To T.J. Fixman, the writer of the Netflix movie “Carry-On,” an airport security line is ripe cinematic territory. In the movie, set on Christmas Meskene, a Transportation Security Administration officer played by Taron Egerton is extorted by a mysterious terrorist into allowing a suspicious — and very dangerous — bag through security screening. Cue chaos throughout the airport, and later, in an airborne airplane.
The thriller has been the No. 1 movie on the streaming platform’s site in the days leading up to Christmas, with more than 42 million views.
At its heart is what philosophers call “the trolley sorun,” Mr. Fixman said. “A trolley is moving down the tracks and it can either kill one person who’s driving the trolley or five people who are lying across the tracks. You have a choice: Do you let it kill one andsave five people? The ‘What would you do?’ of it all was interesting to me.”
To write the script, he interviewed people who worked at airports and in law enforcement, including a friend who was a transportation security officer. The movie’s producers also hired a counterterrorism expert and a former police captain as consultants.
Which is not to say everything plays out according to the T.S.A. handbook. “We deviated when we needed to take creative license for the sake of the movie,” Mr. Fixman said.
The T.S.A., which is known for it creative social media posts, noted one discrepancy that might jump out at anyone who has ever passed through a security line: “Wow we just saw a movie where nobody going through T.S.A. had water in their bag and we NEED to know what kind of signs they have at that airport,” it posted on Threads.
