Tape 407 2012

On a routine flight that starts with lighthearted chatter, Trish [Abigail Schrader] and Jessie [Samantha Lester] film their surroundings as they settle two rows from the back of the plane. The mood shifts as Tom and his wife take their seats nearby, and Trish swerves the camera toward the front of the cabin, noting a passenger, Charlie, putting his luggage away and labeling him as drunk. The camera wanders further, catching Tom kissing his wife’s hand, a gesture that underscores her fear of flying. When Trish asks about that fear, she confesses, “I don’t know, dying,” revealing a preference for being grounded. The mood remains unsettled as Trish keeps rolling, even when Lois [Samantha Sloyan]—one of the flight attendants—tells her to turn off the camera and only switch it back on once they’re in the air. Trish largely ignores the warning, chatting with nearby passengers while Lois manages the safety briefing and demonstrates how to fasten seat belts and locate the exits.

Midflight, the tension spikes: Charlie boards visibly intoxicated, glancing back at Trish’s camera with a wary impatience. The cabin’s dynamics shift as Lois confronts the disruption of the camera, and the crew’s procedural calm clashes with the camera’s unflinching gaze. The flight departs and, after the celebration of New Year’s arrival, turbulence erupts with a ferocity that shakes the aircraft and heightens the sense that something is terribly wrong. The plane is sent spiraling into a brutal ordeal, and the crash lands in a remote government-testing reserve, a revelation that places the survivors in a perilous, unfamiliar landscape rather than a standard emergency.

What follows is a harrowing and unfiltered survival ordeal. The passengers, bloodied and disoriented, quickly inspect who remains alive and cling to the fragile hope of rescue that never arrives. What begins as a fight for daylight and safety becomes a desperate battle against unseen predators that press through the darkness. The survivors discover that they are being hunted by forces tied to the government’s top-secret Mesa Experiment, a revelation that reframes every choice and fateful decision they make. Differences in temperament and strategy among the group complicate attempts to stay united and chart a course to safety, forcing each person to confront what they can endure and what they’re willing to sacrifice to survive.

As danger closes in from all sides, plans are hatched and then discarded in rapid succession. The dwindling group seeks shelter in abandoned structures that provide little real protection, only to be broken apart by brutal assaults from outside. Help seems to appear at times, only to turn into a new catastrophe that leaves the survivors more vulnerable and more isolated. With darkness as their constant companion, they must run, hide, and improvise, clinging to the hope that they can outlast the night and outrun whatever is pursuing them.

The film’s tension builds toward a devastating, breath-stealing finale. In a final act of desperation, Trish and Jessie surge toward safety, bursting into bright daylight only to discover the true, confounding place they’ve been all night. They encounter a car approaching a male driver, exchange a few tense words, and quickly get inside. Moments later, a gunshot shatters the interrupted calm as Jessie is killed in the front seat and Trish screams, the camera still rolling in her hands. The attacker kneels before a walkie-talkie, then seizes the camera and pans it around to reveal an impossible, chilling sight: a dinosaur visible in the frame, its sounds and predatory presence signaling an incongruent, unsettling end. The creature’s roar fades as the screen cuts to black, leaving the audience with a final, haunting impression.

This film crafts a relentless, unsettling atmosphere from start to finish, delivering a stark, uncompromising look at fear, survival, and the unsettling possibility that humanity may be outmatched by forces far beyond its control. The ending invites viewers to ponder what they would do when conventional rescue never arrives and the night offers no predictable escape, all while maintaining a brisk, unsettling pace that never strays from its core premise. The result is a haunting, disturbing ride that lingers long after the credits roll.