Hijack 1971

A good 2024 action, thriller, and drama film based on a real plane hijacking incident that took place in 1971.

Based on a true event, the film depicts an attempted hijacking of a Korean Air Lines passenger plane flying from Sokcho to Gimpo, intended to be diverted to North Korea. The film portrays what the passengers, crew, and especially the pilots (starring Ha Jung-woo) experienced during these dangerous and tense moments, and their efforts to regain control of the situation.

Carrying the weight of being based on a true story, the film offers a high-paced and tension-filled atmosphere. Although some visual aspects and partial fictional storylines might be noticeable, the desperation, fear, and struggle for survival experienced within the confined space of the aircraft are successfully portrayed.

Ha Jung-woo's performance as the cool-headed pilot and Yeo Jin-goo's performance as the young hijacker are quite successful. The tension between the two forms one of the film's key dynamics and serves as a reminder that "there are two sides to every story." The other actors also effectively conveyed the emotional intensity of their characters.

The real footage shown at the end is impactful. After watching many cliché productions on this subject, they have produced a fine film that doesn't leave the viewer disappointed.

Excellent hijack movie, very well made and well scripted. The plot was based on actual events, though the beginning was a little slow but it ended up with great thrill and intensity. Honestly this is one of the best Korean movies that one wouldn't regret seeing at the cinema, what I like about the movie is its tightly packed without much long drag and unrelated sidelines, unlike a lot of overrated boring flicks flooded with fake reviews and ratings. The actors' were all well acted and the setups were decent. The only issue is the CGI of the planes isn't at the highest quality that looked kind of fake which can be a bit more realistic, and some of the CG shots were a little too fast, but those were only minor flaws that didn't affect the overall integrity.

Who knew? Before Captain "Sully" made his miracle emergency landing on the Hudson Bay, in New York in 2009, a Korean pilot accomplished an equally harrowing feat on the other side of the globe decades earlier. I caught this movie by accident and didn't know what to expect. Was very pleasantly surprised. The all-Korean cast did a great job of conveying the true story of a hijacked plane that was ordered to fly to communist North Korea, re-routing the frightened passengers off their scheduled flight to Seoul. The story begins with a rookie, first officer who has been outcast among his fellow pilots for refuting to follow orders earlier when a plane had been hijacked to North Korea, and he was ordered to shoot one of the plane's engines to disable the plane and stop it from reaching the communist border. Those passengers were hijacked to North Korea in 1969, detained for months and released to South Korea where they were ostracized and treated as spies in their own communities. The pilots, and crew of that plane were never returned to South Korea because they had special skills and training. Although the rookie first officer has completed his training, he has never been allowed to do a solo landing due to the other pilots' dislike and mistrust of him. On this day in January 1971, the captain tells him he wants him to do the landing and he is very pleased that he will finally get an opportunity. However, he does not know that this will be a very memorable day for a number of reasons. A bitter young man has made his way on the plane with several bombs that he uses to blow a hole in the plane and threaten the frightened passengers. The hijacker demands that the pilot and first officer take him to North Korea. Over the course of the movie, we see some amazing flying stunts as the rookie officer tries to outmaneuver the vicious hijacker who unleashes his violence on both the passengers, crew and first officer and captain. At the same time, the Air Force has launched two fighter planes and ordered them to shoot the planes engines to disable it from crossing the border. North Korea has also launched its fighter jets. This movie pulls all of the right strings. It is action packed, and I certainly shed a tear or two when I realized it was a true story. Definitely stay for the closing shots and credits. Very moving.

This movie made me write my first IMDb review, it's THAT GOOD yall.

I really didn't expect anything coming to see it at the cinema. It's honestly one of the best Korean movies I've seen in my entire life. The acting is out of this world, the movie is very immersive & thrilling, beside the main character's', I got to see the side characters's emotions as well which is very rare. It's so well executed and the fact that it's based on a true story blew my mind. I don't know what else to say, just go see it. Best plane hijacking movie ever. Also it's emotional, and it hits deep, prepare to feel the characters' pains as well.

What to say other than this is a solid movie with a solid plot and solid CGI and solid acting. However, for a Korean film, I thought it fell short in comparison to some of the greats. I mean, not every movie would be great, but Koreans are exceptional with the balance of comedy and tragedy. Many Korean movies really move the emotions, having you laugh in tears in the beginning and sobbing uncontrollably in the end.

The reason a lot of Korean films are losing their strength is because they're trying too hard to copy Hollywood. This film would be one of those and so the story seems generic and the dialogues just move the story along without making any real impact. As such the movie doesn't leave much of an impression.

I think a better writer could've made this movie great by going back to what they do best, comedy and tragedy.

6/10.