Flight Risk Trailer Previews Mark Wahlberg's Unhinged Mob Hitman In Mel Gibson's Claustrophobic Thriller

A new trailer for Flight Risk offers a closer look at an unhinged Mark Wahlberg in the upcoming thriller. The movie stars Wahlberg as a mob hitman who is hired to kill a U.S. Marshal (Michelle Dockery) and an informant (Topher Grace) while on a small plane, forcing them to take over the craft and try to fly it to safety while evading further enemies. The movie was directed by Mel Gibson, the star of the Lethal Weapon franchise and the original Mad Max movies, who has directed a variety of titles including the Oscar winners Braveheart and Hacksaw Ridge.

Lionsgate has now shared a new official trailer for Flight Risk. The trailer kicks off with Wahlberg’s character introducing himself as Daryl Booth, only for the bumpy takeoff to dislodge the real Daryl’s pilot’s license from beneath his chair, exposing him as a fraud. The pilot eventually reveals that he is working for a mob boss named Loretti. While his initial assassination attempt is thwarted, the duo must keep him alive to aid them in flying the plane, which leads to a claustrophobic cat-and-mouse thriller where everybody’s life is on the line. Check out the full trailer below:

What This Means For Flight Risk

Mark Wahlberg’s Villainous Role Brings A New Energy

The new Flight Risk trailer shows the star taking his career and his look in a brand-new direction. For one thing, his character is balding, which is a very different look for Mark Wahlberg, whose characters in movies including Uncharted, Transformers: The Last Knight, the Ted and Daddy’s Home movies, and, more recently, Arthur the King and The Union, usually have full heads of hair. However, there is a much more important difference in this new character.

2017’s Daddy’s Home 2 saw Wahlberg and Gibson collaborating as onscreen co-stars.

Daryl Booth is a huge departure from previous Mark Wahlberg movies by giving him a villainous role for the first time in more than two and a half decades, since 1996’s Fear. Not only is this mob hitman a true blue villain, the star is delivering a uniquely dangerous and disturbing performance in bringing him to life. One of the showcase moments in the trailer is the tremendously affecting scene where he is garroting Michelle Dockery’s character and gleefully asks, “you ever see a face turn this color before?”

Our Take On The Flight Risk Trailer

Mark Wahlberg’s History Elevates The Thrill Ride

Mark Wahlberg with his mouth open while flying in Flight Risk
Image via Liongate

In the Flight Risk trailer, the fake Daryl Booth has a glint in his eye that shows he is truly enjoying toying with his prey. This makes him even more dangerous than a typical hitman, helping to ratchet up the tension in the upcoming thriller given his forced proximity to the two people who are desperately trying to get out of this situation alive. The fact that Mark Wahlberg has only played heroes in recent years helps propel that feeling even more, because there is a sense of wrongness in the character that permeates the entire movie.

Source: Lionsgate