Mark Reviews Movies: SHADOW IN THE CLOUD

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 31, 2020

A good portion of Shadow in the Cloud takes place within the confines of the turret of a World War II-era bomber. It's a claustrophobic nightmare of sorts, as a young woman has to deal with the constant dismissals and derisions of the mostly unseen men onboard the plane, their curiosity about a top-secret package that she is determined to protect, a lot of mechanical failures, and some enemy planes sneaking through the clouds. There's also a gremlin.

Yes, it's an actual gremlin. That could have been the lead-in to this story, but sometimes, something is so unexpected that it has to be saved for last.

That, at least, seems to be the philosophy of co-writer/director Roseanne Liang, whose movie certainly saves its most unexpected element for last. At first and for a while, we're watching a lot of drama unfold from within the confines of what's essentially a rotating glass cage. Our hero, who first claims to be a flight officer from the British Women's Auxiliary Air Force, confronts the overt sexism and obvious misogyny of a group of guys.

They have forced her into that turret, and then, Maude (Chloë Grace Moretz) gets a front row seat to Japanese fighter planes, which have found a way to travel all the way south off the coast of Auckland, and a mischievous creature, which looks like a wingless bat and has a penchant for destroying the plane's essential mechanics from within. None of the men believes her about either of the threats.

The concept is kind of ingenious, and Liang clearly isn't intimidated or limited by the restricted space in which her protagonist finds herself confined. The screenplay, written by Liang and Max Landis (although the director makes a pretty clear effort to distance herself—and rightly so—from him, if the giant gap between their names in the closing credits is any indication), finds some clever ways to keep Maude busy and to maintain a sense of mounting tension, even though she's trapped in this small space and a lot of action takes place above her.

She has come to the plane with forged orders, a leather satchel, and a pistol, hidden within a sling for a fake arm injury. We briefly meet the crew, but beyond being chauvinist and doubtful jerks, they're mostly unimportant. Shut up in the plane's lower gun turret, Maude takes to the onboard radio to tell off the guys, who find a way to twist everything she says to them and about herself into an insult.

Liang quickly and directly establishes the threats: the fin of a plane receding into the clouds below and a shadow, darting into and out of sight, on the wing of the plane. Maude warns the men about both. They assume she's seeing things and, later, "hysterical." Even after the Japanese fighter starts shooting at the plane (and Maude takes it out with pinpoint accuracy), they still don't believe her about the strange creature and its connection to the fact that the plane's engines are starting to fail one by one.

We, of course, know Maude is correct. There are a lot of good looks at that gremlin, breaking a bunch of machinery from afar and staring into its beady eyes as it tries to force its claws, as well as its slimy and slithery tail, into the turret. Because of the restricted space, Liang has to come up with some cleverly small obstacles—that the hatch to the turret has been damaged, apparently by sabotage—and perils—a small crack in the glass, which is the perfect size for the gremlin's appendages, and an unobstructed lock, which is the only thing protecting Maude from a long drop and is the perfect size for her finger (That part leads to a series of sickening crunches). All the while, there are the mysteries of the package, its contents, and Maude's reason for going to so much trouble to get on this particular plane.

It is, well, enough, perhaps, although it's clearly not enough in Liang's mind. For all of the surprising twists (the contents of the package, for certain) and strange turns (again, the contents of the package) the secluded section of the story takes, there is nothing more unanticipated than when Liang decides to open up the story and its restrictions. What was a pretty tight thriller (in terms of pacing, conflict, and space) becomes something action-filled and over-the-top.

After being cramped up in the turret, Maude gets to stretch her legs and arms, climbing and crawling across seemingly impossible terrain, at highly improbable angles (upside-down, with Liang's camera graciously turning) and against certainly fatal forces (the speed of the plane and air density). That's just the start, too. The extended climax becomes a series of physics-defying close calls, fights against the gremlin, and dodging machine gun fire, as well as one especially ludicrous moment when Maude is saved at the last second by the propulsion of an explosion. That only covers about half of what happens.

It is, to put it as bluntly as possible, bonkers. As for whether or not the movie "earns" this total shift in tone and purpose, that's almost impossible to answer. The change in Shadow in the Cloud is so extreme that we should be grateful to survive without dying from fits of stunned laughter.

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