Non-Stop tells the story of Bill Marks (Liam Neeson), a troubled air marshal who is on a trans-Atlantic flight when he gets a text message on a secure phone requesting the transfer of $150 million in order to prevent a series of deaths from happening on the plane. Most of the film takes place within the confines of the plane, a setup that posed a unique set of challenges for the filmmakers.
However, director Jaume Collet-Serra was not intimidated by the idea of creating action scenes on such a small set. He envisioned that the contained environment would actually make for a more visceral film experience. Says Collet-Serra: “Shooting action in tight places presents a technical challenge, but ultimately that pays off exponentially because people feel like they are much closer to the action. The audience is going to feel like they’re on this plane, and the action involves them and feels like it’s happening all around them. You can do a lot of car chases and motorcycle chases, but having fights happen around you in a tight space is much more intense than your regular action movie.”
The 158-foot aircraft built for the film was modeled on a Boeing 767 and was constructed so that the sides of the plane could be raised for a variety of camera placements. In building the plane, production designer Alec Hammond and his team made modifications to the standard plane aisle width to allow for film equipment, and to the ceiling height to allow for the film’s quite tall leading man. As Hammond explains, “You’re dealing with an actor who’s in shoes, 6 foot 5, in an airplane … which is a very small set. You don’t want him right at the ceiling. You have to set up the volume of the space so you can film him and the other actors without getting crazy eye lines, but also so you feel every shot isn’t claustrophobic for him.”
Hammond adds that the script had some unique opportunities and took advantage of the plane’s character: “That made it fun to design the actual plane with surprising choices. One of the biggest fights in the film takes place in an airplane bathroom with Liam and another guy who is not a small guy, either. They put two large men in that tiny bathroom and Jaume wanted to go for it. The idea of a fight in a small space was something he very much embraced, and instead of saying, ‘No, let’s make it a really large bathroom,’ he said, ‘Let’s make it real,’ because it gave an energy to that fight and a different kind of choreography than would have happened otherwise.”
Non-Stop is available starting June 10 on Video On Demand. Check your cable system for availability.
© Universal Pictures
Credit: Universal Pictures
