Passenger (film)

Michael McCauley, a former cop, has a loving wife and son. Every day, he travels to work in New York on the same train for the Hudson Line transit line from his native Tarritown to Central Station until he gets fired after ten years of working as an insurance agent. Michael does not know how to tell his family about this, especially his son, whose college fees must be paid. Having met in a bar with former partner Alex Murphy, he receives an offer of help, but refuses. Michael's former boss, David Hawthorne, promoted to police captain, also appears in the bar.

When boarding the evening train at 18:25, Michael meets the regular passengers he knows, one of which draws his attention to the mysterious woman who is watching Michael, but McCauley does not notice anyone. Later, finding a free place, he finally sees a woman who introduces herself to Joanna. Joanna offers Michael a hypothetical task: to provide a small service. This service may have consequences for one of the passengers, but Michael will not know about them. As a reward, he will receive one hundred thousand dollars, twenty-five of which, as an advance payment, are in the toilet of the second car. Joanna wants Michael to find a passenger with a bag in which he stole. The passenger introduces himself under the false name Prien and drives to Cold Spring Station. Joanna offers Michael to make a choice to the next station and gets off the train. Finding a bag of money in the ventilation of the toilet, Michael realizes that the situation is real.

He tries to get off at the next station, but at the exit he is intercepted by a boy and, having heard the refusal to fulfill the order, gives him a small packet, and also says that they are watching Michael. Opening the bag, he, to his horror, finds his wife's engagement ring. Michael is borrowing a telephone from an acquaintance named Tony, who is traveling with him on the same train, and is trying to reach his wife, but she does not answer. Then McCauley leaves a voice message to Alex Murphy. Michael is trying to write a warning on the newspaper of a passenger he knows, but later he watches from the car as he is pushed onto the road in front of a riding bus. Yielding to Joanna’s threats on the phone, Michael has to start the search. He is instructed to attach a GPS tracker to his bag in his jacket pocket.

From the stubs of the tickets secured in the backs of the seats, Michael manages to figure out five unfamiliar passengers traveling to Cold Spring: a bearded man in a plaid shirt, a girl in a nurse's t-shirt, a black guy in a cap with a guitar case, a tattooed girl with blond hair and an arrogant broker in expensive suit. Another seat with a ticket to Cold Spring is empty. Michael takes the passengers in turn to talk, and when he receives a jet from a pepper spray from a tattooed girl, he discovers that her bag contains fake driver's licenses. The girl assures him that they belong to her boyfriend, and Michael promises not to say anything.

A poster urging to report suspicious individuals suggests him. Michael informs the conductor Sam about the suspicious actions of a nurse, a guy with a guitar and a bearded man and asks to check their bags. Already sitting on a consolidated seat, he notices a guy with a large bag sitting down on that same empty spot. Hearing the conflict between the conductor and the nurse, he gets out of the car, and Michael follows him. In the vestibule, a guy in an aggressive form is trying to scare Michael. A scuffle ensues, as a result of which both fly into the carriage. Letting go of Michael, the guy advises him to take care and leaves, and the black man with the guitar helps to get up.

Exhausted Michael returns to his seat and finally receives a response from Alex. After retelling all past events, he reports that two days ago a certain Enrique Mendez from the Department of Urban Planning committed suicide by jumping from the 35th floor, but there is a witness passing under the name “Prien” who claims that Enrique was killed.

Michael is trying to find a guy to warn, but finds only his bag, and in the empty neighboring carriage and its owner, already dead. In addition, during a body search, Michael finds an FBI agent ID and the phone number Joanna calls. She says that Michael pointed to the wrong person and he is to blame for his death. Joanna offers Michael to continue the search, but he rests, demanding evidence that his wife and son are all right, and he hears a record of their conversation. Michael says that Tarritown’s police will be at their place soon, but Joanna reports that the police are interested in Michael himself, who attracted their attention with his actions. At the entrance to Tarritown Station, McCauley really sees the police searching the train. Michael manages to remain inconspicuous, hiding under the carriage, along with the corpse, but when he tries to climb back he loses a bag of money, in his hands are only a hundred dollars.

To simplify the search, Michael disables the air conditioning in all cars, except the last, and all the remaining passengers go there. To question the bearded man, he joins the party in poker with Tony, putting the remaining hundred, and then retells Joanna’s task out loud, knowing that the others hear him. Asked by Tony if he would have taken the money, Michael, smiling, says that he has already done it. He reveals the cards, listing five passengers unknown to him to Cold Spring to a bearded man, to which he calls his name - Jackson and, to make a bet, takes out a wad of money in which Michael notices a monthly pass. He understands that Jackson is also a regular passenger.

Michael gets out of the car following the black guy with the case. The guy tells Michael that he may be the person in question. Michael offers his help and asks to open the case in which the guitar really lies. Michael offers to barricade himself in the first car, and then removes a small fire hatchet from a box near the door. The guy takes a pistol from his belt and says that he is not Prien at all, but Michael understands this before, because the guitar is for the left-hander, and he holds the pistol in his right hand. In the ensuing fight, Michael manages to first beat the killer with a guitar, and then throw him out of the carriage. The caller Joanna orders Michael to kill the witness himself, otherwise his family will be killed.

Michael returns to the last carriage. At the Harrison station with a few passengers, a broker leaves, there remains only a nurse, and, as McCauley thinks, she is Prien. He picks up her phone, which someone constantly called, but finds there only messages from her boyfriend, with whom, according to the nurse, they had a big fight today. Michael is at a loss, six unknown passengers: two are dead, three more are not witnesses and one left at Harrison. Only now he realizes that the broker was sitting next to the girl in the headphones, and moved to her place when she left. Therefore, her ticket stuck out of the back of his seat and Michael decided that he was going to Cold Spring.

At the door of the car, Michael finds a girl in headphones reading the Scarlet Letter novel, whose main character is Esther Prien. Joanna calls and orders Michael to kill Prien, but he refuses again. Furious, Joanna says her bosses can kill anyone and they really need a witness to die. When Michael tries to find out who her bosses are, she hangs up, telling Mike that he made his choice and now everyone will die.

Michael, threatening with a pistol, orders the conductor to pull the stop cock, however, as a result, the explosion carries the driver's cab. Brakes do not work, Cold Spring rides the train at full speed, and FBI agents on the platform stare in surprise after him. Conductor Sam says that at the Beacon's bend at that speed, the train will certainly go off the rails. Michael offers to unhook the last car and, together with Sam, he manages to do this, but the chain does not allow the car to unhook completely. Michael and Sam jump back into the train. They break the chain with an ax, when the train enters the turn and goes off the track, Michael is thrown into the last carriage, Jackson keeps him from falling in the way. The last car goes off the rail, but successfully stops.

In a panic, people are trying to get out of the carriage; Michael holds them back, shooting several times in the air. He says nothing is over yet, and perhaps the killers might be there. People seal the windows of the carriage with wet newspapers, and Michael himself asks witness Sofia, why does someone need her death. The girl says that she saw two policemen killed Enrique, and even retells the words of one of them, that “there is no nobility”. Therefore, she turned to the FBI, not the police. Enrique's hard drive is in the bag.

Beacon’s police and the sheriff’s office are gathering at the crash site. Captain David Hawthorne arrives by helicopter and declares himself the main. Police believe the passengers - hostages of McCauley - gave this information to Sam before the explosion occurred. Michael reassures passengers as much as possible when an unarmed Alex approaches the car door. Going inside, he tries to find out where the witness is, but Michael does not want to talk until his family is safe. Alex reproaches McCauley, saying that he wants to do nobly, but there is no nobility. Michael exchanges shocked glances with Sophia. He accuses Alex of betrayal and threatens to kill him, and in return he admits that he himself advised to put a witness on this train, because Michael needs money. McCauley has to give the gun to Alex, otherwise his family will be killed.

Murphy begins to search for Prien, threatening the passengers with weapons, and the frightened Sophia rises. But after her Jackson rises and says that he is Prien. The rest of the passengers also rise, including Tony and the nurse. Each of them says that he is Prien. Alex shoots at Jackson. Michael knocks out a gun from his partner’s hands, a fight begins. Other passengers rush at Alex, but he defeats everyone. Snipers see a policeman from the outside thanks to the Svoi-Alien system; special forces are ready for the assault. Michael tries to take away the gun from Alex, but he shoots him in the leg and throws him aside. Michael falls into the seat, in his hands a sensor of "Alien." Murphy points his gun at Sofia, ready to kill her, but snipers shoot him several times and he falls.

The special forces begins the assault, agent Garcia also enters the car, who informs Michael that his family is safe. From the outside, McCauley is watching. In front of his eyes, Sophia testifies about the murder of Enrique, the wounded Jackson says that next time he will go by bus, the tattooed girl dumps fake certificates into the trash can, the young conductor gets acquainted with the nurse, and Tony directly calls him a hero. Captain Hawthorne said that an internal investigation was underway against Murphy, that they would find the mysterious woman, and that the police lacked the right people like Michael. When he leaves, Michael pulls Enrique’s hard drive out of his jacket pocket. The ongoing investigation is widely covered by the media, some doubt the existence of a woman who derailed an entire train.

In the evening train from Chicago, Michael finds Joanna reading the “ Count of Monte Cristo, ” but she pretends that they are not familiar. Michael sits opposite and says that Joanna will somehow remain in the black, no matter what happened then on the train. She did not care whom to set up, and now Alex Murphy is a scapegoat. When Joanna leans forward and asks what, in Michael’s opinion, will happen, he says “One little thing” and shows her a New York police detective badge. Joanna leans back again, and Michael smiles at her, implying that she is being arrested.

• Liam Neeson - Michael McCauley
• Vera Farmiga ^[2] - Joanna
• Patrick Wilson ^[3] - Detective Lieutenant Alex Murphy
• Jonathan Banks ^[4] - Walt
• Elizabeth McGovern ^[4] - Karen McCauley
• Florence Pugh - Gwen ^[1]
• Edward Blumel - boyfriend Gwen
• Dean Charles Chapman - Danny McCauley
• Clara Lago - Eve
• Chazad Latif - Vince
• Ella Ray Smith - Sofia
• Neela Aaliya - Sherry
• Colin McFarlane - conductor Sam
• Adam Nagaitis - conductor Jimmy
• Sam Nill ^[4] - Captain David Hawthorne
• Kingsley Ben-Adir - agent Garcia
• Killian Scott - FBI Agent Dylan
• Andy Nyman - Tony
• Letisha Wright - Jules
• Damson Idris - agent denise
• Ben Keplen - Frank
• Cobna Holdbrook Smith - Oliver
• Roland Muller - Jackson
• Pat Kirnan - cameo

Development

In January 2010, Olatund Osunsanmi, known at that time in the thriller “The Fourth Look ” with Mila Jovovich in the title role, was invited to make a film ^[5] . More than a year later, in August 2011, there are reports that the director's chair will be occupied by Julian Jarrold, known for the film " Jane Austen " and numerous works with detective series ^[6] . In January 2016, an agreement was signed that the film will be directed by Jaume Colet-Serra , who has already shot a number of box-office thrillers with Liam Neeson in the title role ^[7] .

Casting

In September 2015, it was announced that Liam Neeson would take part in an action-thriller produced by StudioCanal and The Picture Company ^[8] . In June 2016, Vera Farmiga joined the project in the role of “a mysterious woman who takes a commuter train and offers the character Neeson a seductive deal, which, if agreed, can lead to very dangerous consequences” ^[9] .

July 13, Sam Nill , Elizabeth McGovern and Jonathan Banks were included in the main composition ^[10] . In August 2016, Cobna Holdbrook Smith ^[11] and Patrick Wilson joined the cast as a trusted friend of Neeson's character ^[12] .

Passenger was the fourth collaboration between director Jaume Colet-Serre and actor Liam Neeson after the films Unknown (2011), Air Marshal (2014) and Night Runaway (2015), and the second collaboration with actress Vera Farmiga after psychological thriller “ Child of Darkness ” (2009) ^[13] .

Filming

The main filming began July 25, 2016 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire , England , and then moved to New York ^{[4] [14] [15]} . On September 18, 2016, Neeson and McGovern were spotted on a film set at the Warplasdon Railway Station in Surrey ^[16] .

In November 2015, Lionsgate acquired the internal rights to distribute the film in a deal with StudioCanal ^[17] . Initially, it was assumed that the tape will be released in the United States on October 13, 2017 ^[18] , but the release was postponed until January 12, 2018. In the UK, the release was scheduled for October 20, 2017, but was postponed to January 19, 2018 due to a change in the rental date in the United States ^[19] .

• "Passenger" on the site Film.ru
• "Passenger" on the poster site