The Liam Neeson action thriller has become a subgenre unto itself ever since the veteran character actor reinvented himself as the industry’s premiere grizzled badass in Taken thirteen years ago, and he still shows no signs of slowing down, even though he turns 70 next year.
In fact, despite claiming more than once that he was retiring from running and gunning, Neeson has at least another four actioners in the works and set for release before the end of 2022, which comes after he headlined Honest Thief, The Marksman and The Ice Road within the space of eight months.
The star’s back catalogue can also be relied on to find a new lease of life on Netflix, with several entries from his recent filmography managing to crack the streaming service’s most-watched list. The latest is Non-Stop, the 2014 airborne effort that marked his second of four collaborations with director Jaume Collet-Serra.
Neeson plays Air Marshal Bill Marks, who views his weary existence as the disappointing end to a long career. However, things kick up a notch or ten when he received a series of mysterious text messages during a flight to London, instructing him that a passenger will die every 20 minutes unless a $150 million ransom is met.
A combination of standard Neeson fare and action-packed whodunnit set in the skies is an interesting cocktail that puts a fresh spin on the Academy Award nominee’s project of choice, even if the third act completely abandons any semblance of reality. Of course, it was a hit at the box office because Non-Stop had late-career Neeson doing what he does best, and it’s put in a strong showing on Netflix this weekend to crack the platform’s Top 20.