The new year on ITV launched with a heart-pounding bang as the high-altitude thriller Red Eye took to the skies. The series, which premiered on New Year's Day and continues its run, immediately plunges viewers into a nightmare scenario 30,000 feet above the Atlantic.
A Deadly Dilemma at Cruising Altitude
The plot centres on Madeline Delaney, the head of MI5 played by Lesley Sharp, and the Defence Secretary, Alex Peterson (Nicholas Rowe). They find themselves trapped on a private jet with a terrifying companion: a bomb disguised within a laptop, packed with C-4 high explosive. The stakes are brutally simple: if the aircraft loses height or deviates from its course to the UK, the device will detonate.
With remarkably good wifi for a crisis, Delaney manages a video call with a bomb disposal expert. In a tense sequence, her shaking hands struggle to follow his instructions, accidentally triggering a countdown. In a moment of panicked action, Peterson reaches over and yanks a crucial connection. "Sorry, I panicked!" he gasps, mortified by his own rudeness, but his decisive move temporarily halts the immediate threat.
Ground-Level Intrigue and Embassy Assassins
While chaos reigns in the air, the action on the ground is equally relentless. The plot has already featured a poisoned U.S. diplomatic courier, a security agent shot dead inside the American Embassy, and a businessman having his neck snapped. Each murder violently pivots the narrative, with every episode culminating in a cliffhanger.
The latest left maverick police officer DC Hana Li (Jing Lusi) in a brutal fight for her life against a Russian assassin in an embassy lift. Her dynamic with the head of embassy security, Brody (Martin Compston), adds a layer of smouldering tension. Once bitter rivals, their exchanges now crackle with flirtatious banter, as evidenced when Brody watched, impressed, as she detailed a hypothetical murder method. "Remind me," he growled, "which one of us was in the SAS?"
Implausible Pace Forgiven by Relentless Action
While viewers might question why the obvious solution of jettisoning the laptop isn't attempted—"I’d rather suffer a nasty draught than a mid-air missile"—the show's breakneck speed forgives such implausibilities. Back at MI5 headquarters, the acting chief (Jonathan Aris) is in a state of high alarm, dramatically pointing at a wall clock and declaring, "The clock is literally ticking."
Red Eye succeeds by prioritising momentum over meticulous realism. It delivers a slick, fast-moving cascade of crises that ensures audiences are glued to their screens, eager to see how the characters will navigate the next impossible twist.
