Gerard Butler loves being the hero, and who can blame him, frankly? He’s so good at it. Butler is at his best when he’s surviving against all odds, roughed up but never willing to give up. He’s one of the definitive action movie stars of 21st-century cinema, and each new story sees him up his game. And Plane, his latest thriller, is no different.
Plane, streaming now on Prime Video, sees Butler play pilot Brodie Torrance, who has left the Air Force for the humble world of commercial aviation. However, when disaster strikes, Torrance is forced to try and save his plane full of passengers after making an emergency landing in, let’s say, unfriendly territory. The only person who is able to help? A man is being extradited to Canada on charges of homicide. Good. Delightful. Very comforting.
It’s an inherently stressful situation that only Butler could pull himself out of, but how does the trauma, action, and badassery of Plane compare to some of his recent adventures? We’re here to break it down before you strap yourself in for Plane on Prime Video.
Saving A Plane Full of Strangers vs. Saving Your Wife
While Plane sees Butler try and save a bunch of strangers, Last Seen Alive is all about saving the love of his life. Will Spann (Butler) devotes his life to saving his wife Lisa after she’s abducted from a gas station. The movie is 100% led by Butler as we follow him on his search, using some, shall we say, questionable methods of getting his answers. But when the cops go snooping, he’s forced to flee, simultaneously evading the law while taking it into his own hands.
Last Seen Alive is intense, for sure, and you can find out the nitty-gritty details yourself now on Prime Video. But while Last Seen Alive delves more into crime thriller territory, Plane is about survival or death. The former doesn’t skimp on the action — special shoutout to a scene where Butler pulls a guy out of his car window via his gun — but Plane’s tension, and stakes, are unmatched. Being the guy that flies the plane, it’s Butler’s duty to save these people he’s never met, purely because he could be the one blamed by the public once this news hits. Butler’s decisions in Last Seen Alive are out of passion, while Butler’s decisions in Plane might’ve led to the disaster in the first place, and now needs to take him and everyone else out of it.
The villains in Plane are reckless, ready to fire a gun at literally any moment. Just the wrong word can leave behind a trail of blood and make international headlines. Having that weight on your shoulders is a special kind of trauma, and then you have all the fighting Butler has to do on top of that. This is an action story with truly global implications and consequences, completely driven by the choices made by one, extremely unlucky pilot.
Surviving Hostile Captors vs. Surviving the End of the World
While being held captive by violent abductors in the remote jungle of a foreign country might feel like the end of the world, Butler’s 2020 flick Greenland is actually about the end of the world. Unlike both Plane and Last Seen Alive, Butler’s character, engineer John Garrity, is with his family trying to survive the same trauma — the literal apocalypse.
Long story short, Garrity, his wife and his diabetic son (important) are selected by the government to take part in the shelter program as a comet hurts toward the Earth, and will destroy civilization on impact. The movie is a true cross-country journey as the Garritys rush toward safety in the titular nation of Greenland. But, with looting, rioting and attacks from those who weren’t selected for safety, Butler still has his fair share of action to endure (grand theft auto doesn’t count if the world is ending!)
Greenland, an Amazon Original, poses some existential questions, but (for the most part) Butler asks himself these with his family by his side. The survival of the Garritys in Greenland largely relies on luck and time, but the survival of Torrance in Plane rests solely on his choices. There’s no one to blame if a comet goes rogue and hurls towards Earth, but there might be someone to blame if a pilot’s shortcut leads them to make an emergency landing in an aggressive community.
Butler also has to fight away militant leaders in Plane — and boy, does he? — who are after a ransom. In Greenland, he’s fighting off a doomsday clock as well as plenty of distraught civilians who have nothing left to lose. If you’re after specific, top-tier-level ass-kicking that only Butler can provide, Plane’s your best bet. In fact, Plane sports an entire fight scene that lasts for two minutes that is done in entirely one take. It really helps build on just how isolated the flight survivors are, as opposed to the global scale of Greenland.
Kicking Ass to Clear Your Name vs.Kicking Ass in the Name of Survival
Now, if you’re even the slightest bit of a Gerard Butler fan, you know about the Has Fallen trilogy. But the final instalment, Angel Has Fallen, might have the highest stakes of all for US Secret Service agent Mike Banning — he’s being framed for a drone attack on the president. That is about 50 different crimes in one go.
If nothing else, Angel Has Fallen feels tailor-made for the specific purpose of watching Gerard Butler kick ass. Early on, Banning is arrested for the attack based on falsified evidence and, from the second the vehicle taking him to detention is ambushed, the action starts and doesn’t really stop. Banning slowly realises he’s been betrayed by people from his past, and must try and survive the manhunt on him while also trying to prove himself innocent. And you thought your job was tough?
Neither Plane nor Angel Has Fallen slacks on the fighting. The latter has an extended shootout scene that reaches an explosive climax atop a roof of a hospital (we hope you don’t have any helicopter trips planned in the immediate future). But Mike Banning is a Secret Service agent — kicking ass is in the job description, and we know what he’s capable of. Brodie Torrance, however, knows how to fly a plane — he’s not really a prized fighter. That being said, he’s fighting on behalf of not only his survival but several others and he fights hard. Beyond the aforementioned two-minute, one-take fight scene, the scale of the action in Plane feels like something only the Has Fallen trilogy could accommodate. In fact, Butler himself had the idea for one of Plane’s most memorable scenes — and it’s a cheer-worthy action moment that feels original and epic all at once.
A Gerard Butler movie is more than likely going to be full of action, explosions and higher-than-high stakes. Plane delivers on all three and then some, giving Butler a story that’s both new for him and plays on his legendary strengths.
Plane is now streaming on Prime Video. Start your 30-day free trial now.