This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Sounds Like a Plan
Plot Overview
Seasoned commercial
pilot Captain Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) is at the helm of
Trailblazer flight 119 going to Tokyo on New Year's eve.
They've been routed through a massive storm in hopes it will edge
away from them or they can fly over it. Attempting the latter they
are struck by lightning that fries their electronics but good (“No
system power”) so they switch to battery (“Avionics
fine,”) but they are going down (“Prepare to ditch.”)
Well, any port in a storm. They set down on an unused mining road
on an outlying island of the Philippines, controlled by separatist
communist militias (“Very, very bad”) apt to murder their
hostages as soon as look at them. A timely rescue seems unlikely. The plane
is repairable enough to make it airworthy—barely—and the
gas tank is half full. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Ideology
They happen to be transporting a buck Negro prisoner Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter) whose guard Shellback (Remi Adeleke,) a Negro federal marshall, perishes in the storm, so Capt. Torrance keeps Gaspare close and keeps him cuffed. He asks him, “Why did they lock you up?” and he shrugs a reply, “Nobody cares what really happened.” It's the same old story, we are given to understand, somewhat along the lines of a Geoffrey Wagner plot:
“Look
here, my dear chap, … there are all sorts of loopholes in the
manipulation of the courts and order. A colored commits three felonies
here [Caribbean 1950s] and he's put away for life. That's mandatory.
And a traffic violation can be a felony for a wog. So just don't
worry,” Wedderburn gently adjured. “Someone finds
a black guy with a gun. You find a nig who says he sold it to him,
or to whom he was about to sell it. Meggs will help you out there.
All right, that's three felonies straight off: procuring arms, carrying
arms, concealing arms. Selling would be another. A detention camp is
going to be a picnic compared to what you can work out of that lot”
(69).
While it's hinted that Gaspare is up
for fifteen years on a murder rap, there is a whole archetypical
plot playing in the background. For those not settled in the
sands of time, I offer this remedial history lesson, with apologies
to those who don't need it. The biblical story is widely known of
Adam & Eve's temptation and fall in the Garden of Eden, how the
woman ate the forbidden fruit and gave it to her husband to eat (Gen. 3:6), God responding by increasing
the severity of the woman's childbirth pains (Gen. 3:16) and making man's toil onerous
(Gen. 3:17-19.) What is less well
known—except in places like the Bible Belt—is a redo of
sorts to ameliorate man's difficult labor. Noah's father Lamech had
(Gen. 5:29) “called his name
Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil
of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.”
In this movie corporate routs flight 119 across the path of the
storm to save the work of flying around it.
The Bible characters still had to follow the earlier template to get a reprieve. Instead of the forbidden tree to be respected by the first couple, there was old man Noah whose work break was to be respected by his three sons. (Gen. 6:10) “And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” In the plane we have the captain and his co-pilot Dele (Yoson An) in the cockpit and the marshall Shellback (Remi Adeleke) escorting his prisoner in the rear of the bus.
(Gen. 9:18-19) “And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.” The pilot and co-pilot have pictures of their families taped to the control panel in front of them. The marshall is sitting next to a man of the same racial characteristics. In the Genesis account of the Flood, is a mystery woman, the mother of Ham. Let's look again at Noah's story (Jasher 5:14-17):
“And the Lord said unto Noah, Take unto thee a wife, and beget children, for I have seen thee righteous before me in this generation. And thou shalt raise up seed, and thy children with thee, in the midst of the earth; and Noah went and took a wife, and he chose Naamah the daughter of Enoch, and she was five hundred and eighty years old. And Noah was four hundred and ninety-eight years old, when he took Naamah for a wife. And Naamah conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Japheth, saying, God has enlarged me in the earth; and she conceived again and bare a son, and he called his name Shem, saying, God has made me a remnant, to raise up seed in the midst of the earth.”
Shem and Japheth were full brothers, Ham was born at a later date (the youngest, see Gen. 9:24) perhaps from a different mother. Noah's wife was older than he was. Perhaps at 580+ years she was no longer able to bear children after the first two. She didn't have any more after the flood, even though it was a time to repopulate the earth. Maybe she stopped bearing before the flood. Ham could then have been stepbrother of the other two.
Researcher Mark DeWayne Combs posits that, “Although Jasher specifically references the births of Japheth and Shem, there is no such reference to the birth of Ham. … that Ham may have been much younger than his brothers and that he may have had a different mother” (389). Combs also observes, “Fathering a child, particularly a son, through a handmaiden or servant girl would not have been an uncommon or forbidden practice in that time period” (165). Historian Kenneth M. Stampp remarks that “Apologists for slavery traced the history of servitude back to the dawn of civilization and showed that it had always existed in some form until their own day” (14).
If Ham's natural mother was indeed a servant girl, it's unknown what became of her. But then in this movie the stewardesses are maternal figures and one of them (“Sorry about Isabella”) perishes in the storm. Stuff happens.
Come the deluge and the ark's passengers could well be a model for, (James 5:13) “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.” There was undoubtedly a lot of distress on their voyage occasioning a lot of prayer, and their eventual landfall would have been accompanied by much celebration. As ordained minister Tom Dooley points out, “Such a long period of ark living must have been quite tiresome. No doubt Noah's family was thankful for their safety and provisions; however, one could imagine them becoming restless, ready to get their feet on dry land again” (59.)
When (Jasher 6:40-41) “they all went out from the ark, they went and returned every one to his way and to his place, and Noah and his sons dwelt in the land.” They'd been cooped up together long enough, so they now spread out somewhat according to some preestablished pecking order. God (Jasher 6:42) “said unto them, Be fruitful and fill all the earth; become strong.” To become strong meant, among other things, taking their needed meds when sick, along the lines of, (James 5:14) “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” Children are always getting sick. Here it seemed to be Canaan's turn whose elders would have been his father Ham and grandfather Noah. Oil in Bible times was a medication, e.g. (Luke 10:34) “bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine,” as was, (1Tim. 5:23) “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.” Grapes grow in the summer, but once they're fermented, the wine can be stored throughout the year. Noah got into the store while setting an example for a work break, establishing period(s) of escape from hard work per Lamech's saying. By chance or design it interfered—it had to inconvenience someone—with Ham's youngest son Canaan's need, and Ham could well have been the low-status brother from another mother.
Instead of the wily serpent we had Noah's wife as an on-the-spot agent, who since she isn't mentioned, did well incurring no rebuke. She would have made herself scarce giving Noah some space to relax when he started drinking. (1Tim. 2:9-10) “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves … (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.” Being a virtuous woman (Prov. 31:27) “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.” She would not have let grass grow under her feet but would have gone straight to visit Ham to make adjustments regarding their diminished store of medicinal alcohol, like the homespun heroine in an Andrew Taylor novel:
Mrs Arabella was a woman of decision. Having made up her mind to do something, she did not postpone it and did not permit half-measures. The inoculation of the household was arranged the following day and put into practice on the day after. (175)
Ham showed up at Noah's tent shortly to check out the cause. He fell to temptation by mocking his dad to his two brothers, but they would have none of it. This is parallel to Eve earlier failing first then offering the fruit to Adam who accepted it, but here the older brothers did not go along with Ham, so we'd expect them to receive a blessing rather than a curse such as it was. The distribution of labor had to be readjusted to account for the new workers' holiday(s), and Ham for his insolence left himself and his family line open to taking up the slack. Depicted below is that scene rendered in a Civil War vintage woodcut, made after a drawing by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (German painter, 1794–1872) from his archive, published in 1877.
The alternate image text by licensor iStock.com/Getty Images explains what happened here to Noah and his fermented grapes: “When he drank some of the wine, he got drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers who were outside. Shem and Japheth took a garment and placed it on their shoulders. Then they walked in backwards and covered up their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so they did not see their father's nakedness (Genesis 9:21-23).” They covered the old man to prevent him from catching a chill in the mountains as it was no longer summer. Ham's show of disrespect to their patriarch is like the treatment of a revered matriarch in a Seymour novel:
I don't think
she'll be pleased to know that her picture is now a source of amusement
throughout Naples. When she knows, and she soon will—it's
inevitable—that her daughter … is in part responsible
for her being photographed with bare thighs and most of her arse
on display, I believe she'll feel resentful towards you.
(131)
Ham had put himself in jeopardy according to, (Prov. 30:17) “The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.” Especially pertinent is Noah's control over the animals including the raven (Gen. 8:7) and he is not unique, at least not in literature. Novelist Ted Bell writes of a chief inspector who “had been beaten to within an inch of his life and nearly pecked to death by countless killer ravens. All the while locked inside the cage of a Victorian aviary” (357). There is even biblical precedent for it when some kids mocked a man of God for not having a covering of hair on his head and they got mauled by beasts. (2Kings 2:23-24) “And … as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.”
Here we have a parallel to what happened to the federal marshall. The plane is in the brunt of the storm. Something he has gets dropped on the floor, and he disobeys the stewardesses and mocks the Fasten Seat Belt sign to unsnap his and reach down for the detritus. The plane hits an air pocket and he gets slammed into the ceiling and dies. It ain't pretty.
There's a parity of eye loss and servitude
given in (Exodus 21:26) “And if
a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it
perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake.” Ham and
his line—represented by Canaan in his lineage—could be
given servitude rather than mutilation. This would be in keeping with
the sentiment of Job in, (Job 31:7-8)
“If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked
after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; Then
let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted
out.” In that woodcut-derived picture above we see Ham after
disregarding his mom's caution, checking up on his dad, getting carried
away by an eyeful of the dishabille inebriate, and gesturing with his hands
to his brothers. If he were to “sow, and another eat” and his
“offspring be rooted out,” that would mean becoming a
slave and his offspring being carried away in slavery. Okay.
The Bible's account leans towards the latter. (Gen. 9:24-27) “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son [Ham] had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” When Noah woke up, he blessed as a pair the lines of his two respectful sons and cursed Ham's line—pairing Ham with his youngest son Canaan as was Noah's wont to go by twos—giving them servitude to his other two sons'. (Jasher 73:35) “For the Lord our God gave Ham the son of Noah, and his children and all his seed, as slaves to the children of Shem and to the children of Japheth, and unto their seed after them for slaves, forever.”
Ham's youngest son Canaan is the particularly noted recipient of the punishment. Later when the Israelis invaded the promised land, the Canaanites were due for destruction, but the Gibeonite branch (the Hivites of Joshua 11:19 & Gen. 10:15-17) did a deal with Joshua who was the Jewish leader. They'd heard what happened to other Canaanite tribes, so they sent ambassadors dressed as if they'd come from a long journey (Joshua 9:3-6) and persuaded Joshua to make a league with this “distant” tribe. When it was discovered they'd tricked Joshua into sparing them, (Joshua 9:24-27) he made them bondmen, which was more to their liking. If this trick is indicative of the character of the original Canaan, he might well have been malingering to get out of his chores, which would also help explain Noah's hesitation to coddle him with wine. And when it came time to deal with the sin, it affected the whole line of Ham.
More germane to modern times is perhaps the lineage of Cush, Ham's oldest son (Gen. 10:6,) Cush meaning black in Hebrew, having settled in Africa, some of his to become in later years African-American slaves. Researcher Bodie Hodge confirms that, “As a general trend, Ham is the father of many peoples in Africa” (122). Dr. Ide adds, “Ham sired four sons: Cush (translates as ‘black’) … and Canaan the youngest” (62).
The plane's captain was Scottish so by the British Israelite theory
he could represent the Semites, the line of Shem. His number two was
from Hong Kong whose family descended from Japheth whose
“enlarged” seed had spread far and wide. The black prisoner
would be from Ham, of course. The original conflict that got Ham's
line in trouble was about being useful and covering Noah's exposure
in the wintry clime rather than poking fun at him. In our movie when
they are about to take a chance flying out of a perilous situation,
we see airline executive Hampton (Paul Ben-Victor) make a fuss about
not leaving before an inspection. It was not the time to inspect or
mock, but to get the body some warmth and the plane to safety.
Production Values
“” (2023) was directed by Jean-François Richet. Its screenplay was written by Charles Cumming and J.P. Davis. It stars Gerard Butler, Mike Colter, Evan Dane Taylor and Tony Goldwyn. Butler outdid himself. The rest did okay, too.
It was rated R. It was filmed in Puerto Rico. It was broken nicely into four tense dramas: bad weather, bad passenger(s), bad landing reception, and corporate red tape. The tension ebbs and flows giving us time to breathe in between gasping. Runtime is 1¾ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This was a very workable action/drama/thriller touting family loyalty and not bothering with sexualizing a New Year's with the pretty stewardesses. If some of it was predictable, there's a lot that wasn't.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four and a half stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769, 1873. Print. Software.
The Book of Jasher. Translated from the Hebrew into English (1840). Photo lithographic reprint of exact edition published by J.H. Parry & Co., Salt Lake City: 1887. Muskogee, OK: Artisan Pub., 1988. Print, Web.
Bell, Ted. Patriot. Copyright © 2015 by Theodore A. Bell. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. Print.
Combs, Mark DeWayne. End the Beginning. USA: Splinter in the Mind's Eye Pub., 2014. Print.
Dooley, Tom. The True Story of Noah's Ark. Copyright © 2003 by Tom Dooley. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Pub., 2016. Print.
Hodge, Bodie. Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Pub., 2013. Print.
Ide, Arthur Frederick. Noah & the Ark: The Influence of Sex, Homophobia and Heterosexism in the Flood Story and its Writing. Las Colinas: Monument Press, 1992. Print.
Seymour, Gerald. The Collaborator. Copyright © 2009 Gerald Seymour. New York: The Overlook Press, 2011. Print.
Stampp, Kenneth M., Professor of American History at the University
of California (Berkeley).
The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the
Ante-Bellum South. Vintage Books, 1955. Print.
Taylor, Andrew. The Scent of Death. Copyright © Andrew Taylor 2013. London: HarperCollinsPublishers. Print.
Wagner, Geoffrey. Rage on the Bar. Copyright © 1957 by Geoffrey Wagner. New York: The Noonday Press, Inc., 1957. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org