Altitude is a 2017 action film starring Denise Richards, Greer Grammer, and Dolph Lundgren.
Headstrong FBI agent Gretchen Blair (Richards) broke procedure in a hostage negotiation and is being packed off to a desk job in Washington D.C.. While on the flight, the man sitting next to her offers her $75 million to get him off a plane after revealing that several of the plane's passengers are here to hijack it.
Tropes that appear in this film:
- Action Girl: Gretchen Blair is an FBI Agent that can hold her own in combat against mass shooters and thieves alike.
- Big Bad: Sadie is the leader of a group of thieves trying to steal back their loot and murder a plane full of innocent people.
- The Brute: Rawbones is Sadie's hulking muscle-bound henchman.
- Combat Stilettos: Sadie kills one of the pilots by stabbing him in the throat with a backwards kick with her stilettoed foot.
- Cowboy Cop: Gretchen was an FBI agent version of this trope, since she breaks procedure to non-fatally subdue a mass shooter while her comrades intended to kill him.
- Dark Action Girl: Sadie is capable of killing two people at once with a stiletto and a syringe full of poison. Later in the film she gives Gretchen a tough fight when she tries to rescue Terry.
- Death Faked for You: When captured by Sadie, Terry tells her that Gretchen was killed by Rawbones and the other Mook, disguising the fact that Gretchen is still in the baggage area.
- Designated Girl Fight: Gretchen and Sadie fight to the death near the end of the film, trying to knock the other off the plane. Justified since Gretchen is the hero and Sadie is the Big Bad.
- Desk Jockey: Gretchen is being packed off to a desk job in Washington D.C., which is why she's on the plane.
- Dirty Cop: Byres counts for double; first he's working with Terry to get him off the plane safely, then works with Sadie as an accomplice to attempted mass murder.
- Disney Villain Death: Gretchen kills Byres and Sadie by throwing them off the plane.
- The Dragon: Matthew Sharpe to Sadie. Sadie has the plan, he's the chief instrument in implementing it with his technical know-how and muscle.
- Dragon Their Feet: Sharpe lasts maybe a minute more than Sadie does as he's still fighting Terry until just before the plane crashes.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The mass shooter at the beginning wants his life insurance to go to his son.
- Face–Heel Turn: Sadie persuades the air marshal to turn traitor by appealing to his want for money.
- Faking the Dead: Sadie has her Mooks smuggle a pair of bodies with identification for herself and Sharpe so that it will look like she and Sharpe were killed when the plane crashed.
- Fiery Cover-Up: The final phase of Sadie's plan: Sharpe will set the plane to crash into a mountain, with a dummy black box stating the plane crashed due to hydraulic failure.
- For Want Of A Nail: Gretchen winds up blundering into the middle of the midair heist/terrorist plot because the man who's sitting in her seat doesn't want to move; she asks for a new seat and winds up right next to Terry, who tries to bribe her into getting him off the plane by pointing out the bad guys.
- Genius Bruiser: Matthew Sharpe. Terry describes his mind like a steel trap: intricate and strong, the sort of man who could pulverize a complex machine or put it back together good as new. Fitting considering Dolph Lundgren is a Genius Bruiser in real life.
- Karmic Death: The thieves intended to leave the passengers to die in a plane crash. Guess how Matthew Sharpe dies when he fails to bail out.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: The purpose of the dummy black box left on the plane, so that it will look like the plane crashed due to hydraulic failure.
- Neck Snap:
- Rawbones breaks a passenger's neck for refusing to show his wife's face for identification.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Gretchen to Sadie: "You need an altitude adjustment, bitch!" [kicks her off the plane]
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: How do the remaining passengers escape the plane? They all jump out an open door just before the plane can take off again.
- Standard Snippet: Sharpe plays Ride of the Valkyries while bringing the plane to land.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Sadie is a murderous thief and terrorist with white-blonde hair.
