MovieChat Forums > Flightplan (2005) Discussion > the most ridiculous criminal plan in the...

the most ridiculous criminal plan in the history of movies

posted 16 years ago by eonaxes
48 replies | jump to latest

oh wow where to begin?

Kill a guy, make it look like suicide:
Hmm, ok but pretty risky.

Predict that the widow would fly the dead body home, on the exact airline and flight you will be working on:
Ok this is already retarded.

Somehow make a girl disappear on a busy flight without anyone noticing:
Possible but extremely risky and definitely not something you will rely on for an elaborate scheme.

Predict the mom will go crazy enough to sneak into the storage cabin to open the coffin which contains the bombs:
Yeah right

Pretend the woman is demanding money without her finding out and know for sure they will give her the money:
Come on!

And if all this goes well (everything will have to go perfectly way for this to work) you move to some island and live happily ever after without the authorities wondering how you suddenly obtained millions of dollars

I put the odds of all this going perfectly well at 1 in 100, AT BEST which is way beyond the realms of suspension of belief.

[–] Beletje 16 years ago

So... I take it you're not a fan of fiction? That's pretty deprived.

[–] jitawa 16 years ago

I'm pretty sure this wasn't meant to be a fairy tale.

[–] Beletje 16 years ago

The basic concept - perhaps. A child maybe could be kidnapped on an airplane. The elaborate and exaggerated details as to how and why the child was taken as seen in the movie - purely fiction.

[–] Squigss 16 years ago

There's the concept if willing suspension of disbelief.

You have to at least believe it's plausible to get into the story. So, they could fake a suicide. Okay. they could kidnap the daughter and find a place to hide her. Fair enough. Probably couldn't in real life but I'm willing to accept that I don't know a lot about planes.

These are a little far fetched but we can give the movie makers the benefit of the doubt.

But when you start relying on her escaping custody, and searching the entire plane, as part of the plan, it's getting rather far fetched. When you have that level of believability you have to wonder why the scriptwriters didn't just give Jodie Foster's character superpowers so she could find her daughter with her X-Ray vision.

[–] The_Great_Pantubo 13 years ago

All the writers had to do was have something in the coffin worth smuggling. A big bag of diamonds. Weapons-grade uranium. Anything.

Explosives so that the air marshal can have $50 million wired to his account in about ten minutes with no one even speaking to the supposed hijacker at all?

Yeah, people are always wiring $50 million just because one person said another person demanded it. Happens all the time!

[–] filmklassik 12 years ago

It's remarks like yours that (almost) make me ashamed to be a writer. This film was bat**** crazy.

Have you ever met a plot you COULDN'T defend?

(Probably not)

[–] iwantchop 16 years ago

even september 11 was a ridiculous plan if u think about it

[–] Andy Bolstridge 16 years ago

September 11 was a pretty obvious plan if you think about it. Trouble is, no-one (apart from Stephen King in the Running Man) thought of it. That's why it was possible.

[–] shaker-maker 16 years ago

I don't hate myself, but this movie works best for people like me who didn't even consider the very obvious and valid points the OP raised.

Now having read that of course, I'm thinking it was a pretty silly premise, but I guess you gotta hand it to the pacing and production values of the movie that it didn't allow me (and possibly others?) to dwell on those plot holes.

Turned pretty routine when Carson was revealed to be the hijacker, but the beginning was suspenseful and its perfect fodder for a night in.

[–] filmklassik 12 years ago

Yep, it's perfect fodder for a night in -- if you plan on blowing your brains out.

Some willful suspension of disbelief is necessary (of course) but the moviemakers need to meet you at least part of the way. They need to present you with a story that does make sense in the world of the film... but FLIGHTPLAN didn't even rise to that unchallenging level.

NOTORIOUS. BLACK SUNDAY. MARATHON MAN are wonderful thrillers. A bit far-fetched, to be sure, but their plots had an internal logic to them. They made sense in the world of the film.

But this film made no sense whatsoever (unless it was set on Retardo-world). In fact it was actually insulting.

[–] MuggySphere 13 years ago

What's this about The Running Man?

Did king write that movie and what's it got to do with 911

[–] Andy Bolstridge 13 years ago

Steven King wrote the book that the movie was based on. In it, the hero hijacks a plane and commits suicide by crashing it into the tower block where the movie studio execs had their offices.

Can you figure out what that's got to do with 9/11 ?

[–] MuggySphere 13 years ago

Yeah I can figure that out. But this movie came out way before 9/11 so I wonder why they did not go with the book ending?

[–] alvy-4 16 years ago

I think you missed some things...

Getting the morgue director to go along with the plan. I would have loved to have heard that conversation...

Making sure that the woman and daughter got on the plane before anyone else.

Hoping that the pilot didn't notice the fake flight manifest (is that what's it called?).

...I mean the list goes on and on.

I'm all in favour of susbending belief but this set itself up as an 'intelligent thriller' - it's got Jodie Forster in it! - and I think (just maybe) there's an interesting film to be made from the premise of losing someone on a plane. But this was not it.

Which was a pity becuase the plane looked great.

ntrifle

"there's only trouble and desire."

[–] maro8283 16 years ago

You also missed:
• Hedging everything on the fact that no one would remember them, even if they were the 1st on board others would have walked past them
• Having heaps of spare seats (for the mother to stretch out & the girl to change sats) on an inaugural flight of this new aircraft; and other coach sections on the same aircraft were packed like sardines. Normally they spread out the passengers.
• Knowing that the explosive would not be strong enough to kill herself & her daughter who were only meters away. Granted she was an avionics expert but she was not an explosive expert.
• The authorities would simply pay the money on only the word of a Marshall & not want any confirmation from the supposed terrorist.
• He could extract the girl & put her in the food cart without anyone in an aisle seat seeing it

And all of this was planned months before!!

But the one that kept bugging me was why didn’t they didn’t look for a 2nd coffin on board? If the father & the girl had supposedly died together why was only the husband’s coffin on board? Where was the girl going to be buried? Surely that would have proven the information the captain received was wrong and hence her sanity foiling the plot.

The writers (messes Dowling & Ray) of this disaster received money on false pretences & should be arrested for impersonating professionals.
I wouldn’t get them to write a birthday card.

[–] mrbrightside89 16 years ago

ok, this is long overdue, but it's a *beep* movie! don't go see a movie if you expect realism and perfection! you're a *beep* moron! who goes to see a movie to expect everything that happens to be possible? a movie is about entertainment! i hate people like you who try to analyze the reality and possibility of a *beep* movie! is there a movie genre called "realistic"? NO! So just enjoy a movie and stop wondering why the hell something works and that it's therefore a terrible movie.

[–] puirt-a-beul 16 years ago

Huh, mrbrightside, why would you want to be intentionally stupid and unobservant ?

As the old aphorism goes, "Argue for your limitations, and they're yours".
With posts like that, you're sure piling the limitations on yourself.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] W_BacDoc 16 years ago

Yeah, that's right. If all people can turn off their brain, or be stupid, they would enjoy every movie without questioning. And there would be no such thing as bad movie in the world.

However, some people just cannot be dumb and stupid, like you, to enjoy a movie like this one.

By the way, I totally agree with the OP.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] holeinthesky 14 years ago

Morons like you are the reason movies like 2012 get made.

[–] filmklassik 12 years ago

Dear God. Are you really so undemanding that anything -- literally ANYTHING -- no matter how lame or unbelievably retarded it might be -- is going to entertain you?

Have you ever met a thriller plot you didn't like? (Probably not)

[–] sillyspaghetti 15 years ago

It was a ridiculous plan. But I still enjoyed the film!

"Don't over-egg the pudding, Willie"

[–] Bubbleraft-Roo 15 years ago

Expertise is not compartmentalized, or at least it should not be. She is a propulsion engineer....with perhaps the exception of aeronautics that is indeed the most bad-ass of all engineering discplines to study...it is not unreasonable to think she would know a thing or two about strength of materials, dynamic loading, depressurization, combustion, and the like. Ask anyone who is really into jet engines, and they'll have something to say about most engineering topics, perhaps with the exception of nano and bio coz those are lame. :)

Frankly, I thought it was a REALLY nice touch that after all the crap she had been through, she got to use her years of schooling to screw over the tragically unprepared hijacker. Like, REALLY cool.

Everybody likes the Shen.

[–] filmklassik 12 years ago

Roo, this film's idiocy goes well beyond their selection of Jodie Foster to assist in their plan. Everything else about their plan was retarded. I mean that literally. Their plan was clinically retarded. (Like all of its defenders).

[–] wewereangels 15 years ago

And also, the aircraft is awfully roomy. Crawl spaces people can fit through, cargo compartments accessible from the passenger cabin, what looks like an IT room... come on! Is this an airplane or the space station?

[–] stellastey 15 years ago

I love jodie foster and i did like the basic idea of the film but the story was rather far fetched.

[–] brianj-8 15 years ago

"If all people can turn off their brain, or be stupid, they would enjoy every movie without questioning. And there would be no such thing as bad movie in the world."

Trust me, they can, and it just doesn't equate to movies. Just look at the 2004 election results...

[–] ThingyBlahBlah3 15 years ago

I'd say it's a close second to the Colonel's plan in "Die Hard 2." Compared to the nonsense that goes on that movie, Peter Saarsgard's plan works with the precision and craftsmanship of a Swiss watch.

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