Spanish-American filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra returns to his genre roots with “Carry-On” (2024), essentially creating an airport thriller set around Christmas Eve in the vein of “Die Hard 2,” with shades of “Phone Booth” thrown in for good measure. Unlike his usual collaborations with Liam Neeson in these moderately-budgeted action films with Hitchcockian bents, Serra chooses Taron Egerton as the lead here, and in the process re-introduces Egerton to the zeitgeist of the Netflix Original Movies, albeit with better filmmaking prowess.
Carry-On (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis
Who is Ethan Kopek?
Serving as the cold open for the movie, the opening sequence shows a man in shadows, wearing a cap and a black jacket, accepting the delivery of a mysterious package, before killing both the Russian dealer and his nephew for asking double the amount agreed upon. The mysterious introduction of the antagonist counters the much subtle introduction to our protagonist, Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton), who we see waking up beside his pregnant wife while getting ready to begin their respective workdays at LAX—Kopek as a TSA agent and his wife Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson) as the manager of airline relations on behalf of Northwind Airlines.
In a setup very much reminiscent of airport thrillers, all Ethan wants to do is survive Christmas Eve, and in the process grab a promotion from his hard-ass but well-meaning boss Phil Sarkwoski (Dean Norris). After an impassioned plea and silent support from his friend Jason Noble (Sinqua Wallis), Ethan is finally assigned to one of the machines to scan luggage. Unfortunately, his “promotion” comes on the day when a carefully constructed plan of the “Traveller” ensures that Ethan would be unwittingly involved.
What Role Does the Watcher Play in Ethan and the Traveller’s Deadly Game?
Ethan’s plan had also put an apparent wrench in Traveller’s (Jason Bateman) plans, but after being informed by his second-in-command Watcher (Theo Rossi), who is running communications from a system hidden in a cleaning van and also containing a mysterious prisoner tied up, Traveller calls off the kidnapping of Jason and his family. Instead, the Watcher procures information about Ethan and his world, which becomes a profitable proposition for the Watcher.
Thus, when Ethan is given a tray containing a single earphone (by a female passenger with green-streaked hair), he immediately gets a message urging him to put the earphone on. Confused. Ethan agrees, and then he is informed about Traveller’s plan: he is supposed to pass on a suitcase through the scanner so that the Traveller can facilitate the luggage on a plane. It’s a “one bag for one life” because Ethan’s failure would result in the death of Nora.
How Does Ethan Navigate the Traveller’s Psychological and Tactical Manipulations?
The phone call becomes mildly personal, as the Traveller tries to induce small talk and calm Ethan down, as a TSA agent losing his cool would arouse suspicions. However, Ethan’s long-gestating but failed ambition as a police officer, which had been quashed due to his failing the polygraph test, does entail a conscience that wouldn’t allow him just to stand back and do nothing. Thus he would try a multitude of options: calling 911, trying to send a voice-to-text message through his smartwatch. But at all times his plan would be foiled because the terrorist team had been thorough.
He does manage to identify the Traveller, by honing in on the voices around the terrorist’s vicinity. Ethan uses a stain-remover pen to warn law-enforcement officer (LEO) Lionel (Curtiss Cook) about the traveler. But the traveler is ruthless and uses a toxin to scratch Lionel, causing him to die from induced arrhythmia. Lionel’s death shakes Kopek’s boss, who removes him from the post and puts Jason in their place, but Kopek has to be present when the passenger arrives. Thus, he mixes alcohol with coffee and replaces Jason’s cup of coffee while Jason isn’t looking. The traveler, teaming up with him, complains to Sarkowski, which causes Sarkowski to investigate Jason and send him home.
What is the Novichok?
When the passenger, wearing a red cap, and carrying the luggage, finally arrives, Ethan realizes that the luggage essentially contains a weapon, and he is sending almost 250 passengers on the plane to their deaths. He tries to stop the passenger, but ultimately only catches the passenger’s name – Matteo Flores – on the boarding pass. As Ethan pukes in the bathroom, the guilt overpowering him, the Traveler finally reveals himself and also reveals the weapon to be Novichok, a destructive nerve agent that he plans to detonate on a Northwind flight.
Meanwhile, Detective Elena Cole (Danielle Dedwyler) investigates the arson case (the death of the Russian dealers in the cold open). She locates a wiretap and a partial voice recording that might suggest the deployment of Novichok. Upon investigation, she learns of Kopek’s 911 call and realizes there might be an active threat. She is accompanied by a DEA agent named Agent Alcott, who offers to accompany her to the airport much to her chagrin.
Meanwhile, at LAX, Elena’s intervention to launch an investigation requires the TSA agents to select 50 random passengers and investigate them thoroughly. Ethan cleverly intercepts his supervisor’s log-in and includes Matteo Flores’ name into the list, which causes the Traveller to mildly panic and stop Ethan from explaining the situation to Nora. However, as he begins to recount the day’s events, he sees the laser pointer of a sniper rifle aimed at her forehead, and he is forced to back off much to the unaware Nora’s shock, who is in disbelief at his actions to dismiss Jason.
How does the Traveller force Ethan to disarm the Novichok?
As the Traveller confronts Ethan in the bathroom, leading to a tussle, Ethan finally manages to disarm him and aim his gun at him. Unfazed at the process, the sociopathic traveler arms the nerve gas and puts Ethan on the backfoot. He offers to guide him in the disarming process, but Ethan would have to take the hard steps. As Ethan rushes to the interrogation room, he threatens Sarkowski to let Matteo go.
Sarkowski manages to calm Ethan down, but Flores uses a pen and drives it through Sarkowski’s neck, killing him. Ethan tries to kill Mateo only to realize that Mateo too is unwittingly under the Traveller’s blackmailing scheme. Ethan then follows the Traveller’s instructions to successfully disarm the nerve agent, keeping his cool even as the door is threatened to be broken by one of his fellow TSA agents.
As the two of them dispose of Sarkowski’s body in the cargo bay, Matteo is instructed by the Traveller to kill Kopek. The resulting tussle leads to a chase through the cargo bay, ending with the plastic gun on Matteo’s hand finally exploding due to the heat of the bullets being fired, killing him. Ethan takes Matteo’s phone and texts one of his co-workers some pertinent details.
Who kills the Watcher?
Meanwhile, on the way to the airport, Cole learns by talking with her “man on the chair” that the real agent Alcott is actually on the way to their office. Confronting the fake Alcott results in a furious tussle leading to a car crash on the freeway. Post the crash, the fake Alcott tries to strangle her, but Cole pushes him away by shooting him through the chest, killing him.
Ethan meanwhile is chased by the Traveller, and unbeknownst to him, shifts the Novichok into a larger suitcase, and lets go of his earbud. Upon the traveler’s instructions, the Watcher enters the airport to kill Nora. Jessie, who had already informed her about Ethan’s message, tries to stop the Watcher but is stabbed.
A chase through the car park finally ends with Nora and Ethan reuniting, and the Watcher being shot by Jessie using his sniper rifle. Jessie, in abject sorrow upon hearing of the death of his husband Matteo, reveals that the plan had been to send the suitcase to a DC flight, while Cole would be instructed to shut down the wrong terminal. Ethan had come across Cole while trying to rescue Nora and would be partially handcuffed before managing to escape and inform Cole about the Traveller’s physical attributes.
Carry-On (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Who was the Traveller’s actual target?
As they had shifted the Novichok to a larger bag, the Traveller was unable to enter the flight with it as carry-on luggage and instead had to scan it as actual cargo. The scanned data comes across Nora’s computer, where she finally learns of the flight. Ethan deduces that if they try to stall the flight, the Traveller will detonate the nerve agent in the airport itself. The only way to stop him is for Ethan to stealthily get into the cargo hold of the plane and disarm it.
Cole has deduced that the Traveller’s target is Congresswoman Grace Turner, traveling under her maiden name. She had been trying to pass her bill for the “Defence of Threatened Democracies Act”, but failed due to insufficient votes. The bill would enable defense contractors to sell more weapons and firearms to the highest bidder. By blowing up the flight with her in it, using a Russian bioweapon, would produce the narrative of the USA as a threatened democracy, allowing for the bill to be passed almost unanimously.
How Does Ethan Outsmart the Traveller
Ethan meanwhile dashes the terminal, driving a ladder car, and manages to enter the cargo bay of the plane. As the flight takes off, Ethan switches the bomb detonation to manual, forcing the Traveller to come down to the cargo bay and attempt to subdue Ethan. Ethan pretends to be exhausted, due to blood loss.
As the Traveller wears his parachute (that he would procure from the same woman who had initially given the earbud to Ethan), Ethan reveals that he had failed his polygraph test because he had lied to save his father. He reveals his lie now, as the Traveller opens the case to find the nerve agent disconnected from the machine. Ethan pushes the Traveller inside the freezing chamber with the nerve agent released. The Traveller dies from exposure to the Nerve agent inside the freezing chamber.
During the ending of “Carry-On” (2024), as the flight returns, due to unauthorized activity detected in the cargo hold, Ethan is arrested, but let go due to Cole’s command, with Cole also informing Ethan to call him after the day’s over. A year later, we see Ethan, with Nora and his newborn child going on a vacation to Tahiti, accompanied by Jason and his family. Ethan puts his LAPD badge on the tray, revealing his new profession.
