History Film / Flightplan

'''''Flightplan''''' is a 2005 thriller film directed by Robert Schwentke and starring Creator/JodieFoster.

Foster plays Kyle Pratt, an airplane propulsion engineer whose husband has mysteriously died from falling off the top of a building. She and her six-year-old daughter, Julia (Marlene Lawston), are now heading back to Long Island from Berlin aboard the massive new passenger plane she helped design, the Elgin 474. The body of her husband is in the hold.

* TheRemake: While not officially designated as one, the film bears quite a few similarities to Alfred Hitchcock's ''Film/TheLadyVanishes'', most notably the missing person's existence being proven by their having drawn on window condensation.

* TheBadGuysAreCops: [[spoiler:The big twist.]]

** Nothing better shows how overly complicated their plan is than by remembering that step one involved [[spoiler:Murdering an American expatriate just so they could use his casket to smuggle the bomb on board the plane,and to get his wife and daughter on board the flight to set up a DeceasedFallGuyGambit. If the authorities even suspected that Gene was involved in Kyle's husband's death. Or if Kyle herself had stayed to cooperate with the investigation if the police suspected foul play. The plan would have been foiled before it even got off the ground.]]

* BavarianFireDrill: The core of the [[BigBad Big Bad's]] plan. [[spoiler:Kyle pulls one of own to turn the tables on the highjackers late in the film. Using the fact that the passengers and crew think she's the highjacker to her advantage to make everyone get off the plane so she can look for the bomb and Julia without interference.]]

** Nothing better shows who overly complicated their plan is than by remembering that step one involved [[spoiler:Murdering an American expatriate just so they could use his casket to smuggle the bomb on board the plane,and to get his wife and daughter on board the flight to set up a DeceasedFallGuyGambit. If the authorities even suspected that Gene was involved in Kyle's husband's death. Or if Kyle herself had stayed to cooperate with the investigation if the police suspected foul play. The plan would have been foiled before it even got off the ground.]]

* CondensationClue

* TheRemake: While not officially designated as one, the film bears quite a few similarities to Alfred Hitchcock's [[Film/TheLadyVanishes]], most notably the missing person's existence being proven by their having drawn on window condensation.

Three hours into the flight the two take a nap; when Kyle wakes up, Julia has disappeared without a trace. Everyone on board the plane, including air marshal Gene Carson (Peter Sarsgaard), flight attendant Stephanie (Kate Beahan) and Captain Marcus Rich (Creator/SeanBean) insist that they never saw her daughter, [[{{Unperson}} and that her name is not even listed on the flight's manifest]]. That's when things get crazy.

* BavarianFireDrill: The core of the [[BigBad Big Bad's]] plan. [[spoiler:Kyle pulls one of own to turn the tables on the Highjackers late in the film. Using the fact that the passengers and crew think she's the highjacker to her advantage to make everyone get off the plane so she can look for the bomb and Julia without interference.]]

* {{Outgambitted}}: [[spoiler: Kyle ultimately foils that hijackers by using the fact that the crew thinks she is the hijacker to her advantage by telling everyone to leave the plane before Carson can do so, knowing that he would have to go along to avoid suspicion. Allowing her to search for the bomb and Julia without interference and completely turning the tables on them.]]
* PlotHole: Loads. For example; in order to calm her down and get her to accept that she was delusional and that her daughter had died along with her husband; why didn't they verify that there were two caskets instead not one in the hold?

* TechMarchesOn: This film came out two years to early for what little plausibility the villains plot may have had to be completely blown to hell by the rise of modern Social Media and smartphones. Just one look at Kyle's Facebook, Foursquared or LinkedIn or even a Google search of her name, would reveal enough evidence supporting her story cause the crew to overule Carson and look deeper.

* WeAllLiveInAmerica: FBI-agents in [[CanadaEh Goose Bay]]? Don't think so.

* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: [[spoiler:What the villains plan would have become in its final form. After arriving in their final destination, they would have made all the other passengers leave with Kyle still in custody. Quietly sneaked off the plane, detonated the bomb that was strapped onto Julia vaporizing her body and destroying all evidence she was ever on board and killing Kyle who would still be on board. They than tell their story to the authorities, get praised as heroes and jet to a nice warm, extradition free island to enjoy their money before anyone realizes that a thing or two doesn't add up.]]

* {{Outgambited}}: [[spoiler: Kyle ultimately foils that hijackers by using the fact that the crew thinks she is the hijacker to her advantage by telling everyone to leave the plane before Carson can do so, knowing that he would have to go along to avoid suspicion. Allowing her to search for the bomb and Julia without interference and completely turning the tables on them.]]

** Nothing better shows who overly complicated their plan is than by remembering that step one involved [[spoiler:Murdering an American expatriate just to give themselves a means to smuggle the bomb on board the plane,and set up his wife as their patsy. If the authorities even suspected that Gene was involved in Kyle's husband's death. Or if Kyle herself had stayed to cooperate with the investigation if the police suspected foul play. The plan would have been foiled before it even got off the ground.]]

** Nothing better shows who overly complicated their plan is than by remembering that step involved [[spoiler:Murdering an American expatriate just to give themselves a means to smuggle the bomb on board the plane,and set up his wife as their patsy. If the authorities even suspected that Gene was involved in Kyle's husband's death. Or if Kyle herself had stayed to coperate with the investigation if the plice suspected foul play. The plan would have been foiled before it even got off the ground.]]

* FallGuy: [[spoiler: One of the main goals of the plan is to frame Kyle for the highjacking in order to provide the villains with cover to escape.

* ComplexityAddiction: The villains could have just as easily [[spoiler:put some explosives in an ordinary briefcase and set it off with a cellphone.]]

* JustAKid/NotNowKiddo: These tropes are the only reason why the [[BigBad Big Bad's]] plan did not fall apart the moment kids all started to say they saw Julia.

* UnnecessarilyLargeInterior: The plane is shown to have enough empty and unused space for Kyle to play ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' with the airplane staff.

''Flightplan'' is a 2005 thriller film directed by Robert Schwentke and starring JodieFoster.

Not to be confused with Japanese video game developer {{Flight-Plan}}, or ''Film/NonStop'', another thriller on a plane.
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!!This film provides examples of:

-->[[spoiler:'''Carson''': ''We picked her up, shoved her into a food bin and '''nobody even looked up.''' You understand what I'm saying? '''Nobody cares about Julia!''''']]

-->[[spoiler:'''Carson''': ''People will think what I '''tell''' them to think. '''That's how authority works.''''']]

* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler:Gene]] had to

** Get explosives into a coffin for which he didn't know the combination
** Rely on Kyle and Julia getting on board without anyone noticing Julia. Rely on Julia not speaking to anyone, not making any noise, and not asking for anything, rely on there being empty seats on a packed inaugural flight of a new aircraft type, rely on Kyle taking Julia to lie on those seats, rely on no one seeing Julia's removal, rely on no one noticing a man putting his hand into a sleeping woman's trousers, rely on Julia going ballistic rather than just calmly talking to people and making requests, somehow manage to get the computerized check-in systems to 'forget' Julia, rely on Kyle not requesting the airport authorities check the inevitable CCTV footage, rely on the corrupt stewardess being the one assigned to search the section with the kidnapped child, rely on the captain/airline contacting the morgue (to ask what?) rather than the hospital or police and thus get the fake information, rely on no one, immediately on hearing of the child's death, asking why her coffin is not on board, rely on Kyle escaping and opening a coffin that she believes is sealed when there are dozens upon dozens of other luggage containers in the hold, rely on the authorities agreeing to the ransom without talking to the so-called terrorist, rely on them actually transferring the money -- how would an alleged terrorist have known if it had been transferred? - find a way to get the money when the authorities knew exactly where it was, rely on the exploding child leaving no trace with an amount of explosive so small it didn't even hurt two people who were no more than ten meters away when it went off -- which would not happen -- expect someone with no explosives training to know that the explosives present were of such low power that they would be safe no more than 10 meters away, and have the corrupt stewardess remain on the plane (necessary to distract Kyle so that the marshal could free and arm himself) -- how would that have been explained later? Why would she even have remained? This plot, to put it charitably, is simply not within the realm of physical possibility.
* [[spoiler: GasLighting: Much of the action involves the villains trying to convince Kyle, and by extension the rest of the passengers and crew, that she's suffered a break from reality. Subverted in that it's much more effective on the witnesses than the target.]]

* MamaBear /KnightTemplarParent: Kyle. Her actions potentially put hundreds of lives at risk and she accuses passengers of terrorism (seemingly just on the grounds of them being/looking Arabic). [[spoiler: Granted, she foiled a terrorist plot and saved the day, but that's coincidental. As far as she's concerned for most of the movie, it's just her daughter who's in danger, not the entire plane.]]
* PlayingAgainstType: [[spoiler:Creator/SeanBean]].

* [[spoiler:TheBadGuysAreCops]]: The big twist.
* UnnecessarilyLargeInterior: The plane is shown to have enough empty and unused space for Kyle to play VideoGame/MetalGearSolid with the airplane staff.

-->[[spoiler:'''Carson''': ''People will think what I '''tell''' them to think. '''[[TheBadGuysAreCops That's how authority works.]]''''']]
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