Emergency Declaration
Doing a straight-faced disaster movie is really hard to do when you have filmmakers like Roland Emmerich who just ramps up the absurdity to 11, and makes them the silliest thing imaginable. And doing one that takes place on an airplane is really, really difficult when 1980’s “Airplane!” already lampooned the likes of “Airport ’77” and “Zero Hour” to shreds. I’ll say this for writer-director Jae-rim Han- he has a lot of guts making a 140-minute disaster thriller set on an airplane that follows similar beats that were parodied in that iconic comedy. He doesn’t completely succeed in giving me a reason to take this seriously, but he also comes closer than he has any rights to.
The first 10-15 minutes of this film set the stage for us. Primarily, we are at an airport, watching people get ready to go on trips. One person, Jin-seok (Si-wan Yim) is trying to buy an airline ticket. It doesn’t matter to where, so long as it’s a place where many people go. You would think the attendant at the desk might call for security, but that doesn’t happen, and after he meets a father (Jae-hyuk, played by Lee Byung-hun) who is going to Hawaii with his daughter, he has his destination. It turns out that Jin-seok has posted a video online threatening a terrorist attack on a plane, something a veteran detective (“Parasite’s” Song Kang-ho) is investigating, just as his wife is going on a trip on, as it turns out, the same plane. Jin-seok isn’t threatening to blow up the plane, though; just unleash a deadly virus on board, killing everyone.
I think me having “Airplane!” on the brain would be less prevalent as I watched “Emergency Declaration” had the film excised some of the extra crises we see the plane go through. (The title, by the way, comes from a set of protocols put in place when an emergency happens on board a plane, and it sets the stage well for what’s to come in this film.) The basic idea of a virus being on board, and people dying from that, is enough of a hook to where an attack on the plane from another country (long story) and some of the other complications that arise are unnecessary. That this hook also leads to ethical questions about how other countries should react to this sort of emergency is handled in interesting ways, as well as silly ways (the aforementioned attack), and I like that the action on the ground as Kang-ho’s In-ho doesn’t feel like perfunctory drama added to give the actor something to do; his narrative is crucial to how the story unfolds, and it’s compelling because it has a part to play in the plane’s fate. This is where the film is strongest.
The performances by Kang-ho and Byung-hun are particularly strong, and Yim makes for a wicked villain, even if it’s clear from the moment we see him that he’s up to no good. He has some moments that are wonderfully evil. The movie makes good use of social media, and how it can shape public opinion in the face of emergency situations that will effect more than just a few. And ultimately, the movie lands the story moments it has to, in particular during a scene scored to Johann Johannsson’s “The Sun’s Gone Dim and the Sky’s Turned Black.” I know I gave Han crap in the first paragraph, but he does stage a lot of this movie really well. Overall, if you’re a fan of this type of film, “Emergency Declaration” will win you over; you just may not be able to take it as seriously as the film wants you to.
