The highly anticipated action thriller film Carry-On has just landed on Netflix, bringing with it a gripping storyline set at a bustling airport over the festive period. The movie follows the intense cat-and-mouse game between TSA agent Ethan, played by Taron Egerton, and a mysterious traveller, portrayed by Jason Bateman, who blackmails Ethan into allowing a dangerous package onto a Christmas Day flight.
With Ethan’s pregnant girlfriend, played by Sofia Carson, held hostage, the stakes are high, and the tension is palpable. Director Jaume Collet-Serra aimed to create a realistic scenario, drawing inspiration from real-life airport situations.
He shared with Tudum: “We all wanted this to feel incredibly realistic, like the events of this movie could happen to any of us on any given day at any airport, and Jason and Taron delivered brilliant performances that helped ground our movie and make it feel real. I think they also very much enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game between their two characters and really had a great time making a meal out of those moments.”
To ensure the film’s setting was as authentic as possible, the cast received guidance from two LAX TSA advisors, who put the actors through proper TSA training before filming and were on hand to advise during production. The director noted: “They put our actors through proper TSA training before we shot the movie, and they were on set to advise us if anything didn’t look realistic.”
Some of the film’s most peculiar scenes were verified by an expert, as director Collet-Serra revealed: “In our movie, we have a very funny ‘contraband bingo’ game where all the TSA agents compete to find certain objects in bags throughout the day. Our TSA advisers confirmed they had seen all of these items in bags before.”
Dr Erroll G. Southers, a counterterrorism specialist and former chief of Homeland Security and Intelligence for the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department, was one of the advisers on the film.
For Carry-On, Southers provided guidance on TSA terminology, the areas within an airport where an agent like Ethan would be permitted to go, and the overlap between different police departments.
Southers clarified: “I was a technical adviser that was brought on for situational accuracy as it related to the agencies that are at an airport, so that when [the actors] were saying things, they were realistic and authentic.”
Welsh actor Taron Egerton expressed his attraction to the “wildly entertaining, engaging script”, in an interview with the BBC.
He concurred that the film has a touch of reality, adding: “Here’s an everyday guy who becomes extraordinary through necessity over the course of a single day. That premise felt almost like a slice of life itself.”
He confessed he wasn’t interested in portraying an “archetypal action hero” and wanted Ethan to feel “as relatable and as normal as possible”.
Collet-Serra revealed that the ’80s action hit Die Hard influenced the film, remarking: “When I read the script for Carry-On, I felt like I had found a more grounded version of Die Hard – which was our North Star for the entire process – for a new generation.”
Carry-On is now streaming on Netflix.