Barely, 3 out of 10. It's a tense airplane thriller with some jump scares.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
3 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Low
The tension is gone by the time you get home, though you may study your next seatmate.
DOG
Dog: fine
no dog dies.
Ruling: It is a tense thriller with a very rude seatmate, fine for most people, but skip it before a flight.
Red Eye runs 85 minutes. Lisa has a drink with a charming stranger at an airport bar, then finds out he is in the seat next to hers.
The premise, briefly
On an overnight flight to Miami, a hotel manager learns that the charming man in the next seat needs her help with an assassination plot, and her father's life depends on her going along.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Lisa stabs Jackson in the throat with a pen, gets the Keefe family out before the missile hits, and runs over the hitman with an SUV. Joe shoots Jackson before he can finish Lisa.
The scene you're dreading
The pen stab as the plane lands: Lisa jabs a ballpoint pen into Jackson's throat, grabs his phone and runs off the plane. It happens right after she tells him why she won't be pushed around.
The dog
No dog dies in Red Eye.
Red Eye is a tense chase that gets physical near the end, and knowing the plot makes it easy to watch.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A drink at the airport bar and a seatmate she did not expect
After her grandmother's funeral in Texas, Lisa Reisert gets to the airport to catch the red-eye back to Miami. She meets Jackson Rippner, a handsome young man who is also headed to Miami, and the two have a drink at the airport bar and make small talk. To Lisa's surprise, Jackson turns out to be in the seat next to hers on the plane. Once the plane is in the air his manner changes. He tells Lisa he works for a domestic terrorist organization that plans to assassinate Charles Keefe, the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. Lisa works as a manager at the Lux Atlantic Hotel in Miami, which is where the Keefe family is staying, and that job is why Jackson picked her.
Jackson wants Lisa to phone the hotel and have the Keefe family moved out of their regular suite and into one that a missile, fired from a boat in the harbor, will hit. If she refuses, her father Joe will be killed. Lisa tries to stall and to find help, even leaving a made-up bomb threat in the bathroom, but Jackson catches every attempt. Eventually she calls her co-worker Cynthia and gets the Keefe family switched into the suite that is the target. Until the assassination is confirmed, Jackson refuses to stand down the hitman who is waiting outside Joe's house.
A ballpoint pen as the plane lands
As the plane lands in Miami, Lisa tells Jackson that she was raped at knife point two years ago and swore it would never happen to her again. Then she drives a ballpoint pen into his throat, takes his phone and runs off the plane. That is the scene to brace for. Jackson chases her out of the airport, and she steals an unattended SUV. She phones Cynthia and tells her to clear the building. Cynthia, the Keefe family and Secret Service agents leave the suite seconds ahead of the missile, which wrecks it and damages the upper floors.
A phone battery with terrible timing
Lisa's phone battery dies while she is calling her father, so she drives to his house. She runs the hitman over with the SUV as he shoots at her, and the SUV smashes through the front door. Joe is fine and has already called 9-1-1. Jackson shows up, knocks Joe out and chases Lisa through the house. They struggle, and he throws her down the staircase. Lisa takes the dead hitman's gun and shoots Jackson, but he is only wounded, takes the gun away and is on the verge of killing her when Joe wakes up, finds the gun and shoots Jackson. Lisa then goes back to the hotel to help.
The ending, explained
Joe shoots Jackson just as Jackson is about to kill Lisa. Lisa and Joe both survive, and the hitman is dead after Lisa hits him with the SUV. The Keefe family left their suite in time, so the missile only hit the empty suite and the floors above it. Lisa goes back to the hotel to help, and Keefe thanks her and Cynthia for saving his family.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Red Eye scary?
Red Eye scores 3 out of 10 with a low dread level. The fear is suspense on an overnight flight, and there are jump scares.
How does Red Eye end?
Lisa stabs Jackson with a pen, warns the hotel just before a missile hits the suite the Keefes were moved to, and drives to her father's house, where Joe shoots Jackson before he can kill her.
Does the dog die in Red Eye?
No dog dies in Red Eye.
Is there a post-credits scene in Red Eye?
No. Red Eye has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Why does Jackson need Lisa in Red Eye?
Lisa manages the Lux Atlantic Hotel in Miami, where the Keefe family is staying, so she can have them moved to the suite that a missile will hit.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Red Eye is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You can find out how Red Eye ends without sitting next to Jackson for the whole flight. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror before you see it.
