8 Things That Don’t Make Sense About Netflix’s ‘Carry-On’

Carry-On is a quintessential thriller, offering action, suspense, and many, many questions. Starring Taron Egerton as the TSA agent Ethan Kopek, the movie takes place at an airport during the Christmas Eve rush. At first, Ethan’s sole mission is to impress his boss and earn a promotion, but instead, he’s quickly caught up in a deadly scheme involving Jason Bateman’s Traveler and a suspicious bag.

Although fun to watch, the movie has several confusing plot points and character decisions that we can’t quite wrap our heads around. Since these questions are continuing to carry on in our minds, we figured we’d share them and see if they made sense to anyone else.

8

How Were the Marks Chosen?

Early on in the movie, it’s established that the Traveler had planned on using Jason, not Ethan, to help him smuggle his bag through security. After Ethan takes Jason’s seat, the Traveler asks the Watcher to give him alternative suggestions to work with. Apparently, Ethan was the best choice, due to another agent being an ex-military officer and the others all being seated in view of the LAXPD. However, this suggests that the Traveler didn’t originally have this information, and that Jason was the mark *because* he was Jason, which raises the question, why?

Two Big Question Marks

Jason might have been an enticing option due to his family, which would have been easy to kidnap and exploit. However, the viewer has no reason to think that his family would have been any easier to threaten than those of the other TSA officers. Plus, Jason obviously loved and was good at his job, so there’s reason to think he’d have found a way out of the situation, just like Ethan. In fact, the Traveler outright says that Ethan being there makes his job easier, so why did the original plan rely on Jason?

This confusion grows even worse when it comes to Mateo. After his death, his husband reveals that Mateo was given two tickets by the kidnappers, which means he wasn’t scheduled to go on any plane, so that wasn’t a reason to pick him. He also seems like a normal guy without any specific skills to help him get through security. So, why was he uniquely capable of pulling this off, and if he wasn’t, why out of millions of random people was he chosen for/forced into this job? In the end, the Traveler takes over his role, suggesting he could have—and maybe should have—done so from the beginning.

7

Was Hiding Phil’s Death Really That Easy?

When a random bag search is called, Ethan makes sure Mateo’s name is on the list. The Traveler isn’t happy about this, and he instructs Ethan to shoot his boss, Phil, played by Dean Norris, rather than allow the officer to conduct the search. When Ethan can’t shoot him, Mateo stabs Phil in the throat with a pen, causing blood to splatter to the floor. A few moments later, another officer enters the room, but the body has completely vanished.

Awfully Convenient

Although Mateo hid the body behind some bags, it seems likely that the blood would have smelled and potentially continued to run beneath them. Additionally, the body is wheeled out via a baggage cart (which already doesn’t seem to have enough space to fit it), which they then abandon in the baggage sorting area, and only one person seems to notice them.

It’s not mentioned whether they clean up the room they’ve left, and if so, how they could have done so without attracting more attention. Worse, it’s the busiest day of the year, so Phil’s absence should have been noticed sooner and received a bigger reaction. While not quite a plot hole, it’s definitely a head-scratcher.

6

Why Did the Detective Trust Nora?

Toward the end of the movie, Danielle Deadwyler’s character, Detective Elena Cole, races against the clock to stop the Traveler’s flight from taking off. However, Nora shows up and tells her that they have to let the plane go. If they ground it, the Traveler will set off the nerve agent, killing everyone on board. But if they let it go, Ethan can potentially disarm it and save the day.

After some more discussion, the detective agrees to Nora’s request, but there are two glaring issues: first, Nora’s plan makes everything ten times harder. Second, Elena has no reason to believe her.

Shutting Down the Airport

Detective Cole doesn’t know Nora, and she still doesn’t fully understand Ethan’s involvement in what’s happening, so even if Nora was Ethan’s girlfriend, that’s not a huge plus in her favor. Plus, Nora could have been lying about who she was, and if she’d been working with the criminals, she could easily have faked her identity and story to allow the plane and Traveler to make off with the nerve agent. Combined, this gives the detective every reason not to trust her.

In addition to Cole’s strange naivety, there’s also the bigger question of why the cops didn’t close the airport sooner. Sure, Christmas is a busy day, and shutting down operations isn’t going to go over well. But at this point, someone’s been stabbed, two people have died (though only one’s been noticed) and there’s an active terrorist threat. Cops are seen at the front entrance, so it’s possible they’ve already closed certain areas, but a few people are still seen walking through the airport, and the Traveler’s plane is getting ready to depart even after the cops arrive to search.

5

Would the Russians Have Really Been Blamed?

Toward the end of the movie, it’s unveiled that a politician named Grace Turner is on the plane being targeted, and her death is going to be blamed on the Russians. On one level, it makes sense, as she had proposed a bill to protect democracies, and by assassinating her, the need for her bill would become all the more obvious. On another level, the only real connection to the Russians is the type of nerve agent being used, Novichok, which potentially could have been made by someone who wasn’t Russian.

A Different Spin

Originally, Mateo was going to be the one to bring the suitcase on board, and if authorities had tracked the nerve agent back to him, they would have discovered he didn’t have any Russian ties (at least that we know of). Additionally, while the nerve agent was made by Russians, they were killed and then had their bodies burned in a fire, which would further make it unlikely that they were involved. Sure, some people would certainly have believed they were behind it, but there’s enough evidence out there that conspiracy theorists and other politicians could have easily created their own spin.

4

Why Does No One Notice Anything?

Throughout the movie, Ethan talks to the Traveler via his earpiece, which makes it look like he’s talking to himself. He also holds up the line and abandons his post multiple times, but minus some grumbling, no one really reacts. A different TSA agent, Dunn, is obviously aware that something is wrong, and Nora herself expresses confusion and worry. Yet, no one—including the thousands of travelers surrounding him—really reacts to or does anything about his odd behavior.

The Watcher Shouldn’t Be the Only One Watching

Yes, it’s a crowded airport, which means a lot is going on, but it also implies that someone should have noticed what was happening, if not with Ethan, then everyone else. At one point, a red dot appears on Nora’s forehead, courtesy of the Watcher threatening to snipe her, but only Ethan sees. In another scene, the Traveler has a conversation with him out in the open (with several passengers nearby) about who killed Lionel, but only Ethan hears him. Given everything else the travelers were complaining about, we’re surprised Ethan’s behavior wasn’t brought up earlier as a cause for concern.

3

Why Didn’t the Watcher Snipe Nora?

As previously mentioned, when first threatening Nora, the Watcher points a sniper gun at her head and a red dot appears, alarming Ethan. However, the Watcher is later given the command to kill her, so he comes into the airport searching for her and stabs one of the other employees. He then chases her out to the parking lot and tries to hit her with his car. While exciting to watch, it’s also baffling that he didn’t simply try to snipe her again.

Needlessly Complicated

It’s possible the Watcher simply couldn’t get a good aim or that he wanted to deliver the message personally. However, he didn’t have a problem before, and if anything, her being at the front entrance should have made everything easier. Then again, the whole scheme was needlessly complicated, so maybe the Watcher’s part in it was simply par for the course.

2

Why Such a Convoluted Scheme?

The Traveler presents himself as a specialist who is paid extraordinary amounts of money to pull off difficult operations. And yet, there were so many things that could have gone wrong with his plan. In fact, one of those things did go wrong after Ethan and Jason switched places, causing the Traveler to have to change tactics almost immediately. If he’s really such an expert, why was his plan so flimsy?

Working Against Himself

If the Traveler’s contacts can make plastic guns, break into security cameras, and enlist Russian chemists, it seems like they’d be able to get an agent on the inside to help them enter the airport. Instead, the Traveler’s plan relied on using two people against their will and hoping they’d act exactly according to his script.

While Mateo mostly followed orders, Ethan was working against the Traveler from the very beginning, and it didn’t help that the Traveler was playing mind games the entire time. Really, all the Traveler had to do was keep things calm and tell him as little as possible, and Ethan might have fallen in line.

1

Why did the Stranger Tell Ethan the Truth?

After Ethan allows the mysterious bag through the scanner, he runs to the bathroom, horrified by what might happen next. The Traveler follows him and admits that a deadly nerve agent is in the bag, and it’s set to kill 250 people on Grace’s plane. While important from an exposition perspective, there was no reason why the Traveler had to be honest about this, nor any reason he should have been. He already knew that Ethan was struggling and had tried to work against him, and this information put Ethan over the edge, ultimately propelling him to act.

Options Other Than the Truth

When the Traveler entered the bathroom, he flashed Ethan a gun. Later, he told Mateo to shoot him, which suggests Ethan was possibly going to be killed regardless. If this were the case, the Traveler should have just killed him earlier, as he posed a huge risk throughout the rest of the scheme. Later, it’s implied that he didn’t kill Ethan because (he thought) he liked him, and it’s also possible he was simple taunting him. But if either of those are his reason, we have to once again question whether the Traveler is really the expert he claims to be.

Carry-On is now streaming on Netflix.