7500

Among the worst hauntings of many spectators is that of being taken hostage on a plane by vindictive terrorists. We all remember with horror the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, when this American Airlines Boeing 767 collided with the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Numerous films such as Delta Force (1986), Passenger 57 (1993), Ultime Decision (1996), Flight plan (2005), Flight 93 (2006), Non-Stop (2014) have shown with some effectiveness that some flights can become moments of pure terror.

In the same vein and with very limited means, Patrick Vollrath's film 7500 judiciously uses real-time action to show us an airliner containing eighty-five passengers taken hostage by three terrorists who want to crash the plane. While in many films, the action takes place in the plane at the passengers' level, this one only shows the action in the cockpit and through a screen showing the terrorists wanting to take control of the plane and threatening the passengers. The real hero of the film is the American co-pilot Tobias (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) whose girlfriend is one of the two stewardesses of this plane. The effectiveness of this film is to move away from the traditional American hero to give way to an ordinary man living a dangerous situation. Patrick Vollrath's scenario really manages to make us shiver throughout the story and above all to make this film credible if only by the jargon used between the two pilots at the level of takeoff and communication with the outside world.

In spite of a very reduced budget, the film really manages to hold our attention and moves away from current Hollywood productions that use too many special effects to create a dangerous and worrying climate. Based on the excellent interpretation of Joseph Gordon-Levitt ((500) Days Together ((500) Days of Summer) (2009), Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), The Walk: Dreaming Higher (2015)), the film breaks out of the straitjacket of a simple B-series to simply be a realistic film of formidable effectiveness. Of course, we would have liked a different introduction than the airport surveillance footage, that the characters have more depth and, above all, a less rushed ending. The fact remains that 7500 shows that it is still possible to be inventive in telling the story of a hostage situation in a plane and above all that an ordinary man can become a real hero if he makes the right decisions and shows heroic courage.

7500
A film written and directed by Patrick Vollrath
Produced by Maximilian Leo, Jonas Katzenstein
Based on a story by Patrick Vollrath, Senad Halilbasic
With Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Aylin Tezel, Aurélie Thépaut, Carlo Kitzlinger, Paul Wollin
Director of photography: Sebastian Thaler
Edited by Hansjörg Weißbrich
Production: MMC Studios, Augenschein Filmproduktion, FilmNation Entertainment, Endeavor Content
Distribution: Amazon Studios (United States), Universum Film AG (Germany/Austria)
Release date: August 9, 2019 (Locarno),June 19, 2020 (United States)
Budget: $5 millions
Running times : 92 minutes

Viewed on 13 June 2020

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