Movie Review: 7500, with Joseph-Gordon Levitt (2020)

Movie Review: 7500, with Joseph-Gordon Levitt (2020)
This is going to sound odd, but I always enjoy hijacker films (see: most Liam Neeson films ...). It's always kind of thrilling to see if the hero or heroine will make it (and most of the time they do ...), and this one was no exception.

Tobias (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the co-pilot on a flight from Berlin to Paris. He has a son with one of the flight attendants on board, with whom he's in a relationship, but they aren't married, and they've kept it secret from the rest of the crew. Shortly after the plane takes off, terrorists rush the plane and try to get into the pilot's area; after that, chaos ensues, and it is up to Tobias to make sure the plane can make a safe emergency landing.

Official synopsis:
In the cockpit of a commercial airliner about to depart Berlin for Paris, the plane’s soft-spoken young American co-pilot, Tobias (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), runs through the preflight checklist with the German pilot, Michael (Carlo Kitzlinger). Tobias’ flight-attendant girlfriend, Gökce (Aylin Tezel), comes in to chat briefly with him about preschools for their son before preparing the passengers for takeoff.

But what starts out as a routine day on the job quickly turns into a life-or-death struggle when terrorists determined to take control of the plane force their way into the cockpit. Armed with knives fashioned from broken glass, they stab Michael and slash Tobias’ arm. Amid the chaos, Tobias manages to subdue one of the hijackers and push another back into the cabin, locking the door behind him.

With Michael barely conscious, a terrified Tobias contacts air traffic control to arrange an emergency landing in Hanover. Infuriated, the terrorists in the cabin threaten to kill a passenger unless Tobias lets them back into the cockpit, which — following airline protocol — he refuses to do. But when the hijackers make good on their promise and then take a crew member hostage, this ordinary man’s resolve is put to an excruciating test.


The first few minutes of this film were security footage from an airport, with no sound; I actually emailed my contact to make sure my copy of the film was correct. After that, the sound turns on, and we are introduced to Tobias and his girlfriend, one of the plane's flight attendants.

There were a lot of really hard parts to watch in this film, as the terrorists take the crew and some passengers hostage, and threaten to hurt them if Tobias doesn't open the door to the cockpit. 99% of the film takes place within the cockpit, too, but the movie makes it work; I read another review that said that JGL could do this role in his sleep, but he's very good in the film.

I give 7500 3.5 stars out of 5. I was going to give it 4 stars out of 5, but after digesting it for a few days, I still have a few questions ... for example, they never say WHY the terrorists want to take over the plane, and I'm still curious about that. One of them does disclose that he's ready to die with the plane, so I don't think it was about money or anything like that. If they had mentioned the reasoning, then I would have given the movie 4 out of 5 stars.

7500 will be streaming on Amazon Prime, starting on June 19th, and is rated R with a runtime of 92 minutes.

*Disclosure: I received a screener of this movie to review. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

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