There is a memory of Bruce Willis as John McClane saying, “How can the same (expletive) happen to the same guy twice?” in Die Hard 2, as we watch super negotiator, Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) being held hostage on a Berlin train with over 100 passengers and one terrified driver, Otto (Christian Näthe).
Hijack (English)
Season 2
Episodes: 8
Creators: George Kay, Jim Field Smith
Starring: Idris Elba, Neil Maskell, Christine Adams, Max Beesley, Archie Panjabi, Ian Burfield, Toby Jones, Christiane Paul, Albrecht Schuch, Christian Näthe, Clare-Hope Ashitey, Lisa Vicari, Dejan Bućin, Karima McAdams, Jasmine Bayes, Christian Berkel, Arsher Ali
Storyline: Expert negotiator Sam Nelson is on a hijacked train in Berlin
Runtime: 39 – 56 minutes
In the first season of Hijack, Kingdom Airlines Flight 29 from Dubai to London was hijacked for some complicated reason as the show devolved into peak silliness with different hijackers and reasons being revealed in each episode. It was fun nonetheless with Elba’s jaw doing most of the acting.
In season 2, it is two years after the hijacking and we see Sam on a U-Bahn looking tense, and we assume that the hijacking has put him off travel for good. All sorts of sketchy people seem to be on board, including Otto the driver, who shoots past two stations without stopping, and a young man with a rucksack.
After refusing to engage with his former intern, Mei (Jasmine Bayes), Sam does a weaponless takeover of the train. Through the interminable eight episodes, we learn that Sam is being forced to hijack the train which is wired with explosives (cue blinking lights and a red-letter clock face) to free the crime boss and co-conspirator of the Kingdom Airlines hijacking, John Bailey-Brown (Ian Burfield).
Sam’s ex‑wife, Marsha (Christine Adams), is in a lonely cottage in Scotland for an anniversary, while her boyfriend, Daniel (Max Beesley), a police officer with the Met, worries about her safety. There are flurries of snow (which look very pretty) and weighty conversations.
Still from the show
| Photo Credit:
Apple TV
Olivia (Clare-Hope Ashitey) of the British Embassy in Berlin, was to meet Sam as he claimed to have information about Bailey-Brown, but naturally does not show up because he is busy hijacking/being hijacked. The trend of calling villains by their full names is obviously catching. Remember Tom Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine repeatedly saying “Richard Onslow Roper” for Hugh Laurie’s dastardly arms dealer in The Night Manager?
In the control room, there are several shots of people staring fixedly at the lovely Visual Display Unit, which practically radiates Main Character energy. Clara, (Lisa Vicari) a train dispatcher, looks worried while Ada Winter (Christiane Paul), head of the Federal Police with her sleek helmet of hair, purses her lips in annoyance at the next series of demands.
Stuart (Neil Maskell), the leader of the Kingdom Airlines hijackers is in a surprisingly lax maximum security prison and refuses to speak to Daniel and his former partner DCI Zahra Gahfoor (Archie Panjabi).
The passengers on the train, including a security consultant, a father with a four‑month‑old asthmatic baby, an elderly couple, a bunch of party girls, and a group of British students with a boy who is claustrophobic, are not particularly interesting.
There is also a doctor on the train, Jess, (Karima McAdams) who knows more than she is willing to say. The British intelligence is involved as well with Peter Faber (Toby Jones) and Robert Lang (Arsher Ali) having cryptic conversations. Incidentally, this is not a comprehensive list of all the plot threads.
Characters make the strangest choices throughout the nonsensical plot. While no one could get off a plane, there seems to be no reason why people cannot get off a train especially when Sam and Otto often do just that.
Still from the show
| Photo Credit:
Apple TV
The shots of the train going through several tunnels are repeated grimly. There is no particular sense of urgency with time stretching and contracting to suit the plot. Each revelation of different people’s duplicity does not feel particularly earned either.
While it is fun to watch Elba and Jones do their stuff, Season 2 does not offer much else apart from wondering if Sam is going to be stuck on a cruise liner next season and held hostage by the shark from Jaws.
Hijack is currently streaming on Apple TV+
Published – March 05, 2026 12:42 pm IST
