7500
Joseph Gordon Levitt may have been attracted to “7500,” which is premiering on Amazon Prime today, as an acting exercise. In a very confined space, how much can an actor express, with close-up shots making up nearly the entire film and without many of production’s usual aids such as design, costume or even movement?
Taking “7500” as far as it will go, Gordon Levitt nevertheless leaves the story stuck on the runway: It cannot spin its limited perspective into something thrilling or keen. Eventually, it seems a lot more like a cheap trick than an actor’s showcase or a study in filmmaking restrictions. What’s worst about it is that it always lets you see how it was made; it relies on shaky camerawork to create tension that doesn’t and almost refuses to make any actual characters at all.
“7500” has a short prologue then never leaves the passenger plane’s cockpit. There we meet Tobias Ellis (Gordon Levitt), the co-pilot on a routine flight out of Berlin that is suddenly and violently interrupted by a group of hijackers shortly after take off.
In a tense sequence that kicks off the movie’s action after a procedural first 15 minutes, at least three men rush the cockpit and one of them stabs the pilot before Tobias gets the better of him, knocking him out with a fire extinguisher. Tobias slams the door on the other two men. And then what? He locks it? Sorry, I’m still getting over how much pounding there is in this movie.
As they pound on that door (there’s so much pounding), he radios to air traffic control and plots a course for Hanover, where they will land, refuel and negotiate. And then they bring passengers to the cockpit door, executing them one at a time as they insist that he opens it. Can he hold out while people are being killed outside his line of sight knowing full well that if he lets those butchers into the cockpit, there’s nothing stopping them from taking down the whole plane?
Oh also: His girlfriend is one of those taken hostage back there somewhere she happens to be a stewardess.
That last bit is pretty much all we learn about Tobias throughout this film. He’s got a kid; he’s in love with someone who works for German Airlines; he’s an American on their plane (“Snowden” came through again!); oh and also his name is Tobias.
At one point very late in “7500,” you start to fear you might never watch another movie set entirely within airplane cabins ever again if only because you’ll have already seen this one.
But I mean what else can you do with an airplane movie? At this point? Other than what’s never been done?
So Tobias.
We’ve seen the hijackers and we know the tension. We’ve been introduced to this person who stands for some ordinary guy caught in an extraordinary situation, and then a second act begins or a third act, it’s hard to tell with movies like “7500” and it becomes clear that they’re not really showing us anything else about this man. In fact he might have been more developed had his name actually just stayed Joseph Gordon Levitt so you could bring the actor’s entire persona into the viewing experience.
But no: Tobias is played by Joseph Gordon Levitt, here. He has a kid and he’s in love; other than those two things, everything he does or thinks must be within whatever range of emotions those two facts would elicit from any person on Earth because those are also the only two things that we ever see another person show or express about him.
And you know what? I’m fine with that! Because being a father is really hard sometimes! You never get enough sleep!
If this were jigsaw puzzle (and bear with me here) where every piece was shaped exactly liked Joseph Gordon Levitt’s head, then I’d say Patrick Vollrath crafted something truly marvelous for his first feature film debut? But as it stands for now (I am sorry), “7500” works as little more than an exercise in creative flogging.
Watch 7500 For Free On Solarmovies.