The liam Neeson and Julianne Moore starrer Non-Stop is an adventure-thriller on an international flight. The director Jaume Collet-Serra says his film has Hitchcockian elements but boasts of refreshingly breathtaking stunts
How is it from the director’s chair to shoot stuntsIJ
It’s good, but a bit stressful. There were stunts like a plane crash and it’s very time consuming. So we’re at the point of resolution in terms of the action with the plane going down, which makes matters a bit more difficult for us technically, but we were fine.
The scene looks physically demanding for liam. Did you torture himIJ (laughter)
No, no, I didn’t want to torture him but it was important to keep it real. He’s an action man at the centre of the drama and he is basically in every scene because we see everything that’s happening through his eyes. We know what he knows and we learn what he learns at the time that he’s learning it. And when there is action he is at the heart of that too. Fortunately, he seems happy to be playing Bill Marks, not just from the point of view of all the action involved but also to be working with Julianne and the rest of the cast.
Can you summarise the film for usIJ
Well, it’s a thriller with some Hitchcock elements, but it’s shot almost exclusively on one location — on a plane bound for london from New York. On board that plane are a bunch of suspects — any of which could be responsible for the terrifying events that take place. And there is a tormented guy at the centre — played by liam — an air marshal whose job it is to keep the passengers safe and solve the mystery.
Is there action all the way through or just at the endIJ
There’s action throughout the movie, but there’s also a large portion of the movie that happens in his head, basically. For about half the movie, it’s all calm, while he’s observing the passengers during the three or four hours they’re asleep. Exactly what you’d expect passengers to be doing on a ‘red eye’ flight from New York to london. There is a sort of night look to the filming, which adds to the growing air of mystery as the plot develops. The first half of the movie takes place in that dark and mysterious place. The second is more overtly action.
Did you draw on your own experience as a frequent flyerIJ
A little, especially as I hate airplanes myself. So that’s something I share with the main character. But, other than that, the people on-board the flight are like those that maybe I have observed on my own travels — from flight attendants to random passengers. I wanted an international group of passengers, which you’d expect on a flight that goes from New York to london. We wanted that diversity to be reflected from our principal actors down to our extras.
At what point did you board the projectIJ
I got sent a first draft of the script and I liked the central mystery involved and I worked on the script a bit. Then I was even more excited when we discussed the possibility of liam Neeson playing the part of Bill Marks because we had worked together on Unknown. So the script offered the mystery and we were able to work on the execution of that mystery together and extend the possibilities.
Why do you like working with liam so muchIJ
He’s an actor that the audience can relate to and he is perfect at that Hitchcockian thing — a common man against extraordinary problems. When you meet his character at the beginning of the movie he is witnessing his own downfall. He’s at an age where there is always the question, ‘Is it too late for me to restart my lifeIJ’ He feels he doesn’t have a good reason to continue. To play a character like that, who could potentially go dark quickly, you need someone like liam who brings a lot of humanity to the character. You like him right away. You can give him those challenges and he responds, bringing something to the screen that is relatable. That’s the key.
Were you a fan of other airplane movies from, say, the 70sIJ
Airplane movies are a genre of their own. There are certain things you need to accept: you’re in an airplane and you have to play with the same elements over and over again. But I tried to make my own movie, so I didn’t watch too many other references or look at what they did.
You said you didn’t like airplanes. Will this make it worseIJ
Being on a moving airplane will be weird (laughs). Filming Non-Stop has been like doing a 500-hour flight on halt. The next time I fly I might also think more about who exactly I am sitting next to. Making a film like Non-Stop does that to you!