As someone who is not good on aeroplanes, and also someone who is terrified of the idea of ever being in the same space as sharks, I have long joked that my biggest fear is to be involved in a plane crash that leaves me floating in the sea, surrounded by sharks. No Way Up takes that idea and tries to add a slight twist, by putting the plane underwater and having the shark able to nose inside. Uh oh.
Things start in the expected way. We meet a variety of people we will then watch try to survive a perilous situation. The three bright young things who seem to be the leads are Ava (Sophie McIntosh), Jed (Jeremias Amoore), and Kyle (Will Attenborough). They are accompanied by Ava's bodyguard, Brandon (Colm Meaney). There are also a pair of grandparents on board with their granddaughter, Rosa (Grace Nettle). Add at least one air steward (Danilo, played by Manuel Pacific), and you may have enough potential snacks for a curious shark. If not, don't worry, a rescue team will soon send down some divers.
If I had recognised the name of director Claudio Fäh before pressing play on this then I may not have taken the chance. Although they have since helmed a number of what may well be enjoyable and entertaining non-theatrical movies, I last experienced their work when I sat through the dire Hollow Man 2. They've definitely improved over the years though, even if this is very standard and predictable stuff.
Writer Andy Mayson only has this screenplay to his credit, so far, but he does enough to show that he knows what kind of formula to work with. None of the characters are particularly great, which is down to the performances not helping the lacklustre writing, but people get their little bit of character development as they start to become more afraid and figure out ways to avoid becoming shark food.
Meaney is the standout, as expected, but the fact that his name looms so large over the others in the cast list means that his storyline feels very obvious. Still, it's a pleasure to have him onscreen. McIntosh also does well, and the film isn't so bad when it focuses on her finding her strength and courage. Phyllis Logan is a sweet grandmother, with Nettle doing okay as the scared little girl, but the rest (Attenborough, Amoore, Pacific, etc) were all just people that I wanted to see turned into chum as soon as possible. Whether that happened or not, and whether any of it was satisfying enough, is something I will leave you to discover for yourself.
This works hard around what I am assuming is a relatively low budget, and it gets more right than wrong. There's a general good sense of the geography of the plane, in terms of the interior layout and where it is perilously placed under the water, the cinematography from Andrew Rodger is clean and clear (aside from the times when shark attacks require some choppy editing), and it's a disaster movie that follows a well-used template, with added fins. It sadly never quite hits the heights it should though, due to the quality and quantity of the potential victims, but it does enough to sit in the mid-tier of modern shark movies.
5/10
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