Hijack ´93

Through history we have seen a lot of examples of terrorist groups or criminal organisantions who have taken control over flights across the world. Each case is of course mostly different from each other, it doesn´t always have to be about money only but for other political reasons as well. In some cases it has not always ended badly but there are cases where unfortunately people were killed. In some cases it wasn´t a terrorist group either but a mad person who actually hijacked an airplane for a completely different reason than anyone would have expected. There are so many flight hijackings we could talk about so i decided to pick one famous criminal case that took place back in February 22, 1974 at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. This specific day American hijacker known as Samuel Byck attempted to hijack a plane flying out from Baltimore-Washington International Airport, intending to crash into the White House in the hopes of killing President Richard Nixon. This case is actually quite interesting because it didn´t look like the ordinary plane hijacking we have seen in the past. Of course there have been President assassinations and attempted ones but this specific day February 22 in 1974 will forever go down in history as a failed attempt to kill the President. If you have not heard this story before and want to know what happened to Samuel Byck he actually killed himself after he was wounded by a bullet from a police officer. There is actually a great drama film based on this case and the life of Samuel Byck in the 2004 drama film The Assassination Of Richard Nixon from director Niels Mueller, and legendary actor Sean Penn plays the character Sam Bicke ( inspired by the character Samuel Byck ). It´s a well made film with great acting performances and you do get a sense of why Sam was determined to kill Richard Nixon. If you can´t find the film on streaming it´s worth renting on VOD or picking up cheap on DVD. Speaking of flight hijacking i recently sat down to watch a Netflix film called Hijack ´93 based on a true criminal hijack story that happened in Nigeria in October 1993. Im always fascinated in films based on true stories and this seemed to be something i might enjoy. Is the Netflix film Flight ´93 a must see this Christmas weekend or should you watch something better on streaming instead?

Criminal leader Mallan Jerry ( Sam Dede ) is planning to hijack a plane full of tourists as he hand pick 4 men who will make this mission successfull. This is an attempt to make a change for the country, since this group are oppose towards the country´s government. The next couple of days will be a fight for survival but also very risky where there is no guarantee everyone will make it out alive.

I enjoy looking at films that comes from a country where i have not seen many films at all such as Nigeria, This was actually one of the reasons why i were looking forward to see Hijack ´93 knowing this film is based on a true story from Nigeria. On paper this film seems to have what i need, a hijack story and telling a historical moment from the people who witnessed this horrible day. Unfotunately for being a film released on Netflix there are several issues with Hijack ´93. First of all the acting in general is not that good from most of the actors, except for the hijackers themselves. For example the hostage inside the airplane does strange things while the hijackers give them orders, such as a man wawing in the air screaming:- Land the plane, and he have armed hijackers pointing guns on everyone. Now, who would do that in real life when you know they could shoot you right away? I don´t know if that detail happened in real life or not, but it´s actually a quite funny scene and im not supposed to be laughing and yet it´s impossible not to laugh at a scene like that. The editing of this film is hillarious sometimes, especially when the plane lands and military soldiers go towards the plane in spinning scenes that looks like it was filmed on a drone gone drunk. Remember, this is supposed to be a serious hijacking film and i am not supposed to be laughing. I am not going to say that this film is completely terrible, there are a few moments where the terrorists actually try and make an effort to make the hijacking scenes more effective and for a short while the film does get better. But with so many other problems surrounding this film that doesn´t help the final product. Hijack ´93 ends up being one of the most bizarre flight hijacking films i have seen so far. If they really wanted to capture the audience attention they should probably have made more effort into the hijacking scenes plus hired more professional actors as well. There is an interesting story to be told in Hijack ´93 but it´s actually sad to see director Robert Peters throw away so much potential that this story have and made a very forgettable film. I can´t recommend Flight ´93 unfortunately and i would rather recommend the 1996 action thriller Executive Decision where legendary actor David Suchet is brilliant as a hijacking terrorist. A much better choice if you want to watch a similar film.

Rating: DD