Hijack - General Discussion

[AnimeMania]

Hijack is a seven episode Drama TV Series with the first two episodes streaming on June 28, 2023 on Apple TV+. The seven (hour long) episodes portray what happens during the 7 hour hijacking ordeal where events play out in "more or less" real time.

The roughly 200 passengers on Kingdom Airlines Flight KA29 are hijacked by a crew of ruthless terrorists during its seven-hour journey from Dubai to Heathrow in London. Sam Nelson, a frail passenger on the airplane is  returning home to his estranged wife and son. At first, Sam tries to blend in with the crowd, but being a highly skilled corporate negotiator, Sam is about to put those skills to the test. Sam approaches the terrorists trying to make a deal. Sam also approaches his other passengers trying to make a deal. Will Sam's professional skills save everyone on board or will this high-risk strategy lead to everybody's undoing? The authorities on the ground scramble for answers. See how various countries deal with this hijacking situation as the plane passes over various airspaces.

Idris Elba as Sam Nelson, a charismatic and a coolheaded corporate negotiator 

Christine Adams as Marsha Smith-Nelson, Sam's ex-wife 

Max Beesley as DI Daniel O'Farrell, Marsha's boyfriend 

Jude Cudjoe as Kai, Marsha and Sam's son

     
Archie Panjabi as Zahra Gahfoor, a counter-terrorism expert working from the ground.

  

Eve Myles as Alice Sinclair, a skeptical air traffic controller who is always late to work

Neil Maskell as Stuart Atterton

Jasper Britton as Terry, a hijacker

Harry Michell as Hugo

Aimée Kelly as Jamie Constantinou

Mohamed Elsandel as Jaden

Ben Miles as Captain Robin Allen, the Pilot 

Kate Phillips as Collette

Marcus Garvey as David Miller, a passenger

Rochenda Sandall as Kate Miller, a passenger, a mother with 2 sons

[AnimeMania]

Hijack     June 28, 2023      Apple TV+   

Episodes 1-2   Titles and Descriptions

Spoiler

S01.E01: Final Call

Sam Nelson gets on a flight to London hoping to win back his ex-wife, but something on board feels wrong—and his suspicions are confirmed.

S01.E02: 3 Degrees

Spotting an opportunity, Sam executes a plan to get a covert message to authorities on the ground.

[PWHCHCH]

Brilliant first two episodes. Shame Apple didn’t release the first three episodes at once like they usually do for debut series. 

[Arynm]

Loved it! I was screaming for the people on the ground to figure it out. I was also very upset when the ATC guy from Dubai was murdered, I was rooting for him. He did have some of it figured out, but he ran into the wrong people.

[AnimeMania]

Article and Video about how they realistically created "the feel" of being on a real airplane when filming.

The ‘Hijack’ Plane Wasn’t Real — But It May Have Been More Complicated to Build

[tired and hungry]

This was surprisingly interesting. I just finshed another series so I'm glad I have something to watch for the next few weeks.

I noticed the detective guy didn't have an Iphone. Is he a potential bad guy?

[Snazzy Daisy]

Am only watching this because of Idris Elba and Archie Panjabi. After 2 episodes, there’s still not much of Zahra Gahfoor though.

Sam Nelson is a skilled negotiator, charismatic and highly observant. Simple things like a washbag can be a useful clue if you know where to look. In-game chat with the captain is a bit cliché TBH.

High sense of foreboding and the feeling of claustrophobic keep the tensions high, but not all the time.

Some backstories of the ground characters feel like fillers. Why do we need to know about Alice’s habitual lateness to work? Eve Myles was annoying in Broadchurch and still is in Hijack.

If there’s a much bigger conspiracy in play, why the mastermind hires some amateur hijackers who don’t even know how the autopilot works? Weird.

[HerkyJerky]

3 hours ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

Eve Myles was annoying in Broadchurch and still is in Hijack.

True, but she was great in Torchwood!

[Anela]

What’s the point of keeping a hijack a secret? Aside from not being shot down. Don’t they have demands? 
I wish they’d put them all up.  I wanted something to binge, not two episodes and “oh”.  

[HerkyJerky]

OMG, I know Idris Elba can’t be killed off since he is the star of the show, but damn, that ending was intense!

[PWHCHCH]

Good cliffhanger for episode 3. Now to wait a week 

[marceline]

On 6/30/2023 at 5:19 AM, Snazzy Daisy said:

Why do we need to know about Alice’s habitual lateness to work?

She needed to be late to work so she could approach this with fresh eyes. Also, so she could say "Something smells dodgy." 😃

There was a time I would've thought a lot of the passengers were being written as caricatures but after millions of tik tok videos, I know they aren't.

[tired and hungry]

Woah I didn't expect him to get fooled so easily, especially after he was considering the cons of getting everyone killed just a while ago...

It's high time someone got shot or killed. The hijackers are definitely going to up their game now... 

I too am confused what their demands are. They seem to want to fly all the way to London and don't want to divert or land anywhere else so maybe we will hear their demands when they are in UK airspace? Who was the guy calling from the plane? He forgot to turn off the wifi after his call too..

Still suspicious of the detective guy. I understand he somewhat has a connection since he's the one who requested the officer to check on the threat at the start but he seemed way to eager to want to help. And plus the fact that he immediately finds out information about the identities of the hijackers is very concerning. (Even the officer who originally checked the criminal records could not piece together this info?) Trying to make himself seem more trustworthy maybe?

[Arynm]

I feel like the hijackers are being hijacked as well. I think there is a bigger plot happening on the ground and that's why there are no demands, maybe to give them time to set up whatever they are doing. Something is wonky with their contact or else they would have answered, the main guy thought they should have answered.

 

[zapper]

so the soccer team identified the bullet as a blank. But I thought it had a rounded tip - i.e. a live round, not a concave tip as the expert drew. So was it not a live round that they found? And where did it go - did the pilot/stewart/teacher take it? That part I cannot remember.

regardless - looks like the head hijacker has now loaded live rounds.

[tired and hungry]

6 minutes ago, zapper said:

so the soccer team identified the bullet as a blank. But I thought it had a rounded tip - i.e. a live round, not a concave tip as the expert drew. So was it not a live round that they found? And where did it go - did the pilot/stewart/teacher take it? That part I cannot remember.

 

Did they show the drawing the expert had drawn? I think I missed it.. 

In Episode 1, the girl returns the bullet to the white haired hijacker guy because she thinks he will help them & alert the stewards on what they found (before he is revealed as one of the hijackers). I think he takes it & keeps it with himself or gives it to the lead hijacker guy at the start..

[zapper]

28 minutes ago, tired and hungry said:

Did they show the drawing the expert had drawn? I think I missed it.. 

In Episode 1, the girl returns the bullet to the white haired hijacker guy because she thinks he will help them & alert the stewards on what they found (before he is revealed as one of the hijackers). I think he takes it & keeps it with himself or gives it to the lead hijacker guy at the start..

yeah, they showed the picture.

Thanks for the reminder about what happened to the bullet, I had forgotten that.

[Ceindreadh]

10 hours ago, WatcherUatl10 said:

If I can find something else to override my curiosity, I think this would be great to save and watch all at once. For example, the nephew who tried to get his uncle's medication was surely someone I would have noticed before this. And we had several close-ups of the guy who aided Elba THIS episode, but I don't recall him in the previous episodes. People pop in and out of the story as necessary, but I find myself forgetting who was where and when. Not to mention that we still have no reaction to the deaths on the ground last episode. It's getting frustrating.

The deaths on the ground only took place in the last two hours.  Both characters were off duty, so their absence probably isn't going to be noticed for a few hours. 

[peachmangosteen]

It seems the hijackers did indeed have blanks. The soccer girls identified the one they saw as a blank based on the pic the army guy drew and then we saw the main hijacker taking those blanks out of his gun and replacing them with bullets.

[AnimeMania]

S01.E03: Draw a Blank

As the UK’s counterterrorism unit learns of Flight KA29, Sam gets involved in a risky plan to take on the hijackers.

Premiere Date: July 5, 2023      Apple TV+ 

[Snazzy Daisy]

DCI John Luther would have taken down all these amateur hijackers within a couple of episodes. Just saying…😆

Let’s recap shall we.

Ex convict - Jonty Collins.

The 5 hijackers based on their passport name - Gerald (the leader), Ryan, Bella, Alexander and Marcus (Gerald calls him Terry).

I think Jonty is the one who has been shot, at the end.

I read some theories about Alexander retrieving his “washbag” from Alec Watkyn’s hand luggage. It doesn’t look like the same bag to me. Look carefully at the spots at the bottom of those 2 cabins - they look very different. 
 

Edited July 5, 2023 by Snazzy Daisy

[tired and hungry]

14 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

It seems the hijackers did indeed have blanks. The soccer girls identified the one they saw as a blank based on the pic the army guy drew and then we saw the main hijacker taking those blanks out of his gun and replacing them with bullets.

Yes. Kinda stupid of them to assume that they wouldn't have any real bullets at all just because they were using blanks. They already have guns so why wouldn't they swap to real bullets if needed?

I'm also curious as to how they managed to come to the conclusion of checking the bullets. Didn't that older guy in business class originally say that he thought the guns itself were not real? 

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, tired and hungry said:

I'm also curious as to how they managed to come to the conclusion of checking the bullets. Didn't that older guy in business class originally say that he thought the guns itself were not real? 

Yea, he did. But then he shifted to them having blanks.

10 hours ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

I read some theories about Alexander retrieving his “washbag” from Alec Watkyn’s hand luggage. It doesn’t look like the same bag to me. Look carefully at the spots at the bottom of those 2 cabins - they look very different. 
 

I've been waiting for the guy that was hurrying to get on the plane/the one Idris Elba convinced the worker to let on having the bag with the washbag in it to come up. I do see in those photos that it doesn't have a strap like the other one but I think that's likely a continuity error.

[ferjy]

On 6/30/2023 at 5:19 AM, Snazzy Daisy said:

Eve Myles was annoying in Broadchurch and still is in Hijack.

Ha, you should see her in Keeping Faith!

 

On 6/30/2023 at 9:10 AM, HerkyJerky said:

True, but she was great in Torchwood!

She was good in We Hunt Together too. It depends what she is in. 
 

[ferjy]

On 7/4/2023 at 2:21 PM, zapper said:

 

so the soccer team identified the bullet as a blank. But I thought it had a rounded tip

 

The diagram he drew is a bit misleading. The bullet the girl found was rounded but the tip also had slits. Real bullets apparently have smooth tips. The one they showed in the hijacker’s hand (when the girl dropped it into his hand) looked more like this:

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by ferjy

[Rickster]

Just catching up on this show. I thought the first two episodes were terrific, the third one a bit less so. It seemed to me like Elba’s actions at the end of the episode were out of character for someone we’ve seen to be very calculating. He’s relying on a retired army officer and teenage girl to confirm that the bullets were blanks. Seems shaky to me (even if true).

[meira.hand]

What I found very inconsistent is that while, after consultation, they allowed one passenger to go to the bathroom and the crew to delivery water bottles all over the plane but  the young hijacker refused to give the old man his medicine. He could have taken down the medicine bag himself and checked the content, or at least consult with the others. It was this that started the crazy chain of events.

Edited July 8, 2023 by meira.hand

[zapper]

i don't know why the young man (or the old man in distress) just didn't say "insulin" - that gets a lot of attention. But I did not hear anyone say that to the hijacker.

It reminds me of once I was in a pharmacy and I overheard someone shout at the pharmacist - "you can't be out - it's Insulin, check again" because that really is life or death.

[Dodginblue]

I am enjoying this show a lot.  It's partly because there hasn't been much else that's caught my attention so far this summer and also because, although I haven't had to fly anywhere lately, I know several people who've been on an airplane recently or trying to get on an airplane and it's been total chaos, flights canceled and delayed and just a big mess.  Fortunately not because of a hijack though!  

 I don't think Idris Elba is capable of a bad performance, he's good in this very contained role, having to depend a lot on using eye and head movements to communicate.  I thought it was smart, the way he sets things up to communicate with the pilot.  Who, by the way, I think the actor playing the pilot is really good because I kind of want to hate him for the way things went with the co-pilot but he's very skillfully presenting himself as a good guy now. 

I don't know what the motives are here but it seems possible that whaever the hijackers think is happening is possibly not what is really happening or that there are possible two conspiracies? I think this because I have the impression that the hijackers aren't especially keen to kill anyone whereas the man on the ground at Neela's house had no problem taking her and her family out as well as Dubai when he showed up.  

Other than the hijackers and those guys at Neela's house it's not clear who is involved but obviously there has to be more than that because apparently several of the hijackers have seemingly legit passports but those people don't actually exist.  That seems like a very high level conspiracy is in play.

And I wonder about the guy who got on the plane right at the end, when Sam (Idris Elba's character) encouraged the agent to let him on.   The guy in the seat next to Sam, I thought how typical, there he is pushing for action becuase the bullets are supposedly blanks but then when the time comes to do something he freezes .  And did the one hijacker, the young guy, did he help Sam, there at the end of episode three? I can't tell who that was.  I need to rewatch that part, it all kicked off so fast.

 

[Dodginblue]

On 7/3/2023 at 1:54 AM, Anela said:

What’s the point of keeping a hijack a secret? Aside from not being shot down. Don’t they have demands? 
I wish they’d put them all up.  I wanted something to binge, not two episodes and “oh”.  

I think the risk would be that the plane could be shot down or forced down maybe?   That's what the pilot told Sam (Elba's character), that if he didn't respond to Baghdad air traffic control, that ATC would contact the Iraqi military and presumably from there the choices aren't going to be great.

The people on the ground do know, by the end of episode two at least, that the plane has a problem but they don't know what it is, which is maybe why they're not scrambling fighter jets to interdict.

I agree on the binging!  I was originally going to wait until it was completely out, all the episodes, but I couldn't resist and started watching now.

Edited July 9, 2023 by Dodginblue

[Dodginblue]

1 hour ago, zapper said:

i don't know why the young man (or the old man in distress) just didn't say "insulin" - that gets a lot of attention. But I did not hear anyone say that to the hijacker.

It reminds me of once I was in a pharmacy and I overheard someone shout at the pharmacist - "you can't be out - it's Insulin, check again" because that really is life or death.

I don't think it would matter.  It's like when the hijacker grabbed the kid's toy, he didn't have to do that.  I think it could be part of the psychology of trying to keep a hostile crowd under control, that you think you shouldn't show any kindness or willingness to compromise because it might be seen as weakness.  

Keeping in mind that the hijackers didn't originally plan have to keep control of the airplane and the passengers for this long so they might not have thought through what it would be like to keep a couple of hundred people under control for 5 or 6 hours.

 

[peachmangosteen]

13 hours ago, Dodginblue said:

And did the one hijacker, the young guy, did he help Sam, there at the end of episode three? I can't tell who that was.  I need to rewatch that part, it all kicked off so fast.

That was the guy that has a criminal record but he has not been revealed, as of yet a least, to be working with the hijackers. I've been assuming he'll end up being a great help even though he has a criminal past.

[Rickster]

I always thought, from watching numerous hijacking movies 🙂, that there was a risk of depressurizing the plane if a gunshot went through a window or the fuselage. Which might explain the reluctance to use bullets.

I was also wondering if there were air marshals on international flights (maybe not on a Dubai to London flight though).

[Snazzy Daisy]

Sneak peek of episode 4!

 

[Anela]

I thought it was out on mondays. 

[tired and hungry]

5 hours ago, Anela said:

I thought it was out on mondays. 

I thought it was out on Wednesdays but episode 3 was available on a Tuesday...

[Rickster]

2 hours ago, tired and hungry said:

I thought it was out on Wednesdays but episode 3 was available on a Tuesday...

My listing says Wednesdays, but I know at least some AppleTV series episodes are released the evening of the day before, like 9pm Eastern Time.

[AnimeMania]

3 hours ago, Rickster said:

5 hours ago, tired and hungry said:

I thought it was out on Wednesdays but episode 3 was available on a Tuesday...

My listing says Wednesdays, but I know at least some AppleTV series episodes are released the evening of the day before, like 9pm Eastern Time.

America was having a holiday, 4th of July, so they probably released it earlier to get more eyes.

[tired and hungry]

3 hours ago, Rickster said:

My listing says Wednesdays, but I know at least some AppleTV series episodes are released the evening of the day before, like 9pm Eastern Time.

23 minutes ago, AnimeMania said:

America was having a holiday, 4th of July, so they probably released it earlier to get more eyes.

Makes sense. Atleast I have 2 shows to look forward to now on Wednesday.

[Rickster]

8 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

America was having a holiday, 4th of July, so they probably released it earlier to get more eyes.

Episode 4 just went live, according to a notification on my phone.

[AnimeMania]

S01.E04: Not Responding

An incident team in Westminster scrambles to intercept fighter jets. Sam tries contacting the ground once more when a hijacker is injured.

Premiere Date: July 12, 2023      Apple TV+ 

[HerkyJerky]

Who got shot?  I don't know even AFTER watching the episode!🤷‍♂️

[PWHCHCH]

Yeah I couldn’t work it out either. Appeared female though. 
 

ETA: apparently it was the blonde woman who was fighting with the mother over locker space. 

Edited July 12, 2023 by PWHCHCH

[Snazzy Daisy]

Sam’s reverse psychology has finally worked on “Ryan”.

The hijacker killed the fruity water lady!!! 😱

 

The demand letter:

Quote

FAO - The Home Secretary

On the 7th January 2023, Edgar Janssen and John Bailey-Brown were wrongfully imprisoned. As a direct result of this, flight KA29 - time and details listed [xxx] - has been hijacked.

This is your opportunity to right that wrong.

You have the time it takes for the plane to reach London to release these men from prison. Failure to do so, comply with any subsequent instructions, or influence the progress of the plane will result in the death of all 216 people on board.

Flight No. KA29

Destination: London Heathrow

Departure Time: 8:12am

 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Snazzy Daisy

[tired and hungry]

15 minutes ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

The demand letter:

Quote

Woah. Good Job on being able to read the letter in that short scene..

Hmm wrongfully arrested?  Maybe that PO Daniel may have been involved in their case somehow...

What are the odds out of all the 216 passengers, the guy with the kids ends up being a doctor.. Kinda feel bad for the woman who got killed out of all those people. (Should have been some random passenger who had no dialogue)

I'm sorry but what was that secretary lady doing? She was way too non-chalant about everything going on...

[Rickster]

What is up with those guys trying to confirm Elba’s wife’s address? The only person who knows he’s on the plane and might be a troublemaker is her boyfriend…..he also knows about his negotiating skills. I suppose the incident team knows his name, too, but that’s not his address anymore.

[tired and hungry]

7 hours ago, Rickster said:

What is up with those guys trying to confirm Elba’s wife’s address? The only person who knows he’s on the plane and might be a troublemaker is her boyfriend…..he also knows about his negotiating skills. I suppose the incident team knows his name, too, but that’s not his address anymore.

Hmm true.. I thought they were like those "cleaners" who were sent to kill them and would break into her house and plant a bomb or something or take her or the son as hostages. They even showed a door open inside.

But no one knows who Sam is so this doesn't make sense..

Also I'm upset that no one has reported the deaths of that ATC worker or the entire family of that xray lady in Dubai.. Has no one realized they're dead yet??

[Rickster]

My current theory is that maybe the hijackers planned to use Sam all along to negotiate the deal with the government, and are planning to kidnap his wife and/or kid for leverage to get him to help them.

[peachmangosteen]

4 hours ago, tired and hungry said:

Also I'm upset that no one has reported the deaths of that ATC worker or the entire family of that xray lady in Dubai.. Has no one realized they're dead yet??

It's only been a couple hours so I can believe it.

I'm still waiting to see how them being killed, and now the people going to Sam's house, are related to the hijacking.

[tired and hungry]

15 hours ago, Rickster said:

My current theory is that maybe the hijackers planned to use Sam all along to negotiate the deal with the government, and are planning to kidnap his wife and/or kid for leverage to get him to help them.

Yes makes sense! Didn't his son say they hire Sam for negotiations?!