airplanes Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Hijacked’ (2025), starring Thái Hòa, Kaity Nguyễn, Thanh Sơn, Ma Ran Đô, Trâm Anh, Võ Điền Gia Huy, Lợi Trần, Ray Nguyễn, Bảo Định, Xuân Phúc and Trần Ngọc Vàng

December 6, 2025

by Carla Hay

Thanh Sơn and Thái Hòa in “Hijacked” (Photo courtesy of Galaxy Studio)

“Hijacked” (2025)

Directed by Ham Tran

Vietnamese with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Vietnam and in a flying airplane, in 1978 (and briefly in 1977), the action film “Hijacked” (inspired by true events) features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A Vietnamese plane is taken over by hijackers, whose only apparent goal is to get out of Vietnam.

Culture Audience: “Hijacked” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and disaster action movies that have more hysteria than a coherent plot.

Xuân Phúc and Trần Ngọc Vàng in “Hijacked” (Photo courtesy of Galaxy Studio)

“Hijacked” is inspired by true events about the increase in Vietnamese plane hijackings in the late 1970s. However, almost nothing about this tacky action flick looks realistic. Expect to see a lot of shouting, bloody fights, and horrible acting. A nonsensical plot twist that’s thrown into the movie makes everything look even more idiotic.

Directed by Ham Tram, “Hijacked” was co-written by Ham, Nguyễn Hoàng Dương and Nguyễn Mai Nhật Ánh. The movie takes place in Vietnam and mostly in the air during a hijacked plane that’s in flight. The movie was filmed on location in Vietnam. “Hijacked” is also titled “Death Battle on the Air,” depending on where the movie was released.

“Hijacked” begins with a caption explaining that in 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed an immigration act allowing approved Vietnamese people to immigrate to the United States as refugees of the Vietnam War. This immigration act led to hijackings of Vietnamese planes by people who wanted to go the United States “by any means necessary.” The airline company in “Hijacked” is called Vietnam Airlines. What the movie doesn’t mention is in real life, the airline company that experienced these late 1970s hijackings was Vietnam Civil Aviation, which didn’t change its name to Vietnam Airlines until 1993.

The movie shows one of these hijackings that took place in 1977. Vietnam Airlines Flight 137 is a Douglas DC-3 plane going from Ho Chi Minh City to Phu Quoc Island. This flight is based on the real-life Vietnam Civil Aviation Flight 509, which had 32 passengers and was hijacked on October 28, 1977. The hijackers wanted the plane to take a detour to Singapore. In the “Hijacked” movie, this hijacking is depicted only in the first 15 minutes.

Just like in real life, the movie shows that were four hijackers for this hijacking and two members of the crew were killed. However, the movie fabricates something that didn’t happen for this particular hijacking. In real life, two of the six crew members and no passengers were killed. In the movie, one of the passengers is killed when he apprehends a hijacker.

While the passenger has the hijacker in his grip, he jokingly says to a flight attendant: “Do I deserve a scarf now?” (Who says that during this type of crisis? Only people in a stupid movie like this one.) No sooner does he ask this moronic question, another hijacker sneaks up behind the passenger and slits the passenger’s throat with a knife.

The movie then abruptly segues to show Binh (played by played by Thanh Sơn,) an air marshal of the People’s Public Security of Vietnam), leading a training session to improve the fight and safety skills of airplane crew and security staffers. An air marshal named Minh (played by Hồ Thái Thiên Minh), who was killed on Vietnam Airlines Flight 137 just happened to be the brother of an air marshal named Son (played by Ma Ran Đô), who is on the next hijacked flight that’s depicted in the movie.

The movie’s second hijacked flight takes place in 1978. It’s Vietnam Airlines Flight 602, a Douglas DC-4 plane. This flight is based on the real-life Vietnam Civil Aviation Flight 501 that was hijacked on June 28, 1978, while going from departing from Da Nang International Airport to Phung Duc Airport. What happens on Vietnam Airlines Flight 602 takes up the majority of the movie.

The crew members on this flight include Binh, Son, flight captain Phong (played by Xuân Phúc), flight co-pilot Khanh (played by Trần Ngọc Vàng), flight attendant Tu Trinh (played by Kaity Nguyễn), and flight attendant Nhan (played by Tram Anh), who are all as generic as generic can be. This four male hijackers of this flight are group leader Long (played by Thái Hòa); Long’s son Suu (played by Bảo Định); and two brothers named Dan (played by Ray Nguyễn) and Ti (played by Võ Điền Gia Huy). Dan is the older brother.

To increase the drama and the tension, the movie has three of the crew members as expectant parents. Binh was on the plane so that he could visit his wife, who is due to give birth at any moment (and you know that the movie will show her going into labor during the hijacking. Khanh and Nhan, who are married to each other, are expecting their first child. Nhan is in the first trimester of her pregnancy. That’s about all you’ll find out about these main characters, who are all underdeveloped.

There are about 60 passengers on the plane, including the hijackers. Most of the passengers are just extras in the movie, which puts most of the passenger focus on a family of three people: a middle-aged man named Hai (played by Lợi Trần), his wife Phuong (played by Xuân Văn), and their son Dau (played by Bâo Di), who’s about 5 or 6 years old. Dau is carrying the ashes of Hai’s father in an urn. (And you can easily predict what will happen to those ashes during the chaos of this hijacking.)

Most of what’s seen in “Hijacked” takes place on the plane, with fleeting glimpses at some of what’s happening on the ground when the word gets out that the plane has been hijacked. Chief hijacker Long is a tyrant who physically and verbally abuses his son Suu, who is desperate to please Long. Flight attendant Nhan gets tortured by the hijackers. The hijackers have a gun, a knife and grenades. By the end of the movie, it’s still not clear what the hijackers’ motives are.

“Hijacked” has very choppy editing that takes unearned shortcuts and leaves many questions unanswered. One of the worst editing segues in the movie is when a fight breaks out between certain crew members and the hijackers. One of the hijackers gets knocked out. And then, the next thing you know, all the hijackers are tied up in a back storage room with red lighting, with the movie never explaining how the hijackers were tied up.

And the movie has too many ridiculous fights and explosions that would crash any plane that’s in flight, but this plane just keeps going during all the phony-looking mayhem. The movie’s dialogue is awful and is made even worse by the subpar performances. “Hijacked” is the type of movie that wants to pretend that people yelling, fake-looking fights, obnoxiously loud sound, and jerky editing can equal suspense. There is no real suspense in this annoying mess of a movie except wondering when it’s finally going to be over.

Galaxy Studio released “Hijacked” in select U.S. cinemas on December 5, 2025. The movie was released in Vietnam on September 19, 2025.

Review: ‘7500,’ starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Omid Memar, Murathan Muslu and Aylin Tezel

June 18, 2020

by Carla Hay

“7500”

Directed by Patrick Vollrath

English, German and Turkish with subtitles

Culture Representation: The drama “7500,” depicting an airplane flight from Berlin to Paris, has a cast of white and Middle Eastern characters representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: The flight is taken hostage by violent terrorists.

Culture Audience: “7500” will appeal mostly to people who like suspenseful thrillers.

Omid Memar in “7500” (Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios)

The dramatic film “7500” is the type of “hijacked plane” movie that is utterly formulaic and predictable, but the film does such a terrific job at maintaining a suspenseful edge that it’s somewhat easy to forgive the film’s obvious flaws. A good performance from leading actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt also makes the movie worth seeing.

Directed by Patrick Vollrath, who co-write the original screenplay with Senad Halilbasic, “7500” doesn’t delay its action-filled scenes, which start within the first 15 minutes of the film. Before that happens, there’s a little backstory presented about the movie’s main character Tobias Ellis (played by Gordon-Levitt), the mild-mannered American co-pilot of a German commercial jet plane that’s on a night flight from Berlin to Paris.

Tobias, who is 31, has been a pilot for about 10 years. His live-in girlfriend Gökce (played by Aylin Tezel), who is of Turkish-German heritage, is the mother of their 2-year-old son. Gökce is also a flight attendant who happens to be on the same flight as Tobias. Before the flight takes off, Gökce visits the cockpit to tell Tobias the bad news that they weren’t chosen for a bid on a new home that was their first choice, since the place was near a kindergarten that they want their son to attend.

Tobias is optimistic that something will work out, but Gökce is more panicked about it because they’re running out of time to find a new place to live. As Tobias tells the plane captain Michael Lutzmann (played by Carlo Kitzlinger), he and Gökce eventually plan to get married. Tobias also tells Michael that he and Gökce have been able to keep things professional while they’ve been working together.

There’s a slight delay to the plane’s takeoff because two college-age passengers (played by Max Schimmel Pfennig and Anna Suk) have checked in their luggage but have not yet boarded the plane. When the late-arriving passengers are on board, the plane (which has about 85 passengers) takes off smoothly.

Not long after the takeoff, the terrorists attack. There are four of them who are featured in the story: Kinan (played by Marathan Muslu), who appears to be the hijackers’ leader; Vedat (played by Omid Memar), an 18-year-old who follows orders; Kalkan (played by Passar Hariky), another henchman; and Daniel (played by Paul Wollin), a white German who has become a radical Islamic terrorist.

During the attack, some of the terrorists have stormed into the cockpit, and a big fight ensues. The terrorists are using broken glass as knives and have stabbed Michael and Tobias. Michael is severely wounded, but Tobias has been able to defend himself by knocking out Kinan with a fire extinguisher. Tobias is able to fight off further attacks by pushing the terrorists out of the cockpit door and locking it behind him.

Vedat, Kalkan and Daniel, who are locked out of the cockpit, continue to terrorize the passengers and try to break their way back into the cockpit. The situation escalates as Daniel (who is the most vicious one in the group) threatens to take lives if Tobias doesn’t open the cockpit door.

Tobias has been able to call for help to air traffic control, which is in communication with him during the pandemonium. (The movie’s title comes from the 7500 air traffic control code for a hijacking.) Tobias tells the authorities that he plans to make an emergency landing in Hanover. He also makes this announcement over the intercom to help calm down the passengers.

Meanwhile, Tobias is trapped in the cockpit with an unconscious terrorist, a plane captain who might be dying and the terrible burden of knowing that not opening the cockpit door could mean that innocent people could be killed. Tobias can see some of what’s going on outside the cockpit through a video monitor. The terrorists communicate with him by using the cockpit phone placed outside the door, which they keep battering in an attempt to gain access. And later in the movie, as if things weren’t stressful enough, it predictably starts to rain heavily while the plane is still in the air.

Tobias is written as someone who manages to keep a fairly level head during all of this stress and trauma, to the point where some viewers might think that his reactions are initially too calm for all the violence going around him. But an explanation for that is perhaps Tobias is just in shock. He definitely has some big emotional moments later in the film.

In the production notes for “7500,” Vollrath explains that he wanted to make the Tobias character the opposite of an action hero and more relatable to the average person. In other words, if this were a movie starring Bruce Willis or Liam Neeson, the main character would definitely make different choices.

Although many things that happen in “7500” are easy to predict, the movie is different from other “hijacked plane” films because almost everything in the movie takes place in the cockpit, not the passenger area. The production notes for “7500” mention that the filmmakers purchased a decommissioned Airbus A320 plane and made it into the “7500” film set. That authenticity makes a difference, since nothing about the film’s production design looks like a replica of a plane.

Tobias is undoubtedly the main character of “7500,” but it would have been a little better to get more of a backstory from the other characters, particularly one of the attackers who gets the most screen time. The movie makes some subtle references about immigration, but all of their backgrounds are mysteries.

As for Tobias, very little is known about him either. For example, viewers don’t find out how he ended up living in Germany or even why he wanted to become a pilot. The focus of the movie is “fight for your life in the moment.” As the debut feature film from Vollrath, “7500” is far from a masterpiece, but it shows that this filmmaker has knack for telling a simple story that hits a lot of the right notes for crowd-pleasing suspense.

Prime Video premiered “7500” on June 18, 2020.

United Airlines suspends pet cargo bookings after complaints of pet deaths

March 20, 2018

by Patricia Garrett

United Airlines is suspending its PetSafe reservations of pets for the airplane cargo area until May 1, 2018, as the company undergoes an internal review of its procedures for pets traveling on United flights. PetSafe reservations that were made before March 20, 2018 will still be honored, but passengers have the right to cancel their PetSafe reservations during this review process. The suspension applies to the cargo area of United flights, not the passenger cabin, where pet reservations will still be taken.

United has not yet announced what it will do about PetSafe cargo reservations after May 1, 2018, presumably because the company is waiting for the results of the internal review before announcing any possible changes to its PetSafe system.

United has come under massive backlash for the death of a 10-month-old French bulldog named Kokito, which died after being placed in a overhead compartment on a United flight from Houston to New York City that took place on March 12, 2018. The dog’s owners (Catlina Robledo and her 11-year-old daughter Sophia Ceballos) said that a flight attendant forced them to put the dog (which was in a carrier bag) in the overhead bin, even though the owners protested and told the flight attendant numerous times that a dog was in the bag. The owners also claimed that the dog barked several times during the trip, but the flight attended claimed that she was unaware that there was a dog in the bag. United called the incident a “tragic mistake” and issued an apology and a full refund. There have also been numerous protests and calls for boycotting United after this incident happened.

According to the New York Times, U.S. Senators John Kennedy of Louisiana and Catherine Cortez Masto introduced a bill on March 15, 2018, called WOOFF (Welfare of Our Furry Friends) to prohibit airlines from storing pets in overhead compartments. United Airlines, which already has a policy to prohibit pets from being put in overhead compartments, has said that in April 2018, United will begin issuing brightly colored bag tags to passengers who have pets in the passenger cabin.

The death of Kokito sparked further scrutiny of United’s track record for how pets are treated on its flights, particularly in United’s cargo area, where pet owners are unable to check on the welfare of their pets during the flight. Since Kokito’s death, there have been multiple incidents reported of pets being flown to the wrong destinations on United flights. And according to the Wall Street Journal, 18 pets died while flying in United’s cargo section in 2017, which was twice the number of pet deaths that United reported in 2016. United claims that almost all the deaths were for medical reasons outside the airline’s control. United is the largest carrier of animals among U.S. airlines, accounting for “almost a quarter of the animals transported in cargo holds and in cabins” in 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The backlash against United Airlines over its treatment of pets is the latest public-relations fiasco for the company. In 2017, the United also faced a firestorm of negative publicity for the physical assault of passenger David Dao, who was forcibly removed by security personnel after he refused to voluntarily leave an overbooked flight. Video footage went viral of a bloodied Dao being dragged off the plane during the altercation. United made multiple apologies and reached an out-of-court settlement with Dao for an undisclosed sum.