Historically, the words “Netflix” and “action thriller” haven’t done much in the way of inspiring hope together. Indeed, with action thrillers being one of those genres that can be inoffensively interpreted without much in the way of merit or thought, the streamer has seen many a shaky cam and uninspired MacGuffin move through its ranks.
But 2024 has seemingly gone out of its way to change that narrative. Rebel Ridge exploded triumphantly onto the scene back in September, and now Carry-On is handling the holiday shift at the action thriller masterwork factory, and boy does it ever deserve a promotion. Indeed, the venomous chemistry between leads Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman is mouth-watering enough, but it’s the script by one T.J. Fixman — formerly of Insomniac Games, specifically the Ratchet & Clank franchise — that arms this film to the teeth with unadulterated tension and pure, cinematic motion.
Carry-On stars Egerton as Ethan Kopek, a young TSA officer who’s expecting a child with his girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson), and who’s about to head in to one of the most hellish shifts of the year at the behest of Christmas Eve. Haunted by his failure to get recruited by the LAPD, Ethan seeks a promotion at work in hopes of feeling more prepared for fatherhood and family expenses, and secures a trial run on a bag scanning machine. But when he receives a call from a terrorist (Jason Bateman) blackmailing him into greenlighting a bag that should absolutely, positively not be greenlit, he finds himself roped into the most high-stakes character test of his life.
Egerton shines brightly as Ethan, a character who poses the challenge of selling passivity in spite of his very apparent, underlying aptitude for situations like this, and then subtly flipping his more assertive switch as the film goes on. The actor does this beautifully, manipulating the line between fish-out-of-water and full-on action hero with his physicality, all without emotionally losing his grip on Ethan’s flawed and vulnerable humanity.
His is a performance that works almost symbiotically with that of Bateman, far from his natural cinematic habitat of comedy, and whose more dramatic productions don’t typically slot him in to the villain role. You wouldn’t think as such from watching Carry-On, though; he’s maddening as the malicious Traveler, ruthlessly ambivalent towards every life he’s willing to sacrifice to get ahead, and insidiously partial to the psychological effect he has on Ethan. Bateman’s stony control of every scene piles the tension onto a staggeringly efficient and thrilling plot, and there’s a case for the Ozark star being the key narrative pivot of the whole film.
It would be more accurate, however, to give that honor to Fixman’s script itself; the machine of the film’s textual events is somehow every bit as interesting as the subtextual oomph provided by Ethan and the Traveler here. And it’s the collision of those literal proceedings with these smartly realized characters, rather than the collision of the characters with each other, that’s the true special sauce of Carry-On.
It’s difficult to give direct examples of Carry-On‘s narrative puzzle without somewhat taking away from the raw viewing experience — a testament to Fixman’s ability to zig when you think he’s going to zag, and zag when you think he’s going to zig. Ethan’s predicament balloons into a much bigger conspiracy, but Fixman paces the major revelations in a way that makes room for the smaller, more intimate bits of unique thriller choreography that the pressure cooker of an airport setting demands. In this way, the tension never truly lets up on a mechanical level, which makes every turn of the emotional knobs that much more impactful.
Fixman, of course, is diligent in that emotional department as well. Indeed, it’s impressive enough that the scribe has constructed such a rigorous, satisfying maze here, but the fact that he fit in an arguably excellent but undeniably functional story within it, deserves all the lauding in the world. Ethan’s emotional struggle is defined by how behind he feels in life; he’s 30 years old, is going nowhere fast in his TSA gig, and generally figured he’d have more to show for his life by the time he became a father. His shadowy opponent, meanwhile, lives large and makes sure Ethan knows that, and also tries to drill into Ethan’s head how passive and pathetic he is.
But Ethan is rich in love; he has a wonderful relationship with Nora and loves his family dearly. All of a sudden, that game of life that Ethan was so focused on doesn’t seem worth winning; not if the winners are people like the Traveler.
This thematic and emotional thrust doesn’t end there, either. It’s true that Ethan won’t be able to coast through this situation on passivity alone, and the thing about becoming an active participant in your life is that you have to be prepared to disappoint people; indeed, the film puts Ethan through several social predicaments on its way to the most physiologically pressing of all, and the distressing weight of those interactions is not downplayed.
At the same time, however, constant action on Ethan’s part would result in the exact fail state he’s trying to avoid, and so his victory hinges on him focusing on why he does (or does not) do something, rather than focusing on the fact of the action (or inaction) itself.
This creates an incredibly sturdy storytelling core that’s interested in how we define success; do you manage the ego, or do you let your friend down? Do you take action or do you withhold it? Do you worry about what you don’t have, or do you cherish the things you do have? Would you cherish them more if your more vapid gains meant lost lives?
Indeed, Carry-On is perpetually more than meets the eye, and it’s all down to Fixman’s sensationally robust script, bossing a surplus of twists and turns with the help of some mighty fine work from Egerton and Bateman (and the razor-sharp Danielle Deadwyler, whose involvement I won’t delve into so as to avoid possible spoilers). Perhaps the only downside is that you’ll be closely monitored if you choose to watch this during your own holiday plane ride, but immersion is immersion at the end of the day, and Carry-On is most definitely a film worth getting stuck into.
Published: Dec 13, 2024 01:25 pm