Secrets. White lies. Sometimes it’s all we have or at least what we perceive to have that’ll hold ourselves or the world around us together. In some instances, they may even hold the key to a brighter future. One of victory. One of peace. One of hope. And for Flight Officer, Maude Garrett, nothing could be further from the truth as she sits trapped in a gunner’s hatch suspended beneath the belly of a Boeing-B7 Bomber, while her top secret package lies somewhere up above in the heart of the vessel amongst a crew of misfit soldiers that (with both good and bad reason) do not trust her. But just as she spins her tales and pleads with the crew, professing the legitimacy and importance of her person, her secrets, and her mission, so too does she with the audience, who watch and listen with bated breath. But as both characters and audience follow the wild escalation of her adventure, the question beckons to be asked, are the revelations made along the way and the means by which they come about worthy of praise and sympathy or scorn and disdain? Let’s get into it?
Directed and co-written by Roseanne Liang and Max Landis, Netflix’s 2020 action-horror, Shadow in the Clouds, follows WW2 female flight officer, Maude Garrett (Chloë Grace Moretz), as she boards a Boeing B-17 Bomber in an attempt to deliver a top secret passage across the pacific. However, once in the air, she and the crew encounter a nasty gremlin tearing apart their plane, throwing the mission and their lives into jeopardy, especially when enemy forces appear on the horizon. Now doesn’t that sound absolutely thrilling?! Because it most certainly is.
Liang and Landis are masters of tension when setting up this unusual amalgamation of genre spectacle. It’s juggling trying to be a competent claustrophobic thriller, creature feature, and war movie all at once. And surprisingly, the story and plot (for the most part) hold together, generating a pleasantly uncomfortable and dubious situation that almost exclusively rides on Chloë Grace Moretz’s performance. And considering that much of the run time is just her stuck in the cramp gunner's nest talking to the crew through a radio, it’s amazing how much tension she and the film are able to squeeze out of just that. Add to it the effective use of the delightfully menacing gremlin, as well as a few harrowing dogfights (plane battles, for the less informed), and you got yourself a hell of flick that only amps up with each passing second. However, for as much as I praise the film for its constant and effective escalation of stakes as well as its endearing and courageous mix of genre, there is a noticeable tipping point where I predict many will fall off.
To be clear, following the moment in question, the creators endeavor to offer the most bang-for-buck experience with the direction they choose to take the film in, which can feel satisfactory in a particular way; a way in which I certainly still managed to enjoy. But in that same breath, I also couldn’t help but feel a tinge betrayed by how it ultimately finishes out.
To avoid spoilers (at least for the moment), the film makes a hard shift in tone into something that is far different from how it started, almost making it feel as though you’ve watched the ending to an entirely different movie. I do not think the exhilarating spirit of what was done is inherently bad. In fact, I believe wholeheartedly that there’s a version that can still emotionally accomplish what the film does give us without compromising the tone or Maude Garrett’s character. Be that as it may, the choices made do all aspects of the film set up a major disservice; a disservice that still gets the job done and can most certainly still be enjoyed, but it’s a disservice nonetheless.
(WARNING: Major Spoilers Ahead! To avoid, skip to the final paragraph.)
So to put things more succinctly, Shadow in the Clouds takes a highly provocative suspense thriller/ creature-feature and for whatever reason in the third act hard shifts it into a peak 80’s, high-octane, implausible action romp. Admittedly, it could be argued that some of my nitpicks occur due to an oversight of plausible physics or simply because the creators chose to ignore them for the sake of entertainment, which, in either case, is understandable enough. But even when trying to suspend disbelief for the sake of the fact that it’s a movie, it’s hard for me to stay on board when a tiny, not-so-strong female (soldier or not) rock climbs out beneath the wing of a bullet ridden plane the full distance of the wing and back while the plane is rocketing through the air at a minimum of 6,500 feet, going over 200 mph.
But even then, if one were to let that go, which I did, it still wouldn’t excuse how said female at one point falls through a hole in the plane a fair distance, only to be saved seconds later by a separate plane that explodes beneath her. How? Because the force of the explosion shoots her back up into the plane through the same hole without burning her, much less killing her. BUT EVEN THEN, if one were to look past such a miraculous happenstance, it still wouldn’t account for the reality that by the time Maude Garret falls from the plane, the plane would have moved too far away for the explosion to shoot her back up into it. That being said, if you too let that go, then the whole sequence can feel like a delightfully insane escalation of danger that adds to an already wild ride. But wait! That’s not even the craziest or weirdest part.
Following Maude successfully kicking the gremlin out of the plane midair and then helping crash land it, she and the surviving crew members sit quietly and contemplate their miraculous survival. Up to this point, it could be argued that Maude’s heroic actions and transformation come about because of the fact that she’s fighting for the preservation of the top secret package, which turns out to be her baby in reality. Essentially, her motherly instincts drive her to be the more competent, courageous protector she’s partly masquerading as at the start of the film. I would relate this to something in the vain of Ripley from Aliens. It’s all fine and good, but even a character like Ripley wouldn’t have pulled off Maude’s final note of insane valor. Because at the very end, the gremlin makes a return, snatches her baby (for inexplicable reasons), and tries to run off. Maude, battered, bloodied, and partially blown up, then in turn runs the monster down and takes back her baby, before proceeding to beat the gremlin to death via a full on Mortal Kombat style throw down complete with a gruesome Fatality. BUT EVEN THEN, the film does not end as Maude walks back, sits atop the plane, and begins breastfeeding her baby in front of the other soldiers with a highly triumphant air of confidence. It’s a final, exhilarating stamp on an absolutely bonkers ride that will undoubtedly stick with any viewer. And like I said before, it’s thoroughly enjoyable in a way and makes emotional sense. It just doesn’t fit the movie that was set up in the beginning, which is both a delight and a shame all at once.
(SPOILERS OVER)
At the end of the day, Shadow in the Clouds feels like a movie divided between two tones, suspenseful terror and ridiculous action. It does both exceedingly well, but ultimately can’t blend them well enough to make the movie feel cohesive as a whole, a fact that will surely turn many off when entering the third act. But even with that, I would recommend that anyone give this movie a shot, if only to see how off the rails it truly can get. It has a lot to love in many different ways, but watching it feels like trying to eat a savory steak with a caramel chocolate center. Both things taste great, just not necessarily together. And this comes from someone that overall did enjoy the movie. But like any other flick, being entertaining does not make the film impervious to critique, nor excuse it from poor choices, which it certainly makes.
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