While some create resolutions for the New Year and others watch the ball drop with their loved ones, the characters in Lionsgate's Plane instead survive an emergency plane landing and go up against an entire militia in hostile territory. Marketed as a "white-knuckle action" movie, Plane delivers everything promised -- including terrifying thrills, brutal fight sequences, and an unlikely duo finding common ground when the worst occurs.

Directed by Jean-François Richet, Plane stars action veterans Gerard Butler and Mike Colter as commercial pilot Brodie Torrance and accused murderer Louis Gaspare, respectively. When the flight goes haywire after being struck by lightning, Brodie successfully lands the plane on an island heavily ruled and guarded by anti-government militias. As the passengers are held hostage, Brodie teams up with Louis to save them and find a way off the island. While Butler and Colter are both known for their past roles in large-scale projects such as 300 and Marvel's Luke Cage, Plane keeps things grounded, so the ordinary people can be the hero. CBR got to sit down with Butler and Colter to talk about the appeal of Plane and giving the underdog a chance to shine.

CBR: This movie was so exciting and quite a way to kick off the new year. As somebody who is slightly afraid of flying, this was such an exciting movie, and there's something really thrilling about watching a plane crash -- or, in this case, a really, really rough landing. From what we've seen from this movie and Lost, we get a thrill out of it. Why do you guys think that is?

Gerard Butler: I think for me, we're all terrified of being in a plane -- or any dangerous vehicle, but especially a plane -- when things go wrong. So when you're watching a movie, you get to be in there as if you're really in that plane, but you're not really having to go through it., but you feel like you are. It's so kind of enthralling and exciting and white-knuckle as if you are in the cockpit with the pilots, and you're in there.

I think we have a fascination with what that must really be like when you know a plane is in trouble or is going to crash or is going to crash-land. What was it like to be there and to go through that? We take every step of that journey in this movie. There are no shortcuts. There's no escape. You're there for the long haul, and it's a hell of an action scene -- and that's only the first act.

You guys have done fight scenes in previous projects before. Mike, for you specifically, you've done Luke Cage where [you're] superpowered, but now you're kind of the ordinary guy. You're both the ordinary guy up against an army. What is that like for you guys to ground this a little bit?

Mike Colter: I think -- like you said -- for actors, I think variety is a spice of life. I mean, having some sort of situation where you're going to change it up a bit, it's nice to try different things. I think the great thing about this movie, another interviewer said, [is] it's like a classic '90s movie. We're not relying on a lot of CGI. [These are] not indestructible people. These are two people that are human. They are vulnerable, and they are outnumbered, and people like underdogs. You're two underdogs fighting against a militia, and that seems to put us in a situation where everybody's going to immediately root for us, right?

Then, there are people that seem to be completely diametrically opposed. [Brodie's] a captain of an airline, [and] he comes with a certain background. You don't know much about me, but I'm in handcuffs, and I've been accused of murder. So we are on opposite ends of the spectrum. All of a sudden, like 30, 40 minutes after meeting, we've got to partner up.

That moment of him taking the handcuffs off my character, these are the things that make action movies work. It's about character-driven movies as opposed to explosions because when you explode things, and you're shooting things, and you're making things crash, and all sorts of stuff, all that money you're spending on that, people really want to care about the character. I don't care how great the movie is in terms of CGI and special effects, and people don't care who's getting punched in the face. It doesn't matter. I think this movie takes us back in that way in a good way.

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Gerard Butler and Mike Colter in Plane

Mike, for your character, he's supposed to be this criminal, and we really sympathize with him throughout. I wanted to ask Gerard specifically, and Mike, you can answer as well, about the plane sequence. You're spitting out all this plane jargon. What is it like to film that scene? It seemed so claustrophobic at the same time to be in such a tight space.

Butler: We were in what was a very tight space with a camera crew. Sometimes they were placed outside the windshields, but other times they were actually in the cockpit with us. Let me explain -- we're also on a gimbal, which violently throws you around, especially in the cockpit. You didn't know which way it was going to go. If we go into a dive, which a lot of this movie is diving down through the storm, the gimbal had it so far over that, at times, I was sure it going to tip. So you're really immersed in the truth of that, which I think is also what draws the audience into it as well. They really feel like they're in this with you.

Colter: Like you said, the unpredictability of the gimbal -- as actors, we're open to things. That's what our job is -- to be open to the moment of what's happening. If you toss us, we feel it, right? So the fun part about that is that we don't have to act as much as they're going to toss us around. Then you gotta catch that. Jean-François shot it, and... we didn't know what was going to happen. We didn't know when it was going to go forward, left, right. You just react to that, and that feels visceral to the audience, too, because they are there with you.

We all fly on planes, and we've all felt a little bit of turbulence, and that little bit of turbulence, I don't care if it's one drop. Your stomach -- you feel it, and you go, "Okay, please don't let that happen again." Well, it happened again, and it kept happening. I think, as characters, we think about our lives or we're going to die. I mean, everybody's thinking the same thing. You're in a movie theater going, "Holy crap, what would you be thinking right now? Make a phone call? What am I gonna do here? Am I gonna squeeze a stranger's hand next to me? Am I gonna hold on? Am I gonna cry? Am I gonna tell somebody I love them? What am I gonna do?" All that's happening right now, and I think that's why the first act works so well.

Butler: Even that part, the whole of that storm sequence has so many elements to it. There are moments of desperation. There are moments where we're struck by lightning, and then there are other times when there are quiet realizations of the situation that we're in. It's almost spiritual in its element., and then back into it. Oh wait, we have another chance to do this. So it kind of takes you on a very dynamic journey within what could just be called an action sequence., but there's so much humanity and different types of emotion and experience in there.

Thank you guys. It's such an adrenaline rush of a movie, and it's great talking to guys, but I've got to let you go.

Butler: Hey, we didn't even get to the rest of the movie!

It's a teaser! It's a teaser. That's what it is.

To see Butler and Colter in action, see Plane in theaters now.