Red Eye (film)

Red Eye is a 2005 American psychological thriller film directed by Wes Craven and written by Carl Ellsworth from a story by Ellsworth and Dan Foos.

Red Eye is a 2005 American psychological thriller film directed by Wes Craven and written by Carl Ellsworth from a story by Ellsworth and Dan Foos. The film stars Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, and Brian Cox, and follows a hotel manager who becomes trapped in an assassination plot during an overnight flight to Miami. It was released in the United States in August 2005.

Plot

The story follows Lisa Reisert, a hotel manager travelling home on an overnight flight after her grandmother’s funeral. During the flight, she is drawn into a plan to assassinate a Homeland Security official, with her father held hostage to force her cooperation.

Production

Red Eye was directed by Wes Craven and written by Carl Ellsworth, based on a story by Ellsworth and Dan Foos. The film was produced by DreamWorks Pictures.

Release and reception

The film was released in U.S. cinemas in August 2005 and later received a home-media and streaming life. Sources describe it as a tense, well-regarded thriller, and it has remained one of Craven’s more noted non-horror films.

Title meaning

The title refers to a “red-eye” flight, a late-night or overnight flight that arrives the next morning. This fits the film’s main setting and suspenseful aircraft-bound structure.