Carry-On's Wild Car Crash Scene Completely Changes The Movie For The Better

The car crash scene halfway through Carry-On completely changes the tone of the movie. Carry-On is an action thriller movie directed by Jaume Collet-Serra which debuted on Netflix in December 2024. The story of Carry-On follows Ethan, an airline security guard who is blackmailed by an unknown man into letting a suitcase containing a dangerous weapon pass through security unchecked. While Ethan talks to the mysterious traveler about the suitcase at the airport, LAPD detective Elena Cole pursues her suspicion that someone is transporting Novichok in Carry-On, which is a deadly nerve agent.

The cast of Carry-On includes Taron Egerton, Jason Bateman, Sofia Carson, Danielle Deadwyler, Theo Rossi, and Logan Marshall-Green. Deadwyler plays Elena Cole and Marshall-Green plays Agent Alcott from the Department of Homeland Security. Following their lead that someone is smuggling Novichuk onto a flight, Elena and Agent Alcott drive to Los Angeles International Airport together. On the way, they get into a shocking car crash that completely changes the tone of the rest of the movie. The intense car crash halfway through the film set the stage for Carry-On's action-packed ending.

Carry-On's Car Scene Comes Out Of Nowhere

Elena & Agent Alcott Fight Each Other While The Car Crashes

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In Carry-On, neither her captain nor Agent Alcott initially buy into Elena's suspicion that someone is smuggling Novichuk through LAX. While her captain is very dismissive, Agent Alcott agrees to drive Elena to the airport after they discover more evidence. However, while on their way to LAX, Elena receives a call that Agent Alcott from Homeland Security showed up at the police station, which confirms that the man driving Elena to the airport isn't who he says he is.

The Agent Alcott twist and the car crash sequence came out of nowhere, and feels like it belongs in a Fast & Furious movie.

After Elena pulls her gun out and demands to know who the man really is, the supposed Agent Alcott speeds up and drives into another car, which causes a huge accident on the highway. The two of them fight in the car while they crash into other vehicles and obstacles, eventually flipping their car upside-down. The Agent Alcott twist and the car crash sequence came out of nowhere, and feels like it belongs in a Fast & Furious movie. However, the sequence was executed incredibly well, and prepared audiences for Carry-On's thrilling climax.

Carry-On Becomes Very Different Thanks To The Car Crash Scene

Carry-On Switches Genres Halfway Through

Custom image by Yailin Chacon.

For the first half of the movie, Carry-On is actually a very grounded thriller which mostly focuses on Ethan debating what he should do about the mysterious suitcase. However, the second half of the movie includes a lot more action set pieces. The car crash scene halfway through Carry-On serves as the turning point which switches the movie's primary genre from thriller to action.

Related Everyone Who Dies In Carry-On Netflix's new Christmas movie, Carry-On, follows a character who attempts to stop a weapon detonating on a plane, but lives are lost along the way.

In the second half of Carry-On, Ethan has an intense fight with Mateo, the man who was forced to take the carry-on through security, in the airport's baggage-sorting area. Additionally, the Traveler's accomplice, only known as the Watcher, chases Nora, Ethan's girlfriend, through the parking lot. The action set pieces throughout the second half of Carry-On lead to the final battle between Ethan and the Traveler, during which Jason Bateman's villainous character gets locked in an airplane fridge with the Novichuk and suffers a horrific death.

How Carry-On's Car Crash Scene Was Filmed

Carry-On's Car Crash Sequence Was Very Hard To Film

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During the car crash scene in Carry-On, the camera moves around Elena and the fake Agent Alcott as they fight each other and both try to grab hold of the gun. All the while, the car is hitting other vehicles, pylons, and moving across the lanes on the highway. The camera continues to move around the two characters until the car finally flips. Speaking with Screen Rant, Danielle Deadwyler claimed that they prepared for months to shoot the car crash sequence in Carry-On. Read her full quote below:

Oh man, it's two to three months of prep. We really worked rigorously with the stunt coordinating team. It's a dance, it's a ballet of sorts and so you're just trying to make sure you're hitting the spots, and then you drop in on the car and that makes it a little bit more claustrophobic, and you get the parameters and the boundaries of what it means to have this kind of a fight, and then you marry that to the precision of the camera and the other departments. It's so much practicality. That was happening on set too, so we really just were in the gut feeling of being in the car and having this kind of experience. You just put all those layers together to make that scene and there you go.

In addition to Deadwyler's comments, Carry-On stunt coordinator Dave Macomber talked to Digital Trends about how challenging it was to shoot the car crash scene. Macomber had had experience choreographing fight scenes in cars before, but never a car that was moving. Therefore, the car crash scene in Carry-On, which also featured a continuous fight with no visible cuts, took an immense amount of planning to pull off. The hard work of everyone involved paid off, as the car crash is one of the most memorable moments in Carry-On.

Source: Digital Trends