Up in the Air (2009) on Netflix
Ryan Bingham travels the country carrying out layoffs for employers. A new hire, Natalie Keener, wants the firings done by video, and Alex Goran is a businesswoman he meets on the road.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb7.4/10362,891 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
Ryan Bingham works for a firm that handles employment-termination assistance, flying from city to city to conduct layoffs on behalf of employers. He gives motivational speeches built on the idea of a backpack and of shedding burdensome relationships and possessions, and he is chasing ten million frequent flyer miles. On his travels he meets Alex Goran, a businesswoman whose work keeps her flying, and the two begin a casual relationship, seeing each other in different cities when their schedules allow. Back in Omaha, a young new hire named Natalie Keener proposes cutting costs by conducting layoffs through video-conferencing. Ryan objects that the method is impersonal and undignified, and says Natalie does not grasp the firing process or how to deal with people who are emotionally vulnerable. His boss, Craig Gregory, sends Natalie on Ryan's next round of terminations to observe.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Up in the Air (2009)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- While filming in St. Louis and Detroit, Reitman placed an ad in the paper asking if people who recently lost their job wanted to be in a documentary about job loss, specifying "documentary" so that actors would not respond. The crew received 100 responses, and 60 people were filmed.
- Kevin Renick wrote the song "Up in the Air" two years before he knew Reitman was working on a film adaptation of the book. He had been laid off at the time, and was an unrecorded, unemployed St. Louis musician.
- Reitman initially attempted to claim sole credit for writing the film, then later admitted to confusion when the Writers Guild of America ruled that he should share credit with Turner, whose script Reitman claimed to have never read.
- Reitman said he considered Steve Martin for the part if Clooney declined the role, and that he would have changed the movie with Martin, giving him "his Lost in Translation".
- There was strong Oscar buzz for "Help Yourself", the original song by Sad Brad Smith that features in a pivotal scene, but it was pulled from consideration by Paramount Pictures over technicalities required by the academy, which some deemed arbitrary.
- For the shots in the air, the production used the pilot who flies the Boeing 747 that carried the Space Shuttle; he flew the aircraft himself for the film's aerial photography.
