History Film / Flight2012

* AntiHero: Whip.
* ArcWords: "Who are you?"

* DeusExMachina / DiabolusExMachina: Depending on how you want to look at it. [[spoiler:Due to the successful maneuvering of his lawyers, he is about to get off scot-free, and is even locked in a hotel room with no alcohol to keep him from ruining his hearing. An exceedingly unlikely set of events -- an adjoining suite with a stocked minibar that wasn't locked properly, and a breeze that rattles the door to alert him of this -- sets him off on a bender, and puts him in the frame of mind to confess his guilt. One could see this as a thoroughly unlikely disaster, but considering the heavy religious themes of the movie, it's entirely possible that God did this to lead him to redemption.]]

* ImpairmentShot: Whip, when he's taken out of the plane and again when waking up in the hospital.
* ImprobablePilotingSkills[=/=]AcePilot: To drive the point, the airline had ''eleven'' other pilots attempt to save the plane as Whitaker did in simulations. ''All failed.''

* JustPlaneWrong: [[https://askthepilot.com/denzel-washington-flight-movie/ Several]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKzbrfTj76s professional]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETxDqojmAIo airline]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5qjj9618zE pilots]] have pointed out the many unrealistic aspects of this movie, both in terms of the pilots' conduct, and the technical aspects of the flight & crash.
* ModestyBedsheet: Denzel Washington in the opening scene. Notable because it is utterly averted, at length, by Nadine Velazquez in the same scene.

* SexyStewardess: Katerina, and [[MsFanservice the movie knows it]].

* HeroesWantRedHeads: Nicole becomes an interest for Whitaker as soon as she appears in his life.

* DeusExMachina / DiabolusExMachina: Depending on how you want to look at it. [[spoiler:Due to the successful maneuvering of his lawyers, he is about to get off scot-free, and is even locked in a hotel room with no alcohol to keep him from ruining his hearing. An exceedingly unlikely set of events -- an adjoining suite that wasn't locked properly, and a breeze that rattles the door to alert him of this -- sets him off on a bender, and puts him in the frame of mind to confess his guilt. One could see this as a thoroughly unlikely disaster, but considering the heavy religious themes of the movie, it's entirely possible that God did this to lead him to redemption.]]

* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Averted. Although the more intense Christian believers (like Evans and his wife) may come across as eccentric at first, they all show genuine courage in the face of life-changing disaster. The fact that Denzel Washington is a Christian in real life probably had something to do with this.

%%* OscarBait
* ProductPlacement: {{Subverted}}. While Whitaker drinks many brands of alcoholic beverages, each only appears for single scenes and none were paid placements (for obvious reasons). [[https://www.theguardian.com/media/filmblog/2012/nov/06/product-placement-film-cases At least one complained.]]

* ChekhovsGun: After the plane passes through the storm, Whitaker addresses the passengers while surreptitiously filling up a small jug of orange juice with three small bottles of vodka. During this, the camera [[NoticeThis lingers on him throwing the flasks into a trashbin]]. After the crash, the discovery of the vodka bottles is what eventually leads to the inquiry and misplaced blame on Katerina until Whitaker admits to his alcoholism.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The accident was apparently inspired by the 2000 crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261, which also was the result of a broken jackscrew that pinned the elevators down. At one point, the plane went inverted, with the pilots trying to use the inversion to stop the dive - it even worked for a very short time. Unfortunately, the real life control damage was too severe, and the plane crashed into the ocean. There were no survivors.

* NeverMyFault: Whip insists this through the majority of the movie, that it's all the defected plane's fault for the crash and the death of some of the passengers and crew. He's technically right about this, but it doesn't change the fact that he flew a plane while drunk and high.

** It's almost comical watching Whip remain utterly calm and collected whilst everyone else freaks out when the plane goes into a nosedive toward a seemingly certain crash landing.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Most viewers are understandably convinced that flying a passenger plane upside down to level out a nosedive is Hollywood impossibility. There's still a bit of ArtisticLicensePhysics at play, but it ''could'' work for the short amount of time it's in the film. Such a feat has never occurred successfully in real life before, but the film does include some realistic consequences, like the oil pressure dropping due to the plane being inverted.
** During the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261, which the fictional crash in Flight was based on, this maneuver was attempted by the pilots in a desperate-if-unsuccessful attempt to save the plane.

* DeusExMachina / DiabolusExMachina: Depending on how you want to look at it. [spoier:Due to the successful maneuvering of his lawyers, he is about to get off scot-free, and is even locked in a hotel room with no alcohol to keep him from ruining his hearing. An exceedingly unlikely set of events -- an adjoining suite that wasn't locked properly, and a breeze that rattles the door to alert him of this -- sets him off on a bender, and puts him in the frame of mind to confess his guilt. One could see this as a thoroughly unlikely disaster, but considering the heavy religious themes of the movie, it's entirely possible that God did this to lead him to redemption.

* DeusExMachina/DiabolusExMachina: Depending on how you want to look at it. [spoier:Due to the successful maneuvering of his lawyers, he is about to get off scot-free, and is even locked in a hotel room with no alcohol to keep him from ruining his hearing. An exceedingly unlikely set of events -- an adjoining suite that wasn't locked properly, and a breeze that rattles the door to alert him of this -- sets him off on a bender, and puts him in the frame of mind to confess his guilt. One could see this as a thoroughly unlikely disaster, but considering the heavy religious themes of the movie, it's entirely possible that God did this to lead him to redemption.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Harling is introduced with [[Music/TheRollingStones "Sympathy for the Devil"]] and is a bad influence upon Whitaker.

* TheBadGuyWins: While only hinted in the movie, the conclusion of the whole story is [[spoiler: the company responsible for the faulty plane getting away scot-free, because [[TheScapegoat they can shift all the blame on a drunk pilot]], rather than anything wrong with the plane]]. That despite the fact the plane had a structural failure that lead to the crash and the pilot being the only reason why almost everyone survived.

* NeverMyFault: Whip insists this through the majority of the movie, that it's all the defected plane's fault for the crash and the death of some of the passengers and crew.

* AgeGapRomance: Denzel Washington is twenty years older than Kelly Reilly and they appear to be playing characters that roughly correspond to their ages, given that Whip is old enough to be a divorcee with a teenage son.

* BrokenAce: Whip's actions during the plane crash and the subsequent inability of other pilots to save passengers in recreated simulations of the event make him stand out as a brilliant and talented pilot without equal. He's also a cocaine-snorting alcoholic who has no problem flying while both drunk and high and his relationship with his ex-wife and son is a mess.

* OffOnATechnicality: Hugh's legal plan to have Whip escape punishment for being drunk and high while flying the plane. He successfully gets Hugh's blood toxicology test voided on procedural technicalities and plans to have Katerina framed for the vodka bottles consumed on the plane. It would have worked perfectly had Whip not broken down and confessed.

* OhCrap: When Hugh reveals to Whip that the investigators drew a blood sample from him while he was unconscious in the hospital he immediately realizes how much trouble he's in since he was intoxicated on the flight.

* TropaholicsAnonymous: Trip is eventually forced to attend the AA.

* NervesOfSteel: Whip's ability to remain cool and in control even as the plane begins to go into a nosedive is something to behold. It becomes even more impressive when at the NTSB hearing we learn that ten pilots weren't able to save the plane in the way that Whip despite being in far less stressful simulations.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Whip confesses he was intoxicated during the flight, is sent to jail, and may never fly a plane again. But by telling the truth, he is freed of his addictions and guilt, permitting him to reconcile with his friends and family]].

* NervesOfSteel: Whip's ability to remain cool and in control even as the plane begins to go into a nosedive is something to behold. It becomes even more impressive when at the NTSB hearing we learn that ten pilots weren't able to save the plane in the way that Whip despite being in far less stressful simulations.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Most viewers are understandably convinced that flying a passenger plane upside down to level out a nosedive is Hollywood impossibility. There's still a bit of ArtisticLicensePhysics at play, but it ''could'' work for the short amount of time it's in the film. Such a feat has never occurred in real life before, but the film does include some realistic consequences, like the oil pressure dropping due to the plane being inverted.

* AmoralAttorney: Hugh Lang, of the PunchClockVillain variety. He shows a little professional pride in quashing Whitaker's blood toxicology test (showing both cocaine and large amounts of alcohol in his system), but otherwise the whole case is simply a job for him. He even backtracks after casually stating to his employer that the two dead flight attendants "don't matter" and explains how he was talking in the sense of the airline not being vulnerable to lawsuits from their families. Notably for an amoral attorney, he openly shows disgust for his client, Captain Whitaker.

%%* DrugsAreBad
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Harling is introduced with [[{{Satan}} "Sympathy for the Devil"]] and is a bad influence upon Whitaker.

%%* HeroesWantRedHeads

* ProductPlacement: {{Subverted}}. While Whitaker drinks many brands of alcoholic beverages, each only appears for single scenes and none were paid placements (for obvious reasons). [[http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20121105/BIZ/711059883 At least one complained.]]

%%* TropaholicsAnonymous