Hijack review: Idris Elba leads a big, silly Apple TV Plus thriller

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.

Why are the hijackers committed to their crimes? Who are they except one-note characters consistently screaming some version of “shut up and sit down” Why are all the remaining passengers given minimal descriptors like annoying mother, scared teenager, dumb white guy, or inevitable Arabic translator? Hijack doesn’t care about these supplemental questions that could build its story or give it emotional depth. No one uses anyone’s proper name, not even those who interact heavily with Sam. (They keep referring to an onboard doctor as, well, you guessed it, by his profession.) The show is merely a vehicle to show off Elba’s acting chops (he’s also an executive producer). And in the claustrophobic plane setting, he more than holds his own, expressively shifting allegiances as necessary.

As for everyone else, the ensemble includes folks like Archie Panjabi, who should be cast in projects deserving of her talent instead of a post-The Good Wife career that includes duds like Run and Departure. She can do much more than sit around a conference room and run hostage negotiations, like she does here. Christine Adams, Ben Miles, and Eve Myles also co-star, but they’re stuck in extremely stuffy roles. Myles’ air traffic controller Alice Sinclair is the only other character who makes an impressionable.

Making matters worse (and unlike other recent thrillers like Paramount+’s Rabbit Hole) is that Hijack is unintentionally hilarious. The series is layered with goofy antagonists; each is disastrously cartoonish and forgettable, evoking zero fear even after shooting someone to death. Hijack tries (and fails) to explore some of their histories more than any of the passengers—and sometimes even more than Sam’s. It’s a weird choice because it comes late into the run. The dialogue is equally silly. When the passengers can potentially call their loved ones, one of them earnestly and pointedly says to the other, “I don’t have anyone, okay?” It’s hard not to laugh because we know nothing about them. Like almost everything in the show, these scenes seem haphazardly strewn together.

To be fair, some decent narratives lie hidden within Hijack, but no one seems willing to dig into it. Why bother when they can give us a large-scale thriller that runs on empty threats, witless curveballs, and moments of convenience over strategy? Oh, and of course, there’s the lead actor’s magnetic presence. It’s essentially background TV, with a long, tacked-on climax that feels as unnecessary to the show as the show is to Elba’s impressive career.

Hijack premieres June 28 on Apple TV+