7500 has the singular location aesthetic of Locke. It has the airplane backdrop of Non-Stop. And it has all the tedium of waiting for your delayed flight to board. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Patrick Vollrath's first foray into the world of feature-length movies leaves quite a bit to be desired, particularly in generating actually suspenseful sequences. Too much of 7500 is derivative rather than unpredictable. These uninspired tendencies are seen from the start with our villains. A group of generic Middle-Eastern terrorists seemingly cribbed from any random episode of 24. Their behavior & personalities are incredibly familiar, the kiss of death for any movie like 7500 jonesing to get audiences to the edge of their seat.
The lethargic writing extends to protagonist Tobias Ellis as well. Simply put, Ellis just isn't an interesting enough person to spend 85 minutes with in one location. Before the hijackers make their presence known, we don't get to know much about Ellis. He's American, one of the flight attendants is his girlfriend and he's got a son, that's about it. Not the most compelling set-up for a character 7500 plans to exclusively focus on. Meanwhile, the character of Ellis feels so detached from every part of the actual hijacking. There's nothing in his personality that gets tested or reinforced by the ensuing in-flight mayhem. He's just a vaguely-defined figure who alternate between evoking Captain Phillips and evoking John McClane.
It's utterly baffling why this particular role is the one that lured Joseph Gordon-Levitt into his first feature film appearance in four years. Nevertheless, here Gordon-Levitt is delivering one of his weaker performances. A restrained role offering few props or other characters to bounce off of doesn't bring out much in the way of creative acting from Gordon-Levitt. Partially, this can be attributed to Vollrath's directing. Yet, that doesn't entirely explain Gordon-Levitt's disappointing lack of engaging intensity in this performance. His attempts to appear terrified or intense just aren't all that authentic and it further undercuts the already hindered intensity of 7500.
Like Gordon-Levitt's lead performance, Vollrath's direction doesn't end up flourishing under the stripped-down nature of 7500. Instead, he primarily leans on forgettable camerawork, particularly when it comes to the rote execution of a handful of hand-to-hand scuffles. Credit where credit is due, though, Vollrath's screenwriting at least commits fully to its central conceit of taking place entirely in the cockpit of a kidnapped airplane. No dumb shortcuts are implemented here to justify cutting to a new location. Vollrath has set forth on this path and he walks down it. The execution of that concept leaves something to be desired but points for trying something unique and following through on it.
Meanwhile, in terms of other positive elements, Omid Memar does deliver the best acting in the film in his role as terrorist Vedat. There's a welcome level of realism in Memar's depiction of Vedat going through so many different emotions and headspaces during the course of this story The Vedat character, as written, ends up going into familiar territory but at least Memar elevates the part somewhat. Unfortunately, there's little else in 7500 to help get this thriller off the ground. The innovation on this one began and end with the decision to place the entire story in the cockpit of an airplane. Otherwise, 7500 commits fully to being a totally forgettable thriller.
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