Checked out the airline terrorism suspense film 7500 on Amazon Prime. Only thing I knew about it going in is that it stars Joseph Gordon Levitt and has relatively low ratings on Prime. But I like Levitt and, hey, it’s (more-or-less) free.
7500 stars Levitt as an airline co-pilot caught up in a hijack attempt when three men try to storm the flight deck and take the plane. He manages to fight them back but is left injured and alone while the men try to hammer through the door.
This is a surprisingly tense and suspenseful film in the tradition of other hostage negotiation or hijacking type films. Its main strength and its likely motivation for existing is that it takes place almost exclusive in the cockpit with a small handful of actors. It’s a claustrophobic film that Levitt probably took on to flex his acting muscles and the film makers their ability to tell a story in a cramped single location. And I think they pulled it off… it’s not always great, especially in the first half hour, but when the tension revs up, it really does pull it off.
One great thing about the film is that I don’t think there’s a musical score at all and I think it might take place in real-time. The only sound on the soundtrack (besides shouting and banging on doors) is from the jet engines and the rain. It creates a real sense of mood and realism. I guess the only real problem, speaking of realism, is that I would think there’d be just a bit more dialog from Levitt – whether it be from him to the ground or trying to reason with the hijackers.
But, in the end, I was pretty riveted. I think this very small film is effective in its small location suspense and it can stand up with bigger, more bombastic hostage or hijacking movies. If you have Amazon Prime, give it a shot.
Score: 86