“Fight or Flight” is one of those goofy action thriller films which do not take themselves seriously while having some outrageous fun with their utterly silly story premise. Although it is rather deficient in terms of story and character, the movie is willing to go for a lot of absurdity and violence just for laugh and amusement at least, and it is also held together fairly well by the engaging efforts from its lead actor.

Josh Hartnett, who has recharged his acting career as recently appearing in a series of notable films ranging from Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” (2023) to M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap” (2024), plays Lucas Reyes, a broken man who finds himself called back to action just because of his particular set of skills. As explained later in the story, Reyes was once a top-notch government agent, but he has been hiding away from the world since one particularly unpleasant incident, and we see him waking up somewhere in Bangkok, Thailand after another drinking night.

When he is approached by his ex-girlfriend who is incidentally now the head of some secret agency, Reyes is not so amused to say the least, but he cannot possibly refuse an offer from her, so he reluctantly agrees to do one dirty job for her and her agency right now. All he has to do is getting on an airplane going to San Francisco, and then he must find and then escort a certain mysterious figure who has been targeted by many organizations and agencies around the world for good reasons.

Needless to say, the first act of the film revolves around the mystery of that hidden figure on the airplane, but I must tell you that the movie gives out the answer a bit too easily. Folks, if you are familiar with the law of the economy of characters, you will instantly have a pretty good idea on the identity of this hidden figure within the first 30 minutes of the film, and it is likely that you will not be surprised that much when the movie eventually reveals this hidden figure around the beginning of its middle act.

Meanwhile, the real twist in the story is that Reyes belatedly comes to learn that there are a lot more things to handle besides his target. The information about his target happened to be leaked all around the world shortly before he and his target got on the airplane, and, as already shown to us during the opening scene of the film, many of the passengers are actually assassins hired to eliminate Reyes’ target.

In short, this is sort of a cross between “Bullet Train” (2022) and those John Wick movies on airplane, and director James Madigan, who has been mainly known for his special effects technician career before making a feature film debut here (He won an Emmy for HBO TV series “Rome”, by the way), adds some absurd touches to this preposterous circumstance along the story. For example, there is a humorous moment involved with someone who happens to be sitting right next to Reyes, and we get extra laugh from how this moment leads to another twist in the story.

The plot thickens a bit as Reyes’s ex-girlfriend calmly and coldly handles the increasingly tricky situation for her and her agency, but the movie thankfully keeps focusing on Reyes’ ongoing plight. While he is cornered by his numerous opponents in one way or another, he also manages to have a few people willing to help him, and there is a very outrageous moment when he encounters a trio of unexpected allies coming to help him later in the story.

Anyway, the movie surely unleashes a lot of violence and mayhem as expected during its last act, and you will probably be tickled by when it suddenly throws extra goofiness into this violent mix of comedy and action. You may wince more than once, but it may be difficult for you not to chuckle as observing how willing the movie is to try anything just for fun and thrill.

Everything in the film certainly depends a lot on Hartnett’s solid lead performance, which did a good job of balancing itself between humor and action. Never trying too hard for laughs, Hartnett simply plays his character as straight as possible, and this effectively accentuates the absurd circumstance surrounding his archetype character. In addition, he ably fills his role with enough life and personality, and we somehow come to root for his character even though he kills or maims a lot of people along the story.

In contrast, the supporting performers surrounding Hartnett are simply required to fill their respective spots. Considering that the movie is also basically another variation of those Airport flicks, I was a little disappointed that it merely fills its main background with all those assassins ready to go for Reyes and his target, though I was a bit amused when the pilots of the airplane jokingly mention “Sully” (2016) at one point in the middle of the story.

Overall, “Fight or Flight” is not exactly satisfying enough for recommendation, but I appreciate more of Hartnett’s matured presence and talent. Yes, there was a time when he just seemed to be another handsome young actor to be forgotten sooner or later, but he has risen again during last few years as becoming more interesting than before, and I am sure that we will see him moving onto better things to come.