‘Hijack’ Episode 1 Recap: Idris Elba Explains Premiere Cliffhanger
The following contains spoilers from the premiere of Hijack, which is now streaming the first two episodes (of seven) on Apple TV+.
Hijack, a seven-episode real-time thriller from Apple TV+, took flight on Wednesday, positing Idris Elba’s Sam Nelson on a seven-hour flight from Dubai to London.
Alas, not long into said excursion — though earlier than they had planned — a small team of hijackers took control of the plane. The ruthless-seeming quintet forced the pilot to open the cockpit door, by holding his mistress flight attendant at gunpoint, and then had him retract the “definite security incident” report he had already filed with ground control, by clumsily chalking it up to a “false alarm.”
Before the baddies shut off the WiFi, Sam managed to text his estranged wife Marsha (Black Lightning‘s Christine Adams), in London, that there was an “incident on board, serious” — and she in turn shared the alarming message with both their son and her current partner, who’s a police detective. Sam also calmed down a pair of boomers seated behind him who were rarin’ to take on the gun-toting hijackers, before approaching the lead baddie himself with an unexpected proposition.
TVLine spoke with series star and EP Idris Elba about borrowing from the 24 playbook, Sam as a cerebral hero, and Episode 1’s surprising final words….
TVLINE | Among other things, you’re an executive producer on Hijack. In what ways do you see an opportunity to build on what, say, 24 did? To evolve that?
We definitely leaned into the minute-by-minute [aspect] because of the nature of the storytelling, the ability to actually parallel real time with real decisions. What happens in Hijack is a waiting game as to what is going to happen next, and what we’ve done is paralleled what happens in the plane and what happens [on the ground] in real life.
And what happens in real life, in country to country, depending on where it’s flying, is different and varied. 24 did a phenomenal job of just countdown, countdown, countdown, where you know something’s coming. In this, you’re not sure what’s coming. It’s like, “Who are these people? What’s happening?” And that’s a really interesting illustrative device to use for TV.
TVLINE | We see the air traffic control center in every country the plane flies over, and their respective brain trusts. And in Episode 2, Eve Myles’ character starts off so unassuming, running late for work, again, but then she proves to be instrumental in putting the pieces together.
That’s right. George Kay (Lupin, the Criminal franchise) is a great writer, and the modular approach to each character and what they mean to you as you follow the series is really cleverly done, and that’s the genius. I feel very lucky to have been a part of this team that put this together.
TVLINE | For an actor, it has to be a treat to play someone who is so cerebral. Sam is not an ex-cop, he’s not Special Forces. Instead, you always know that something’s going on in his mind, that’s he’s planning two, three… 10 steps ahead….
That’s really a joy to play. And it’s obviously an escape from a trope. I remember when we were having conversations about the poster, there were these dynamic shots of Sam and I was like, “That’s not him. That’s not the guy we meet. That’s selling the audience a carrot that isn’t there.” And the poster we ended up with has a man who it looks like is thinking hard. And what do you get? You get a man that’s thinking hard.
TVLINE | And if there was any doubt about his skills — or lack thereof — in one of the early episodes he gets a bit owned by one of the less-assuming hijackers.
No, he doesn’t have that [skill set]. And this is the assumption that people make about me based on appearance. I’m a guy that’s always been 6-foot-2-1/2, or 3, and I happen to like to train and fight or whatever, but not everyone that’s my size does that. People assume it’s a safe bet because they’re big, you know?
TVLINE | How are we supposed to feel knowing that Sam’s hoping to get home to fix his marriage when, as far as we can tell, there’s clearly nothing to salvage? It’s kind of bittersweet, yes?
Yeah. It is. The audience knows more than Sam, but that makes the empathy even more for him, because they know that the one thing he’s throwing his life at isn’t there for him when he gets there. And yet he’s prepared to do it. There’s a metaphor in there, for life.
TVLINE | Episode 1 closes with this great cliffhanger where Sam approaches the lead hijacker to say that he cares only about himself, and not the other passengers, followed by, “I’m going to help you.” Talk a bit about that most unexpected statement and his agenda moving forward.
The end of that episode is designed to get the audience to go, “Wait, what??” I mean, we’ve all been in classroom as kids in school, where the teacher’s like, “If no one’s going to tell me what happened, you’re all in detention,” and that one kid stands up and says, “I know what happened.” You’re like, “What? You sell-out!” But here you come to find out later that actually it was a ploy. It’s a phenomenal device to red herring the audience, you know?
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Source: TVLine
