The Message Of Apple TV’s ‘Hijack’: Don’t Be A Hero, Just Let Criminals Be CriminalsIdris Elba’s ‘vulnerable’ character is a clear message that thinking people need not and should not resort to brutish resistance.BY: DANIEL LEE
AUGUST 07, 2023
Warning: spoilers ahead.
Watching the new Apple TV+ Idris Elba vehicle “Hijack,” the philosophy of the show is clear: If you’re on a hijacked plane, don’t make a fuss.
In this seven-episode show about an Airbus A330 full of mostly British passengers en route from Dubai to London, Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) focuses all his considerable talent as a corporate negotiator not on fighting a small gang of hijackers but on facilitating their efforts, because, you see, “I just want to get home to my family.”
To that end, he makes helpful suggestions to the hijackers, aids them in their efforts to manage the passengers, placates their anger, sympathizes with their personal crises, and actively discourages resistance. He literally hands a hijacker’s gun back to him. By the end, he’s made it progressively less likely that he or anyone else will get home — this despite (without giving too much away) learning early on that for a very specific reason, resisting the hijackers with force stands a very good chance of success.
Watching at our house, we were literally left shouting at Elba and the apparently super-glued-to-their-seats passengers: “Do something!”
It all works out to be a perfect illustration of a certain evolved mindset toward criminals: “Please don’t make them angry; fighting back will only make things worse. It’s best if we just cooperate and help them along their way.”
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Source:
https://thefederalist.com/2023/08/07/the-message-of-apple-tvs-hijack-dont-be-a-hero-just-let-criminals-be-criminals/
