From the moment the trailer was released for the Netflix movie Carry-On, people were wondering if this new movie could be “the new Die Hard.” Starring Taron Egerton, Jason Bateman, Sofia Carson, Dean Norris and Danielle Deadwyler, Carry-On certainly checks the boxes for an action-thriller and Christmas story, like the 1988 hit.
“Die Hard was our director’s compass throughout this entire experience,” Carson told Yahoo Canada. “[Jaume Collet-Serra] really wanted to bring a film that merged action and holiday for the new generation, and kind of continue carrying the torch that was lit by Die Hard all those years ago.”
In a separate interview, Egerton highlighted that Carry-On feels like a nostalgic 1990s action film.
“For reasons that I don’t fully understand, there does seem to be an appetite for things that feel like they are reminiscent of the ’90s,” Egerton said. “And I think this movie is that in the way that Twisters kind of knew that it was a nod back to the first movie in the franchise.”
“I’m hoping that people respond to it for that reason too. It is absolutely made in the vein of some of those ’90s action classics. … There’s a lot of terrible things happening in the world and I think it’s a really great couple of hours of escapism.”
What is ‘Carry-On’ about?
Carry-On begins by introducing us to Ethan Kopek (Egerton), a TSA worker at the Los Angeles airport. He’s not particularly exceptional or enthusiastic about his job, but landed there after being rejected by the police academy. His girlfriend Nora Parisi (Carson) also works at the airport and just got a promotion to manager of Northwind Airlines. At the beginning of the film we also find out that Nora is pregnant.
As they both head to the airport for work on Christmas Eve, Nora pushes Ethan to seriously consider re-applying for the police academy, which she says was the last time she saw him “excited” about his life. Ethan starts by asking his boss, Phil Sarkowski (Norris), for a promotion, which is shot down, but Ethan’s friend Jason Noble (Sinqua Walls) pushes for Sarkowski to give Ethan a shot monitoring the bags being scanned through the x-ray machine.
But that day a mysterious traveller, played by Bateman, blackmails Ethan, initially through an earpiece. Ethan is instructed by The Traveller to let a particular carry-on suitcase through the TSA screening, threatening to harm Nora if he doesn’t do as he’s told.
That sets these two off on a cat-and-mouse game where Ethan has to evaluate the safety of his loved ones with the safety of the Christmas Eve travellers.
‘You are living one day for six months’
While much of Carry-On requires tension to be built with Ethan just sitting in front of a monitor or in the limited TSA screening area, Egerton had a unique setup to create and maintain that anxious feeling for the audience.
“To be sat at a monitor, tapping away at a keyboard, interacting with somebody who isn’t there, is quite an unusual acting challenge,” Egerton said. “It’s a challenge not only for me as an actor, but also for Jaume as a filmmaker, to be able to shoot it in ways that are dynamic and interesting and different.”
“I think we do a good job of keeping it exciting and interesting and dynamic, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out.”
While Carson has slightly more space to play with, the actor still highlighted that it was an interesting experience to be in a film almost entirely set in an airport, taking place over the course of just one day.
“It does pose a challenge, … because you are living one day for six months, but at the same time it’s also kind of exciting,” Carson said. “Everything is so tense and pressure cooked, and there’s so much happening in every single moment of the film that it also gives you a lot to play with.”
“But it’s definitely a little trippy working at the airport every day in the same outfit for six months.”
When the action really does kick in it’s best exemplified by a scene with Danielle Deadwyler, who plays an officer investigating what’s happening at the airport, and Logan Marshall-Green in a particularly standout car action sequence.
“It’s the heart of why I wanted to do the film,” Deadwyler said. “You want to do an action movie because you want to do something that’s super physical, super energetic.”
“It was two to three months of preparation for this one little romp. We worked with the stunt coordinator. It’s about repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. It’s very much a dance of all of these departments coming together.”
‘She could save herself’
Something that was particularly important to both Egerton and the film’s director, Jaume Collet-Serra, was that Ethan isn’t someone who has particularly exceptional abilities.
“The story is quite larger than life, there’s a sense of it being heightened, it would be a truly extraordinary set of circumstances if everything in this movie happened in real life, … so I think we all felt, as people making the movie, that the best way to try and make it feel grounded and believable is if he is kind of as unremarkable as possible,” Egerton said. “It would be far less interesting if he was already the … Superman-type guy who’s able to handle every challenge that comes his way effectively and efficiently.”
“The joy of the movie is, in some ways, seeing this guy be stressed to death for one hour, 59 minutes.”
That also allowed Nora to be the person in the relationship making strides in her personal and professional life, and pushing Ethan to work for a more fulfilling job. Carson highlighted that it was important to her that Nora wasn’t just another “damsel in distress” in an action film.
“It was so critical to me that she was never portrayed as a damsel in distress, because … in most action films that’s unfortunately been the case,” Carson said. “And it’s exciting to be able to see women in action films that, even if their lives are in jeopardy, they have the capability to save themselves.”
“In a lot of different ways Nora is a hero as well in the film, and that was so crucial to me. I remember reading the script, her original action sequence had Ethan coming in to save her, and it was so important that in her action sequence … she could save herself and get herself out of that. And I was able to work with … our stunt coordinator, and Jaume, our director, to bring that to life.”