Hijack review: Idris Elba leads a big, silly Apple TV Plus thriller
A lone handsome man is desperate to save the day in this ridiculous British miniseries

Hijack isn’t going to join Apple TV+’s pantheon of exciting, subversive television dramas. On the contrary, the limited (?) series, which premieres June 28, is the streamer’s version of the generic, giant, silly action pieces that adorn the queues at Prime Video and Netflix. (Think Jack Ryan and The Terminal List, or The Night Agent and Fubar.) It doesn’t pack as many literal punches, but Hijack follows a similar pattern of a lone handsome man desperate to save the day. At least Apple TV+ got Idris Elba to play the charming protagonist. However, he can only do so much to save the show because Hijack is a ridiculous (if amusing) mess.
Played out in real time, the seven episodes track the seven tumultuous hours of a hijacking on a Dubai to London flight. Five culprits take control of the plane as first-class passenger Sam Nelson (Elba) immediately inserts himself into a dangerous situation no civilian should be in. But the hero’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. The audience never learns what qualifies Sam to be in this arbitrator position. His family on the ground awkwardly explains that his job includes being a “skilled business negotiator” early on, but that’s all we get. Is he in the CIA? Is he a corporate hack? Who cares about multi-dimensional character development as long as Elba coasts along in a brooding fashion? He’s hot, rebellious, and ready to fight. And that’s all Hijack needs.
Sam is intelligent, observant, and can talk his way around any bad event on the flight, making him an ideal knight in shining armor for the 200 people on board. The rest of it—his broken marriage (the main reason for his travel), the villain’s motivations, the supporting characters, um, characteristics—is immaterial. Once you embrace that fact, a barebones Hijack can transform into a fun but nonsensical thriller.
The show thankfully wastes no time setting up its swift pace, which is a major bonus when the narrative is so weak. Ten minutes into the premiere, the plane takes off, and suspicious events occur. The brisk outings make up for the inane plot twists, even if almost none of them make sense, whether up in the air or down below, where a group of intelligence officers, air control officers, and politicians gradually figure out the horrifying situation of Kingdom Airlines Flight 29. But again, Hijack isn’t here to be an enigmatic, gritty thriller.