'Non-Stop' First Look: No More Mr. Nice Neeson

Matt McDaniel
·Managing Editor
Updated

Don’t think for a moment that Liam Neeson has gone soft on you.

Yes, he can currently be heard as the voice of a fuzzy raccoon in the surprise-hit “The Nut Job.” And yes, he follows that with another animated role as the voice of a plastic police officer in next week’s “The Lego Movie.” But not long after that he’ll be back to busting heads in February’s “Non-Stop.”

The new thriller casts Neeson as a veteran air marshall on a transatlantic flight who begins to receive text messages threatening to kill one passenger every 20 minutes unless $150 million gets transferred to a bank account. As Neeson tries to uncover the hijacker among the passengers, he begins to come under suspicion by the authorities on the ground. So he must find the killer or else take the blame himself.

[Related: Liam Neeson Is Racoon-Aware, Just Right for ‘The Nut Job’]

"Non-Stop" reteams Neeson with director Jaume Collet-Serra, who also made 2011’s "Unknown." That twisty thriller was a strong February release, taking in $130 million worldwide on a $30 million budget (but that’s still less money than the hijacker on the plane demands). Neeson also reunites with co-star Julianne Moore; they previously played a married couple driven apart by the alluring Amanda Seyfried in "Chloe."

Also starring Michelle Dockery (“Downton Abbey”), Scoot McNairy (“Argo”), and Oscar-nominee Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”), “Non-Stop" opens nationwide on Feb. 28.