On Monday, October 25, 1993, a Nigerian flight from Lagos to Abuja was hijacked by 4 teenagers who threatened to set the plane on fire if their demands were not met. The film Hijack 93 attempts to retell this incident.
Not every real-life story deserves to be a movie, but Hijack 93 is one story that deserved to be told. It is one of the darkest moments in Nigeria’s aviation history and based on this premise, Hijack 93 should have been a great watch but unfortunately , it turned out to be an utter waste of time. It is yet another important story that Play Network has ruined.
The first issue with this film was the storytelling; it was really poor. At the beginning of this film, they stated that this film was a fictional retelling of the hijacking, so I thought they wanted to take creative liberties to infuse more drama and action, but this was not the case. They were unable to do even the barest minimum. Hijack 93 was sooooooo bland and boring, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Most people like movies based on real-life stories because they want to learn more about those incidents or because they are just curious. Real-life stories transport us and help us, as the audience, see those terrifying moments through the eyes of the cast of the film. In this case, there was not much to see; they did not say or do anything that a quick Google search would not tell you about the incident. Their attempt to provide context and probable motives made the movie even more unappealing. No highlights, no important moments; there was nothing to keep us as the audience engaged or excited. They were unable to get us to care about anyone—not the hostages, not the terrorists, not the plane crew—we were just not invested. They were unable to steadily build tension; everything remained flat and one-dimensional from start to finish.
Acting and casting did not make sense at all. While it was nice to see new faces take the lead in this film, I don’t think they were the best fit for this film, nor did I think the actors themselves did a good job delivering their roles.
For the four main leads, all of them were giving “supporting-character energy”, like they should have been one of the faceless passengers. None of them gave a performance deserving of being a lead. They could not even make us like their characters (Owiwi seemed like he was mentally unstable, and there was that guy Kenny who kept on sitting down beside that girl; baba even sat down to eat). As for the popular faces, whom I was expecting to at least do better because they have more experience, I strongly believe all of them should have stayed at home and saved us from watching their lacklustre performances—from Nancy Isime to Sharon to Efa Iwara and John Dumelo. But I won’t blame the actors only; they did not have much to work with, they could also have benefited from better direction.
The dialogues were very laughable, and several scenes just did not make sense. There was that scene where the hijackers were asking the hostages to join them, I did not understand! What do you mean that they should give you permission to hold them hostage? Or the scene where the guys were complaining that the army arrested their loved ones… I was confused and thinking, what exactly were they expecting? I refuse to believe these boys did not know that this would be one of the consequences of their actions. I thought Play Network said they were going to make this story more exciting, instead, the guys looked silly and they sounded unintelligent. There was the “Wazobia” fight where the Yoruba man was fighting with the Igbo man, and there was that scene where the Yoruba man stood up to share his opinion like he was in a landlord association meeting and not on a plane that has been hijacked. I just kept on rolling my eyes.
Setting and costumes were not impressive either; for some reason, nothing about this film gave 1993. It was not believable at all.
While watching this film, I had so many questions:
- I thought the hijackers were supposed to be teenagers?
- Remember the soldiers that were on the flight? At some point, one of them was seen with Bob Manuel outside the plane (his face had bruises and all) and he was giving an update on the situation inside the plane, he said the boys were not properly trained and the army should attack but do you know the biggest issue? I kept on thinking , how did he get there? How did he get out of the plane? Who let him out of the plane? Please remember that at that point in the film, the only person who had stepped out of the plane was Owiwi, so I was really confused or did I miss the point where he managed to jump out of the plane somehow?
- Next question, we saw how one of the hostesses got the guns on the plane yes? How did they get the fuel on the plane? Was it in the small white nylon bag the hostess hid for them too? Owiwi brought out the white nylon bag and there was just guns in it, so I was wondering how? From where?
- The scene where the pregnant woman went into labour was also somehow, very cliche but what is worth doing is worth doing well. You want to include a delivery scene? Show us a delivery scene! Why did they not show us anything? So what did they do with all the blood actually? The new mother’s clothes must have been soiled with water and blood from the delivery but somehow they wanted us to believe she sat in those same clothes for days and all was well? She and the baby should have been one of the medical emergencies, again I was wondering.
- What was that “military intervention and negotiation? Very underwhelming.
underwhelming.
Finally, I think the biggest issue I had with the film was the fact that it undermined and trivialized how big of a deal this whole incident was and what it took for those guys to do what they did. In the end, I did not know what to think about them, and that bothered me. I understood the need not to make them seem like “Heros” because we don’t want anyone trying something like that ever again, I appreciated that they did not really make them into some horrible “Villians” but I did not like the “Misguided youths” angle either. Patriotism should have been the main theme here but they just glossed over it, glossed over the national issues that led to that point, glossed over what the political scene must have felt like at that time and did not provide any meaningful insight. They should not have bothered if they knew they were not going to do justice to the story like it deserved
But I must say that at least this film tells us something important- true in 1993 and still very true in 2024, don’t attempt to “fight” for Nigeria, it is a terrible idea, it’s not worth your life, your family and your future. Continue to hustle and pray for Nigeria.
Overall, Hijack 93 is more likely to put you to sleep than entertain you. I wish I had done something else with my time.
It’s an amazing talent to be able to take a story that by virtue of its very existence should be exciting and engaging, then make it a boring chore to sit through. Play Network has made an absolute art form out of doing so over and over again. They take good stories and just ruin it. This was not their first bad film, and it most likely won’t be their last
Have you seen Hijack 93? Thoughts?
My Rating: 2/10
Have you seen the movie, please share your thoughts with us in the comments below
Read the review of Soft Love.
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