Question: At the end of the movie, when they are at the tip of the plane, Jodi and her daughter slip into a tiny compartment, just as she activates the bomb. She and her daughter are safe, and the small space they were in must have been bomb-proof. Since that compartment is at a part of the plane that is rarely visited, how come a tiny place was made entirely bomb-proof? Or what was the space they climbed into and for what reason was it made?
Question: So no-one saw Jodie Foster bring her kid on the plane, I understand that. The plane was empty when the 2 of them boarded as they were the first to board. There wasn't anyone else on the plane and as soon as they got to their seats her little girl bent down on the floor to play with a toy, so I fully understand that no-one saw the girl. What I want to know, is how did the hijackers know she was going to be boarding first? Had she boarded much later with other passengers then SOMEONE would have seen the kid, and that would have totally foiled the plan. How could they have banked on her boarding first?
Chosen answer: He didn't know for sure, but he had a hunch. As far as he could tell she would arrive early to register the body for the U.S. and they would let her board the plane first (as a common courtesy, since her husband died) Plus, he knew that she had knowledge of planes and that it was her interest to see a new model of an aircraft that she helped build before it was to take off.
Question: At the very beginning of the movie, Kyle sits on the bench alone in the empty subway station. She looks very shocked or frightened. Why is that? Because at that time, her husband David is not dead. He walks up to Kyle and they get on the yellow subway train home.
Answer: I believe he isn't really there. She's on her own on the way to the morgue but she's too scared to do it; that's why she's upset and why she takes long time to get on the train but he appears in her head to give her the courage to get up and get on the train to the morgue. It's done to set the scene.
Question: After reading what really happened, I am still not understanding why they killed her husband. Did he know something that he should not have known? I do understand the need for his coffin to hide the bombs...now why did they need to take her daughter as a 'hostage' for the sake of the $50 million dollars?
Answer: If there's no dead husband, there's no coffin to hide a bomb in. Without the daughter's disappearance, Kyle won't have reason to unlock the coffin (only she knew the code; the terrorists didn't). When the captain initially refuses to have the hold searched, the marshal suggests it would be a good idea for him to take Kyle down there and look. This would be for the purpose of having her open the coffin, and allowing him to access the bomb.
Question: What about the morgue director? Was he in on it with Carson?
Chosen answer: At the end of the movie, the police ask Kyle to look at a photo to ID the morgue director. So he was in on it. He had to be because Gene/Carson didn't have the code to open the casket. Therefore he could not have put the explosives into the casket. Remember he needed Kyle to leave it open on the plane.
Question: Why did Kyle Pratt kill Carson, instead of sparing his life, running to either the cargo door or passenger door, showing the people her daughter, telling them he was the hijacker? He appears to have injured his leg after he fell down in the restroom, He was further away from both of the doors than Kyle, And she probably would gotten to one of them before him, because he wouldn't have been able to move fast enough to get to either of the doors before her. And then he would have gotten arrested, because then the people would have realised that he had deceived them. And his charismatic and manipulative skills would no longer have helped him.
Answer: Because even if she had managed to convince people he was the hijacker, and get him arrested, there would have been risks that he would escape from jail, and try to get revenge on her for ruining his plan.
Answer: There's something satisfying with seeing a villain undone by his own devices, so after Kyle finds out that Carson was behind everything and willing to kill her and her daughter, Kyle is eliminating his threat while getting revenge, thus providing an explosive end to him that might satisfy the moviegoers desire for his utter defeat.
Question: How did Carson convince the captain Kyle was a hijacker without showing any evidence of Kyle being a hijacker?
Answer: Basically, Carson used his role as an air marshal to mislead everyone. In matters of security, the captain would assume the marshal was the expert and he would follow his recommendations.
Well a plot hole says just Carson is an Air Marshal does not mean the captain would trust him. The captain would know Air Marshals break the law too.
The captain had no reason to distrust him. He's busy flying the plane and Carson is acting exactly the way an air marshal would.
You would have to read the entire plot hole.
The captain has no reason at all to distrust an air marshal at that point. First of all, he was suspicious of her from the beginning and was angry for disrupting the flight which was the whole point of removing all evidence of the daughter, which was also the point have the morgue director sending a fake certificate that Julia died. They were going to use the "daughter's disappearance" as a credible excuse for "Kyle" to enter the hold and retrieve the explosives. The real plot hole is not that Carson has no evidence of as a hijacker, but why the airline accepts the "hijacker's" request to wire the money without talking to them or having a background identity.
Question: Why would the airport not x-ray a casket? Did the morgue director order them not to?
Answer: Often times cargo, such as the casket, are sent by "known shippers" and it's the known shippers that were responsible for screening. So the airport would not x-ray cargo that was already deemed secured (i.e. safe).
Question: Why did Kyle want to sit in the courtyard with her husband at the beginning? She looked quite serious. What is the significance?
Chosen answer: There's no explanation, but there seems to be some sort of tension or discord going on between them that may be putting some strain on their marriage. They may have wanted a more private place to discuss something where they knew their daughter could not overhear. They also acted this way when they're in the subway station, communicating that all is not right between them.
Question: How did Carson know Kyle had worked out he was a terrorist near the end of the movie?
Answer: At the end, when Kyle is speaking to the captain just before he disembarks the plane, she then realises that everyone believes she is the terrorist. She works out that Carson is the likely person behind the scheme and had been manipulating everything happening during the flight. When Kyle starts pretending to the captain that she is the terrorist in order to get what she wants (to find her daughter), Carson then realises that she likely now knows that he is in on the plot.
Question: I get how no one saw the child get on the plane. But how did no one see the kidnappers take her and put her under the plane, not even crew members?
Answer: Carson told Kyle that he put Julie inside a drink cart and used that to transport her to the lower area. Since one of the crew members was an accomplice, it's likely she helped move the cart.
How would they have put Julia inside a drink cart? Children Julia's age can weigh 40 to 60 pounds. That's more than drink carts are built to take. How would they have moved the cart without Julia's weight causing it to break?
"Suspension of disbelief" rears its head again-the audience isn't meant to analyze or be aware of the drink cart's limits, or how anyone could put a child into one while on a plane full of passengers. A limp body is not easily carried or maneuvered, but the viewer is just supposed to accept that they managed it for plot sake.
Answer: The hatch they climb into is the hold of the plane, i.e., the section with the coffin, the car, and all the other luggage in. It only appears small because of the way it is filmed. As Kyle would have known, it would have been extra strong and reinforced, as it was a break in two sections of the plane.