Non-Stop

Non-Stop is the best of the Liam Neeson airplane thrillers and one of the most efficiently constructed action-mysteries of the 2010s. Neeson plays an alcoholic federal air marshal who receives text messages threatening to kill a passenger every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred to an account. The film traps Neeson in a confined space where everyone is a suspect, and Jaume Collet-Serra’s direction wrings maximum tension from the aircraft cabin setting. The whodunit element keeps the audience guessing, and Neeson’s weary, whiskey-soaked authority grounds the increasingly outlandish plot. At $222 million on a $50 million budget, it proved the Neeson-on-a-vehicle formula was gold.