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Fight or Flight Review: Josh Hartnett Makes a Case for 2025’s Best Action Hero

Josh Hartnett gives Fight or Flight its comic spark, but the airplane action-comedy’s bloody escalation and late twists will not work for everyone.
Opened Runtime3 min Written byDocumentaryTube Team
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Fight or Flight is worth watching if you want an action-comedy that treats its premise as an excuse for escalating mayhem—and Josh Hartnett is the reason it works as often as it does. His comic commitment gives the film a lively center, even as its choreography and increasingly outlandish turns divide critics. The “best action hero” claim is persuasive as a case for Hartnett’s performance, not a proven ranking of every action film released in 2025.

What is Fight or Flight about?

Directed by James Madigan, this 2025 action-comedy follows disgraced operative Lucas Reyes, played by Hartnett, on a flight from Bangkok to San Francisco. He is assigned to identify a target known as the Ghost, a hacker played by Charithra Chandran. When assassins aboard the plane go after both of them, Reyes and the Ghost have to work together to survive. The simple setup turns the aircraft into a sealed arena for close-quarters fights and uneasy teamwork. Apple TV’s listing gives the runtime as 1 hour 42 minutes and lists Katee Sackhoff among the principal cast.

Is Josh Hartnett good in Fight or Flight?

Hartnett is the film’s clearest asset. He plays Reyes as weary but game, committing to the comic absurdity rather than treating it as a joke he is above. TheWrap’s William Bibbiani argues that the movie depends on Hartnett’s energy to carry its deliberately silly premise. The Los Angeles Times’ Katie Walsh also identifies his performance as a major source of the film’s appeal, and points to his chemistry with Chandran. Ty Burr of The Washington Post finds Hartnett well suited to the film’s antic, exhausted mood. (TheWrap; Los Angeles Times; The Washington Post)

That’s the basis for calling him a standout action hero of the year: not a claim that he has been objectively ranked above every other 2025 lead, but an argument that his comic timing and willingness to inhabit the film’s ridiculousness make Reyes unusually watchable. Hartnett supplies a performance with enough personality to keep the mayhem from feeling entirely mechanical.

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#1 Best Overall
Fight Or Flight [Blu-Ray]
  • Fight Or Flight [Blu-Ray]

How well do the action and comedy work?

The airplane setting narrows the action to cramped spaces, where characters have to use what is at hand and fights can spill into the cabin’s everyday obstacles. TheWrap praises the choreography and the way the energy keeps building; Burr likewise responds to the slaphappy physical comedy and the film’s push toward farce. Walsh finds entertaining business in the confined setting, but argues that the final stretch overreaches into cartoonish violence, hallucinations and twists that have not been earned.

That split gets at the film’s central gamble. Its escalation is meant to be part of the fun: the story keeps moving toward a more frantic, less plausible register. For some viewers, that daffy momentum will be the point. For others, the later turns will make the action feel less coherent rather than more exhilarating. Rotten Tomatoes’ selected review excerpts reflect both reactions: the critics consensus commends Hartnett and the film’s entertainment value, while a New York Times excerpt praises Hartnett and Chandran’s chemistry but criticizes shaky choreography. Rotten Tomatoes’ film page collects those excerpts.

Is Fight or Flight very violent?

Yes. Apple TV lists an R rating for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some drug material. The violence is not a mild backdrop to the jokes: the film’s action-comedy depends on bloody, increasingly exaggerated fights. That combination of gore and irreverent humor is worth considering when choosing it for a group or a movie night.

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Is Fight or Flight worth watching?

Choose it for Hartnett’s performance, the contained airplane setup and a knowingly silly action-comedy that keeps turning up the intensity. Be less certain if you need cleanly staged fights, a steady tone or a late plot that stays grounded. The reviews disagree on whether the choreography and tonal escalation pay off, but they repeatedly return to Hartnett as the reason to stay aboard.

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Rank #3
Flyboys [Blu-ray] [Region2] Requires a Multi Region Player
  • Actors James Franco, Scott Hazell, Mac McDonald, Philip Winchester, Todd Boyce, Michael Jibson, Karen Ford, Ruth Bradley, Abdul Salis, Tim Pigott-Smith, Tyler Labine, Gail Downey, David Ellison, Jean Reno & Augustin Legrand
  • Director Tony Bill
  • Certificate 12 years and over
  • Year 2006
  • Screen Widescreen 2.35:1

For a reception snapshot, Apple TV displayed a 76% Tomatometer score based on 128 reviews—97 fresh and 31 rotten—when accessed October 8, 2026. That is a platform figure from a particular date, not a definitive measure of quality. Ty Burr’s Washington Post review displayed a three-star rating in 2025. The film opened theatrically in the United States on May 9, 2025, from Vertical, according to the Associated Press’ 2025 summer movie guide.

Quick Recap

Bestseller No. 1
Fight Or Flight [Blu-Ray]
Fight Or Flight [Blu-Ray]
Fight Or Flight [Blu-Ray]
$16.96
Bestseller No. 3
Flyboys [Blu-ray] [Region2] Requires a Multi Region Player
Flyboys [Blu-ray] [Region2] Requires a Multi Region Player
Director Tony Bill; Certificate 12 years and over; Year 2006; Screen Widescreen 2.35:1
$10.84
Bestseller No. 4
SaleBestseller No. 5
Best Value
Sale
Air Force One - 4K + Blu-ray + Digital
  • Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman star in Wolfgang Petersen's thriller about the hijacking of Air ForceOne with the First Family on board.

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