Carry-On (2024) Review: Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman Excel in a Riveting Airport Thriller

Ten years ago, Jaume Collet-Serra delivered mid-air thrills in Liam Neeson-starred Non-Stop and now, he zeroes in the airport in Carry-On. LAX, to be exact and instead of Liam Neeson’s U.S. Air Marshal character, we have Taron Egerton playing a low-ranking TSA officer Ethan Kopek. He used to apply for the police academy but failed the exam.

That was years ago and he never considered re-applying ever since until the night on Christmas Eve, his just-pregnant girlfriend Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson), who recently got promoted to airport operations manager for Northwind Operations, urges him to do so as her Christmas wish. So, with Ethan soon to become a father, he is ready to take more responsibility and ask his boss (Dean Norris’ Phil) for a promotion.

But Phil often sees him coming to work lacking initiative and yet, Ethan still insists he deserves a chance to prove himself. His friend and colleague Jason (Sinqua Walls) helps him out a bit and after a little convincing, Phil finally agrees to put him in charge of a front-line job: scanning passengers’ bags and luggage at the security checkpoint.

Unfortunately, the day he chooses to step up subsequently turns out to be the worst day of his life: a Bluetooth earbud is given to him by a passenger. Then comes the text message telling him to put it on. A firm voice (Jason Bateman’s Traveler) immediately gets his attention:

“Ethan, today is a day that you’re going to remember for a very long time. But if you handle it right, you’ll have a chance to forget it. One bag for one life.”

From there, he leaves with two choices: Either comply with whatever Traveler asks him to do and that is, letting a particular passenger’s luggage pass through the security check or risk his girlfriend getting killed with a sniper rifle by his accomplice Watcher (Theo Rossi).

Carry-On gets off to a bleak start introducing Traveler as a formidable antagonist who doesn’t hesitate to kill a person before the story slows down to make way for establishing Ethan and Nora’s relationship and the former’s personal and professional life. It wasn’t until around the twenty-minute mark that Collet-Serra began to build up the tension, beginning with Ethan taking the call.

Kudos to the director for sustaining the momentum as we see Ethan trying his best to obey his instruction while looking for an opportunity to outsmart him (a scene revolving around a bleach pen is a smart move). But Traveler is acute and always one step ahead, especially with the tech expert Watcher being his eyes monitoring the airport security CCTV cameras remotely.

Egerton and Bateman are the main reasons that elevate the movie with the former proving to be a convincing fit to play an everyman character. The latter steals the show in his no-nonsense turn as Traveler. He’s arrogant and at times, condescending with the way he loves to bully and controls Ethan like a puppet. He sees Ethan as an easy target. Not to mention seeing him as a pushover until Ethan eventually fights back.

Collet-Serra, who directed T.J. Fixman’s screenplay, does a good job giving Egerton a substantial character arc from a lowly coward to a man under forced circumstances making tough decisions even if they are dumb or risky. The good thing here is that Collet-Serra doesn’t push too far into overstretching believability, even though sporadic implausibilities still happen. He mostly keeps his movie grounded and Collet-Serra doesn’t forget to raise the stakes, particularly during the tense third act. The movie somehow dwindles with a side story revolving around LAPD detective Elena Cole’s (Danielle Deadwyler) investigation trying to piece everything together. But overall, the movie remains a step-up effort over Collet-Serra’s last big-budget feature in Black Adam.

Carry-On is currently streaming on Netflix.