![]() Sure, each episode could go on for a full hour, but most of the time the show keeps it to a brisk and entertaining 45 minutes.Įverything about Hijack feels pulled from another era, in the best way possible. ![]() The show creates natural ebbs in the action and suspense, and carefully lets each episode build to its own impressively thrilling climax, without feeling indebted to the standard hourlong running time for most modern dramatic television. Keeping all this tension and cleverness in balance for 90 minutes is a challenge most movies can’t overcome, but Hijack manages to elegantly spread it out over seven episodes. It’s the kind of clever writing and audience trust that feels rare in modern thrillers, which too often leave open massive logical gaps to keep their tension high or over-explain every moment and let the camera linger on solutions to let the audience feel clever. If you’ve spotted a loophole or a clear next step, chances are someone else on the plane has too and they’re about to say it out loud. Questions that seem like common sense are almost always addressed by characters, and everyone takes logical steps toward solving the problems in front of them. When talking to him, both the hijackers and the other passengers are constantly doing the mental calculus of trying to figure out how they’re being tricked, or if Sam’s just telling a slightly venomous version of the truth.īeyond just giving us the right kind of hero to root for, Hijack is exceptionally good at laying out the exciting parts of a thriller in exactly the order they should be in. It’s a fact that gives Sam power, but makes everyone else uneasy. Sam’s always smarter than whoever he’s talking to, and both parties know it. It’s a spectacular dynamic that the show employs well, especially in the fifth episode, when things finally get a little violent and Stuart needs to be calmed down. The camera lingers on Stuart’s face as he slowly gets beaten down by Sam’s logic and the pressure of the situation until all he can do is fall back on an uneasy kind of trust. Early in the show, Sam tries to convince the lead hijacker, Stuart (Neil Maskell), that he wants to help, not because he wants to hijack the plane but because he wants to survive. The character also taps into an incredible strength of Elba’s, delivering convincing dialogue in a way that never lets other characters forget he’s primarily working for his own interests. So when he finds himself in a crisis, he turns the whole hijacking into one big business negotiation, because that’s something he knows he can win. He just happens to do a job that involves high-pressure deal-making, and he’s very good at it. ![]() He isn’t a badass action hero or a super genius who’s also studied Krav Maga. Like all the best Jack Ryans and regular(ish) guy protagonists before him, Sam is not ex-special forces or secretly a spy. He’s also where the show’s ’90s flair really gets started. As the realities of their hijacking become clear, Nelson jumps into action, trying to pacify and negotiate with the culprits and ensure everyone on the plane makes it to the ground safely. Hijack’s band of resourceful passengers are led by the self-appointed leader Sam Nelson (Idris Elba), a closer who specializes in finishing off business deals for massive international companies. Thankfully, after five episodes, Hijack is proof that the good old-fashioned thriller hasn’t died out completely. It’s exactly the kind of mid-budget excitement that would have made for one of the most popular movies in the world 30 years ago, but has largely disappeared since. The twisty international thriller follows a group of passengers trying to survive a hijacking on a seven-hour flight from Dubai to London. ![]() The ’90s are still alive and well in the skies above Europe, at least in the new Apple TV Plus series Hijack.
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