movie review horizon line

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Horizon Line Reviews

Horizon Line wants to be a tense, white-knuckle ride but is let down by performances of wavering conviction, some awful dialogue and aerial hijinks that are increasingly ridiculous. Still, the more outlandish the film gets, the more fun it is to watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 2, 2021

Horizon Line has an interesting concept and starts off well, which peaks the viewers' interest.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 3, 2021

It has a decent premise and is compact and nicely paced, but this trapped-in-a-plane thriller eventually nose-dives due to uninteresting characters, lack of suspense, and too much preposterousness.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 7, 2021

...a mostly unconvincing thriller that's rarely able to wholeheartedly (or satisfactorily) exploit the seemingly foolproof setup...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 23, 2021

Screenplay doesn't have much of an imagination for this type of disaster movie, dealing with banal relationship issues while halfhearted performances can't sell the urgency of the moment.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jan 12, 2021

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Horizon Line’ on Hulu, a Ridiculous, But Mostly Effective High-Flying B-Thriller

Where to Stream:

• Horizon Line (2020)

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Ferry 2’ on Netflix, Where The Dutch Crime World Lifer Takes One Last Job (And This Time It’s Personal)

Stream it or skip it: ‘toxic harmony’ on tubi, a music-biz thriller, stream it or skip it: ‘heretic’ on vod, an idea-driven horror-thriller in which hugh grant shows his dark side, stream it or skip it: '1992' on netflix, a spanish thriller about killings in 2024 being linked back to a world's fair in 1992.

Horizon Line — now on Hulu — is one of those no-nonsense B-thrillers with the potential to be a good 90-minute sphincter-clencher of a watch. The premise is well-DUH simple: What if you’re on a tiny prop plane over the ocean and the pilot suddenly dies? Allison Williams (of Get Out fame) and Alexander Dreymon play the two passengers who manage to keep the feces inside their bodies in just such a situation. Acrophobes may just say SKIP IT without even reading any further.

‘HORIZON LINE’ : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Sara (Williams) and Jackson (Dreymon) are having one last beer together. She’s been on the island of Mauritius for a year, and they’ve had a marvelous love affair, but she has a great job waiting for her in London, and his place is right here. She reminds him that she’s not one for tearful farewells, so when he gets up to use the restroom, she sneaks out and flies off and breaks his heart and never calls or anything, just working as a “senior brand strategist,” quite happily, one hopes. YOU DO YOU, SARA.

A year passes. Sara made friends on the island, and one of them has called upon her to stand up in her wedding. So she returns. It’s a small island. She and Jackson are bound to see each other. And he’s bound to be honked off like 100 horns being leaned on all at once. There are a few minor throwaway moments involving a crate of rum, an inflatable lifejacket and someone saying something about altitude sickness that surely won’t come into play later in the movie, not at all, I’d bet my life savings on it, but wouldn’t you know it, this isn’t Vegas, it’s Mauritius. Too bad for me!

Fate/the hand of god/the hands of screenwriters put Sara and Jackson on the same single-prop plane for a trip to a nearby island, where they awkwardly snipe at each other until the pilot (Keith David) faceplants atop the instrument panel. Heart attack. Dead. Thankfully, Sara has been on this plane with the same pilot before and he let her fly a little bit because she had a few lessons a while back. Maybe she can keep the thing in the air, except the faceplanting resulted in a busted GPS and busted autopilot and the compass is about to fly the coop too, although the radio works, but then there’s a storm bearing down and the fuel is getting low and what’s going to thwart their existence next? Hostile Russian MiGs? A UFO? Universal health care? NO SPOILERS, CAP’N!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Horizon Line inspires Open Water -style thalassophobia and The Aeronauts -ish acrophobia, although I’m pretty sure nobody’s really dangling from an airplane wing like Tom Cruise would.

Performance Worth Watching: This is essentially a two-performance picture, and Dreymon’s blandness leaves Williams to convince us that all this shouting and wordless grunting is at the service of a plausible conceit. She mostly does, thankfully.

Memorable Dialogue: “You know how much I hate goodbyes,” Sara says, speaking way way way way way too soon.

Sex and Skin: One brief moment of kissy-straddly passion, clothed.

Our Take: Will Sara and Jackson figure out how to fly the plane? Will they run out of gas? Will they survive at all? More importantly, will they work out their interpersonal problems before they become shark bait? Priorities, people, priorities. It’s truly amazing what one unfortunate circumstance piled atop another atop another atop another can do to strengthen a relationship when they’re climbing atop a small-engine aircraft at 15,000 feet. Beats couples’ therapy, any day.

Horizon Line is a how-many-fears-can-you-jam-into-one-movie movie, and it’s effective because if it doesn’t render individual challenges all that believable, they’re overshadowed by the mere possibility of a person falling a very long way down to the Indian Ocean to die a horrible death, and wouldn’t it be just no fun at all if that person was you? There’s just so much water and so much space between a person and the water, and we haven’t even gotten to the lightning yet. There’s a moment where Sara unleashes her first “AAAAAAAHHHHHH!” and it’s only just the second act, and we gird ourselves for many “NNNNGGGGHHHHH”s and “AUHHOOOHHHAUUOOOHH”s to come.

It’s not until the halfway point that the movie truly hits its first UH HUH moment that erodes our suspension of disbelief, but by then, the idea of immediate terrible mortality is pretty much burned in, and we’re not sure if we’re laughing to break the tension or laughing at the silliness of individual situations or laughing at Sara and Jackson’s cornball relationship platitudes or laughing at existentiality itself. I don’t know if Horizon Line is particularly good — it’s a bit cheapo, and nobody will give a single rip about Sara and Jackson’s relationship, uh, turbulence. But its raw, white-knuckle elements are believable enough to make it a real sphincter-clencher, especially if heights just ain’t your bag.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Horizon Line maintains tension for the final hour, and that’s about it. Don’t expect more. A modest goal, mostly met.

Will you stream or skip the high-flying B-thriller #HorizonLine on @hulu ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) August 30, 2021

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .

Where to stream Horizon Line

• Stream It Or Skip It

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Parents' guide to, horizon line.

• Common Sense Says
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• Kids Say 1 Review

Common Sense Media Review

Uninspired airborne thriller has language, racy moments.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Horizon Line is a thriller about a couple (Alexander Dreymon and Allison Williams) who are trapped in a plane that's leaking fuel and lost over the ocean. Expect frequent peril, danger, and suspense. A bloody broken arm is also shown, and a character dies of a heart attack, and his…

Why Age 13+?

Frequent peril/danger/suspense. Character dies of a heart attack. Character brea

Passionate kissing/embracing; one character wraps her legs around another. Coupl

Fairly frequent language includes one "f--k" and one silently mouthed "f--k," as

Drinking in bar and at a party. Characters with hangovers played for laughs. Bot

Any Positive Content?

Characters fight for their lives against difficult odds, but otherwise there's n

Characters show courage and strength, but they're not very well fleshed-out or i

Parents need to know that Horizon Line is a thriller about a couple ( Alexander Dreymon and Allison Williams ) who are trapped in a plane that's leaking fuel and lost over the ocean. Expect frequent peril, danger, and suspense. A bloody broken arm is also shown, and a character dies of a heart attack, and his body is dumped out of the plane to lighten the load. A couple kisses passionately, and one wraps her legs around the other's body. The next morning, they're shown sleeping together; a man is shirtless (with a glimpse of skin below the waist), and a woman's naked back and panties are seen. Language includes two uses of "f--k" (one spoken, and one silently mouthed), plus "s--t," "ass," "Jesus," "thank God," etc. Characters drink in a bar and at a party, and some are comically hung over. Characters also smoke pot and cigarettes, and a case of rum is part of the story.

To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Violence & Scariness

Frequent peril/danger/suspense. Character dies of a heart attack. Character breaks arm; bloody wound shown. Characters decide to throw a body out of the plane to lighten its load.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Passionate kissing/embracing; one character wraps her legs around another. Couple shown sleeping together, presumably after sex. Topless man, with some below-the-belt skin visible. The naked back of a woman wearing panties is shown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Fairly frequent language includes one "f--k" and one silently mouthed "f--k," as well as uses of "s--t," "ass," "dumbass," and "stupid," plus "Jesus" and "thank God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drinking in bar and at a party. Characters with hangovers played for laughs. Bottles of rum are part of the plot. Pot and cigarette smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Characters fight for their lives against difficult odds, but otherwise there's not much heft here. Raises the issue of cultural appropriation, since it's the story of White people living on an island near Africa.

Positive Role Models

Characters show courage and strength, but they're not very well fleshed-out or interesting.

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents Say
• Kids Say (1)

There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's the Story?

In HORIZON LINE, loving couple Jackson ( Alexander Dreymon ) and Sara ( Allison Williams ) are living on the beautiful island nation of Mauritius. They reluctantly break up when Sara leaves for a good job in London and Jackson wants to stay. A year later, Sara returns for a friend's wedding. She and Jackson run into each other before the festivities and share an unexpected night together. They next day, they end up on the same single-engine plane, heading to the wedding. When pilot Freddy ( Keith David ) dies of a heart attack over the ocean, the couple must set aside their differences to find land and get down safely. But they're losing fuel, fast.

Is It Any Good?

It has a decent premise and is compact and nicely paced, but this trapped-in-a-plane thriller eventually nose-dives due to uninteresting characters, lack of suspense, and too much preposterousness. This kind of thriller can work great if it finds the right balance between seriousness and silliness -- and if it introduces characters who are worth caring about. Unfortunately, Horizon Line doesn't really do either. We first meet Jackson and Sara sharing a last drink, with Sara explaining that she hates goodbyes. So, to avoid one, she simply gets up and walks out while Jackson is busy.

That's pretty slim character development, and, other than their jobs, we don't really learn much more about the two leads. Then, during the suspense part -- which this 92-minute movie takes a surprising amount of time to get to -- things just never seem as intense or as scary as they could have been. Two sequences in particular -- in which Jackson climbs out to duct-tape a leak in the fuel line and when Sara climbs out to do something even more dangerous -- feel completely ridiculous. The filmmakers didn't seem to realize how silly these moments are or how much fun they could have been if this silliness had been acknowledged. In the end, Horizon Line just sputters out.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Horizon Line 's violence and peril. How did it make you feel? Is the movie thrilling or shocking? What's the difference?

How is sex depicted? What values are imparted?

How is substance use depicted? Are drinking and smoking glamorized? Are there consequences? Why does that matter?

Do you think the movie is an example of cultural appropriation, given that it's about wo White people on an island near Africa? Why, or why not?

Is Sara a positive role model ? What are her strengths and flaws?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : February 16, 2021
• Cast : Alexander Dreymon , Allison Williams , Keith David
• Director : Mikael Marcimain
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : STX Entertainment
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 92 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : some strong language, bloody injury images, suggestive material/partial nudity, smoking and brief drug use
• Last updated : November 18, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

• Cast & crew

User reviews

Horizon Line

• Stentheugly
• Mar 29, 2022

A passable thriller - watch it, forget it! [+40%]

• arungeorge13
• Jan 14, 2021

Meh, just ok

• May 7, 2022

Horizon Line: Too silly to be taken seriously

• Platypuschow
• Aug 11, 2024

This is a joke. Must be.

• Jan 22, 2021

Another Netflix Joke.

• yusufpiskin
• Jan 19, 2021

Wow what a movie

• Doubleredrolex
• Jan 13, 2021

Not that bad at all...it's for entertainment!

• mcsinteriors
• Jan 16, 2021

Ahhhhh Really!?!?

• pjvideo-12058
• Jul 18, 2022

I'm in the minority, but I found it quite watchable

• Nov 26, 2022

Not logical

• sinankarabulut
• Mar 14, 2021

Predictable, but fun

• masones-34010

It is pretty good

• Oct 31, 2020

If You Aren't Related To The Cast And Crew...Avoid

• damianphelps
• Mar 6, 2021

Irredeemably ridiculous writing and terrible editing.

• Nov 4, 2020

Blahahahaha

• labgrrrl-25454
• Sep 1, 2021

A gaffe per minute. Suspend your disbelief and your brain.

• rlovell-15246
• Jul 18, 2021

CAUSED MY DIVORCE

Just good entertainment.

• dhanisingh-40445
• amyemcdonald-91626
• Jun 21, 2021

An intense, well done thriller

• johncheard-928-711456

Defies physics and all common sense

• Feb 9, 2021

Enjoyable action thriller - Just go along for the ride!!

• Wandering-Hobbit
• Jan 12, 2021

Entertainment that even kids could watch

• kellyjtmorgan
• Jan 12, 2023

The Plane Should Have Crashed, And Saved Us Instead

• Apr 1, 2021

More from this title

More to explore, recently viewed.

Summary Former lovers Sara (Allison Williams) and Jackson (Alexander Dreymon) discover new altitudes of fear aboard a single-engine Cessna plane. It was supposed to be a routine and casual 99-minute flight to their friend’s tropical island wedding. But within minutes after takeoff, their pilot suffers a fatal heart attack, leaving Sara and Jacks ... Read More

Directed By : Mikael Marcimain

Written By : Josh Campbell, Matt Stuecken

Horizon Line

Where to watch.

Allison Williams

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CULTURE CRYPT

Horizon line (2020).

Studio :     STX Films Director :    Mikael Marcimain Writer :     Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken Producer :  Fredrik Wikstrom Nicastro Stars :     Allison Williams, Alexander Dreymon, Keith David

Review Score :

A couple with a complicated relationship fights for survival aboard an airborne plane after their pilot suddenly dies.

Let’s start with straight facts. “Horizon Line” comes from STX Films, an indie media company specializing in mid-budget movies anchored around one star. In this case, that one star is Allison Williams, who isn’t a “puts butts in seats” A-lister, yet provides enough of a name that people will at least hear that this film exists. Versatile veteran Keith David’s “and” appearance underwrites additional assurance that genre fans will pay attention, and can reasonably count on some semblance of quality or curiosity whenever he is involved. After debuting overseas with no one noticing, “Horizon Line” went straight to North American VOD with minimal peeps of publicity in January, a month notorious for “we don’t have faith in this” dumps and “roll the dice” DTVers with little to lose in the first place.

Taking everything above, “Horizon Line” turns out to be precisely what you would think. A low-risk proposition for producers as well as viewers, it’s a basic B-movie following a safe formula for easy, breezy “in one ear and immediately out the other” entertainment. Attractive actors. Simple premise. No deeper than it needs to be. Efficient technical polish and the lush landscapes of shooting Ireland for Indian Ocean islands tell you this was probably a project for journeymen professionals who wanted to squeeze a little vacation into two weeks of by-the-book union work they could do in their sleep.

Versatile though he may be, it seems one thing Keith David cannot do is convincingly mimic an islander accent. Luckily, he’s Keith David, so it doesn’t matter. Plus, he dies only seven minutes after first appearing onscreen, so he also isn’t around long. That’s still plenty of time for David to effortlessly create a charming personality when he’s really just playing the part of a plot device. Again, he’s Keith David. That’s what greatness does.

David’s quick death puts the plot into motion, though that bucket kick doesn’t actually occur until 25 minutes into the movie. When his pilot character keels over en route to a destination wedding, Allison Williams and co-star Alexander Dreymon are left to their own improvisation to figure out how to fly a plane with no navigation, no radio, and dwindling fuel.

Williams and Dreymon play Sara Johnson and Jackson Davison, plain names indicative of writers patching a story together in ten days while simultaneously acknowledging its averageness. She’s a career woman whose yearlong getaway in Mauritius resulted in a romance she wasn’t ready for. That makes him an inconvenient lover left in the lurch when Sara’s fear of commitment compels her to skip town without saying goodbye. One year later, Sara returns to the island for a friend’s nuptials. Running into Jackson results in a chilly reunion with the potential to spark into something else. And what better way to bond than fighting for your lives 10,000 feet in the air above the middle of nowhere?

Given the nature of such setups, Jackson is of course a headshot handsome dude flexing steeled abs in shirtless scenes. But Dreymon makes it so Jackson reads as a well-meaning good guy rather than another athletic gigolo. Sara can be seen as a jerk for jilting him due to her own insecurities, but her characterization could be worse too. Williams has built-in charisma to compensate for that flaw, and the movie makes a modest effort to balance Sara’s bad behavior with Jackson vaguely forcing a choice between him or her dream job. Basically, the necessary amount of chemistry exists so that while they may not be robustly realized characters, Sara and Jackson are a fair puff above being completely hollow people.

It becomes easy to be on their side because, not only is their conflict not totally tiresome, they’re also shown to be surprisingly smart. Cynics could accuse “Horizon Line’s” slim story of relying too much on serendipity to keep it spinning. No more than any other movie in this niche however. Sara and Jackson come up with some crafty tricks like using a watch and makeshift compass to plot their path without computerized GPS. Their resourcefulness and repeated displays of faith-in-each-other courage put them well ahead of similar characters in their subgenre’s weight class.

Naturally, there are only so many ways a small plane can encounter catastrophic trouble in an hour. More than likely, you can think of all of those ways simply from having seen so many copycat movies. “Horizon Line” thinks of all of them too, and still comes up short on nailbiting scenarios. The solution is to do everything twice. Two sudden nosedives. Two cliffhanger climbs across the plane’s exterior to address fuel tank issues. Spaces between get filled with earthquake camera B-roll of hands squeezing flight controls and so on. It’s fluff you can watch on fast-forward and the only side effect is how much faster the film will evaporate from your memory than it would when you watch it normally.

The only fair score is 50/100. If you haven’t seen the movie, but have read this review, you already know which side of that slash you’re going to fall. “Horizon Line” is exactly what’s advertised by the one-sentence summary, compact cast, nondescript artwork, and every other common clue sunning itself in the open air. When you make a choice to watch a throwaway thriller like this one, you know what you’re getting into. Whether that’s good or bad to you, “Horizon Line” caters to expectations.

Review Score : 50

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Horizon Line Reviews

• 1 hr 32 mins
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A year after handsome diving instruction on Mauritius Jackson is stood up by London PR executive Sara, who sneaked out at the pub, she's back on the island for her best friend's wedding. After initially hiding from him, she finds him cool and they spend the night together. She sneaks out again, rushing to he wedding on neighboring island Rodriguez, misses the only ferry but by a hair makes the only airplane flight, by local pilot Freddy Wyman, an old friend. It turns out Jackson already booked a flight. Freddy insists to let her try flying, as he once gave her basic instructions, but gets a cardiac arrests and dies, having turned off the auto-pilot. Jackson pushes her to take the wheel, as communications and navigation equipment are badly damaged. A storm causes more damage and disorientation. he climbs out to fix a fuel leak, but incurs a broken arm and they lost too much fuel, so she climbs out to fill up with the crate pf rum on board. Last minute they reach a sand bank, well crash close enough to swim to it, but it floods at rising tide and they spot a shark, and have little hope to get helped.