Black Box: Scariest Moments, Ranked
Part of the Welcome to the Blumhouse film collection released by Amazon Prime in October 2020, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr.s flight recorder is one of the standouts of the eight films released for streaming.
Starring Mamoudou Athie (Nolan), Phylicia Rashad (Lillian) and Amanda Christine (Ava), the film is about a man named Nolan who suffers from amnesia, undergoes experimental therapy and becomes embroiled in a metaphysical nightmare. flight recorder is a cleverly constructed horror film with many great moments.
To celebrate one of the best moments from Blumhouse, let’s look at the scariest moments flight recorderat number 1 in our choice.
10 Ghost in the machine
We start at the end, with the final moments of the film providing a “kick” that does little to add much flight recorder. Still, the final moments, which raise the idea that Lilian might still be able to bring her son back, create a bit of unease, even though “Thomas 2.0” seems like a rough version of “Thomas 2.0.” Wall Eand his character already gave ample closure.
Ultimately, this moment feels like a nod to a movie that will never happen, like the baby Godzilla that hatches at the end Godzilla (1998) or the end credits of the infamously bad film Mac and me Opening with a still from “We’ll Be Back.” That’s not to say flight recorder is definitely a bad film, but it’s best left as a standalone. The final scene makes its way onto our list under the idea of “what could happen for Thomas (Donald Elise Watkins) and his mother Lilian.”
9 Dream about being suffocated
flight recorder cryptically sets the tone of Nolan’s internal struggles in the film’s opening moments. In the intro, the viewer sees Nolan sitting thoughtfully on the couch, only to be brutally choked from behind. While this is happening, his daughter keeps calling his name in front of him, mixing the real world with a dream-like state. For those who have ever struggled with sleep paralysis or know someone who does, the bizarre fugue state of being awake and asleep is extremely frightening, and this sequence is a horrifying depiction of the experience.
8th I rule my mind, it doesn’t rule me… or does it?
These affirmations… yes, they won’t serve their purpose. This moment is a mixture of slightly dark humor coupled with disturbing images that allow for a brief moment of horror as Nolan realizes that he is actually not following his thoughts.
In order for Lillian to convince Nolan to return to his mind and confront the mysterious creature trapped within, he is told that he can control events by reciting the simple lines “I govern my mind, it does not govern me.” Of course that doesn’t work, and the moment Nolan realizes it won’t make a difference, he comes to the shocking realization that there’s more to the monsters in his head than mere projections of his past.
7 Goodbye Thomas, it’s the void for you
Thomas is a fascinating character who deserves more emphasis on the moral of the film. Although he is the villain, and rightly so, he leaves the film with a moment of clarity in which he realizes what he is doing is fundamentally wrong and that given his failures in life, another man’s life is not worth it to take to replace him.
After confronting Nolan, Thomas runs into nowhere. What this means, or what the black space even represents, is less important than the depth of Thomas’ actions to give Nolan his life back. It’s a powerful scene with a certain amount of horror as one ponders the unknowable state Thomas has chosen to enter.
6 Dreams about domestic violence
Before it is revealed that Nolan is seeing a distortion of Thomas’ memories, he is confronted with the idea that the memories may be his own and that he has a dark past that he is repressing. The most terrible idea is that of being an abuser and frightening a woman he doesn’t recognize and her child. This raises questions about his past and whether Nolan’s memory loss is a coping mechanism to hide the terrible person he once was
This is not an isolated incident, as disturbing as the images of an abused woman cowering to a man are. It also extends to the mental toll it takes on Thomas, leading to paranoia and insecurity about the strong family man he believed himself to be.
5 Mom, what have you done?
Thomas’ re-entry into this world is not without confusion. The last memory is of him falling down the stairs. The terror of waking up in a new body is subtle, but what drives this scene is the lingering question: “If Thomas is here, then what happened to Nolan?!”
With this in mind, the audience also tries to figure out what is happening to Thomas at the same time. A wonderfully creepy scene in which Lilian tries to calm her son while justifying Nolan’s extinction.
4 I don’t think that’s your father
After changing body, flight recorder illustrates the horror of impersonation by keeping the audience informed but not informing the characters of what happened. Throughout the film, Nolan’s relationship with his daughter Ava is exceptionally sentimental and inspiring, as the young girl takes on the role of caretaker in certain cases to help with her father’s memory loss.
This makes the first scene where Ava and Thomas use their father’s body horrifying. There is uncertainty at this point as Thomas is a known abuser, but he also has this cold indifference towards Ava that makes the viewer fear for her safety. Although nothing happens that physically harms Ava, this scene is scary enough to warrant mention.
3 I deserve to be back
When Thomas returns to his family after his death in Nolan’s body, a deeply disturbing scene emerges that shows how Thomas died and why his family feared him. His first return is not without sentimentality, especially on his part, as he reminds his ex-wife of the beautiful moments they shared.
But as soon as he makes an attempt to get back into her life, and this attempt is not openly accepted, Thomas’s violent nature comes to the fore and he begins to engage in mind games and violent rhetoric. Watching his former wife Miranda relive the abuses of the past is both disturbing and infuriating, especially considering that Thomas has swapped places with the dedicated and loving family man Nolan.
2 The need to kill to live
Quite a lot happens in the scene where Lilian tries to make her son the primary owner of Nolan’s body. Learn that Nolan has become the twisted monster, that Thomas has been tasked by his mother to murder it, Ava screaming for her father’s safety, and the actual battle that unfolds between Thomas and Nolan.
However, if we had to pick one moment in this scene, Thomas standing over Nolan with a knife, contemplating whether he can kill the man while hearing his daughter’s screams in the background, would be the scariest. It’s a wonderfully intense moment that is both unforgettable and frightening.
1 Unexpected wedding guest
The monster inside flight recorder is left somewhat vague and open to interpretation, with Thomas and Nolan swapping roles and playing the twisted mess that haunts her subconscious. This ambiguity works wonders in moving the story forward without worrying too much about the pseudoscience that goes into making the bone-crushing snake men.
These monsters are unsettling and frightening, and the best example of this is the wedding sequence, in which Nolan is trapped at various points in his relationship with Lilian. It’s hard to shake the first clear glimpse of the terrible cracks and creaks of the creature’s movements as it slowly approaches Nolan. Easily the scariest moment in the film.
