The 2014 film Non-Stop sees Liam Neeson taking his action heroics to the skies aboard a hijacked airplane. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Non-Stop follows air marshal Bill Marks, a man grappling with alcoholism as he boards a flight to London. Much to the surprise of Marks, the flight takes a dark turn when he realizes that a mysterious terrorist is hiding aboard the plane. The terrorist communicates with Marks via text and threatens to kill a passenger every 20 minutes unless his ransom demands are met.
Non-Stop was released at the height of Neeson’s post-Taken career. Following Taken‘s release in 2009, Neeson became one of the most popular action movie stars to grace movie screens. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Non-Stop proved a profitable hit, earning $222 million against a budget of $50 million. Non-Stop is now enjoying a resurgence on Netflix, with the action thriller even breaking into Netflix’s Top 10 movies. Non-Stop is a solid watch all the way through, but its tense ending is a particular highlight of the movie.
Tom Bowen’s Killer Twist & Revenge Plan Explained
Bowen Seeks To Highlight The Flaws In America’s Airport Security
After a long cat-and-mouse game aboard the plane, the ending of Non-Stop finds Marks discovering that the hijacker is passenger Tom Bowen (Scoot McNairy), with computer expert Zack White (Nate Parker) acting as his accomplice. The movie reveals Bowen’s motivation for the hijacking, which is the loss of his father in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Bowen enlists in the military after his father’s demise, only to become disillusioned with the Iraq War. He believes that America has not sufficiently strengthened airport security to stop similar attacks in the future, and he sets out to prove it.
Bowen’s hijacking of the plane is intended to spur airport security to more stringent levels. He persuades White to help him by offering him a cut of the ransom money. Meanwhile, Bowen’s intention is to frame Marks as the hijacker of the plane. In doing so, Bowen hopes to paint a picture of lax nationwide airport security and ineffective air marshals, thereby forcing America’s hand to improve flight safety. Bowen sets up quite an elaborate plan to ensure that Marks takes the fall. Initially, it works as intended. However, Mark eventually clears the accusations and exposes the true hijackers.
Why Marks Is Framed For Hijacking The Plane (& How He’s Exonerated)
The Hijackers Set Marks To Take The Fall
Non-Stop‘s hostage situation begins with Marks receiving a series of mysterious texts, with the texter threatening to kill a passenger from the plane in 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred to a designated bank account. The hijacker also states that the killings will continue every 20 minutes until the money is transferred. Initially, Marks believes he has found the culprit in his fellow sky marshal, Jack Hammond (Anson Mount). He kills him just before the 20-minute countdown ends and discovers a stash of cocaine in his carry-on luggage. He soon realizes this was planted by the actual texter.
Marks finds himself the number one suspect when he learns that the bank account to which the ransom money is to be transferred has his name on it. Marks’ aggression to uncover the identity of the texter also backfires on him when he interrogates Bowen. One of the passengers records a video of Marks’ belligerence, uploading it online. With this and the bank account erroneously attached to his name, Marks is poised to take the blame for Bowen and White’s plot.
Meanwhile, a group of fighter jets arrives as a military escort, with orders to shoot down the plane if the situation irreparably worsens. Marks has help in calming the situation from the first-class passenger seated next to him, Jen Summers (Julianne Moore). However, another twist emerges when they inadvertently trigger the countdown device for the bomb planted aboard the aircraft.
With 30 minutes until the bomb explodes, Marks moves the bomb (hidden in the cocaine-filled bag of Hammond) to the back of the plane. He covers it with luggage to minimize the blast radius and ensure the plane is still capable of landing if the bomb detonates.
How Marks Saves The Plane & Its Passengers
Marks Proves Himself The Hero
After Marks uncovers Bowen and White, Bowen surprises his partner by shooting him. The mission proves to be a purely mercenary pursuit by White, and Bowen believes both of them must become martyrs for his cause. It’s clear Bowen believes in this cause until the end. Marks kills him while the plane descends from 30,000 feet to 8,000 feet. It’s instructed to do so in order to avoid depressurization from the bomb going off.
Meanwhile, White survives being shot by Bowen and attempts to fight Marks. During the plane’s rocky descent, the bomb finally detonates, with White being killed in the blast. After the plane manages a rough but safe landing at an airport in Iceland, Marks is publicly cleared of the hijacking accusations and hailed for his heroism. He manages to save the passengers aboard the flight, and Bowen’s plans ultimately fail. The latter never becomes the martyr he hopes to be, though Marks and his fellow air marshals may look at things differently after his hijacking.
What’s Next For Marks & Summers After Non-Stop’s Ending
Marks Find Personal Redemption In The End
While Marks is dealing with alcoholism and bitterness at the beginning of Non-Stop, saving a plane full of passengers may give him a renewed sense of purpose and optimism about his job. Seeing Bowen’s cynicism about American foreign policy — along with the lengths he was willing to go to prevent another tragedy like 9/11 from happening — might have given Marks a new perspective.
In fact, it might be exactly what he needs to realize the importance of what he does. There’s value in protecting passengers, and Marks proves it to himself and others during Non-Stop. The film’s lead also gains optimism from the support he receives from Summers. Even when he’s framed for hijacking the plane, Summers stands by Marks side and trusts that he’s on the plane as a protector. When Marks asks Summers why in the movie’s final scene, she tells him he’s “a good man.”
Summers gets a sense of Marks’ character while sitting next to him, and she also commends Marks with the line “I bet your daughter would have been proud you.” Non-Stop ends with a hint of a romance between Marks and Summers. When Liam Neeson’s action hero asks Summers, “Where are you headed?,” she shrugs and replies, “Depends.” This suggests they might share a future together after the ending of Non-Stop.
How The Non-Stop Ending Was Received
Non-Stop was regarded as one of the better and more entertaining Liam Neeson action movies to come out in the aftermath of Taken‘s success. However, the big factors in how it was received by audiences and critics seem to come down to the fact that people were going in with low expectations and a willingness to accept the silliness of the plot. Unlike the ending of Knives Out or other acclaimed mysteries, the ending of Non-Stop does not come together in a flawless way where the plan and motives of the villain make sense and fit with the clues.
Many people have criticized the ending for its implausible nature of how the villains were able to pull off this plan. It does not come off as a brilliant bit of storytelling where all the pieces fit nicely together, but is rather clumsy and requires a lot of suspension of disbelief. Redditor ColdPressedSteaks complained about the villain’s plan specifically:
the amount of things that had to go right for the villain, several that had to go in a specific sequence that weren’t even really in his control…hilariously ludicrous.
They went on to criticize the motivations behind White taking part in this highly implausible plan as well as the “lazy” invoking of 9/11 as part of the motivation for the villains. However, the same Redditor also admitted that these faults did not ultimately take away from the fun of the movie:
The funny thing is, I still enjoyed it. It still did create good tension in spots. The red herrings of Liam suspecting which passenger it was was actually done fine and you could feel the frustration with Liam. In the end, I’m good with turning down that ounce of brainpower and just enjoying the ride in movies like this.
That seems to be the sentiment shared by a lot of people who saw Non-Stop. The ending is generally viewed as a weak point in the story with it never really coming together in a satisfying way, but the build-up to it made for a fun and diverting experience that takes full advantage of Neeson as the no-nonsense hero.
