Warning: Major spoilers for Netflix's Carry-On.
Continue joined Netflix's action film catalog and, although it's a lot of fun, it leaves some plot holes, questions and moments that simply don't make sense. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by Dylan Clark, Continue takes place at Los Angeles Airport on Christmas Eve, one of the most chaotic days of the year at airports. Continue follows Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton), a TSA officer who, after asking his boss for a promotion because his girlfriend, Nora (Sofia Carson), is pregnant, is assigned to manage a baggage scanning lane.
Ethan's shift takes a disturbing turn when he receives a supposedly forgotten headset and is told to put it on. Ethan begins to receive clear instructions from a man simply known as the Traveler (Jason Bateman), who tells him to let his associate through, regardless of what he sees in his suitcase – and if Ethan doesn't do so, Nora will be killed. . Continue goes from thriller to action film and quickly loses groundand while that doesn't make it any less fun, it leaves a lot of plot holes, questions, and pointless moments.
10
Carry-On Never Explains How Olek Was Killed
An unresolved death at the beginning
Continue opens with the Traveler, hidden in the shadows, entering a greenhouse where he meets a Russian named Olek. The Traveler gives Olek a bag of money and Olek gives him the keys to a car, where he will find what he came for in the trunk. However, when Olek opens the bag to check the money, seconds later He starts coughing blood and dies on the spot.. Olek's nephew Yuri runs back to the greenhouse immediately, only to be killed by the Traveler before setting the place on fire.
The police finally arrive at the burned greenhouse and identify the bodies of Olek and Yuri, revealing that they had been following their tracks. However, is never explained by the police or anyone else Continue how Olek was killedas he had no direct contact with the Traveler, it is possible that the money was poisoned, but even so there are many doubts about Olek's death.
9
Killing Nora at the airport is not the best idea
Not the traveler's brightest plan
Ethan's girlfriend, Nora Parisi, also works at the airport, but in a completely different area, which makes it much easier for the Traveler and his people to keep an eye on them both. However, threatening to kill Nora at the airport and having a sniper ready to shoot her at any moment is not a smart idea. Unlike Jason's (Sinqua Walls) family, who are leaving the house while being watched by the Traveler's men, Nora is in one of the busiest places in the city – of course there would be evidence of who did this and where.
Shooting her at the airport would have caused the entire place to be locked down and therefore the plane they planned to blow up would not have left.
Furthermore, and assuming that Ethan hadn't done what the Traveler told him and they had to kill Nora, shooting her at the airport would have caused the entire place to be locked down and therefore the plane they planned to blow up. I wouldn't have left. They still could have continued with their plan and killed many more people at the airport, but they would have been caught much more easily.
8
Somehow the traveler never raises any suspicions at the airport
It passes through all filters without suspecting
Airport security, especially at the world's largest and busiest airports, is high, but for some reason, it's not at LAX on Christmas Eve in Continue. The Traveler has already gone through security filters by the time he puts his plan into actionand he has everything to arouse suspicion at any airport: all dressed in black, wearing a cap all the time, carrying a backpack and always looking down to avoid showing his face.
Furthermore, the Traveler carries poison in his backpack and, even so, this does not raise a flag at the airport at any time. This could be explained by adding one more target to his plan before he started talking to Ethan, someone who would have let him through all the filters without a problem, but it still doesn't make sense given all the cameras scattered around the airport.
7
Traveler's people should have known about Ethan's failed polygraph test
They knew everything… except that
The Traveler has a team that checks the backgrounds of their targets so they can blackmail them much more easily. Ethan shouldn't be their target, but they still manage to get all the information in time. Thanks to this, the Traveler knows everything about Ethan's education, relationship, family, and more, but for some reason, he doesn't know about his past at the police academy and why he failed. Ethan is the one who tells him about this, revealing that he failed the polygraph test.
The reason Ethan failed the police academy polygraph test is also revealed by Ethan as he talks to the Traveler, who makes assumptions and deductions based on what Ethan reveals to him. The Traveler should have known about the polygraph test and why Ethan failedbut perhaps your team was not qualified enough to obtain this information.
6
Traveler's associate manages to sneak in a parachute
Another example of poor airport security on carry-on luggage
The Traveler is not the only one who passes through airport security without any problems and never raises suspicions – the same happens with one of his associates. While Ethan is doing his job, a young woman with blue hair shows the tray and says the headset is not hersso he takes it to keep in “lost and found.” However, he receives a message telling him to put on his headset and act normally while receiving instructions from the Traveler.
It is later revealed that part of the Traveler's plan is to escape the plane with a parachute and let the rest die – and to do so, he received a parachute from the same blue-haired woman. The woman may have stolen it from somewhere inside the airport and given it to the Traveler, but that also raises a lot of questions about how and why she wasn't caught.
5
They don't need a sniper if they want to kill Nora
If they're going to do it, there are better ways
Another thing that doesn't make sense in the Traveler's plan in Continue involving Nora is how they planned to kill her. As mentioned above, shooting her in the airport parking lot is not a smart idea, because if they had done that, the airport would have been closed and everyone would have been caught. Furthermore, and given the methods they proved to have, a sniper keeping an eye on Nora was completely unnecessary and they could have killed her in more discreet ways.
The Traveler or any of his associates could have posed as a normal traveler and approached Nora, passing the poison to her.
The Traveler carries poison and at one point uses it to kill one of the airport officers and a friend of Ethan's. This substance is very strong and fast and would have been much more discreet than shooting Nora. The Traveler or any of his associates could have posed as a normal traveler and approached Nora, passing the poison to her and killing her instantly… but no.
4
Lionel from Carry-On is killed too easily
Rest in peace Lionel
The plan to kill Nora is needlessly complicated, and other deaths in Continue They are very easy and almost absurd. Falling into the latter category is the death of Lionel, Ethan's colleague and friend, who gives him a stain remover that Ethan later uses to write a message in “invisible” ink warning Lionel of the Traveler's plan. However, the Traveler catches Ethan and, as he is not supposed to say anything to anyone, shows him the consequences of his actions.
The Traveler bumps into Lionel, who seconds later falls to his knees and dies on the spot. It is later revealed in Continue what Lionel was killed by a substance that caused him a heart attackwhich was given to him through a scratch on his hand when he bumped into the Traveler. What doesn't make sense is not only how quickly and easily Lionel is killed, but also how the Traveler managed to get the poison through airport security.
3
After all, Elena Cole isn't very smart
Elena Cole makes a very questionable move
At the beginning of the Traveler's conversations with Ethan, the latter surreptitiously calls 911, but is caught by the Traveler's observer, forcing him to hang up when the operator answers. This, along with the discovery of Olek's burned-out greenhouse and the smuggling of Novichok into the country, leads the Los Angeles Police Department to investigate Ethan and the airport. Detective Elena Cole (Danielle Deadwyler) is on the case and alerts the Department of Homeland Security.
Cole is later on her way to the airport with DHS agent John Alcott (Logan Marshall-Green), but while in the car, she discovers that he is not who he claims to be and is instead one of the Traveler's associates. Cole reacts immediately and attacks the fake Alcott, opening the way for ContinueThe biggest action scene in… but it doesn't make sense.
As an LAPD detective, Cole should have known better and not attacked the fake Alcott while driving on a surprisingly not very busy highway in Los Angeles. Cole's reckless decision paved the way for one of the most praised and also most criticized scenes in Continuebut a wiser attitude would be expected of her.
2
Ethan should have called 911, not Eddie
Ethan isn't thinking straight
After restarting the bomb, Ethan gives up and takes off his headset. However, he still needs to stop the Traveler from blowing up an entire plane full of passengers, but he also needs to make sure Nora is safe. Ethan texts his colleague (and amateur rapper) Eddie (Gil Perez-Abraham) and tells him to take Nora to safety, while also warning him about the bomb. Of course, the Traveler won't let that happen and sends the Watcher (Theo Rossi) after them.
At this point, Ethan no longer cares about warning others about the bomb, so for some reason he decides to put his colleague at risk instead of calling 911. Ethan's terrible decision causes Eddie to almost die in the same way as Lionel, but fortunately, Continue shows that he survived, but this whole problem could have been avoided.
1
Ethan enters the cargo area of a moving plane
Ethan became a full-fledged action star
Continue loses ground as it develops, and the icing on the cake is Ethan's final act to save the plane. Despite Ethan's best efforts, the Traveler boards the plane with the bomb, which he is forced to send to the cargo area after Ethan switches the bomb into an identical but slightly larger suitcase (and somehow he does this without detonating the bomb). Ethan then drives up to the moving plane, opens the cargo area and jumps inside.. Once there, he resets the bomb and fights the Traveler.
Sure, the whole fight inside the cargo hold is pretty absurd, but the ease with which Ethan jumps into the cargo area while the plane is moving and the pilots ignoring the warning of an open door are even more absurd. And yet, with all these plot holes and questions and nonsense, Continue is a very fun action film that is best enjoyed without thinking too much about logic.