 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Flightplan
- Review Date: January 22, 2006
- PG-13
- Genre: Thriller
- 2005
Common Sense Media says
Tense but riveting thriller, best for teens+.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that the film's premise is a missing child, a timely topic but also potentially disturbing for younger viewers. The film focuses on the mother's panic when her 6-year-old daughter disappears midflight on an airbus, which offers up plenty of high-techy, brightly-lit space to be searched. The mother displays tears, fear, and rage at the crew, who question her sanity. There is an apparent suicide (the film includes discussion of a fall off a rooftop, and some flashbacks/dreams of the victim's last night alive). The movie also features some violence, as the mother fights crew members and an air marshal, as well as threats of a hijacking and a bomb on the plane. Most important, parents should know that the tension is frequently very taut; be aware of what your child might tolerate and understand.
What's the story?
Newly widowed Kyle (Jodie Foster) is transporting the body of her husband back to the States aboard a giant airbus that Kyle helped to design. With her is their daughter, six-year-old Julia (Marlene Lawson). Both fall asleep early in the flight. Kyle wakes up a couple of hours into the flight to find Julia missing. Though she tries to approach crew members and Captain Rich (Sean Bean) with respect, she's increasingly unnerved by their suggestions that she's worrying needlessly, and then that the girl doesn't exist. As the crew and passengers are increasingly turning against Kyle, she fights to find Julia.
Is it any good?
As suddenly widowed mother and propulsion engineer Kyle Pratt, Foster provides a broad range of emotion. Practical-minded and self-contained in her grief, Kyle first appears in middream, walking with her dead husband through Berlin's snowy streets, wishing that she might stop him from ascending to their rooftop -- from which he fell or jumped. While it provides an apt showcase for the brilliant Jodie Foster and delivers effective tension in its early scenes, by the end, FLIGHTPLAN dissolves into clichés. But there are enough thrills to keep teens and adults interested.
But the movie never veers from Kyle's perspective, which means viewers believe her and suspect a plot. This is especially true when Air Marshal Gene Carson (Peter Sarsgaard) comes up with some completely inappropriate niggling: "Your husband's death is starting to make a lot more sense to me -- a couple more hours and I'm ready to jump." Right. With outrageous motivation like that, you're ready for the silly plot turns that turn Kyle into Action Mom.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about the portrayal of Kyle's evolving distress: how is she sympathetic in her fear and anger? How does her briefly sketched relationship with her daughter Julia help to establish this sympathy, even when everyone else on the plane thinks she's lost her mind? And how does the film use racial profiling of "Arab" passengers (in Kyle and other passengers' accusations)? Is this reasonable or unreasonable under these circumstances?
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AGE
It's just a so-so movie
This was an okay movie. My 13-year-old daughter liked it. There were no big surprises. I figured out the bad guy in nearly the first scene. The girl was a surprise though. Jodie's facial expressions never changed. It didn't leave you feeling anything--neither good or bad. It was just a so-so movie...not awful, but not really good either.
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AGE
I LOVED IT!! But it was scary.
FLIGHTPLAN was a great movie! Very well done, SCARY, but I love scary movies. Any kids under about 11 or 12 shouldn't see it if they don't like scary movies. It was not very realistic in some ways, yet Freaky in others. The thing that made it less scary than it could've been was that Jodie Foster knew the Plane so well. Scared me most of the time. It was also kind of Complicated. But if you're a scary thriller fan, this movie's right for you!!!
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AGE
A very suspenseful movie...
I saw this movie at a sleepover with some of my friends. I really wanted to watch a scary movie, but a lot of the people there were "scardy cats" so we decided to watch Flight Plan. It was just perfect for them, not very scary at all and very interesting to watch. I kept wanting to scream at the people that she was telling the truth about her daughter being on the plane! It made me angry that no one would believe her until I found out why...This is a must-see!
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AGE
Clean suspense thriller, PG-13 a good rating
All about a mom's love for a daughter. The plot leaves a little to be desired. This is one of the few suspense thrillers you can watch with a little one older than 12. No drugs (one brief reference, but not abuse), no sex, and a brief gunfight at the end, no blood. It is implied that one person dies of an explosion, but this was not graphic at all. Nice & clean.
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AGE
Mile a Mintue
This movie would be good for kids ages 12 if it weren't for some violence. It is a movie that you have to pay extra clsoe attention to. Every word they say plays a major part of the climax of the movie. It was a really good mystery movie I think teens my age would enjoy.
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AGE
I liked this
i saw it in theaters last night. I very liked it. Jodie foster Is AMAZING See it you won't regret it
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AGE
Great story line, maybe too intense if afraid of flying
My family saw this movie together (kids ages 11 and 14), and we all liked it. It is intense, the buildup of fear when the daughter can't be found is strong. I liked that there was resolution at the end, and my 11-year-old understood the story line. She is a little nervous about flying, but this movie did not affect her in that way. The movie keeps you interested every minute.
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| Studio: | Buena Vista |
| Director: | Robert Schwentke |
| Cast: | Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean |
| Genre: | Thriller |
| Run time: | 93 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | September 23, 2005 |
| DVD release date: | January 24, 2006 |
| MPAA rating: | PG-13 |
| MPAA explanation: | violence and some intense plot material |
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