This Hijack overview accommodates no spoilers.
Who remembers the final time we acquired a gripping airplane thriller with an intense script and a charismatic lead actor? Nicely, hopefully, lots of you since Jean-Francois Richet’s B flick, Airplane, starring Gerard Butler, has solely come out initially of the yr, and it was a surprisingly satisfying journey. Apple TV+’s newest 7-part miniseries, Hijack, goals to journey an analogous, if extra high-level, wave, and for probably the most half, it does it with utter confidence because of its sharp writing and a surly Idris Elba as its lead.
The hook for Hijack to draw viewers is a plot that unfolds in real-time (every episode protecting about an hour of a 7-hour flight from Dubai to London) that includes an achieved, principally British forged, together with regulars like Neil Maskell, Max Beesley, and Ben Miles. After all, the primary enchantment of George Kay and Jim Subject Smith’s miniseries is its nail-biting high-concept premise of the hijacking itself, which begins as a rigorously constructed masterplan and ends by going off the rails as we get near its remaining hour. Elba performs Sam Nelson, a talented enterprise negotiator who as an alternative of attempting to develop into a hero affords to work with the dangerous guys to execute and obtain their mission with none casualties.
Hijack largely succeeds as a result of it dances round clichés with finesse. Sam isn’t your typical, simply likeable protagonist. His private life is in shambles which carries over to his common demeanor: He’s morose, sulky, and retains to himself. The very motive he’s on this flight is his lack of ability to take no for a solution, which could assist him in his work however tends to derail his shut relationships. Sam goes again to London to make up together with his estranged ex-wife, who’s already planning her future with one other man. It’s evident from the start that she desires nothing to do with him, however he boards the aircraft anyway, realizing his marriage is lengthy gone. That cussed insistence is what helps him preserve his cool and negotiate with a bunch of pale criminals.