Of course, the story of ‘Final Call – If he hangs up, she has to die’ is not exactly complicated. However, for long stretches of running time, which is pleasantly tight at an hour and a half, this is not a negative point at all, on the contrary. Of course, in the thriller by “Snakes On A Plane” director David R. Ellis, many things seem contrived and coincidence always plays a major role. But the audience doesn’t have much time to think about it. The whole thing is so exciting because it is told, staged and edited very quickly.
“Final Call – If he hang up, she has to die” will be broadcast today, December 14, 2023 at 8:15 PM on Tele 5. There will be a repeat that same evening at 2:15 am. If these dates don’t suit you, then unfortunately you’ll have to dig into your pockets to see the film. Because none of the mainstream streaming services currently have ‘Final Call’ in their flat rate programming. However, it is available from online retailers such as Amazon as Blu-ray, DVD or paid video on demand.
In addition to Marvel superstar Chris “Captain America” Evans, who plays the main character who happens to end up in the hero role, Jason Statham especially stands out from the cast. For once, the ‘Fast & Furious’, ‘Expendables’ and ‘Transporter’ veteran doesn’t play a morally ambivalent antihero, but rather a true villain. According to our 3-star FILMSTARTS review from author Jürgen Armbruster, the Brit does his job in a wonderfully nasty, opaque way.
‘Final Call’ on Tele 5: that’s what it’s all about
Twenty-something Ryan (Evans) is a man who mainly thinks about himself and spends his day without a plan. This attitude recently caused his relationship with Chloe (Jessica Biel) to fall apart. To get her back and prove that he’s not as much of a kid as she thinks, Ryan takes on a rather nasty job for the young woman.
As soon as he is on his way, his cell phone rings. On the other end of the line, a panicked-sounding woman (Kim Basinger) whom Ryan has never heard of speaks. She claims to have been kidnapped by corrupt cops (including Statham) and to have randomly called his number from a nearly broken phone. At first, Ryan doesn’t take the call seriously and suspects it is a prank by his friend Chad (Eric Christian Olsen). But then events suddenly take over…
Screenplay by the author of “Fast & Furious”.
The idea for “Final Call” came from Larry Cohen, the author of the similar payphone thriller “Don’t Hang Up!” Chris Morgan, who went on to write the scripts for the majority of the ‘Fast & Furious’ blockbusters, as well as the Netflix hit ‘Bird Box’, then took over script development.
Morgan made some changes to Cohen’s design. Instead of a smart, elegant art thief, he made the main character an everyday boy without great ambitions or talents – someone with whom the general public can identify much better.
Likewise, we (almost) all have a phone and could therefore find ourselves in the situation of the main character, played by Chris Evans. In this way too, the makers succeed in quickly involving the audience in the story. Three successful remakes of the film from distant cultures prove that this is universally understandable and recognizable. One of them is ‘Connected’ (2008) from Hong Kong. The other two were made in India: ‘Speed’ (2007) and ‘Risk’ (2009).
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This is an updated republication of an article previously published on FILMSTARTS.