Liam Nesson gets all the credit for being the ultimate dad movie action hero. But there is another. Gerard Butler has quietly been creeping up on Neeson's number-one spot. He has anchored movies like the OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN trilogy to become one of the most reliably-bankable action players out there. You know the broad outlines of what you’re going to get from a Gerard Butler movie, and that’s exactly why audiences like him.
If you went to the movies during Thanksgiving week, you might have been lucky enough to see the trailer for Butler‘s next movie. It’s an action thriller in which Butler stars as the captain of a plane that makes an emergency landing on a remote island. There, the passengers and pilot find that they're not out of danger, as they're faced with a violent militia.
The movie is called PLANE. Here’s that trailer and everything else we know about Gerard Butler’s next movie.
The Plane Trailer Is Simply Terrific
If you've seen the PLANE trailer you'll want to revisit it. If you haven't seen it, check it out just above.
Let's be clear: It's not that this is the most fantastic trailer ever made. It's just that the escalating action, the rock-solid nature of Gerard Butler, and the combination of the movie's story and the simple title all combine into an entertaining promise of a good time at the movies.
When Can We See Plane?
The good news for PLANE fans is that Gerard Butler's movie is coming out a week earlier than originally planned. Reception to the PLANE trailer was so good that Lionsgate will release the movie exclusively in theatres on January 13.
A '90s-Style Action Thriller
Set aside the trailer appeal and look at PLANE in broad terms. This movie has a real mid-'90s vibe. It looks like the sort of film that was the bread and butter for movie theaters a couple of decades ago when mid-budget thrillers could exist on star power and the draw of a simple premise.
PLANE certainly has both of those. In a different era, this movie would have starred an actor like Nicolas Cage, Wesley Snipes, or Harrison Ford. (Or, even better, a pair of any two of them!)
We go back to movies like that all the time. They’re in regular rotation at home, even if there aren’t as many of them in theaters now as once was the case. Butler's own career even reflects the appeal of movies in that mode. The OLYMPUS/LONDON/ANGEL HAS FALLEN movies are all cut from that cloth. So is a movie like GREENLAND, for that matter, with its blend of character-driven action and overarching disaster sensibility.
As much fun as these movies are all fun to watch at home, they’re even better on the big screen. Any movie in the 90s action thriller mode is most at home with overwhelming picture and sound. GREENLAND should have been a big theatrical release, but it, like so many other movies, was derailed by the pandemic. We’re thrilled that PLANE is not going to be diverted in the same way.
PLANE opens on January 13.
All images courtesy of Lionsgate.