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Red Eye Our rating: Your rating: 1 2 3 4 Your Comments: see all MPAA rating: PG-13 (for some intense sequences of violence, and language) Genre: Drama, Thriller Theater release: August 19, 2005 by Dreamworks� SKG Directed by: Wes Craven Runtime: 1 hour 25 minutes Cast: Rachel McAdams (Lisa Reisert), Cillian Murphy (Jackson Rippner), Brian Cox (Joe Reisert), Jayma Mays (Cynthia) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Red Eye is a bit of a departure for director Wes Craven, whose films tend to be of the mad slasher variety (the Scream movies, Nightmare on Elm Street). While Scream is meant as an ironic semi-spoof of the genre, it is gratuitously violent and misogynistic. In Red Eye, Craven moves to a more mainstream thriller, and his protagonist, Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams of Mean Girls, The Notebook and Wedding Crashers), is a woman who can take care of business.

The title refers to the late night flight on which Lisa, a hotel executive who is afraid to fly, rushes back to her hectic job. The consummate workaholic, Lisa fields cell phone calls from a harried reservations clerk (Jayma Mays) and offers calm, direct advice. In her world of reservations, last minute changes and whining guests, Lisa is an oasis of—well, not calm, but composure. Look up "grace under fire," and you'll find Lisa's picture.

Rachel McAdams plays a hotel executive who has it all together

In her working world, she is completely in charge. There are no boorish complainers in her cosmos, only clients with "special needs." Everybody comes away feeling that they have gotten what they want. She is able to see every conflict as a management issue and takes no personal offense when a guest whines like a spoiled child. Her ability to manage the most demanding customers gives her a sense of power and invincibility.

But those strengths will soon be tested by a fellow traveler, Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy, Batman Begins), who at first seems charming enough when she meets him in the airport ticket line. Flights have been canceled or rerouted, and tempers flare. But Rippner intervenes when an irate gasbag holds up the line by berating a frazzled clerk. He handles the bully with calm words—without threatening him, but making him back down. But there's something about Rippner that's not what it seems. Lisa's first response is to politely disengage when he offers to buy her a drink.

Her seatmate, played by Cillian Murphy, seems OK … at first

Murphy is best known for playing Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow in Batman Begins—the creepy little arch-villain who made you want to stomp him like a bug. He's just as creepy in Red Eye, but he can turn it on and off at will. His Rippner is a coldly manipulative sociopath who gives off a hinky vibe while seeming to say all the right things. In one scene, a little girl (Brittany Oaks) observes him doing something suspicious and tells the flight attendant. Although the attendant patiently brushes away her concerns with adult condescension, the little girl can feel something that others aren't able to see, or at least acknowledge.

Lisa is a bit slower on the uptake. Rippner begins by making polite conversation, but something about it feels passively aggressive. If she were to have this conversation in a café , she would politely excuse herself, but this flight is booked solid; she can't just move to an empty seat. Lisa's ability to read people in a business situation hinges on her ability to keep them at a distance, and by holding the power to assuage their bruised egos. She can comp them or upgrade their rooms. She holds the cards.

We later learn that Rippner is a terrorist with a plot to kill someone important

But sitting next to Rippner, she has no cards to hold. As the conversation continues, Lisa becomes truly creeped out. That's when Rippner gives her a Faustian bargain, or what the Godfather might have called "an offer she can't refuse." Rippner plans to kill a U.S. government official, and Lisa—because of her line of work—holds the key to his success … or failure. If she refuses to cooperate, an assassin is waiting to kill her father (Brian Cox). Lisa sees no way out. Faced with a violation of her professional and moral ethics, she succumbs and becomes a pawn in a terrorist plot.

The whole point of Red Eye is to give Rippner a chance to behave abominably so that the audience can hope for his demise. Rippner, holding nothing back, is evil to the core. He's a killer and a liar. He enjoys intimidating poor Lisa. The audience knows what is coming and they can't wait. They begin talking back to the screen to hide their nervousness. They hope Lisa will give Rippner his due, and they fully expect to be scared.

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