YMMV / Flightplan (2005)

• Ass Pull: The film arguably seems to spend 80% of its run time building up some kind of psychodrama/supernatural horror twist. We have scare chords, flocks of crows, weird artsy editing implying ghostly apparitions of the dead husband in the intro and sinister morticians announcing unexplained death. And then it's suddenly revealed that actually a huge number of contrived events have allowed a terrorist to mastermind an incredibly generic yet far-fetched plot of obscene complexity.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The captain, played by Sean Bean. Half because he was Playing Against Type (he's a Red Herring instead of a villain), half because he doesn't die.
• Heartwarming Moments: "There she is... with her daughter..."
• So Okay, It's Average: The film, despite its flaws, is rather interesting in what could have been a Mind Screw, despite the reveal that it was just a generic terrorist plot. And even then, the film does a good job touching upon Apathetic Citizens.
• Spiritual Adaptation: It's pretty much an unofficial remake of The Lady Vanishes combined with an unofficial remake of Bunny Lake Is Missing.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Quite a few didn't take it well at all when the film went from a dramatic psychological thriller about a mother trying to save her kidnapped daughter to a generic crime film with the typical lame Hollywood villain and evil plot.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Subverted. Kyle can come across as this to some. Granted, she's lost her husband already and comes very close to losing her daughter as well as everyone losing all of their dignity and respect for her due to a psycho's con game, but she does commit some rather inappropriate acts such as accusing one person without any ground proof which can't be justified in anyway, and even comes across as a bit of a jerk in demanding the crew to look her daughter
  • Stephanie. We are supposed to sympathize with her a little since she seems to have self-doubt and remorse for contributing to killing an innocent young girl solely for personal gain. However, this largely paints Stephanie as a hypocrite as she previously acted completely unempathetic towards Kyle and seemed to think nothing of it.

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