I just watched “7500” and was left with a one word response after it was over: Wow.
I can’t think of a better pandemic era distraction. This movie captures our claustrophobic, paranoid zeitgeist — despite being made before we entered this chapter of history. The bulk of the film takes place in the cockpit of a plane, where a plucky young pilot named Tobias Ellis (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) must safe the lives of 85 passengers, as well as the crew and his co-pilot, after a group of Muslim extremists hijack the flight.
It’s a simple premise and a straightforward narrative, unfolding realistically as base human emotions like fear, zealousness, love, hate and wrath all come into play. This is a film that works not because of what it does with its story, but how it does it. A lesser film would have focused on generic action scenes and overwrought melodrama, but “7500” wisely focuses on Tobias’ experiences. He is stuck in a cockpit, forced to watch helplessly as the terrorists make morally agonizing demands and he is told to do nothing. Tobias’ dilemmas are ethical as well as tactical. He must survive not only in the literal sense, but also in a metaphysical one.
None of this is hammered in, though. A less discerning moviegoer could easily watch “7500” and simply feel wrapped up in the taut pacing, the economical writing, the unshakeable sense that this is a film which depicts not a fantasy, but a plausible reality that simply hasn’t come to pass. The cinema verite style underscores that sensibility, but even without it the filmmakers’ decision to center the plot around that cramped cockpit keeps us grounded. The audience isn’t being asked to ponder deeper questions about geopolitics and making righteous choices in life or death situations. We’re simply engrossed in a gripping story that just so happens to bring up those thorny subjects when we scratch around a little bit.
Why do I recommend it for the pandemic era? Hopefully a future generation will read this article and not understand what it is like to live in 2020. For them I will explain that Americans right now are stuck in their homes, scared of a disease that is taking hundreds of thousands of lives, faced with an economic depression that could ruin us all.
Although the conditions which brought about those circumstances are quite different for Tobias, he is also stuck in one location for the sake of his safety and menaced by forces he doesn’t entirely understand. We are like him emotionally, but in a quite different place when it comes to how we got there. “7500” has the perfect mixture of relatability and escapability in 2020, and the credit for this belongs partially to director and screenwriter Patrick Vollrath and in part to sheer dumb luck.
Even if we weren’t living during a pandemic, I’d still recommend “7500” as a nice little action thriller with a bit more substance than most other entries in the genre. In 2020, though, I think “7500” is just what the doctor ordered.