Review | Idris Elba talks his way out of a Hijack. It’s non-stop excitement at 33,000 ft

Idris Elba in 'Hijack'.

It’s a routine flight that picks up passengers from Dubai to London. Idris Elba has picked up a beautiful piece of jewellery for his wife, hoping he can win her back. His gorgeous wife is with another man and she tells him in no uncertain terms that ‘they’ are not a possibility any more. He’s a corporate negotiator, so it’s obvious that he is not going to take that ‘no’ for an answer. He leaves a message for both his son and his ex-wife.

But as he settles down in his first-class seat, he realises something is odd.

There are three girls flying cattle class, who have had a very strange experience. Apart from that, the passengers seem to be someone you have encountered on your flights abroad. Families with kids, crazy moms, wiggly kids, women who just want quiet on the flight, to people helping people with luggage, and others just being obnoxious. Kingdom Flight 29 takes off without a hitch.

A niggly thought comes to your mind. And before you think you’re a horrid person because you immediately thought men speaking Arabic and dressed in their traditional clothes are suspicious, it’s not your fault. It’s the worldwide PTSD we suffer after 9/11. But this is just a red herring, innit?

Because the girls have discovered something sinister in the Economy Class restroom, a plan has to be brought forward. And we are drawn into the elaborate plot that keeps you involved.

Indian mainstream cinema has some hijack tales – some well told and others really painful to watch. The last clever use of an airplane (a Fokker aircraft) is a film called IB71 (It has its own problems, but the film is based on a real event and if you can ignore your preconceived notions about the lead actor, this film is a chuckle-worthy watch). Everyone has probably watched Neerja where the hijacker (actor Jim Sarbh) ate up the scenery and made the story predictable. It’s the same with Hollywood. Hijack films get dreadfully predictable and claustrophobia inducing. In fact, a hijack gets so predictable they make really silly films like Snakes on a Plane.

That’s why you too should hesitate before you watch Hijack on Apple TV+. But you watch the trailer and you realise that it’s worth a dekko, eh?

What keeps you engaged Wednesday after interesting Wednesday is the really well-thought-up ground support. For without smart people on the ground who know that there is an incident on the plane? And that it hasn’t been resolved?

We slowly realise that Idris Elba’s Sam Nelson is not just a man trying to get home safe, but he’s also cleverly communicating with the ground support even though he’s not directly doing it via a satellite phone or something very obvious. For that to happen, you are glad there’s Archie Punjabi on the scene, getting everyone in one room, working to brings politics and this ‘event’ in the air together.

But hats off to a harried mum who reports late for work on flight controls and spots an anomaly. Why report an event and then not call to say it’s been resolved? Her doubts lead the ground support to act.

But everyone has to be careful. Because the hijackers are not flying off course or anything. They’ve simply taken over the flight, and the flight seems to be flying as scheduled to London.

So, what are the demands that are handed to the Home Minister in London? Who are the ‘they’ that everyone seems to be terrified about? What do the cops do when they see that the one person with a link to the hijacker chooses to die rather than give them any more information?

You’re lucky, there are only two episodes (each episode drops on Wednesday) left to air. Imagine loving the show and having to wait for six whole days and being distracted on Wednesday at work, wondering what the episode will bring! I must admit that this is perhaps a notch or three lower than Slow Horses (which also plays on the same platform), but is terrifically engaging considering how limited the space for the action is (in an airplane!). Plus, it's Idris Elba, insisting that he’s talking to the hijackers only because he wants to come home safe. When the season is over, I would be the first to watch him negotiate his way out of more confined spaces!