In Non-Stop Liam Neeson plays a veteran air marshall with some personal issues on a flight to London. He starts getting messages on his phone that someone on the flight will die every 20 minutes unless $150 million is wired to a Swiss account. Whoever is sending the messages also seems to know a lot about his private life.

He reports the threat and tries to find the terrorist, and at first, thinks he’s found him. However, someone does die, then someone else does too. But then he is told the Swiss account is in his name and soon everyone thinks he’s the terrorist and trying to hijack the flight. Before too long he’s spending all his time just trying to stay alive as the passengers attack him while a bomb planted on the plane is ticking down.

There is lots of suspense, thrills and plot twists. While none of it is especially believable, the movie is put together well enough that you spend a lot of time on the edge of your seat. Good supporting cast with Julianne Moore as a sympathetic, but suspicious, passenger and Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) and Lupita Nyong’o (who just won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 12 Years a Slave) as stewardesses.

The biggest problem is the dubious ending, but getting there is very entertaining. Too many nightmares here if you fly a lot; you won’t be seeing Non-Stop as entertainment on any aircraft.

Rating: four deer out of five

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Alf Cryderman is a Red Deer freelance writer and old movie buff.