Joseph Gordon-Levitt fights off hijackers in the movie ‘7500’
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a pilot forced to fend off hijackers in the movie “7500.” The film gets its name from the emergency code used for an airplane hijacking. This is Gordon-Levitt’s first feature film since 2016’s “Snowden.” He tells Yahoo Entertainment he took a few years off to have kids. “I knew that my first job back I wanted to focus on finding a creative challenge,” he says. The actor goes on to say that “7500” was really rewarding for him.
Video Transcript
- They have a hostage. They're going to kill him if I don't open the door. Don't, stop, please. I can't open the door. Let her go.
KEVIN POLOWY: Joe, this is your first feature film since "Snowden," which came out nearly four years ago. Were you taking a conscious break from acting on film? What can you tell us about that?
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: I took a couple of years off when I had kids. And I knew that my first job back, I really wanted to focus on finding a creative challenge and, you know, not think about like, oh, what should my next career move be, having taken some time off, but really just focus on the art of it and why I love acting so much. And in this movie, in "7500," I really found that. It was very intense because we're telling an extreme story but really, really rewarding for me.
KEVIN POLOWY: It's tough to watch this movie without thinking of the tragedies of 9/11. Patrick, were you thinking about those events while writing this? And were you guys both thinking about them when filming?
PATRICK VOLLRATH: I was researching and thinking of all the events and all the hijackings and did all the research on that. 9/11 was a big influence on that, you know? You cannot make and talk about hijacking an airplane and not talk about 9/11 in the same moment.
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: We have a 7500.
- Open the door.
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Several men attacked our cockpit. We stopped them for now. The captain is injured. The status of the crew, I don't know.
KEVIN POLOWY: Are you guys fine knowing that people will probably never want to watch this film on an airplane?
PATRICK VOLLRATH: I think it's even forbidden, you know? Even every airplane movie you cannot watch on an airplane.
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: The movies that I like watching on planes usually because they're on a plane. And so I don't get ambitious with my movie watching. When I'm on a plane I usually like to watch something I've seen before and usually something kind of easy to watch. I also though, as a movie fan, sometimes like to really challenge myself and watch something a bit more ambitious and watch something like, wow, this is-- like, I'm going to feel this. I'm going to have to think this. This is going to be a more, like, active experience as a movie watcher.
And "7500" is really more in that category. If you really want to, like, take in kind of a work of art, this is, you know-- I think Patrick's really made one.
They don't have guns. They don't have knives. If you work together, you can beat them.
- It's OK. You're gonna be all right.