Let me begin with a brief warning…if you are afraid to fly, do not watch Black Box. Aside from the obvious fears such as intense turbulence or the possibility of crashing, there is a new terror in the clouds which will add to the gnawing tension of being trapped by both real and supernatural threats.  

Jeremy is a distraught man. A new widower who would love nothing more than to escape the pain-riddled existence which is strangling him. Well-composed yet sad, he befriends a little girl named Chloe who makes him smile as they both try hard to distract themselves from a sickly old man aboard flight 298 who is coughing up a storm in the airplane’s lavatory.  

Very early on, the story of this doomed flight plunges into an outbreak. Starting with the feeble elder in the toilet who has a complete breakdown in the aisle, he succumbs to his unknown illness with a severe, vomitous discharge leaving his face covered in blood splattered goo. Like watching John Lithgow’s bit in Twilight Zone: The Movie, the disbelief from others when viewing such unexplainable fright is difficult to comprehend, thereby quickly dismissed as a one-off eerie incident. That is, until Jeremy, Chloe, and most of the passengers are suddenly stricken, bleeding from their ears, noses, and eyes.  

Luckily, a bad ass female air Marshall is onboard to save the day although we promptly discover that she is only able to subdue unruly travelers such as the douchey businessman in first class whose only priority is his own work schedule. These delays and interferences from all the annoying obstacles are not conducive to his set plans, making him somewhat suspicious, although enjoyable to watch.  

Compassionate flight attendant Emma works to calm the chaos and protect the passengers while the pilots struggle to divert the plane to a nearer airport. Unfortunately, even the dogs in cargo have detected something sinister in the air and abruptly…it all stops. Everything. The noise, the turbulence, the panic, all of it.  

An unnatural silence swallows the cabin, and for one brief, desperate moment, relief takes hold—they think they have finally made it down alive. With this limited reprieve, the focus now becomes…where the hell are they? The other side of a solar storm? A quarantine zone? The one agreeable point made is, they are only beginning the journey into pure horror. A new chapter is developing.  

Intentional supernatural forces kick off a battle between the survivors and a new breed of extraterrestrial creatures whose motives are unclear and frankly…who gives a fuck. The aircraft is now infiltrated by “Aliens”, meets “The Thing” entities, in sheer mayhem, separating a portion of the passengers to protect each other from these abhorrent predators.  

Black Box delivers relentless action, subjective purpose and a new spin on visceral suspense. You’ll be caught off guard in an apprehensive state of desperation to be heard, and more so…believed. My recommendation?

Best to travel by train.