Movie Review: Carry-on (2024)

Carry-On (2024) directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

Ethan (Taron Egerton) is a shiftless TSA agent at Los Angeles Airport. He has a nice and ambitious girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carlson) who also works at the airport and has just discovered she's pregnant. They are excited though his lack of ambition is underwhelming to her. She encourages him to apply to the police academy again, something he is reluctant to repeat after his first failure. They go to work on Christmas Eve, a very busy day at the airport. He decides to be more aggressive about his job, attempting to impress his manager Sarkowski (Dean Norris) that he will start showing up on time and being more engaged in the job. Ethan manages to get himself on the x-ray machines, a step up for him. He replaces a friend but that turns out to be a problem for a guy (Jason Bateman) who wants to get a carry-on through security. The guy (he's never given a name) has, in an opening sequence, gone to some Russians at a Christmas tree farm/nursery and taken a small case (the titular carry-on), killed all the Russians, and burned down the nursery. The guy was planning to blackmail Ethan's friend into letting the carry-on pass but now he has to blackmail Ethan. Thanks to cyber-savvy, the guy's team is able to find out a lot about Ethan, enough to threaten to kill Nora if he does not play along. A cat-and-mouse game starts up at the airport.

The movie's premise is simple enough and the filmmakers play it out with enough twists to keep viewers engaged. Some moments are a bit too implausible but it is only a movie. Egerton is almost charming enough in a role that seems tailor-made for a younger Matthew McConaughey. The rest of the cast is good. The tension builds through the movie, coming to a nice finale. The payoff at the end is unsurprising but enjoyable and earned.

Mildly recommended--of course the promoters quote the "This year's Die Hard!" line from some reviewer, but the movie is not in the same league. It's still entertaining.

Available streaming on Netflix.