spring into action and fight back, as Sam fights Stuart while the others use their nearest objects to fight the other terrorists. However, in all the chaos, a female passenger named Amanda receives a text message, presumably from Janssen. She takes out a gun and shockingly shoots the Captain dead, which silents the whole plane. This shocks everyone including Stuart, as he and the other terrorists were not aware of her. She then heads inside the cockpit and shuts the door, locking it. It is widely presumed she is also an agent for Edgar Janssen.
Brace Brace Brace[]
To be added
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Stuart's fake passport name was Gerald Taylor.
- Stuart is currently the last living member of the Atterton family. His father, Peter was assassinated, his mother, Elaine, committed suicide, and his younger brother, Lewis, was stabbed and later sabotaged his treatment during the hijacking, killing himself.
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 Villains
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Cheapside Firm | ||