An enigmatic opening scene which ends with a brutal double killing by an assassin is followed by a Christmas Eve when Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) is coming to terms with the happy news that his girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson) is pregnant. She encourages him to be more ambitious and follow his dream of becoming a policeman. In fact, the two of them both work at Los Angeles airport, and Ethan has a fairly unsatisfying job in airport security. Things change when he is assigned to run a baggage-scanning lane at the airport in place of a colleague.
Before he knows what is happening, Ethan finds himself being blackmailed into allowing an item of carry-on baggage to be brought on to an imminent flight without interference. A mysterious individual (known as the Traveller and convincingly played by Jason Bateman) threatens Nora's life if Ethan does not comply. And soon Ethan has reason to believe that the villains he is dealing with mean exactly what they say.
This is an exciting and unpretentious thriller. which uses familiar ingredients in a fresh way. Overall, it does exactly what a good thriller should do - it entertains. Egerton (who was born in Birkenhead!) does a very good job as Ethan, while Dean Norris makes the best of a smallish role as Ethan's boss. The tension builds relentlessly and whilst - inevitably - there are one or two implausibilities in the storyline, overall it is so well done that there's no need to quibble. Definitely worth watching.
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