Flightplan

—1. Overview (multimedia)
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections

How do we respond to someone in crisis? Even when we have all reason to treat someone badly, should we still uphold their dignity? These are the questions Flightplan raises, and in the movie, the answer to these questions is rather disappointing.

Flightplan stars Jodie Foster as Kyle, a mother who recently had lost her husband to a 'fall.' Because of his death, Foster is flying with her 6 year old daughter from Germany back to the United States, in order to bury the body. However, it is on this flight that things will take a drastic turn for the worse.

After Kyle (Foster) falls asleep for a couple of hours on the plane, her 6 year old daughter completely disappears. Kyle calmly begins checking the rest of the plane because her daughter had wandered off once before. But after a few minutes it becomes clear that Kyle is not going to find her daughter, that she has disappeared, and this starts a chain of events that lead to a thriller that raises basic moral questions that need to be answered.

While watching the film, it was interesting to note all the times staring was used. People stared at each other to give the clear indication they thought Kyle was crazy. Another time, after Kyle had caused a major disruption on the plane, she is put in hand cuffs and marched to the back of the plane. During this walk, she is met with applause and angry stares by the people of the plane. This is a powerful scene where you see how much pain Kyle must have been in. She knows her child exists, and yet she cannot prove that her child was kidnapped.

This theme is further played out when a man in first class joked about how losing a 6 year is not that big of a deal, after all, "It's not like she lost her palm pilot." This attitude is also seen when two crew members apparently have sex in one of the hidden areas of the plane while they are supposed to be looking for the 6 year old. The people on the plane simply do not care about Kyle or her lost child.

SPOILER WARNING: This theme meets its culmination when Foster learns that her 6 year old was kidnapped in plain view of anyone that wanted to see. Yet, no one cared, no one paid any attention. It is in this we find the ultimate disappointment, the very people that were so angry at Kyle for causing all the disruptions were themselves guilty of failing to stop the kidnapping.

In the end, this is a great moral but the story really fails to teach it in a very convincing matter. For example, Fosters saw some Arabs there were on the plane staring into her window the night before. But the Arabs turn out to be perfectly normal people and were never even at the apartment building Kyle was out. That is a major untied part of the plot.

Also, Kyle does act crazy in this movie, running after the pilot, forcing the oxygen masks out of the plane, and killing the electricity in the plane. She is given 2nd and 3rd chances to stop doing these things and she repeatedly does. Should people really be that condemned for considering her that crazy?

But maybe this weakness is the strongest part of the film. After all, the moral of the movie is that people should not be treated as guilty until it is 100% true they are guilty. In society we see this in so many ways. We assume people are guilty and we give them ugly stares, treat them how we would not want to be treated. Flightplan urges us to seek the truth, and that even when the truth maybe the harder thing to believe, we should never give up on it. That is the price of unconditional love: that we do all things for someone else under stress, even when those things appear in vain.