Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hijack’ On Apple TV+, Where Idris Elba Tries To Save A Plane Full Of Passengers After It Gets Hijacked

Thrillers, especially ones that involve major events like a hijacking or terrorist attack, tend to take some big logical leaps in order to amp up the tension. We actually like it better when the plotting is as tight as a drum, so we can stay involved in the action instead of being distracted by plot holes. A new thriller on Apple TV+ does just that.

HIJACK: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Out of a flash of window glare at Dubai’s airport, a forlorn Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) comes into focus.

The Gist: The only thing that Sam is carrying on this flight from Dubai to London is a gift bag with a piece of jewelry for his wife, Marsha Nelson-Smith (Christine Adams). We see other passengers boarding the flight, including what looks like a businessman running through the terminal carrying a small bag. We also see a frazzled mom of two getting into a disagreement with a woman about overhead storage space, for teen girls befriending a silver-haired guy who calls himself “old-fashioned,” and others.

Sam takes his seat in first class, and sees the texts from Marsha on his phone, telling him that their marriage is over and to not get on the plane. He texts back “too late.” Back in London, Marsha wakes up next to Daniel O’Farrell (Max Beesley), who works as a police detective. Their relationship is so advanced that he stays over even when Marsha and Sam’s son Kai (Jude Cudjoe) is around, and Kai is not happy about it.

As the flight takes off, one of the teen girls finds a bullet in the lavatory. She tells the silver-haired man she befriended, who takes the bullet and goes to first class to talk to a man named Stuart (Neil Maskell). Sam can tell that something is up, and as he walks through the cabin, he can see people with sleep bags, which he finds out from a flight attendant only gets handed out on overnight flights.

The bullet has moved up the plans of the group that Stuart leads, as various passengers pull guns out of those bags and declare that they’re taking over the plane. As they ask for people’s devices, declaring that the WiFi has been turned off, Sam keeps his phone and manages to text a message to Marsha that the flight is in trouble. He also warns a group of men that are looking to overtake the hijackers to not get unnecessarily aggressive until they have an idea of what these people want.

How will Stuart and his team of terrorists get into the locked cockpit, though? Stuart has some knowledge that he knows will get him inside, involving Collette (Kate Phillips), the chief flight attendant, and Captain Robin Allen (Ben Miles). With that knowledge, he threatens her life, and Captain Allen literally bashes his first officer, Anna Kovacs (Kaisa Hammarlund), who is blocking him from flipping the switch to unlock the door.

Also on the ground in Dubai, an airport security screener named Leesha (Antonia Salib) gets an urgent call from home to leave work and pretend to be sick. When she gets to her house, no one in her family can be found.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The real-time aspect of the series, which takes place over the 7-hour flight from Dubai to London, is reminiscent of 24.

Our Take: Created by Jim Field Smith and George Kay (Criminal: UK), Hijack is a tense, fast-moving thriller that somehow manages to be detail-oriented enough to keep viewers engaged in the hijacking instead of trying to point out plot hiccups or logic questions.

By the end of the first episode, we don’t know a ton about anyone on that plane, especially the team of hijackers, but what we do know is more than enough to draw us in. Sam’s marriage, for instance, is more than just on the rocks; it seems to be over, despite his desperation to have Marsha come back to him. He also works as a corporate negotiator, who comes during the final stages of big mergers to make sure all the details are worked out.

Because of this, we know that he’s going to try to ingratiate himself to Stuart and his hijacking team, but it also seems that Sam has other training, perhaps in law enforcement, that made him hip to what was going on before it happened. He also knew that trying to overtake the hijackers was a mistake that could cause unnecessary fatalities. It’ll be interesting to see more of Sam’s history revealed as he tries to get himself and the rest of the plane home to London with minimal casualties.

It goes without saying that Elba’s presence is strong, mainly because Elba’s presence is pretty strong in every show he does. He’s projecting intelligence and strength, but also the vulnerability of a guy who just wants to repair his broken marriage, and will do just about anything to get himself back to London to do it. The rest of the characters are a bit on the one-dimensional side for now, but at the very least we’re grateful that the team of hijackers are not the usual group of Muslim extremists that it seems that writers have lazily leaned on since at least 9/11.

What does the story of Leesa, the airport security scanner, have to do with the hijacking? That will be an interesting thing to find out; we just hope that the connection is as strong as the tense action we’re seeing on the plane.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Sam, saying he just wants to get home, offers Stuart a deal. “I’ll help you.”

Sleeper Star: Archie Panjabi doesn’t appear in the first episode, but we’re looking forward to seeing the Emmy winner playing Zahra Gahfoor.

Most Pilot-y Line: This is how Sam stops the chatty passenger next to him: “Enjoy the movie. Or whatever it is you’re going to do that doesn’t involve speaking to me.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Hijack makes sure the tension stays high while not taking leaps in logic. Combine the tight writing with the compelling lead performance from Idris Elba and you have a show that gets us leaning forward in our chairs, and that says a lot.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.