I swore to protect my country, and that's what I'm doing. I also believe I will be 150 million dollars richer.
Now that I'm back from vacation, I got some more proposals in mind but especially plenty of removals that I'm very salty over how they got approved in the first place.
Kicking off the week, I got a villain who I wanted to discuss back on the 12th of May. What reason, I honestly don't remember.
The Work[]
Non-Stop is a 2014 action thriller film and one of the few movies to almost take complete place in a singular location (in this case, a Boeing 767). On a flight from New York City to London, Federal Air Marshall Bill Marks (played by Liam Neeson) receives a series of text messages from a killer on the plane, demanding $150 million or someone will die every 20 minutes. Worse, they have a bomb on board and plan to destroy the plane with everyone on it. Only he can stop the terrorist thousands of feet in the air.
We soon learn that the terroristic mastermind is Tom Bowen, but he has a sympathetic excuse behind his action and is not the target for today. His accomplice Zack White, however...
The Candidate[]
The terrorists' plan to frame Marks of their actions, thus ruining the reputation of the Air Marshals. The film starts with Bill Marks and his co-marshal Jack Hammond (the latter of whom is smuggling cocaine) flying to London for their next mission. Marks receives his texts, but Hammond doesn't believe him. While trying to find the culprit, Hammond suddenly runs into the rear bathroom on his phone. When Marks tries to question him of what is going on, Hammond attacks Marks, ending with Marks snapping his neck in self-defense. However, the terrorists blackmailed Marks as Hammond's death took place after 20 minutes of receiving the text message, making everyone on board think Marks is the terrorist.
Another 20 minutes pass and pilot David McMillan drops dead, having been poisoned, with only co-pilot Kyle Rice believing of Marks' innocence. While searching the resentful passengers, Zack White tells the woman who was sitting next to Marks (Jen Summers) that he is a programmer and convinces Marks that he can track the terrorist's phone and expose them. The phone rings in the pocket of Charles Weeler, who denies that the phone was his. As Marks interrogates him, Wheeler suddenly dies at the 60-minute mark, having been shot at with a poison dart.
With the help of Summers, Marks manages to unlock the phone, but this activates the timer of a bomb on the plane that will detonate in 30 minutes. Said bomb is inside of Hammond's briefcase underneath his bags of crack and weed. After the bomb is moved to the very back of the plane surrounded by luggage to soften the explosion while everyone is moved to the front of the plane, Marks looks at previous security camera footage monitored by Summers and spots Bowen planting the phone in the pocket of a sleeping Wheeler, revealing him as the terrorist. As Marks confronts him, Zack reveals himself as Bowen's accomplice and says that since the ransom money was transferred to Marks' account (how they framed him), he and Bowen should parachute out of the plane and leave everyone else to die. Marks tries to convince Zack to disarm the bomb, but Bowen double-crosses Zack and shoots him, revealing his plan to die with the plane.
As Kyle descends the plane to 8,000 feet to soften the pressure differential if the bomb blew up before half an hour, Marks and Bowen exchange a shoot-out until Marks kills Bowen. Zack, having survived his gunshot wound, attempts to kill Marks and grab a parachute so he could escape and leave everyone to their fate, but Marks manages to incapacitate Zack and push him farther back the plane just as the bomb detonates, blowing Zack up. Even with a hole blown open in the back of the plane, Kyle manages to safely land in Iceland where he and Marks are praised as heroes.
The Factors/Standards[]
I'm combining the mitigating factors and heinous standards into a singular paragraph as there's only two main villains and Hammond, who was only a pawn of the terroristic plan.
Tom is a tragic villain with an extremist goal, as he wants to get back at the Air Marshalls because of his father's death in the 9/11 attacks. He believes that security is the country's "biggest lie", and wants to cause a disaster that will increase all forms of safety.
Zack, however, doesn't care about the whole security ordeal and is only in it for the money. His "cooperation" with helping Marks locate the terrorist on the plane was only a disguise to make him not stand out as a prime suspect and took no time in attempting to kill him once his real identity is exposed. Even when Bowen intended to die with the other passengers on the plane, Zack is only interested in saving himself to claim $150 million and attempts to grab a parachute. From the lack of any emotion after Marks killed Bowen, Zack cares nothing about him or anyone who is about to die on the plane with the bomb. He only kills two people, but 150+ more were going to die and he wouldn't care less.
The Verdict[]
Attempting to terrorize a plane and bomb it with a hundred innocent people on board, including children, just for $150 million is quite petty. For that, I say yes.
Yes: 11
No: 0
Undecided: 0
Tally: +11
Verdict: Pure Evil