Lisa (Rachel McAdams of "Wedding Crashers") is the "go to" person who knows how to get things done with finesse as the manager at an upscale hotel in Miami. While she’s away at her grandmothers’ funeral in Texas, things literally heat up at the hotel, as well as at her home with her father (a trimmed down and almost unrecognizable Brian Cox of "The Bourne Supremacy"). He’s recently retired and divorced after 32 years ¾ a bit depressed and somewhat bored ¾ and worries about his daughter, as we learn later, for good reason.

Lisa is taking the red eye (the last night flight flying from west to east) back to Miami. With bad weather conditions and the late hour, tempers flare at the airport surrounding the delays with Fresh Air Airlines. Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy of "Batman Begins") is in line just behind Lisa and intercedes when a fellow passenger becomes belligerent. He seems like a nice guy so she joins him for a drink before they finally board the plane. On the wide body plane, with cattle car seating, and a host of interesting characters, they wind up sitting together in coach. This is where the film starts to really get interesting. Lisa asks Jackson if he’s called Jack and his quick reply is, "No." They share a laugh at the notion of "Jack Rippner," and the audience gets the idea that he’s a potential bad guy, in spite of his playboy charms. The brief introduction to many of the people on the plane is interesting, important, but not a red herring of things to come that do not occur.

McAdams is a heroine in the tradition of Sigourney Weaver in the first "Alien" picture. She’s sexy, vulnerable, smart, and afraid, but when the chips are down, she can take care of business like Jennifer Biel was able to do in "Stealth."

It’s always good to be pleasantly surprised, and that was certainly the case in this movie. Director Wes Craven has stepped out of his slasher (Scream) mode to straight up thriller. This is as good a thriller as Craven’s "Music of the Heart" was a solid family drama (Meryl Streep and Angela Bassett).