Apple TV+’s series “Hijack” is a textbook example of how to create a maximally streamlined project in times of a complex geopolitical situation, and simply a quality product.

At the center of the series “Hijack” is a negotiator named Sam (Idris Elba), who finds himself on a flight from Dubai to London that has been taken over by a group of unknown individuals. Sam’s main goal is to get home. So he enters into a risky dialogue with the hijackers (no one calls them terrorists) and tries to resolve the situation.

Can you smell the mothballs? A classic closed-room thriller (confined space, nowhere to run), equally classic villains (loud, threatening with weapons, but are they really villains?!), a classic brave hero who will save everyone (a thoroughly positive, good-natured guy who’s only missing a toothpick to complete the image), and finally, the classic confusion about what the government should do with all this.

It might seem like we’ve seen hundreds of similar films (and series about troubles on board an airplane are not uncommon). But a proven formula is a proven formula because it works. With some caveats, of course.

First, the main character must be charismatic. The kind you believe in, whose unconventional actions and unexpected decisions you want to follow. Check. It’s hard to find a more suitable action hero who is simultaneously convincing on the levels of intellect and charisma than Idris Elba. His natural magnetism and charm drive the story in the most necessary way – you perfectly understand why both the criminals and ordinary passengers trust him.

Second, the main thing in such stories is tension. And here we check the box. The series “Hijack” has 7 episodes – one hour for each hour of the seven-hour flight from Dubai to London. This creates the feeling that events are unfolding in real time. The creators skillfully use cliffhangers between episodes, and within them build a mosaic of various puzzle pieces – conflicts among passengers, the crew’s attempts to change the situation, contradictions among the hijackers themselves, and the international investigation of the incident from the ground. It’s simply captivating to watch, and the hour-long episodes fly by almost unnoticed.

And the third circumstance that often ruins good ideas – politics and attempts at realism. In the series “Hijack,” they somehow managed to smooth over the rough edges in both respects. As I already noted, no one openly talks about terrorism, international political conflicts are not highlighted in any way (although there are all the prerequisites). And as for realism, it’s not even worth mentioning – there’s a scene where the characters on board the plane communicate using a video game!

The creators made the right bet on pure adrenaline. No convoluted spy conspiracies, no layering of propagandistic (they would have been that anyway) subtexts. Just the plane, a tense conflict between people locked in one space, and Elba’s charisma. “Hijack” rests on these three pillars, and it holds up so well that other genre works would do well to achieve such a level of mastery despite the absolute secondariness of the material.

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