2010s drama film action film adventure film disaster film

Flight Crew

Rescate suicida

2016 · Russia · 138 min

Director: Nikolai Lebedev
Screenplay: Nikolai Lebedev, Nikolay Kulikov
Producer: Nikita Mikhalkov, Leonid Vereshchagin, Anton Zlatopolsky
Music: Artyom Vasilyev
Production company: Russia-1, TriTe, Central Partnership

Cast

Vladimir Mashkov

Danila Kozlovsky

Agnė Grudytė

What it is about

Alexey Gushchin is a gifted young military pilot who is assigned to deliver a charity cargo of supplies. The plane also carries cars meant for a general whose friend's daughter is getting married, and when a storm makes the flight difficult, he has to dump one of the vehicles mid-air. The decision costs him his place in the military air force. Determined to fly again, he turns to his father, a well-known aircraft engineer, and manages to take the exams of a passenger airline, where he is evaluated by Leonid Zinchenko, a veteran pilot with troubles of his own. The story follows their uneasy partnership, their professional clashes and a new emergency unfolding in a volcanic region.

How it was made

The film is a remake of the 1979 Soviet picture Air Crew and was directed by Nikolai Lebedev, who co-wrote the script with Nikolay Kulikov. Produced by the Russian channel Rossiya 1 together with TriTe and Central Partnership, it starred Vladimir Mashkov, Danila Kozlovsky and Agnė Grudytė, with music by Artem Vassiliev. It was the second disaster film shot in Russia and was filmed with digital 3D cameras, which made it the second Russian release in IMAX after Stalingrad. It premiered on 21 April 2016.

Reception and legacy

Critics responded positively, praising the special effects, action sequences, performances and tense atmosphere. The film was a box office hit and became the highest-grossing Russian film of 2016. At the 2017 Golden Eagle Awards it received eleven nominations, including Best Feature Film, Best Director and Best Actor, and won five: Best Visual Effects, Best Supporting Actor for Sergey Shakurov, Best Music, Best Film Editing and Best Sound. As a Russian disaster film, it belongs to a recent revival of genre cinema in the country.