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Film Discussion => The Vault => Topic started by: MacGuffin on May 12, 2005, 03:31:54 PM

Title: Flightplan
Post by: MacGuffin on May 12, 2005, 03:31:54 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fus.movies1.yimg.com%2Fmovies.yahoo.com%2Fimages%2Fhv%2Fphoto%2Fmovie_pix%2Ftouchstone_pictures%2Fflightplan%2Fflightplanposterbig.jpg&hash=1da3a86bbc255ebcf5518230ae17146e10517768)

Trailer here. (http://www.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/flightplan/)

Release Date: September 23, 2005(wide)

Cast: Jodie Foster (Kyle Sherin), Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen (Fiona), Sean Bean, Haley Ramm (Brittany Loud), Marlene Lawston (Julia), Kate Beahan (Stephanie), Michael Irby (Obaid), Brent Sexton (Elias), Judith Scott (Estella), Amanda Brooks (Irene), Matthew Bomer (Eric)

Director: Robert Schwentke (English feature debut)

Screenwriter: Peter Dowling (debut), Terry Hayes, Billy Ray

Premise: After the death of her husband, a woman decides to return home to America with her young daughter, but while on the flight, the daughter mysteriously disappears.
Title: Flightplan
Post by: squints on August 19, 2005, 09:27:40 PM
The daughter, Jodie Foster, and the captain are the same person. The 3!
Title: Flightplan
Post by: cron on August 19, 2005, 10:03:38 PM
is this a remake of that juliane moore aeroplane movie?
Title: Flightplan
Post by: 72teeth on August 19, 2005, 10:08:11 PM
it wasn't an aeroplane, it was a spaceship, remember...
Title: Flightplan
Post by: killafilm on August 19, 2005, 10:45:00 PM
They would have to give some credit to The Lady Vanishes... right?
Title: Flightplan
Post by: MacGuffin on September 16, 2005, 03:32:42 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fsuicidegirls.com%2Fmedia%2Fauthors%2F1696%2Farticle.jpg&hash=90511e68fd34816b0fb05312bebcbaca505f50eb)

Jodie Foster is one of the best actors planet Earth has ever given birth to. Her two Oscars, her performances that haven’t been nominated for anything and the two brilliant films she’s directed all attest to that.

Now she’s starring in the new thriller Flightplan which is about a recently widowed woman who is flying her husband’s corpse back to America in a giant plane she partially designed. Her daughter disappears on the plane and everyone seems to think the girl was never there in the first place.

Daniel Robert Epstein: What was the reason for doing Flightplan?

Jodie Foster: I know it’s a mystery to everyone why I choose the things that I do. It sort of depends on my life and what's moving me at the time. There's something very fascinating about what this woman goes through and clearly there's personal stuff for me there. If I feel someone is burning my arm and you tell me that it's not happening, does that mean that I don't feel it? It's those kinds of sanity insanity questions. Also what would you do and how far would go if something happened to your child. She reaches a point in the middle of the movie where she's so consumed by the desperation that she actually thinks she’s totally deluded myself and made it all up because she couldn't stand the grief. I felt like that beautiful moment was the whole reason I did the movie.

DRE: Flightplan clearly shares themes with Panic Room.

JF: It does share themes with Panic Room just because they are both in the thriller genre although it's kind of a different feeling. Flightplan is more of a psychological drama but yes I'm trying to save my daughter. But I think that once you hit 35 you play a lot of moms. And I think that guys at 35 play a lot of dads because that's really the most impractical thing that happens to people at that age.

The thing about Panic Room, as it was conceived when I came on, was that she was someone who starts the film with a really diminished sense of self. She used to feel like she was secure and knew where she was heading but now she's at this big question mark in her life. She can't even imagine that she would have the strength to be able to cope with it. I think that this character [in Flightplan] is in a totally different place. She's at a place of grief and responsibility, but not a place where she's lost a sense of self at all. In fact it's just the opposite and people keep trying to project that onto her. Part of her keeps fighting and saying, “I'm not hysterical. I'm not going to be desperate. I'm not going to go there.” Then as she gets whittled down she goes through all these different feelings and then eventually makes a decision and doesn't care about what she has to do. So it's actually an opposite journey from Panic Room. What's interesting about this movie is that it was written for a guy originally. Then I read the script and said, “Wow, this is something that could flip and make a woman.” In a weird way it worked so much better than it did with a guy. The man was playing a traditional guy who goes to work and doesn't know his kid that well and now his wife dies so he has to be like, “Do you like peanut butter and jelly or just jelly?” It was the process of looking for her and caring for her that made him have to assume a part in her life that he hadn't had before. We didn't do that. We did something completely different and in a weird way I think that it works a lot better.

DRE: Since you are a mother, you must have identified with this character very well.

JF: Definitely. Clearly everyone comes to this movie for the thriller part because it's a great ride and all of that, but the second reason that you're drawn to it is this question of, “What would I do if the thing that I care about the most was in danger?” It's amazing to me about the things that have happened in my life like broken bones and accidents. But I’ve never been through anything like seeing my kid have a plaster cast on his foot. It wasn't like he broke his foot. It was just some warm plaster and I just had never been through that kind of turmoil before. Somehow there are emotions that you have for your children, fears and worries, that you don't allow yourself to have for yourself. I think that everyone relates to that.

DRE: Did you have any input into casting the other roles?

JF: No.

DRE: It was nice to see Greta Scacchi again.

JF: Oh, I know. Wasn't that great? When I found out that she was coming in to play that part I was so psyched. I've been such a big fan of hers for a long time. Especially for her playing that psychiatrist on the plane. It was such a hard scene because I didn't really have anything to say. She did all the talking and you have someone come in for one day and that's all they do, one day while you've been on the film for 55 days. It was so nice having her next to me.

DRE: Was this screenplay written before 9/11?

JF: I believe that the first draft of this screenplay was pre 9/11 so after 9/11 they sat down and said, “Well, this is a new world. So lets talk about that and how things will change and how it actually affects the movie.” Of course that turned it into a completely different film which I think is great because now it addressees a post 9/11 world. There's an interesting dichotomy in society now where we have this global economy and everyone is saying, “No passports. We're all alike.” You get on a plane and one person is from England and the next person is from India. So we're all so international, but in a time of crisis true human nature in some ways reverts to non-inclusiveness. You look for the first person that you can point your finger at whether it's a hysterical woman on the plane or whether it's a guy that has brown skin. I feel like the film kind of addresses that.

DRE: You need a strong suspension of disbelief for this film, right?

JF: Oh, yeah. It's a big fantasy. Yeah [laughs] but we don't have to go into that.

DRE: Are there really planes like that?

JF: Clearly it's not the Airbus A380 which is the new fabulous new plane which can house up to 800 people. In the world of air travel engineers are saying that's the future. The idea being that you can stuff as many people on these things and so you can make the world a shuttle area. We're not recreating the A380, but it's not dissimilar.

DRE: Even though you’ve been doing this for such a long time, the thriller genre is still new to you, is it difficult to play this film while knowing the twist ending?

JF: I've done a lot of different types of movies in my life and my career. In fact I’ve probably been doing it for too long, but I like the architecture of making movies. I like knowing what's coming and setting it up and trying to figure that out. The whole puzzle of it. A lot of actors become actors because they like dancing for grandma and putting a lampshade on, but that's just not my personality.

DRE: But you got to dance for grandma in movies!

JF: Exactly, but I can't do it in life. The fun part of making movies is really seeing it as the director sees it. The great surprise on this movie was that [Flightplan director] Robert Schwentke is such a lovely man and very unassuming but yet is a really good leader. He had a really good sense of where the film was headed and he always had the answers. The funny thing about him is that he's one of those guys that's a foodie. He has first editions of arcane books and he likes The Clash and has all of their records on vinyl. So he's kind of an arty guy. He's seen every Japanese movie ever made but he has a real commercial sense. He was just such a nice guy that I think sometimes I do better performances when I know the director is nice and I feel like he's not taking advantage of me or that he's not going to yell at everyone. Then I just want to cry for them.

DRE: How did you end up being in A Very Long Engagement?

JF: Jean-Pierre Jeunet is someone that I wanted to work with so I tracked him down and said “Look. I made a couple of movies in France when I was a kid. But for some reason they just don't think of me even though I can speak French like a French person.” I wanted to know if he had anything for me. He said, “I'm doing this movie. The big parts aren't for you but I have a couple of small parts.” I said, “Great. I'll do whatever.”

DRE: He’s such a visionary, how did you imagine the film would end up being?

JF: I didn't imagine it really. The script was quite complex and so was the movie. Although I speak French well it's still my second language so the script was even more complicated so I had no idea what the film was going to be. I thought that it was such a beautiful movie and I was proud to have been a part of it.

DRE: Do you want to do another French movie?

JF: Oh yeah, it was great being in a French movie. I could play a bartender in a French movie and it would be the most challenging role of my career because it's hard to do a film in a second language. It doesn't even have to be a challenging character. You're just sweating.

DRE: How was doing Inside Man with Spike Lee?

JF: I have a smaller part and it's a really different from everything I’ve played. When I do a big commercial movie I like to be the person who helms it. To be the protagonist who controls the movie. But on smaller boutique movies I like to be the one who comes in for three weeks and does some great part that normally no one would give me. That way I'm able to take more chances.

DRE: Is Flora Plum gone forever?

JF: These things have a way of resurfacing and I'm sure that it will because it's such a good script.

DRE: Delaying that movie indefinitely must have been very frustrating. Will you be directing something else?

JF: I have a thing that I'm working on right now. I'm still in rewrites so it'll probably take another year or so to get it right.

DRE: What’s the film called?

JF: Sugarland. It's about Jamaican plantation workers in the Florida cane fields. It's a hard story to tell. There's nothing better than controversy in a morality tale. I think we hope that people will go home and debate the wrongs and the rights. You really want people to feel passionate because both sides are true.

DRE: Just in the past couple of weeks they mentioned doing another Hannibal Lecter film, with him as a young man, how do you feel about where those films have gone?

JF: I don't really like to comment on movies that I'm not in so I wouldn't really comment on those films. What really attracted me to Silence of the Lambs and why I think it’s such a classic and a truly beautiful movie from start to finish is that I really feel that all of us from cinematographer Tak Fujimoto to [music composer] Howard Shore to the actors have never been as good and maybe we never will be again. It was just one of those movies that was so inspiring and it allowed us all to live up to this really high potential and the reason is because of Thomas Harris' book. It's just a beautiful book. I don't know what a franchise means, but if I could do films as beautiful as a Thomas Harris book everyday I would do every one of those. But even he knows, you don't always have a thousand of those in you. I don't know what the next installment is, but if it's not from a Thomas Harris book then I don't know.

DRE: Are your kids seeing your movies now?

JF: They've seen two of my movies but they're not very interested in seeing my films. They like seeing the trailers. My oldest son is seven years old and he asked if he could see Flightplan but clearly he can't.

One of the movies they’ve seen is Napoleon and Samantha which I did when I was about six. They’ve also seen Bugsy Malone which I did when I was 12. I think that's a good one for them. I sort of debated it because there are guns in it and stuff. But the guns shoot cream.

DRE: Is there a tendency now in Hollywood for people to try to get actresses to take their clothes off?

JF: No one is asking me so there you go. When women hit 42 it just doesn't become an issue anymore. They're like, “Please don't take your clothes off.”
Title: Flightplan
Post by: cowboykurtis on September 16, 2005, 04:31:10 PM
where does d r epistein publish?
Title: Flightplan
Post by: modage on September 16, 2005, 05:57:47 PM
http://suicidegirls.com/words/
Title: Flightplan
Post by: Ravi on September 17, 2005, 01:34:35 AM
Does it bother anyone else that "Flightplan" is one word?
Title: Flightplan
Post by: The Perineum Falcon on September 17, 2005, 12:49:58 PM
Notreally.
Title: Flightplan
Post by: B.C. Long on September 18, 2005, 07:56:07 PM
The Forgotten 2: Flightplan
Title: Flightplan
Post by: 72teeth on September 18, 2005, 08:23:11 PM
The Forgotten 2: Panic Plane
Title: Flightplan
Post by: NEON MERCURY on September 18, 2005, 08:45:07 PM
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.absolutely.net%2FJodie_Foster%2Findex.jpg&hash=d10f231e0d42cf2ed751f868bd3a7262daf34fb0)

i always thought she was kind of cute.  can anyone recomend me a film where she gets naked thats relatively new?
Title: Flightplan
Post by: polkablues on September 18, 2005, 08:51:50 PM
Quote from: NEON MERCURYi always thought she was kind of cute.  can anyone recomend me a film where she gets naked thats relatively new?

"A Very Long Engagement".  Other than that, "Nell" is your best bet.
Title: Flightplan
Post by: NEON MERCURY on September 18, 2005, 09:41:58 PM
Quote from: polkablues
Quote from: NEON MERCURYi always thought she was kind of cute.  can anyone recomend me a film where she gets naked thats relatively new?

"A Very Long Engagement".  Other than that, "Nell" is your best bet.

polka, thanks.  you gave me a reason to rent AVLE.  nell, looks like something  that i couldnt bring myself to watch even though shes naked in it.
Title: Flightplan
Post by: polkablues on September 18, 2005, 09:48:22 PM
Just a fair warning (and I feel awfully creepy having this discussion), her scene in "AVLE" is (if I'm remembering correctly) just underwear and possibly rearal (opposite of frontal) nudity.
Title: Flightplan
Post by: NEON MERCURY on September 18, 2005, 09:55:34 PM
Quote from: polkabluesJust a fair warning (and I feel awfully creepy having this discussion), her scene in "AVLE" is (if I'm remembering correctly) just underwear and possibly rearal (opposite of frontal) nudity.

so all i see is spine?  i guess i will have to watch nell. :cry:
Title: Flightplan
Post by: Pozer on September 25, 2005, 02:05:27 PM
dude, watch Silence of the Lambs, she takes a full on cum shot to the face (no swallow though).
Title: Flightplan
Post by: Gamblour. on September 25, 2005, 03:29:27 PM
Brilliant.

In Contact, see her half sorta naked in bed with McConaughey.
Title: Flightplan
Post by: ShanghaiOrange on September 25, 2005, 06:19:48 PM
http://www.robbscelebs.co.uk/oops_menu_jodie_foster.htm

Do it. :(
Title: Flightplan
Post by: NEON MERCURY on September 25, 2005, 08:07:30 PM
Quote from: ShanghaiOrangehttp://www.robbscelebs.co.uk/oops_menu_jodie_foster.htm

Do it. :(


:notworthy:  thanks man!  you saved me some serious money from having to go to blockbuster and rent the stuff.   :yabbse-thumbup:
Title: Flightplan
Post by: MacGuffin on September 28, 2005, 06:59:11 AM
Attendants object to 'Flightplan'
Flight attendant groups call for a boycott of the Jodie Foster thriller.
Source: Los Angeles Times  
 
They may have put up with being depicted as featherheaded flirts or even carry-on counting fascists, but flight attendants draw the line at the way they come across in Jodie Foster's new hit movie.

Three flight attendant groups are calling for a boycott of "Flightplan," which debuted at No. 1 last weekend, claiming that the depictions of a flight attendant and air marshal are outrageous and disrespectful.
 
In the thriller, Foster's character, Kyle Pratt, awakens mid-flight to find her 6-year-old daughter missing. A search is launched, an announcement is made, but the girl does not turn up. As Kyle becomes increasingly upset, the plane's crew begins to suspect that Kyle is unbalanced, which seems to be confirmed by the fact that no one saw the girl board. According to one attendant, the girl is not on the passenger list.

But —spoiler alert — that attendant turns out to be part of a nefarious plot concocted by the federal air marshal who is "handling" the incident.

"With security concerns what they are, it is not a good time to release a film with a terrorist in the position of flight attendant," said Corey Caldwell, a spokeswoman for the Assn. of Flight Attendants. "There has to be a layer of trust between the passengers and the crew, to ensure good communication during times of emergency, and a film like this undermines that trust."

The groups calling for the boycott — the AFA, the Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants and Southwest Airlines flight attendants represented by the Transport Workers Union Local 556 — represent more than 80,000 flight attendants at 23 American-based airlines.

According to a statement, the groups were also troubled by the depiction of the non-villianous flight attendants, who were "rude, unhelpful and uncaring."

Early in the film, flight attendants are seen rolling their eyes over a family with boisterous children, with one telling another something like: "It's OK to hate the passengers."

Foster took the role, she said in a recent interview, in part, because she liked how the script showed "how unhelpful people can be," especially in situations in which a mother is upset.

But at a certain point in the film's narrative, when even Kyle begins to doubt whether her daughter has boarded, the crew's concern is appropriately with other passengers — one attendant is seen calming tensions between American and Arab passengers.

According to Caldwell, all of this is overshadowed by the fact that one of the flight attendants turns out to be a terrorist.

Flight attendants, she said, are used to getting bad play in films — from the oversexed "Coffee, Tea or Me" ideal to grim-faced matrons who view the passengers as unruly children.

"We have faced misconceptions for 75 years," Caldwell said. "We could get over the rudeness, but the evilness, to be the villain, that is not acceptable."

A Disney spokesman said the studio is sorry that flight attendants are unhappy.

"There was absolutely no intention on the part of the studio or filmmakers to create anything but a great action thriller," the spokesman said. "We are confident the public will be able to discern the difference between fiction and the incredible job real-life flight attendants do on a daily basis."
Title: Re: Flightplan
Post by: Gamblour. on November 24, 2005, 03:19:25 PM
Whoever objected to this movie had a stupid basis. Logically, I mean.

This movie was very mediocre, but got the job done. It's completely improbable, and very ridiculous. The mustached, fat all-American man on the plane was hilariously racist, he wanted the Arabs to be accused and caught of something, no matter what. It was interesting, because I'd just seen 12 Angry Men earlier in the day. Nice juxtaposition. And I love Peter Sarsgaard, even in crap like this.

SPOILERS for those who even give a shit:

I think it's interesting how it takes the "she imagined it" twist, which is beyond trite by now, and tries to reassert that she's telling the truth. It's actually that much MORE implausible by double backing.
Title: Re: Flightplan
Post by: MacGuffin on February 03, 2006, 12:29:09 AM
Like Red Eye, this is another case where the actors, mainly Foster, elevates the material. For the first two acts, this was a very tense psychological thriller borrowing a lot from Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, but it takes a hard, right bank into another genre and crash lands.


*SPOILERS*


If it had stayed its course, it might have maintained the level of suspense, but once all her thoughts and reasons are explained and countered, there's no where else for the story to go; you start not believing the lead character and wonder what is going on. And what is revealed is incredibly implausible. I can believe changing the manifest and the calls to the hospital, etc., but how could Sarsgaard's character account for no one on the plane not seeing the little girl; not a passenger, not the flight attendants that weren't on the take? And how would he know Foster's character would be the first one on the plane with no one around to see them? The ending feels like the screenplay was written into a corner, and an idea came up on the spot to patch up and 'save' the interesting concept.
Title: Re: Flightplan
Post by: Reinhold on August 25, 2007, 12:32:44 PM
please do not see this movie. i like peter sarsgaard so i kept watching it... but i'll never get those hours of my life back and all i can do is hope that nobody else will waste some of theirs. what total shit.

this had nothing on the lady vanishes, and wouldn't even if they were released the same weekend.

and she was hotter in taxi driver.
Title: Re: Flightplan
Post by: Pozer on August 25, 2007, 06:41:29 PM
flightwho?