# Hijack (2023)

> An expert negotiator must talk his way through a hijacking where the stakes climb by the second.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/123846

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 15
- Episode runtime: 46 min
- Status: Returning Series
- Genres: thriller, drama
- Created by: George Kay, Jim Field Smith
- Network: Apple TV
- Cast: Idris Elba, Neil Maskell, Eve Myles, Christine Adams, Christian Näthe, Max Beesley, Archie Panjabi, Clare-Hope Ashitey
- TMDB rating: 7.3/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19854762/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, breathless, claustrophobic, propulsive

## What critics say

Audiences rate Hijack as a positive, tense thriller led by Idris Elba, though reviewers feel the confined airliner premise stretches thin over multiple episodes.

## Synopsis

Hijack (2023-2026) is a British thriller series created by George Kay and Jim Field Smith for Apple TV. Expert negotiator Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) is pulled into a hijacking aboard a passenger flight, where every conversation with the hijackers becomes a fight for lives and time. Sam leans on his full playbook of stalling tactics, reading people, and bargaining while the stakes escalate minute by minute. The story is built from concrete pressure points: calls with the ground team, tense exchanges with the hijackers, and the constant question of who among the people around him can be trusted. Across two seasons and fifteen episodes, the series keeps the claustrophobic setting of a cabin and cockpit at its core, with London and other locations widening the investigation. Its tone is taut, breathless, and procedural, with an emphasis on suspense and moral strain rather than spectacle. Fans of 24, Die Hard, and The Night Manager will find resonance in its ticking-clock urgency and competent hero under siege. The show leans on Elba's commanding screen presence, and viewers who enjoy a claustrophobic, dialogue-driven thriller will find it absorbing.

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