REVIEW: ‘Hijack’ Thrills In Real Time

With the title alone, audiences know exactly what Hijack will be about as a limited TV series. However, even though we know what the core of the series will be, showrunners and creators George Kay and Jim Field Smith keep the audience guessing on every point around it. Yes, there is a plane hijacked, but the who and why of it all allows the narrative to keep a mysterious edge as the series weaves together the story in the sky and one below.

If you’re unfamiliar, Hijack is an AppleTV+ Original series produced by 60FortyFilms and Green Door Pictures, the series’ lead Idris Elba’s production company. In addition to Elba, the series stars Archie Panjabi, Max Beesley, Jeremy Ang Jones, Neil Maskell, Mohamed Elsandel, and Kate Phillips. A seven-episode series, it uses each episode to tell its story in real-time over the seven-hour flight from Dubai to London.

Taking place in the air and on the ground, audiences watch as terror spreads on the plane and the authorities on the ground scramble for answers. At the center of the series is Sam Nelson (Idris Elba), an accomplished negotiator who uses his ability to strategize and read people to save the passengers. While Sam just wants to get back home to his ex-wife Marsha and son Kai, he still pushes a high-risk strategy. As Sam works in the air to manipulate Stuart, the lead hijacker, Panjabi’s Zahra Gahfoor, a counter-terrorism officer on the ground, becomes part of the investigation.

The series‘s choice to use an in-real-time structure to tell the story is what makes the tension stick. A seven-hour plane ride cut into seven one-hour episodes is the perfect way to drive intense pacing without jumping the shark in the process.

By constraining the narrative to this one incident and the events that can happen within it, showrunners George Kay and Jim Field Smith understand how to craft mystery and action while zooming in on individual passengers and the high stakes on the ground without losing the focus, which is flight KA29. The largest issue with thrillers, particularly those that focus on revealing a mystery, is that they often lose themselves in details, blasting plot holes into their narrative in order to land a twist.

Hijack (2023) thrills through restraint.

Thanks to its format, Hijack doesn’t encounter any of these problems as a TV series. The ability to be precise in tracking large story beats while centering the human experience is another achievement for the series. This is done primarily by utilizing tight close-ups of characters, passengers, and hijackers alike, allowing the audience to tap into their emotional states. The series captures the chaos of the situation, and this is what makes the series keep its tension with every reveal.

The only issue that Hijack suffers from as a TV limited series is that the drama in the air is significantly more intense than that on the ground, at least until the fifth episode. For the bulk of the series, I found myself desperate to go back to KA29 and see how a corporate negotiator was going to handle terrorists and make it back home.

Of course, the series manages to build suspense outside the hostages on the plane as the authorities start to sink their teeth into the organized crime group responsible for the hijacking and as Sam’s family is put in the organization’s crosshairs.

When it comes to limited series, Hijack is able to thrive. A set endpoint grounds the suspense as the audience is hurled toward the end of the flight and, with that, the end of the story. This is a fast-paced thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the first couple of episodes to the last.

The full Hijack TV limited series is streaming now on AppleTV+.