Trailer for the series "The Hijacking of Flight 601"/Netflix
The 1970s were the golden age of hijacking. Between 1968 and 1973, nearly 400 kidnappings were recorded, in the most famous of which, in 1972, a mysterious man named Dan "D.B." Cooper with 200 thousand dollars from the back of a Boeing 727 over the skies of the state of Oregon and his tracks disappeared. Israel's place was also not absent from these events. In 1970, as part of a series of hijackings by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an attempt to take over an El Al flight to Amsterdam was foiled. Two years later
,
a Savannah plane was released at the airport in Lod in a daring operation by a general patrol, and in 1976, of course, the heroic operation in Entebbe was recorded.
The security inspector's instant decision. Magnetometers and electronic means were not available. Many took advantage of this, when the main motives for the abductions were political, and stemmed mainly from the spread of communism and its cooperation with individual elements, who identified with the goal of eradicating "western imperialism". Che Guevara inspired many organizations and individuals in South America to protest against the takeover of capitalism.Hijacking a plane was certainly a means of conveying this message.
The imitation also led many who were not politically identified to make a move. In 1973, two soccer players from Paraguay were 84 passengers on a SAM Colombia flight that was supposed to arrive from Pereira to Medellin. The 60-hour journey, which crossed all of Central America and large parts of South America, stopped in Buenos Aires and was crowned, after 23,000 km, as one of the longest hijackings in history. It was also the event that inspired Pablo Gonzalez and Camilo Prince to hire David Pombo (assistant director) to direct of "Narcos") and put on Netflix a six-episode action series - "The Hijacking of Flight 601".
In the center of "The Hijacking of Flight 601" two young people (Valentin and Elian Debtak) take over a plane of a single mother of three, the stewardess Adilma (Monica Lopra) who is supposed to be on board misses the flight, but when she hears about the kidnapping she mobilizes to reach the destination and board the plane. There, together with her friend Barbara (Angela Cano), they try to route the kidnappers to the beach Ensuring that no one gets hurt, the director of the airline Pirateca (Enrique Cariaso) and the arrogant captain Lucena (Cristian Tappan) are also recruited for the mission, but, as you can understand and expect, it is not such a simple story and the mishaps only keep multiplying.
You will also be interested in:
"A small moose": this could have been a suspenseful series about stalking. Instead, she does something much bigger
"Fallout": when the character said "it's not sure if there will be next week", the series and reality aligned
"Ripley": let's take this crazy and exciting story and turn it into a tired and boring series
"Girls Forever": how lucky that Netflix saved This great series. Now there's no excuse not to watch
all the similar series that appear on TV this month
Recommended series on Netflix: The Big Guide
The 24 series we're most looking forward to in 2024
Looking for recommendations or want to recommend new series? Just want to talk about TV? Join our group on Facebook,
Shofar Broadcasting
Movies and series about plane hijackings excel in one main aspect: they convey the feeling of intimate claustrophobia to the viewer. The entire plot revolves around a crowded passage on both sides of which are populated by frightened passengers. The anxiety flickers beyond the screen, when of course a process of identification with the hostages and with their captors also begins.
In the first three episodes it seems to work. The tension is delicately woven and so is the relationship with the characters. In those episodes the many plot holes can even be forgiven (is it possible for a hijacked plane to land at an airport in a completely sterile environment, with no security forces surrounding it? Even in the delusional reality of the 70s it would not make sense). Lopera is mesmerizing, and Jafnia captivates with his gnarled charm and his dialogues with Kiriasu take the plot in the right direction.
The problem with hijackings in real life is the ease with which they lose direction and go wrong. Surprisingly, this is also the great weakness of "Flight 601". From the fourth episode, when the viewers leave the discomfort zone of the plane to a different space, everything takes a different direction - less good, less bright and less interesting. Like kidnappers who realize they won't reach their original destination and try to improvise, the script here is also lost. The plot holes become holes and the presence of the skilled cast does not save the situation either.
"Flight 601" can be seen as a sequel to "The Heist of the Century" created by Gonzalez and Prince in 2020. It suffers from similar characteristics: a famous crime case in the history of Colombia is translated into a six-part series with huge potential, which becomes a sticky and meaningless pulp. The acting of Lopra and Tapan (who took part in "The Robbery of the Century") also fails to connect the fragments of the plot.
Netflix repeatedly tries to reproduce the success of "Narcos", with a fairly simple model of Spanish-speaking series that take place in the seventies-eighties. There is something sensual in Latin dialogues between beautiful women and mustachioed men against the background of wide and long cars, when everything is wrapped in the bright colors of the past. And yet, it didn't work in "Grisalda" and it doesn't work in "The Hijacking of Flight 601" either. For a series to be good, you need a coherent and interesting plot. The landing, in this case, came too soon.
"The Hijacking of Flight 601" is available in its entirety on Netflix.