WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for Flight Risk.
Mark Wahlberg takes on his first villain role in nearly three decades in Mel Gibson’s high-stakes action thrillerFlight Risk. WhileWahlberg’s best action moviesusually place him in the hero or protagonist role,Flight Riskfeatures Wahlberg as a rare villain with a highly unusual haircut.Flight Riskis the second of two recent collaborations between Wahlberg and Mel Gibson. While Gibson doesn’t star inFlight Risk, he and Wahlberg have shared the screen in the recent biopicFather Stu(2022) and the comedy movieDaddy’s Home 2(2017).
Wahlberg leads thecast ofFlight Riskas the main antagonist Daryl Booth,a hitman disguised as a pilot hired by a New York mob boss named Moretti. Daryl, an ex-convict and murderer, assumes the identity of an actual pilot named Daryl Booth after killing him. His target is Winston (Topher Grace), Moretti’s accountant and a prisoner informant, who is en route to testify against Moretti. Protecting Winston is Madolyn (Michelle Dockery), who discovers that Wahlberg’s “Daryl” is not who he says he is before the end ofFlight Risk.
Mark Wahlberg’s Character Is A Poor Villain In Flight Risk
He’s one-note and over-the-top but occasionally funny
WhileDaryl is a mostly entertaining albeit one-note villain,Flight Riskdoes little to make Wahlberg’s villain stand out or feel special. Despite being a paid hitman, Daryl is quite obviously nefarious from the start. His cover of the simple-minded country boy doesn’t hold up or last long, as Maddie figures him out soon after the plane leaves the ground. It’s fine that Daryl isn’t the genius supervillain type, but it’s shocking and hard to believe that he didn’t approach the hijacking with a plan or that Moretti, a supposed mob boss, would hire him in the first place.
It’s the overarching sense of ridiculousness found in Daryl and arguably the entire movie that makes Wahlberg’s villain woefully uninteresting.
Flight Riskisn’t asking its audience to overthink what it’s offering.Wahlberg’s villain “reveal” was the hook of the film’s trailer, which drains all suspense until Wahlberg delivers his “Y’all need a pilot?” line. It’s the overarching sense of ridiculousness found in Daryl and arguably the entire movie that makes Wahlberg’s villain woefully uninteresting. His character bends to fit the needs of the thin plot, which reduces his already inhuman character to simply being a plot device. To Wahlberg’s credit, he makes Daryl occasionally funny and articulates his creepiness well, which is not necessarily easy for any actor.
Flight Risk Is Mark Wahlberg’s First Villain Role Since Fear
Wahlberg has hardly played any villains in his 30-year acting career
Wahlberg likely had fun makingFlight Risk, as most actors who generally play heroes do when they play a villain. That being said, it’s difficult to callFlight Risk’sDaryl Booth a more well-rounded and realized villain than Wahlberg’s antagonist role in the 1996 psychological thrillerFear.Wahlberg starred as David McCall, a seemingly perfect yet “bad boy” boyfriend to Reese Witherspoon’s Nicole Walker, who eventually spirals into an obsessive and violent predator. While David’s villain arc inFearisn’t necessarily Oscar-worthy, he shows key character elements – motivation, transformation, human flaws – thatFlight Risk’sDaryl is lacking completely.
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Fearwas Wahlberg’s very first starring role in a feature film after his notable supporting roles inRenaissance Man(1994) andThe Basketball Diaries(1995). After the critical acclaim of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar-nominated classicBoogie Nights(1997), Wahlberg became a household name as a lead actor. This left him without the need or interest to play more villains, as he instead tackled starring roles in action movies, blockbusters, and comedies. That strategy may have helped him achieve A-list status in Hollywood, but it stripped audiences of thepotential he displayed inFearto be a great villain.
His character inFlight Riskmay just be the most wicked and undoubtedly evil character Wahlberg has ever played. According toPeople, Wahlberg even apologized to his castmates after filmingFlight Riskfor staying in his antagonistic character. It’s unfortunate thatWahlberg’s method efforts, such as shaving his head each day for filming, didn’t result in a better product.
“I was locked into the part the whole time. So if we weren’t shooting, I was like either off in the corner by myself or I just would kind of go back to my little dressing room and just sit there. I was like the guy who was like constantly picking at them, poking them and prodding them, you know, from the back of the plane the whole entire time. I apologized at the end because I wasn’t very engaging off camera or outside of shooting, but I was just in [that] head space.”
Why Mark Wahlberg’s Flight Risk Villain Isn’t Better Than His Fear Role
Flight Risk’s script didn’t give Wahlberg much to work with
Wahlberg made an honest effort to bring the unsettling and extremely dangerous Daryl Booth to life inFlight Risk. The fact thatFlight Risk’sDaryl is a considerably worse movie villain than David inFearis more at the fault of the filmmakers rather than Wahlberg’s performances. An actor playing protagonists orantagonists can only do so much with a screenplay that doesn’t offer much refinement or contextto their characters.
Daryl is a simple villain with a singular objective and a one-track mind. He serves the plot and not much else. A better version of Daryl may have shown more complexity and human elements to add suspense and unpredictability. Instead, Daryl is like a rabid dog chasing cars and acts as nothing but a relentless force of violence and danger, making him more of a caricature than a character inFlight Risk.
Flight Risk
Cast
Set in a high-stakes world of international espionage, Flight Risk (2025) follows an elite team of operatives tasked with preventing a global catastrophe. Amid mounting tensions, they unravel a complex conspiracy that challenges their loyalties and skills, leading to a race against time to avert disaster.
