The Raid at 30,000 feet | Wings of Dread (2026)

I am Jason Kleeberg, this is Force Five, and today I’m going to give you 5 reasons you might like the 2026 action film Wings of Dread, and make sure to stay until the end because there are 2 Top 5 lists this movie could definitely be on.

Reason number 5, if you like “trapped on a plane” thrillers, you’ll dig Wings of Dread. Think aircraft pressure cookers like Passenger 57, Executive Decision, Air Force One, Turbulance, Non-Stop. Wings of Dread takes that familiar hijacking premise and adds full-scale martial arts action where every aisle is a battleground. It’s also got one of the most interesting fights on a plane I’ve seen but I’ll talk about that in a minute. 

Reason number 4, if you’re a fan of The Raid films, specifically for Iko Uwais who played Rama in those films, I think you’ll enjoy this. Iko Uwais plays the primary antagonist in this one, a smart, ass-kicking, dubbed henchman who’s trying to free a prisoner aboard the plane. And when I say dubbed, it’s distractingly not his voice when he talks but something about that felt kind of charming because it doesn’t even attempt to sound like what he sounds like in real life. His fights against Ashton Chen are awesome and while it never reaches the sustained brutality of The Raid, it gives Iko fans like me much more of what I want to see in contrast to his Hollywood appearances.

Reason number 3, I’ve alluded to it twice now but there’s an amazing fight in the movie between Ashton Chen and Iko Uwais that takes place in the cargo bay that is really entertaining, and it’s not just because of the clash of style between Iko Uwais and his silat vs. Ashton Chen’s kung fu. During this scene, the plane flies into a thunder storm which makes the plane teeter wildly, leading to luggage sliding and crashing, balance shifting and an ever changing fight landscape. It’s a really fun scene with great martial arts on display, kinetic choreography that lets you see what’s happening without a ton of needless cuts.

Reason number 2, Ashton Chen isn’t just a great martial artist, he also directed this film alongside Pengfei Qin. There is some dodgy CG, which is consistent with most Chinese films of this budget that I’ve seen, but most of the movie looks amazing. The shots are thoughtfully framed, a lot of the exterior shots look great and he lets the fighters do their thing without chopping things up. That’s directorial confidence. He’s also fun to watch as an actor. He’s not new, he’s been acting since his childhood, I’ve seen him in things like Black Storm and Ip Man 2 but it feels like he’s getting even better as he gains more experience. I am looking forward to seeing Detective Chen 2, which released in China in June.

Reason number 1, if you like fun, breezy action films, Wings of Dread is refreshingly compact. There’s like fifteen minutes of setup as we learn that Gu and his girlfriend are on the outs, get to know the passengers on the plane for a few minutes and then introduce the main conflict of a prisoner being on the plane, and then we’re off to the races. It’s like 85 minutes long and once the fighting starts, it’s happening everywhere, including passengers banding together to try to take down hijackers. If you liked this year’s Fight or Flight or other contained, quick action movies, check this one out.

Okay, top 5 lists. The first is the less exciting of the two, but it could certainly be in Top 5 films that feel like propaganda. A lot of people say that Top Gun would be on a list like that, American Sniper, but oddly enough this feels like propaganda for the Chinese Air Police. After he takes out one of the bad guys, he makes a speech about how people underestimate the Chinese air police too much and when they put the uniform on, it’s to get everyone home safely, and then he says it again later on with the crowd saying, “Trust the Chinese air police!”

The other one, which is a much better list in my opinion, is Top 5 bathroom fights. There’s a bathroom fight between two women in this that is really exciting, brutal, well shot and seems to go on forever. By the end of the fight both women are bloody messes, absorbing kicks, knees, elbows, even a powerbomb onto the toilet seat. It might be the best fight in the movie.

If you’ve seen Wings of Dread, what did you think of it? Let me know in the comments below. If you have a movie you want me to do a 5 reasons video for, email me at forcefivepodcast@gmail.com. Finally, down below you’ll find links to my other socials. 

Life is short. Spend it with the people, and the movies, that you love.