7500 Ending, Explained

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, ‘7500’ follows the story of a plane hijacking. The film relies on the tension to create the edge of the seat moments that leave the viewers gasping for breath. It takes many twists and turns within the runtime of hour-and-a-half. Just when you think the situation is under control or completely out of control, something happens that turns the balance to the opposite side. When the movie ends, we are left with an unsettling feeling about the characters. If you haven’t seen the film yet, head over to Amazon Prime. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Plot Summary

Tobias is the co-pilot for a flight that takes off from Berlin for Paris. Gocke, his girlfriend and the mother of his child, is a flight attendant on the same plane. They discuss the possibility of a kindergarten for their son before they have to get back to work. Soon after the takes off, some terrorists hijack the plane. They try to get inside the cockpit. While one succeeds, the other is thrown out by Tobias. The scuffle results in the captain getting wounded, the terrorist falling unconscious, and Tobias becoming in charge of the emergency landing.

What did the hijackers want?

Every crime has a motive, and to solve it, one has to get to the root of it. In the case of hostage situations, it is important to find out what the criminal wants. The situation becomes easier to diffuse when you know what’s causing it. In the case of an airplane hijacking, the terrorists find it essential to take control of the cockpit, and ‘7500’ shows us exactly why. A pilot can make or break the situation, which is what makes the circumstances all the more dangerous for them. Their lives can depend on what purpose they serve for the hijackers.

In the movie, the moment the hijackers enter the cockpit, they attack the pilots. Michael is fatally wounded and because it was not an accident, it is clear that the terrorists didn’t want him alive. Had they gotten their way, Tobias would have died too. But he succeeds in containing the situation. This doesn’t stop the terrorists who become all the more agitated and resort to murder to find a way inside. Eventually, when that does happen, Kenan, who had been unconscious for most of the action, orders Vedat to kill Tobias.

We also find out that Kenan can fly the plane, which is why he was so quick to kill Michael and Tobias. Soon enough, we also find out that even if Kenan was not a trained pilot, he only needed to know enough to crash the plane rather than commanding it. Their motive had always been to crash the plane in a populous area of the city to do as much damage and kill as many people as possible. It was not a hijacking, it was a suicide mission.

While it comes as a surprise to the negotiators who try to dissuade Kenan from doing so, it also shocks Vedat, who never knew what he had signed up for. He feels betrayed, which means he never knew he was boarding the plane to die on it. And that’s where things go wrong for the terrorists.

The Ending

After Gocke is killed, the passengers rally against the terrorists and succeed in overpowering them. Their distress takes the form of violence and they kill the terrorists for killing two people. Vedat comes close to getting killed by them, but by then, Kenan wakes up inside the cockpit and takes over control from Tobias. It looks like the hijackers have won, but when Vedat discovers that they are on a suicide mission, he is forced to make a difficult choice.

Before he can crash the plane, Kenan is attacked by Vedat. Fearing for his life, the boy kills him and helps Tobias in getting the plane on track again. He tells him to fly somewhere else, but Tobias informs him that they need to refuel which is why they will have to land at Hannover. He convinces him that once they refuel, he can fly away to wherever he wants.

Vedat falls for this ruse and soon finds himself surrounded by cops. The passengers leave through the emergency exit and the cops negotiate for Tobias. They ask for some time to refuel the plane, but this only means that they are finding ways to get inside the plane and capture or kill Vedat. In between this, he gets a call from his mother where he expresses the desire to come home and tells her that he was lied to by the people he decided to follow. He is completely disillusioned by whatever terrorist group had tried to brainwash him, but he also knows that he can’t get captured. It would mean a lifetime in prison and he is not ready for that. As more time passes by and the plane is not refueled, he gets more anxious which makes him all the more violent. Just when it looks like he is ready to hurt Tobias, he is shot on the chest.

The cops get inside the plane while Tobias tries to save Vedat. Both of them are escorted out, and in the final scene, the camera lingers outside the cockpit. We hear Vedat’s phone ringing inside and the sirens blaring outside. This moment captures an intimate moment of the story, allowing us to grasp all that we saw in the past hour-and-a-half. It makes us think about Tobias, what he had to go through, and the price he had to pay to save the passengers. It also makes us think about Vedat, the corruption of his innocence, and his last wish to go home.

Read More: Is 7500 a True Story?

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