Warning: May Contain Spoilers

Carry-On is a movie that was made in 2024 by Jaume Collet-Sera. This movie’s genre is action thriller and takes place in the Los Angeles international airport. An overview of the plot is an airline security guard gets blackmailed by an unknown passenger that threatens to smuggle an explosive package onto a plane on Christmas eve. If the security guard doesn’t do what the unknown man says, he will kill the security guard’s girlfriend and set off the bomb. 

Some of the important characters in this movie are Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton), The traveler (Jason Bateman), and Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson). Some important moments for these characters I believe, are when Ethan gets an earpiece left by someone for Ethan to find, and he gets a text message from a random number to put the earpiece in his ear. When he did, he put the earpiece in his ear, and someone then started talking to him. The man on the earpiece says he has to let the explosive onto the plane or else he will kill Ethan’s pregnant girlfriend, Nora Parisi. This is important because this is where everything started. An important moment for the traveler who was the person attempting to get the bomb on the plane, is when he tells Ethan if he listens to him, he will tell Ethan how to deactivate the bomb. Since Ethan did what he said, the traveler told Ethan how to deactivate the bomb which eventually backfires at the traveler in the end of the movie. 

I think the best elements that were used throughout the movie are the camera work and the direction. I think the camera work is good because the way they record the movie makes it more intense, and you don’t know what will happen next. They also record by following the characters when they run. The camera follows Ethan closely, which makes it better, more intense, and interesting. The direction is good because you can clearly see what is going on, and the better the direction, the better the understanding of what is happening. 

The overall theme of this movie would be risk and reward. The film develops this theme by showing how Ethan had to take a risk and “obey” what the traveler says to do even though he doesn’t trust the traveler. But, because he took that risk, he was then able to save everyone on the plane from the bomb and keep his girlfriend alive, despite him putting his own life at risk. The film shows how the greater risk can lead to good rewards, but with personal sacrifice. 

I would recommend this film to someone who likes action thrillers and a movie to keep you on the edge of your seat. I think if I had to rate this movie, I would rate it a 5/5 because it is a really good movie. It keeps you thinking about what will  happen next and what Ethan decides to do.