Bullet Points: Carry-On (2024)
I can’t help but think that the never ending (and annoying) “Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?” debate, is only encouraging more and more Christmas action movies to be made.
Back in 2022, we got Violent Night. Last year, we got Silent Night. And courtesy of the fine folks at Netflix, 2024 gives us Carry-On…
- It’s Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas: It’s Christmas Eve in Los Angeles… Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton) and his pregnant girlfriend, Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson) are heading to work at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX for those in the know). Ethan works for TSA, while Nora is a big wig with Northwind Airlines. On the drive in, Nora and Ethan have a heart to heart about Ethan’s future… Nora would like to see him apply for the police academy again, knowing that’s the job he really wanted. The conversation would light a fire under Ethan and when he got to work, he went into go getter mode… his timing couldn’t have been worse.
- Blue Christmas: After making a passionate plea to his boss, Ethan manages to get himself assigned to the x-ray scanner and before he knows it he’s in communication with a mysterious voice on the other side of an ear bud that Ethan was about to throw in the lost and found. Soon Ethan finds himself between a rock and a hard place… if he doesn’t want Nora to be killed, he has to allow a passenger carrying a deadly nerve gas on to a flight headed to Washington D.C. Ethan tries everything he can to derail this evil plot, but things only manage to get worse for him.
- Zat You Santa Claus?: The bad guy talking to Ethan, credited as The Traveler, was played by Jason Bateman… who gets my unofficial Least Likely to Effectively Play an Action Movie Villain award for 2024. If Bateman has ever been in a non-comedy project, I haven’t seen it… so I was pleasantly surprised to see how well he pulled off this cold and calculating role… The Traveler is assisted by a guy outside the airport, who has tapped in to the security system, which earns him the name The Watcher… which means he knows when Ethan is being naughty or nice and relaying that information to The Traveler. The Watcher was played by Theo Rossi of Army of the Dead fame.
- Run Rudolph Run: Eventually Ethan finds an opening and the tension and thrills that have been building get a major action injection, with Ethan running all over the airport, disarming the bomb, punching a detective and doing his best to keep Nora alive! Once the action gets started it really doesn’t stop and the big action finale was the icing on the cake! Taron Egerton is extremely likable as Ethan Kopek, a guy who had admittedly been coasting after a setback and a guy who has to step up in a major way to save the day.
Carry-On is another wonderful addition to the ever growing list of Christmas Action movies. It would pair perfectly with Die Hard 2. And honestly, I would like to see a sequel where some of the same shit happens to Ethan Kopek twice… carry on the Die Hard tradition, if you will.
Allow me to carry on the tradition of Bonus Bullet Points…
- Familiar Face: Dean Norris plays Ethan’s TSA boss, Phil Sarkowski. Unlike his roles in Breaking Bad and 2018’s Death Wish, Norris’ character was actually competent at his job in Carry-On.
- Directed By: Carry-On was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who previously directed such films as Black Adam and Non-Stop.
- Soundtraxx: Carry-On features some Christmas classics by Bruce Springsteen, Michael Bublé, Darlene Love and Wham!
