the last flight movie review

The Last Flight

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Description

Two women. Two flights. One last chance to disappear.

Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he’s not above using his staff to track Claire’s every move, making sure she’s living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn’t know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.

A chance meeting in an airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets―Claire taking Eva’s flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico goes down, Claire realizes it’s no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva’s identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.

For fans of Lisa Jewell and Liv Constantine, The Last Flight is the story of two women―both alone, both scared―and one agonizing decision that will change the trajectory of both of their lives.

Target Book Club Pick for May 2021

USA Today’s  5 Books Not To Miss Real Simple Best Books of 2020 BookBub Most Anticipated Thrillers of Spring People.com Best Books to Read During Quarantine CrimeReads.com Most Anticipated Crime Books of Summer 2020 Frolic’s Best Books of Summer 2020 Good Morning America’s 25 Novels to Read this Summer Publishers Weekly Books of the Week Entertainment Weekly Best Books of June Parade Best Thrillers of Summer Mashable’s Books to Read this Summer Sinclair Syndicated Summer Reading List POPSUGAR’s 18 Page-Turners Our Editors Couldn’t Put Down Marie Claire’s Best Books of 2020 BookBub’s 8 Books That Will Make You Glad You Stayed Home This Summer Glitter Guide Thrillers To Read This Fall

“It’s hard to become engrossed in a book just now, with so much noise crackling inside and outside of our heads, but The Last Flight is thoroughly absorbing — not only because of its tantalizing plot and deft pacing, but also because of its unexpected poignancy and its satisfying, if bittersweet, resolution. The characters get under your skin.”  — New York Times Book Review

“But it all works and comes together in a powerful, high octane, suspenseful read. Clark along with her two strong, courageous female characters effectively bring this exciting, fast paced story to a final satisfying conclusion.” — New York Journal of Books

“Propulsive prose drives Clark’s tale of the intersecting lives of these two smart and resourceful women, and emphasis is placed on the importance of female friendship and support. Readers will surely find themselves hopelessly invested in Claire’s and Eva’s ultimate fates. A tense and engaging womancentric thriller.”  — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“The moral dilemmas that the multifaceted, realistic characters face in their quest for survival lend weight to this pulse-pounding tale of suspense. Clark is definitely a writer to watch.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Fans of thrillers about gone girls and vanished ladies will enjoy the tale, although some readers may wonder if Claire and Eva’s situations might better have been resolved in a more straightforward way.” — Booklist

“Clark ( The Ones We Choose ) is an exceptional writer who has crafted a tale about disappearing in an age when technology makes it almost impossible. Highly recommended for fans of thrillers, mysteries, and crime fiction.” — Library Journal, starred review

“ The Last Flight is a delicious thrill ride of a read.” — BookPage , starred review

“The brisk pace and criminal elements make The Last Flight a thriller, but it’s also an affecting exploration of friendship and loneliness, and the search for one’s place in the world.” —Shelf Awareness

“ The Last Flight is a page turner!” — People.com

“A premise that sounds highly thrilling takes its share of poignant turns, too.” — Entertainment Weekly

“ The Last Flight is everything you want in a book: a gripping story of suspense; haunting, vulnerable characters; and a chilling and surprising ending that stays with you long after the last page.” — Aimee Molloy, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Mother

“I’m a sucker for suspense stories crafted around an airplane crash, and Julie Clark’s  The Last Flight lived up to the hype and then some. Clark starts with a bang then keeps the pace at full throttle, deftly weaving two seemingly separate stories into one wild and entertaining ride. The perfect combination of beautiful prose and high suspense, and an ending that I guarantee will catch you off guard.” — Kimberly Belle, internationally bestselling author of Dear Wife and The Marriage Lie

“ The Last Flight sweeps you into a thrilling story of two desperate women who will do anything to escape their lives. Both poignant and addictive, you’ll race through the pages to the novel’s chilling end. A must read of the summer!” — Kaira Rouda, internationally bestselling author of Best Day Ever and The Favorite Daughter

“Julie Clark’s The  Last Flight is a stunner: both a compelling, intricately woven tale of suspense and a thoughtful, nuanced portrayal of two very different women, each at a dangerous crossroads in her life. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!” — Kathleen Barber, author of Truth Be Told and Follow Me

“Strong women take center stage in this Breaking Bad meets Sleeping with the Enemy thriller. The  Last Flight has it all—original characters, fast pacing, and clever twists, all in one explosive package!” — Wendy Walker, nationally bestselling author of The Night Before

“The  Last Flight will propel you headfirst into the frantic lives of two women, both determined to escape their current reality. Julie Clark weaves their stories effortlessly, delivering a pitch-perfect suspense novel that absolutely lives up to its hype. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up!” — Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, authors of The Two Lila Bennetts

“Get ready to hold onto the edge of your seat. This is a fantastic thriller about real people facing tremendous challenges. Exciting, touching, haunting, The  Last Flight will stay with you long after you turn the final page. Julie Clark has written a bang of a novel.” — Rene Denfeld, internationally bestselling author of The Child Finder and The Butterfly Girl

“ The Last Flight is a wild ride: One part Strangers on a Train, one part Breaking Bad, with more twists than an amusement park roller coaster! Julie Clark is a devilishly inventive storyteller.” — Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Watch Me Disappear

Monday, February 21 The Day Before the Crash

“Danielle,” I say, entering the small office that sits adjacent to our living room. “Please let Mr. Cook know I’m going to the gym.”

She looks up from her computer, and I see her gaze snag on the bruise along the base of my throat, concealed with a thin layer of makeup. I automatically adjust my scarf to cover it, knowing she won’t mention it. She never does.

“We have a meeting at Center Street Literacy at four,” she says. “You’ll be late again.” Danielle keeps track of my calendar and my missteps, and I’ve pegged her as the one most likely to report when I don’t arrive on time to meetings, or when I cancel appointments that my husband, Rory, deems important. If I’m going to run for Senate, we don’t have the luxury of making mistakes, Claire.

“Thank you, Danielle. I can read the calendar as well as you can. Please have my notes from the last meeting uploaded and ready to go. I’ll meet you there.” As I leave the room, I hear her pick up the phone and my step falters, knowing this might draw attention at a time when I can’t afford it.

People always ask what it’s like being married into the Cook family, a political dynasty second only to the Kennedys. I deflect with information about our foundation, trained to keep my focus on the work instead of the rumors. On our third-­world literacy and water initiatives, the inner-city mentoring programs, the cancer research.

What I can’t tell them is that it’s a constant battle to find any privacy. Even inside our home, people are there at all hours. Assistants. Household staff who cook and clean for us. I have to fight for every spare minute and every square inch to call my own. There is nowhere that’s safe from the eyes of Rory’s staff, all of them devoted Cook employees. Even after ten years of marriage, I’m still the interloper. The outsider who needs to be watched.

I’ve learned how to make sure there’s nothing to see.

The gym is one of the few places Danielle doesn’t follow, trailing after me with her lists and schedules. It’s where I meet Petra, the only friend I have left from my life before Rory, and the only one Rory hasn’t forced me to abandon.

Because as far as Rory knows, Petra doesn’t exist.

When I arrive at the gym, Petra is already there. I change in the locker room, and when I climb the stairs to the rows of treadmills, she’s on the landing, taking a clean towel from the stack. Our eyes meet for a moment, and then she looks away as I help myself to a towel.

“Are you nervous?” she whispers.

“Terrified,” I say, turning and walking away.

I run for an hour, my eyes on the clock, and when I step into the sauna at exactly two thirty with a towel wrapped around my body, my muscles ache with exhaustion. The air is thick with steam, and I smile at Petra, who sits alone on the top row, her face red with heat.

“Do you remember Mrs. Morris?” she asks when I sit down next to her.

I smile, grateful to think of something from a simpler time. Mrs. Morris was our government teacher in the twelfth grade, and Petra almost failed the class.

“You studied with me every afternoon for a month,” she continues. “When none of the other kids would come near me or Nico because of who our father was, you stepped up and made sure I graduated.”

I turn on the wooden bench to face her. “You make it sound like you and Nico were pariahs. You had friends.”

Petra shakes her head. “People being nice to you because your father is the Russian version of Al Capone doesn’t make them friends.” We’d attended an elite school in Pennsylvania, where the children and grandchildren of old money viewed Petra and her brother, Nico, as a novelty, sliding up to them, as if on a dare, to see how close they could get, but never letting either of them all the way in.

And so we’d formed a trio of outcasts. Petra and Nico made sure no one made fun of my secondhand uniform or the beat-up Honda my mother used to pick me up in, rattling its way to the curb, belching exhaust in its wake. They made sure I didn’t eat alone and dragged me to school events I’d have skipped otherwise. They put themselves between me and the other kids, the ones who made cruel, cutting remarks about how I was merely a day student on scholarship, too poor, too common to truly be one of them. Petra and Nico were friends to me at a time when I had none.

It felt like fate, the day I walked into the gym two years ago and saw Petra, an apparition from my past. But I wasn’t the same person Petra would remember from high school. Too much had changed. Too much I’d have to explain about my life and what I’d lost along the way. And so I’d kept my gaze averted, while Petra’s stare drilled into me, willing me to look up. To acknowledge her.

When my workout was over, I made my way to the locker room, hoping to hide out in the sauna until after Petra had left. But when I’d entered, she was there. As if that had been our plan all along.

“Claire Taylor,” she said.

Hearing her say my old name made me smile despite myself. Memories came rushing back, found in the tone and cadence of Petra’s voice that still carried a trace of the Russian she spoke at home. In an instant, I had felt like my old self, not the persona I’d cultivated over the years as Rory’s wife, glossy and unknowable, burying her secrets beneath a hard surface.

We started slowly, making small talk that quickly turned personal as we caught up on the years since we’d last seen each other. Petra had never married. Instead, she drifted through life, supported by her brother, who now ran the family organization.

“And you,” she said, gesturing toward my left hand. “You’re married?”

I studied her through the steam, surprised she didn’t know. “I married Rory Cook.”

“Impressive,” Petra said.

I looked away, waiting for her to ask what people always asked—what really happened to Maggie Moretti, the name that will forever be linked to my husband’s, the girl who’d catapulted from anonymity to infamy simply because, long ago, she’d once loved Rory.

But Petra just leaned back on her bench and said, “I saw that interview he did with Kate Lane on CNN. The work he’s done with the foundation is remarkable.”

“Rory is very passionate.” A response that conveyed truth, if anyone cared to dig deeper.

“How are your mom and sister? Violet must be done with college by now.”

I’d been dreading that question. Even after so many years, the loss of them was still sharp. “They died in a car accident fourteen years ago. Violet had just turned eleven.” I kept my explanation brief. A rainy Friday night. A drunk driver who ran a stop sign. A collision in which they both died instantly.

“Oh, Claire,” Petra had said. She didn’t offer platitudes or force me to rehash things. Instead she sat with me, letting the silence hold my grief, knowing there was nothing that could be said that would make it hurt less.

It became our routine, to meet in the sauna every day after our workouts. Petra understood that because of who her family was, we couldn’t be seen talking in public. Even before we knew what I was going to eventually do, we’d been cautious, rarely communicating by phone and never by email. But in the sauna, we resurrected our friendship, rebuilding the trust we used to share, remembering the alliance that had gotten us both through high school.

It didn’t take long for Petra to also see what I was hiding. “You need to leave him, you know,” she’d said one afternoon, several months after we’d first met. She was looking at a bruise on my upper left arm, the remnant of an argument Rory and I’d had two nights earlier. Despite my efforts to hide the evidence—a towel pulled higher around my chest, hung around my neck, or draped across my shoulders—Petra had silently watched the progression of Rory’s rage across my skin. “That’s not the first one of those I’ve seen on you.”

I covered the bruise with my towel, not wanting her pity. “I tried to, once. About five years ago.” I’d believed it was possible to leave my marriage. I’d prepared myself for a fight, knowing it would be messy and expensive, but I’d use his abuse as leverage. Give me what I want and I’ll stay silent about the kind of man you are.

But it hadn’t happened that way at all. “Turns out, the woman I’d confided in, who’d tried to help me, was married to an old fraternity brother of Rory’s. And when Rory showed up, her husband opened the door and let him in, old boy-ing himself right alongside Rory, secret handshake and all. Rory told them I was struggling with depression, working with a psychiatrist, and that maybe it was time for something inpatient.”

“He was going to have you committed?”

“He was letting me know that things could get a lot worse.” I didn’t tell Petra the rest. Like how, when we’d gotten home, he’d shoved me so hard into the marble counter in our kitchen, I’d cracked two ribs. Your selfishness astonishes me. That you’d be willing to destroy all I’ve worked to build—my mother’s legacy—because we argue. All couples argue, Claire. He’d gestured around the room, to the high-end appliances, the expensive countertops, and said, Look around you. What more could you possibly want? No one is going to feel sorry for you. No one will even believe you.

Which was true. People wanted Rory to be who they thought he was—the charismatic son of the progressive and beloved Senator Marjorie Cook. I could never tell anyone what he did to me, because no matter what I’d say or how loudly I’d say it, my words would be buried beneath the love everyone felt for Marjorie Cook’s only child.

“People will never see what I see,” I finally said.

“You really believe that?”

“Do you think if Carolyn Bessette came forward accusing JFK Junior of hitting her, the country would have rushed to support her?”

Petra’s eyes widened. “Are you kidding me? This is the #MeToo era. I think people would be falling all over themselves to believe her. They’d probably create new Fox and CNN shows just to talk about it.”

I gave a hollow laugh. “In a perfect world, I’d hold Rory accountable. But I don’t have it in me to take on a fight like that. One that would go on for years, that would seep into every corner of my life and tarnish anything good that might come afterward. I just want to be free of it. Of him.”

To speak out against Rory would be like stepping into an abyss and trusting that I’d be caught by the generosity and kindness of others. And I’d lived too many years with people happily watching me free fall if it meant they could be close to Rory. In this world, money and power were equivalent to immunity.

I took a long breath and felt the steam reach down into my deepest corners. “If I left him, I’d have to do it in a way where he could never find me. Look what happened to Maggie Moretti.”

The edges of Petra’s face were blurry through the steam that billowed between us, but I could see her gaze sharpen. “Do you think he had something to do with that?”

“I don’t know what to believe anymore,” I answered.

Over the next year, Petra and I assembled a plan, choreographing my disappearance more carefully than a ballet. A sequence of events so perfectly timed, there could be no room for error, and now I sit, hours away from executing it. The hiss of steam clouds the air around us, Petra just a faint shadow on the cedar bench next to me. “Did you mail everything this morning?” I ask her.

“FedEx, addressed to you, labeled ‘Personal.’ It should arrive at the hotel first thing tomorrow.”

I couldn’t risk hiding all I’d gathered at my house, where anyone—­the maids, or worse, Danielle—might find it. So Petra kept everything—forty thousand dollars of Rory’s money and a brand new identity, thanks to Nico.

“The new government technology is making it harder to make these,” he’d said, the afternoon I’d driven out to see him. We were sitting at his dining room table in his large home on Long Island. He’d grown into a handsome man, with a wife and three kids. And bodyguards—­two posted at his gated driveway and another two at his front door. It occurred to me that Rory and Nico were not so different. Each of them the chosen son, pushed to carry the family into the twenty-first century, with new rules and regulations. Both expected to do more than the last generation—­or at the very least, not lose everything.

Nico slid a fat envelope toward me, and I opened it, pulling out a pristine Michigan driver’s license and a passport with my face and the name Amanda Burns. I flipped through the rest—a social security card, a birth certificate, and a credit card.

“You’ll be able to do anything with these,” Nico said, picking up the driver’s license and tilting it under the light so I could see the hologram embossed on the surface. “Vote. Pay taxes. Fill out a W-­2 form. This is high-level stuff, and my guy is the best. There’s only one other person who can make a full package this good, and he lives in Miami.” Nico handed me the credit card—a Citibank account with my new name on it. “Petra opened this last week, and the statements will be sent to her address. When you get settled, you can change it. Or toss this card and open a new one. Just be careful. You don’t want someone to steal your identity.”

He laughed at his joke, and I could see the boy he used to be flash across his face, sitting next to Petra and me at lunch, eating his sandwich while doing his math homework, the weight of who he was expected to become already bearing down on him.

“Thanks, Nico.” I passed him the envelope containing ten thousand dollars, a small fraction of the money I’d managed to siphon off and squirrel away over the past six months. One hundred dollars here. Another two hundred there. Cash back whenever I could, slipping the money into Petra’s gym locker every day so she could hold it until I was ready.

His expression grew serious. “I need you to know that if something goes wrong, I can’t help you. Petra can’t help you. Your husband has resources that would put me, my livelihood—­and Petra’s—at risk.”

“I understand,” I told him. “You’ve done more than enough, and I’m grateful.”

“I’m serious. All it takes is one tiny thread connecting your new life to your old one and it’ll all fall apart.” His dark eyes latched onto mine and held. “You can never go back. Not once. Not in any way, ever.”

“Rory’s scheduled the plane to leave around ten,” I tell Petra now. “Did you remember to include my letter? I don’t want to have to rewrite it on hotel stationery ten minutes before I leave.”

She nods. “In with the rest of it. Addressed and stamped, ready to be mailed from Detroit. What did you say?”

I think about the hours I’d spent, the many versions I’d shredded, drafting a letter that would close the door on any possibility that Rory might try to follow me. “I told him I was leaving, and that this time, he would never find me. That he should announce our separation publicly, tell them it was amicable and that I was not going to be giving any public statements or media interviews about it.”

“One week before he announces his run for Senate.”

I give her a smirk. “Should I have waited until after?”

Once I’d saved enough money to carry me into a new life, I began to look for the perfect opening to leave. I studied our Google calendar of upcoming events, searching for a trip I’d be taking alone, focusing on cities near the Canadian or Mexican borders. I found it in the Detroit trip. I’m scheduled to visit Citizens of the World, a social justice charter school funded by the Cook Family Foundation. An afternoon school tour followed by an evening dinner with donors.

I lean back on the bench behind me and stare up at the ceiling, obscured by a layer of steam, and run through the rest of the plan. “We land around noon. The school event starts at two, so I’ll make sure we go to the hotel first so I can get the package and put it somewhere safe.”

“I called the car rental place. They’re expecting a Ms. Amanda Burns to pick up a compact around midnight tonight. Will you be able to get a cab?”

“There’s a Hilton just down the road from where I’m staying. I’ll catch one from there.”

“I worry about someone seeing you leave with a suitcase in the middle of the night. Following you. Calling Rory.”

“I’m not taking it. I bought a backpack big enough for a couple changes of clothes and my money. I’m leaving everything else—including my purse and wallet—behind.”

Petra nods. “If you need it, I booked a room with the credit card at the W in Toronto. They’re expecting you.”

I close my eyes, the heat making me woozy. Or perhaps it’s the pressure of having to get every detail exactly right. There’s no room for even the tiniest mistake.

I feel the minutes slipping away. Pushing me toward the moment when I’ll take the first step in a series of steps that will be irrevocable. A part of me wants to forget it all. Go to Detroit, visit the school, and come home. Have more days in the sauna talking to Petra. But this is my chance to finally get out. Whatever options I have now will narrow to nothing once Rory announces his run for the Senate.

“Time to go.” Petra’s voice is soft, and my eyes open again.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” I tell her.

“You were my only friend all those years ago. You don’t have to thank me. This is me, thanking you,” she says. “It’s your turn to be happy.” She tightens her towel around her body, and I can see the flash of her smile through the steam.

I can’t believe this is the last time we’ll sit here. The last time we’ll talk. This room has been like a sanctuary, dark and quiet, with just our whispered voices, plotting my escape. Who will sit here tomorrow with her? Or the day after that?

I feel the finality of my departure looming, how absolute that ending will be, and I wonder if it’ll be worth it. If it’ll be better. Soon, Claire Cook will cease to exist, the shiny pieces of her facade cracked and discarded. I have no idea what I’ll find underneath it all.

Thirty-three hours until I’m gone.

Book Trailer

Behind the Book

A conversation with the author.

What inspired you to write The Last Flight ?

I’ve been intrigued by the idea of whether someone could disappear from their life for a long time, and have often played out the various ways they could do it in my imagination. The things they’d need. How they’d get them. Where they might go, and what they’d do when they got there. What they’d have to be leaving behind. I knew early on that I wanted it to be a woman, and I wanted her to have an inner strength, even if her current situation didn’t allow her to use it. What might be the tiny ways she’d fight back, fight for room for herself?

Which of the two women—Eva or Claire—did you enjoy writing more? Did you find either of them more challenging?

I love both of my characters for different reasons. I love how scrappy Claire is, how she can look at a situation and figure out how to make it work for her. And I love Eva because she’s so flawed yet lovable. I enjoyed writing them both. I would say writing Claire was more challenging, because I was pushing her forward in time, having her act and react to things she didn’t know yet. Eva felt more natural to me, living in the past, filling in the blanks. With Claire, the tension had to be immediate, the pacing had to be tight. With Eva, I was allowed to sink more into emotion, to flesh out her backstory and how she ended up where she did.

We’re in an era where women are finally starting to feel safe sharing their stories. How does this book relate to the #MeToo movement?

I wanted to acknowledge how hard it still is for women to come forward with their stories. Even in this era of #MeToo, the cost remains high both personally and professionally. Just because we have a name for it doesn’t mean it’s fixed.

Can you talk a little bit about the systemic forces of oppression that both Claire and Eva face? What made you choose to write about these topics?

As an educator, I feel like it’s my obligation to shine a light on what still isn’t working in our society. The way a woman’s truth is sometimes held to a higher level of scrutiny than a man’s. The benefit of the doubt that so often goes the other way. I’ve known people like Claire, and I’ve known people like Eva, for whom things don’t always turn out okay. In the United States, we like to talk a lot about progress; however, change— not just for women but for all marginalized groups—is slow. Too slow.

What does your writing process look like?

I wake up early in the morning to write. During the workweek, I’m up at 3:45 and write until 6:00. Then I teach a full day of school and shuttle my kids here and there after school, making dinner, supervising homework. Early mornings—with a large pot of coffee—is my most productive writing time. My process is somewhat old school. I favor drafting with paper and pen, especially if I’m having trouble. It slows my brain, it allows me to put down words that “don’t count,” and it allows me to get warmed up before committing words to my computer. I draft pretty fast—I think I had a first draft of The Last Flight done in about three or four months. Then I like to spend a year or more revising and rewriting.

As a genre, suspense is huge right now. How do you think this story sets itself apart from other books in the space?

I feel like this book has the commercial appeal of the suspense genre, with the emotion often found in upmarket women’s fiction. But what really sets this book apart from the others on the shelves is the fact that I wanted both of my protagonists to be strong, savvy women. There’s nothing crazy or unstable about Claire or Eva. It’s important that the stories we tell reflect the strong women in the world today.

How did you map out all the twists and turns that happen throughout the story?

With lots and lots of note cards! It was really challenging to be writing a dual timeline and then weave it all together. It helped to have a clear vision for how the book would end, and I knew the ending pretty early on. From there, I mapped out Claire’s and Eva’s story arcs—what I wanted each of them to overcome, what I wanted each of them to learn.

What is the importance of female friendship in a narrative like this one? Have you found friendship with women to be just as important in your life as it is in Eva’s and Claire’s?

Female friendship is incredibly important in this story. We can all think about that one friend who showed up right when we needed her, giving us exactly what we needed to push us forward. I have been lucky enough to have some amazing female friendships. And as a single mother, it’s especially important to have those touchstones. My friends keep me sane. They make me laugh. They listen to what I’m struggling with and step in to help in innumerable ways. Humans are, by nature, social animals. And while I’m a dedicated introvert, I rely on my friends every day.

Why did you decide to set a thriller in Berkeley?

After college, I landed a job in the Cal Athletic Department. I worked in fundraising, so I spent a lot of time at Memorial Stadium, as well as Harmon Gym (which would later become Haas Pavilion). It was the best job for a just-graduated-from-college person who wasn’t entirely sure she was ready to have a “real job” yet. I loved my years in Berkeley, made many great friends there, and often dream of moving back someday. I decided to set The Last Flight in Berkeley so I could revisit it in my imagination. Go Bears!

What are you hoping readers gain from The Last Flight ?

I want readers to be inspired by the courage of both Claire and Eva, who did what felt impossible to each of them. No matter the circumstances, there’s a way out. As Claire’s mother put it: If you pay attention, solutions always appear. But you have to be brave enough to see them.

Discussion Guide

Download the printable guide.

1. What do Claire and Eva have in common? In what ways are they different?

2. How do you feel about Eva’s decision to manipulate Claire?

3. Put yourself in Claire’s shoes. How would it feel knowing that you’ve traded your life for someone else’s? Would you feel guilty or fortunate? Why?

4. Describe the obstacles Claire faces once she escapes from Rory. Were there any difficulties that surprised you?

5. Compare Claire’s relationships with other women in the book like Eva, Danielle, Petra, and Kelly. Are any of these women similar? In what way?

6. Discuss Eva’s childhood. How does it affect how she behaves as an adult?

7. Identify some of the triggers Claire faces as a result of Rory’s abuse. How do you think she can overcome them?

8. Claire makes the difficult decision to go public with her story, knowing full well that she may be met with criticism and disbelief. Why did she make this decision? Would you have handled the situation differently?

9. Liz is the only person Eva allows to get close to her. Describe their friendship. Why is it important to Eva? What does it mean to her?

10. Eva faces several huge difficulties in her life. Do you think her drug dealing is justified, given her circumstances?

11. Characterize Eva’s relationship with Dex. Why does she feel betrayed when she learns the truth about him?

12. How did you feel after reading Eva’s final chapter? Do you think there was anything different she could have done?

13. What do you think Claire will do next with her life? Will she be happy?

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When news hit that French cinema master Jean-Luc Godard chose to end his life via assisted suicide in Switzerland just weeks ago, many interpreted it as the act of an iconoclast dying on his own terms. Given his artistic stature, the decision was perceived as the ultimate statement on the same freedom that characterized his filmic oeuvre.

Yet, as proven in Ondi Timoner ’s unbelievably personal, profoundly bittersweet, and occasionally disquieting documentary “Last Flight Home,” having agency over one’s final departure isn’t exclusively reserved for those existing in conflict with the status quo. Her father, Eli Timoner, no less remarkable than Godard to his loved ones, was resolute on exercising California’s End of Life Option Act—only available to terminally ill adults.

But while several European nations protect this course of action within stringent limitations, on this shore—where even the right of pregnant people to an abortion elicits irrational reactions from religious sectors of the population—the topic remains controversial. Only 11 states in this country permit what’s known as “medical aid in dying.” 

Timoner, however, doesn’t concern herself with any ideological debate over the morality of her elderly dad’s chosen passage into the afterlife. Instead, she illustrates the value of people having this resource through her family’s first-hand experience. For her, the subject transitioned from theoretical talking point to a hard-to-face reality. Still, the lack of big-picture context on the issue ultimately comes across as a missed opportunity to inform.

Once Eli, bedridden and in need of around-the-clock care, demands the countdown to his death start with an initial doctor’s assessment, he never changes his mind. The last 15 days leading up to the event provide “Last Flight Home” with a built-in structure to which the filmmaker attaches multiple interviews with her siblings: Rachel, a rabbi, and David; as well as their mother Lucy at different stages in the ordeal of confronting mortality.

As clear as the project's arc is, Timoner’s assembly of the interviews, minimal archival elements, and footage of Eli tends to be disjointed with unflattering editing choices—particularly the transitions between each of the days we witness and even within each of the segments per a single day. The overall aesthetic of this effort is more akin to that of an episodic reality television series than inventive storytelling.

It’s only once we are acquainted with the nuclear family, one third into this explicitly finite story, that Timoner shares details on Eli’s 1982 stroke that left him partially paralyzed for the next 40 years and of his once successful professional career as a higher-up at the now defunct air carrier Air Florida. But the bulk of the images immortalize Eli as he lovingly and lucidly interacts with in-person visitors and loved ones over Zoom to say goodbye despite his weakened state.

Besides the impressive number of encounters, it’s the warmth and sincerity in all of them—including longtime friends and former employees—that communicates the kindness that characterized Eli. There’s a soothing luxury, it may seem, to knowing when your last day will be because it allows time for making amends and unhurried farewells.

Even as the chapters in "Last Flight Home" turn slightly repetitive, it’s nearly impossible not to be moved at the displays of preemptive grief and flares of joy on days when Eli seems the most present. His efforts to engage as effusively as possible with those around him feel like selfless acts to protect his family’s hearts from the inevitable pain that his chosen fate will soon cause them. He tries to be there, truly till the end.

Among the most heartsick sequences are those between Eli and Rachel, on double duty as mourning daughter and spiritual guide. The latter hopes to free her frail father from his long-held belief that his financial failures after the accident rendered him a perennial burden. Such is Eli’s desperation to do right by his children and wife that he makes plans to look over them consistently from wherever his soul finds a home elsewhere.

Eventually, the closer the announced resolution gets, the more insular Timoner’s narrative becomes. She tries to capture every single exchange between Eli and his grandchildren. And she exhibits frustration at her mother’s lack of urgency to spend time with her life partner. Under such strenuous personal circumstances, one would understandably expect anyone to become overwhelmed with emotion. Filmmaking should become secondary.

At its best, “Last Flight Home” unfolds as a celebration of Eli’s life while he still can enjoy the testimony of the strong impressions he left on others over more than 90 years. That in your final moments on this plane you can see the scale of your life tip towards love and not resentment is a privilege he undoubtedly earned. But as much as one feels honored to be let into the innermost pain of a group of strangers, perhaps some moments should remain sacred and only for the eyes of those directly involved. 

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Carlos Aguilar

Originally from Mexico City, Carlos Aguilar was chosen as one of 6 young film critics to partake in the first Roger Ebert Fellowship organized by RogerEbert.com, the Sundance Institute and Indiewire in 2014. 

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The Last Flight Review

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The Last Flight

Julie Clark

Two women cross paths in an airport, both desperate to go completely off the grid. When one of their flights goes down in a tragic airplane accident, secrets become revealed.

The Last Flight reminds me a little of the great 90s movie, Sleeping with the Enemy . When Julia Roberts’ character gets everyone to think she is dead but starts a life as someone else.

I am: Entertained

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Reviews of The Last Flight by Julie Clark

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The Last Flight

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• First Published:
• Jun 2, 2020, 320 pages
• May 2021, 288 pages

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Book Summary

For fans of Lisa Jewell and Liv Constantine, The Last Flight is the story of two women - both alone, both scared - and one agonizing decision that will change the trajectory of both of their lives.

Two women. Two Flights. One last chance to disappear. Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns as bright as his promising political career, and he's not above using his staff to track Claire's every move, making sure she's living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish. A chance meeting in an airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets ― Claire taking Eva's flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico goes down, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva's identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.

CLAIRE Monday, February 21 The Day Before the Crash

"Danielle," I say, entering the small office that sits adjacent to our living room. "Please let Mr. Cook know I'm going to the gym." She looks up from her computer, and I see her gaze snag on the bruise along the base of my throat, concealed with a thin layer of makeup. I automatically adjust my scarf to cover it, knowing she won't mention it. She never does. "We have a meeting at Center Street Literacy at four," she says. "You'll be late again." Danielle keeps track of my calendar and my missteps, and I've pegged her as the one most likely to report when I don't arrive on time to meetings, or when I cancel appointments that my husband, Rory, deems important. If I'm going to run for Senate, we don't have the luxury of making mistakes, Claire. "Thank you, Danielle. I can read the calendar as well as you can. Please have my notes from the last meeting uploaded and ready to go. I'll meet you there." As I leave the room, I hear her pick...

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

• What do Claire and Eva have in common? In what ways are they different?
• How do you feel about Eva's decision to manipulate Claire?
• Put yourself in Claire's shoes. How would it feel knowing that you've traded your life for someone else's? Would you feel guilty or fortunate? Why?
• Describe the obstacles Claire faces once she escapes from Rory. Were there any difficulties that surprised you?
• Compare Claire's relationships with other women in the book like Eva, Danielle, Petra, and Kelly. Are any of these women sim- ilar? In what way?
• Discuss Eva's childhood. How does it affect how she behaves as an adult?
• Identify some of the triggers Claire faces as a result of Rory's abuse. How do you think she can overcome them?
• Claire makes the ...

Please be aware that this discussion guide may contain spoilers!

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Reader reviews, bookbrowse review.

The novel is mostly character-driven, but it does have scenes of heart-stopping suspense that keep the pages flying late into the night. I can think of several instances where I literally gasped out loud at a particularly high-stress plot twist (and it was fun watching my spouse hit those same passages and have an identical reaction). The story isn't completely airtight — there are minor cases where an action or plot point doesn't seem entirely probable — but overall I found the novel highly entertaining and it was easy to overlook the negligible flaws. The Last Flight is the perfect antidote for summer malaise and makes a terrific "beach read.".. continued

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THE LAST FLIGHT

by Julie Clark ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 23, 2020

A tense and engaging womancentric thriller.

Two women risk everything to leave their troubled lives behind.

In just a week, Claire Cook’s husband, Rory, will announce his campaign to be a U.S. senator from New York. No surprise there, since his family is chock full of high-profile politicians. As Rory’s wife, the poised and beautiful Claire seems to lead a charmed life, but it’s getting harder to hide the bruises under a carefully cultivated veneer of elegance. Claire tried to leave him once, an attempt that ended with cracked ribs. But this time, she’s ready. She’s been squirreling away cash, she’s secured a fake ID and passport, and a trip to Detroit will provide the perfect opportunity to make her escape. However, before Claire leaves for the airport, Rory decides to send her to Puerto Rico to meet with a humanitarian group instead of going to Detroit. Even worse, Rory goes to Detroit in her place and intercepts the package containing her cash and papers. At JFK, Claire, seemingly by chance, meets Eva, a grieving woman looking to make a new start after her husband’s death. Claire suggests that Eva take her flight to Puerto Rico, and Claire will head to Eva’s home in Berkeley, where she’ll attempt to slip into Eva’s life. After touching down, Claire learns that Eva’s plane crashed and Claire is presumed dead, but she’s not out of the woods yet. Claire cleverly set up a way to keep track of Rory’s messages to his head honcho, and when evidence suggests that Eva might not have actually been on that doomed plane, Claire's plans take on a new urgency and it’s revealed that Eva’s story masked a dark truth. Propulsive prose drives Clark’s tale of the intersecting lives of these two smart and resourceful women, and emphasis is placed on the importance of female friendship and support. Readers will surely find themselves hopelessly invested in Claire's and Eva’s ultimate fates.

Pub Date: June 23, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-7282-1572-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark

Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020

SUSPENSE | THRILLER | SUSPENSE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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Awards & Accolades

New York Times Bestseller

IndieBound Bestseller

THE SILENT PATIENT

by Alex Michaelides ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 5, 2019

Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.

A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.

"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.

Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Celadon Books

Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018

GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER | SUSPENSE | PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

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BOOK REVIEW

by Alex Michaelides

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SEEN & HEARD

by Michael Crichton & James Patterson ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 3, 2024

Red-hot storytelling.

Two master storytellers create one explosive thriller.

Mauna Loa is going to blow within days—“the biggest damn eruption in a century”—and John “Mac” MacGregor of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory leads a team trying to fend off catastrophe. Can they vent the volcano? Divert the flow of blistering hot lava? The city of Hilo is but a few miles down the hill from the world’s largest active volcano and will likely be in the path of a 15-foot-high wall of molten menace racing toward them at 50 miles an hour. “You live here, you always worry about the big one,” Mac says, and this could be it. There’s much more, though. The U.S. Army swoops in, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff personally “drafts” Mac into the Army. Then Mac learns the frightening secret of the Army’s special interest in Mauna Loa, and suddenly the stakes fly far, far beyond Hilo. Perhaps they can save the world, but the odds don’t look good. Readers will sympathize with Mac, who teaches surfing to troubled teens and for whom “taking chances is part of his damned genetic code.” But no one takes chances like the aerial cowboy Jake Rogers and the photographer who hires him to fly over the smoldering, burbling, rock-spitting hellhole. Some of the action scenes will make readers’ eyes pop as the tension continues to build. As with any good thriller, there’s a body count, but not all thrillers have blackened corpses surfing lava flows. The story is the brainchild of the late Crichton, who did a great deal of research but died in 2008 before he could finish the novel. His widow handed the project to James Patterson, who weaves Crichton’s work into a seamless summer read.

Pub Date: June 3, 2024

ISBN: 9780316565073

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: June 20, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024

SUSPENSE | THRILLER | SUSPENSE

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by Michael Crichton & Daniel H. Wilson

by Michael Crichton

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‘Last Flight Home’ Review: A Family Says Their Goodbyes in Intimate End-of-Life Doc

Director Ondi Timoner creates an intimate and deeply personal portrait of an ending-a-life journey.

By Lisa Kennedy

Lisa Kennedy

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In Jan. 2021, Eli Timoner, 92, decided to make use of California’s End of Life Option law. His daughter, the award-winning documentary director Ondi Timoner (“We Live in Public”) did not start out to make a feature about Eli’s and her family’s journey to the end, but she has. “ Last Flight Home ,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival , is many things, all of them compelling. It is a tribute, a grappling with mortality, an exercise in self-surveillance, a messy home movie, a brief account of aviation history and a lesson in letting go and grief.

In 1982, Eli Timoner had been flying high. His wife, Elissa and their kids — Rachel, Ondi and David — were thriving. Air Florida, the regional carrier he’d co-founded and was president of had grown considerably. In February of that year, he appeared on “Good Morning America” with host David Hartman asking him questions about his ambitions for the company. Six months later, he had a devastating stroke from a freak accident that left his left side paralyzed.

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Quickly, Lisa Timoner and the kids rallied. Nearly as quickly, their upscale lifestyle waned. In 1983, Timoner resigned his post, citing the slowness of his recovery. “Last Flight Home” gives the contours of Eli’s success and traumatic decline. And the movie elicits thoughts about money and status. Using home movies, newspaper clippings and news footage, the film underscores what a titan he had been. But perhaps most significantly, the look back shows that “T-Team” — the name Elissa and the kids gave themselves during that crisis — is rallying again. As Lisa Timoner says, “T-Team has reassembled to help Daddy onto his next adventure.”

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Much of that adventure unfolds in the living-room of Eli and Lisa’s modest bungalow in California. His hospital bed is set up in the middle of the living-room, which becomes the locus of all kinds of activity. Grandkids come to say farewell to “Pop Pop.” Friends arrive on Zoom to reminisce and wish him well on his transition. His hospice caregiver tends to him. With an oxygen tube traveling to his nose, Eli lays under blankets, sometimes dozing, sometimes cracking wise, often making sure they are moving ahead toward his goal.

California law mandates a 15-day waiting period that begins after two doctors have confirmed that the person requesting the option is of sound mind, that they are terminally ill but well enough to end their life with aid-in-dying drugs but with no physical assistance. Although Eli’s determined, honoring his wishes is not a simple undertaking: logistically, emotionally, ethically. “Last Flight Home” makes it clear that some hospice doctors and nurses harbor ambivalence about, even opposition to, the option. And as much as Eli’s children and friends support his decision, they can’t help but check in about his resolve.

It’s clear that Ondi Timoner wants us to see Eli the way she and her siblings do: as a wry, sharp-witted, socially upstanding and loving soul. “Last Flight” shows him as remarkable, not simply because of the business he built in the 1970s, but also because of who he became, how he persevered, after the stroke. That doesn’t mean he’s without thorns: During a Zoom visit with daughter Rachel, the rabbi of a Reform Jewish temple in Brooklyn, Eli shares some rather uncensored thoughts about the former U.S. president. Wonderfully caught off guard, Rachel gently, genially cuts him off.

Each of the grown Timoner children brings some deep aspect of themselves, some personal skill to this undertaking. Ondi contributes a documentarian’s instinct for the revealing detail and respect for the power of gently asked questions. She and her father’s interactions are the most physically tender. David has long managed the logistics and finances of his parents’ care; his respectful solicitousness shows. But it’s Rachel who brings a spiritual and inclusive depth to “Last Flight Home.”

She becomes her father’s rabbi in his final days. She does this with grace but also an awareness that this tango between spiritual guide and loving, aching daughter will not be an easy one. As loving as he’s been, as beloved as he appears to be, Eli is carrying a lot of shame into his last days. Witnessing Rachel help Eli navigate and then lay down the weight of an awful and unnecessary burden is one of the great gifts of a movie with no shortage of insights into family, ritual and departures.

Reviewed online, Jan. 15, 2022. In Sundance Film Festival (Special Presentations). Running time: 104 MIN.

• Production: (Documentary) An Interloper Films presentation. Producers: Ondi Timoner, David Turner Executive producers: Ondi Timoner, Ori Eisen, Mirit Eisen.
• Crew: Director, writer: Ondi Timoner. Camera: Ondi Timoner. Editor:Ondi Timoner. Music: Morgan Doctor.
• With: David Timoner, Ondi Timoner, Lisa Timoner, Rachel Timoner.

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Review: ‘Last Flight Home’ measures a father’s life in love

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Is it possible for a documentary to be too intimate, too personal, too painful? Well, by definition, it shouldn’t be. But in the case of writer-director Ondi Timoner’s immersive “Last Flight Home,” which counts down the final 15 days of her 92-year-old father, Eli, as he prepares for the end of his life, less might have been more.

That’s not to say this often courageous and profound film is without many strengths as it lovingly honors both the life and death of its subject, who, wracked by acute pulmonary disease and the residual effects of a massive stroke suffered 40 years earlier, chose to utilize California’s End of Life Option Act. ( Enacted in 2016 , this law allows mentally and physically competent, terminally ill adults to self-administer physician-prescribed aid-in-dying drugs.)

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Timoner’s extreme close-up of her beloved, immobilized, bedridden dad — a onetime business leader and philanthropist and the founder of the (long-defunct) 1970s-era upstart Air Florida (“Fly a Little Kindness!”) — rarely flinches from the physical and emotional complexities of Eli’s fraught situation. Nor does it evade the deepest feelings of her uber-devoted family members: her mother (and Eli’s second wife), Lisa; older sister Rachel, a Brooklyn rabbi; and brother David, a film and TV editor; as well as Eli and Lisa’s many grandchildren (including Ondi’s son, Joaquim). Still, the filmmaker (she also edited, worked camera and was a producer) does her best to offer as dignified and heartfelt a portrayal of her still-lucid dad’s demise as the vérité moments — mainly shot in early 2021 at Eli and Lisa’s modest Pasadena home — allow, even if the doc sometimes dips into self-indulgence.

Eli was clearly an amazingly kind, gentle, open-minded and inspiring man — who wouldn’t have wanted such a generous soul as a parent? But the endless declarations of, well, undying love from family and friends (many seen in Zoom and FaceTime chats) can become a bit much, even under these uniquely last-chance circumstances. A good 10-minute tightening might have magnified — instead of protracted — the movie’s poignancy.

Timoner (“Dig!,” “We Live in Public,” “Mapplethorpe” ) weaves in bits of archival and family photos and footage as she flashes back to Eli’s past, though the film mostly lives in the present. Career-wise, he was a big deal — until he wasn’t: In 1982, after his stroke (the result of a severe neck injury during a weekly massage), the Air Florida board asked him to resign as CEO, claiming his disability would be a corporate liability. (Imagine how that would go down today.)

Money troubles, including a bankruptcy filing, followed for Eli and Lisa and, though details provided here are limited, it seems as if finances remained an ongoing struggle for the couple.

There’s an inevitable checklist feeling to much of the film, maybe as a result of its day-to-day countdown structure added to the many practical and emotional items Eli’s family, friends and caregivers must tick off before he dies. These include everyone saying goodbye, grandkids receiving life lessons from their departing “Pop Pop” and a few cathartic Jewish rituals. Affecting as it all is, some may find several moments uncomfortably candid.

It all leads up to Eli’s passing, captured in deeply sad and grueling detail from the difficult, time-sensitive intake of a batch of life-ending medication to the moment of death. It’s not something that’s often seen onscreen in such blunt, resolute fashion; whether it’s an experience viewers will want to witness is another matter.

Ultimately, and perhaps most beautifully, the film makes a case, à la the musical “Rent,” about how, in the end, we must measure our life in love. On that score, Eli Timoner left the world a very wealthy man.

'Last Flight Home'

Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes Playing: Starts Oct. 14, Laemmle Monica Film Center, Santa Monica; Laemmle Glendale

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REVIEW: ‘The Last Flight’ by Julie Clark

Image courtesy of Sourcebook / Provided by official site.

Julie Clark’s The Last Flight is a fast-paced thriller with a heart-palpitating pace and two strong protagonists, all laced with an important social commentary. These 300-plus pages are slick and economical, featuring two main characters embarking on uncertain futures and trying to stay one step ahead of abusive men. For the thrills, The Last Flight packs a satisfying wallop. For the commentary on women escaping male toxicity and violence, this book is one to remember.

Clark’s premise is intricately woven but never feels forced. Claire wants out of her marriage. She is in an abusive relationship with a well-known philanthropist who is also the son of a deceased U.S. senator, and he is the heir apparent to that Senate seat in Washington, D.C. But behind the scenes he berates Claire and abuses her.

As the story opens, Claire, boldly and bravely, has decided to leave her husband, but there’s a problem with her escape. Her husband has his tentacles in too many parts of her life, so she needs to develop her own form of witness protection. She plans to assume a new identity and go underground, hopefully never having to deal with her abuser ever again.

At a similar time, Eva is looking to assume a new identity and go underground herself. Her circumstances are different than Claire’s, but there are underlying factors that prove similar. Eva lives in the Bay Area, manufacturing drugs in her basement and selling them to a local dealer. She got hooked on the illicit industry after her time at the University of California, Berkeley crashed to a halt. The drug business seemed like the only way out of her problems, and she got in so deep, there was no turning around. Now, she wants out, but her boss, a mysterious figure who meets her in crowded athletic arenas and large parks, doesn’t seem too keen on her decision to leave.

Claire and Eva, who don’t know each other and live a country apart, meet at the airport, right at the moment when it seems like both of their plans have gone awry, but they make a human connection and can recognize a fellow person in need. So Eva takes Claire’s plane ticket, and Claire takes Eva’s. They will head off in opposite directions — one to Oakland, California, and the other to Puerto Rico — and the violent men in their lives shouldn’t know where they are and how to find them.

Clark does a masterful job of setting up this convoluted premise in a short amount of time, and she does so quite believably. On its surface, it feels like the story is too fabricated and coincidental. For example, how could these two women with similar end goals find each other anonymously in an airport? Clark has an answer for those doubts, and she is able to fill in any holes the reader might find in the story. This narrative is fairly air-tight.

But even if the story’s elements don’t exactly add up, these complex events are only half of the engagement when it comes to reading The Last Flight , which is now available from Sourcebooks. Claire and Eva are characters who offer important and brave thoughts about their respective lives — lives that have been dominated by men, riddled with harassment and violence. Their stories are not only meant to be crafty and suspenseful; they’re meant to be survivor tales.

As can be evidenced by Clark’s dedication in the book, the events and characters of The Last Flight seem influenced and inspired by the headlines that populated newspapers throughout the #MeToo movement (headlines that continue to this day as more women step forward with their stories of violence and misconduct at the hands of men in the workplace and at home). Claire’s husband in the narrative, who is the embodiment of evil and the story’s main villain, operates in a world of privilege and wealth, a world where he calls the shots and no one, especially his wife, is able to second guess him.

Escaping is Claire’s mission, and she’s willing to go the distance to achieve her goal. To help her stay one step ahead of this abusive husband, she develops several clever techniques — techniques that are classic mystery, but also interestingly modern. One example: She has the password for her husband’s Gmail account, so she’s able to watch his Google Drive, where he shares an ongoing dialogue with his loyal servant. The writing surrounding this textual exchange, and what might happen if Claire even moves her mouse in the wrong direction, is revealing and nail-bitingly intense. It’s an excellent addition to the story.

As far as the characters go, although Claire and Eva are both presented with an equal amount of text, I found myself learning more about Claire throughout the story. Eva remained a mystery. There are reasons for this that are better left unmentioned.

Most fascinating are two supporting characters who enliven the proceedings: one is Eva’s next-door neighbor, who is a professor at Berkeley and clearly cares about Eva, and the other is a barista who befriends Claire and sets her up with a catering job in her new life. Both of these supporting characters help ground the story, and the relationships that each of the protagonists has with them leads to interesting discussions and the sharing of numerous inner-thoughts.

There are undoubtedly ways that a reader can pick apart the plot of The Last Flight . On its surface, it seems a bit outlandish, but these pages are founded in a story that could actually happen (and in the case of the abuse, tragically happens on a regular basis). The world of Claire’s husband — philanthropy, an open Senate seat — is hard to identify with for the average person, but it’s important to show that criminal acts can be found behind the wealthiest and seemingly most peaceful of facades.

The Last Flight is an invigorating read with an important message that lingers far after the surprising finale.

By John Soltes / Publisher / [email protected]

The Last Flight by Julie Clark. Sourcebooks Unlimited. $27. Click here for more information.

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John Soltes

John Soltes is an award-winning journalist. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Earth Island Journal, The Hollywood Reporter, New Jersey Monthly and at Time.com, among other publications. E-mail him at [email protected]

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Spoilers for The Last Flight

If you read The Last Flight by Julie Clark and need a plot summary or want to discuss (or find) spoilers, you are in the right place!

The Last Flight by Julie Clark

Plot Summary for The Last Flight by Julie Clark

First, a quick plot summary:

Political wife Claire Cook is plotting her escape from her abusive husband, Rory.

She’s pretending to head to a meeting in Detroit, but friends have helped her obtain fake ID that, along with some stockpiled money, they will deliver to her Detroit hotel. Then she’ll cross the border to Canada and disappear.

Former foster child and Berkeley chemistry student Eva Clark got on a bad path and ended up cooking drugs. She wants out, but there’s no quitting. The only way out is for her to vanish.

Claire’s husband unexpectedly takes over her Detroit trip and sends her on a humanitarian trip to Puerto Rico. She’s shocked but can’t really say anything.

Claire and Eva cross paths at the airport. Eva pretends to be a widow who is being investigated for the mercy killing of her husband and suggests that she and Claire switch tickets.

Eva will go in Claire’s place to Puerto Rico and Claire will go to northern California. Claire, feeling desperate, agrees.

There is a moment after they switch places when Eva thinks about NOT getting on the plane . Could she head out into the anonymity of New York City after her ticket is scanned and disappear?

Here are the Big Spoilers for the Last Flight by Julie Clark

The plane to Puerto Rico crashes. Claire is shocked and horrified that she escaped death and that Eva might have died instead.

Since everyone thinks Claire died in the crash, Claire decides that the safest (and only) thing she can do is assume Eva’s identity. She doesn’t know if she can trust her husband or Danielle, her assistant. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know that Eva is being surveilled by the DEA.

The hotel in Detroit gives Claire’s husband her package with cash and her fake ID. He now knows she was planning something. Even worse…

…crash investigators seem to think that Claire’s seat on the plane was empty. This makes Claire’s husband even more suspicious. Could Claire have faked her own death?

Meanwhile, Claire wonders about that empty seat. Did Eva got on the plane? If not, where is she?

Soon, Claire is also being followed by Eva’s drug kingpin boss, who wants to know why she’s living in Eva’s apartment. Liz, a neighbor of Eva’s, also tries to befriend Claire.

Claire gets inside information about her husband’s ex-girlfriend, who died mysteriously in a house fire. Did her husband have something to do with it?

Claire finally gets enough information on her husband to feel comfortable doing a CNN interview and exposing him as an abuser and possible killer. She also finds evidence that Eva was collecting on her boss.

Claire’s assistant Danielle was also “Ellie,” the daughter of Liz, Eva’s neighbor. Eva eavesdropped on a conversation that Liz and Danielle had about Ellie’s concern for her employer, Claire. Eva then decided to go to the airport, find Claire, and try to convince her to switch tickets.

Claire, finally free from her husband, goes back to California to start a new life.

In an epilogue, we watch Eva step onto the plane. She wasn’t in Claire’s seat because she wanted to ask to be switched to a window seat so she could have a view.

Do you think Eva got on the plane? DID EVA DIE???

We’re discussing this in comments (thanks, Marilyn!) so come join in and give your opinion.

Evidence for YES, Eva got on the plane and died in the crash

in the epilogue, she steps over the threshold of the plane. Airlines don’t like to let you off the plane once you’re on. And more compelling, we never have a POV from her after that.

Argument for NO, Eva did NOT get on the plane and she’s still alive:

In the part of the book where Eve has just switched places with Claire, she does think about the possibility of getting her ticket scanned, getting out of line and pretending to make a phone call, then sneaking back down the jetway.

Also, Claire makes a remark toward the end about “knowing I could never tell Danielle or her mother about what I believed really happened to Eva .”

Then there is the pink sweater.

After the crash, Claire sees a a photo of a blond woman in a pink sweater when she’s watching footage of the news conference.

Claire did give Eva her pink sweater and Eva does mention (as we discussed above) bleaching her hair blond and not getting on the plane.

Did Claire know something? Or did she just want to believe Eva didn’t die?

Do you think Eva died? Tell me your opinion in comments!

What did you think of this book? I thought it was so twisty and suspenseful ! Tell me in comments! And if you want to subscribe to the discussion (be notified of my reply so we can chat) just click the bell icon next to the comment box and add your email!

If you enjoyed The Last Flight , check out my review of The Lies I Tell , which is Julie Clark’s next book and join The Lies I Tell Spoiler Discussion .

I was disappointed that Eva was on the plane after all. I wanted her to live

I know!!!!! I was really hoping that she didn’t get on the plane 🙁 🙁

The book was great but, wasn’t it too far fetched that Liz’s daughter was Danielle?

Ha – you’re like me. I hate too many coincidences. But when I thought about this one it did make sense: Danielle/Ellie worked for Claire. Ellie came home to visit her mom Liz (Eva’s neighbor) and they were talking about Claire’s problems. Eva overheard them and got the idea to go to the airport and try to convince Claire to swap tickets. Yes, the ticket swap scheme working was a bit farfetched but the Danielle/Eva/Claire connection did sort of make sense to me.

I’m had to reread that!

I kept thinking it was odd for Eva and Claire to meet so randomly, so I was wondering about the connection.

But Claire makes the comment at the end that she could never tell Danielle or her mother what really happened to Eva. She would leave it up to Eva to reach out . That it’s rats he us still alive.

That’s true. But in the epilogue, Eva does step across the threshold onto the plane! There was that part earlier when they have just switched places where Eva thinks about leaving the airport, dyeing her hair and going somewhere else. But Claire had no way of knowing about that, did she?

I think autocorrect mangled your last sentence. Do you think she’s still alive, that she DID run off the plane at the last minute? And in your honor I have added a new pro/con section to the post, so thanks.

Dude here. If you read the epilogue carefully, Eva talks about touching the outside of the plane. But, I’ve been on many flights, and there’s a baffle thingy connecting the walkway to the plane-like between train cars-and you’d have to be Twiggy to squeeze out (not to mention a long fall to the tarmac!) I HAVE, however, had to check many a slightly oversized bag at the gate. If she could somehow have squeezed into a near empty one, and then sneaked out of the bag truck…of course, the book didn’t say that. …but, the Elephant in the Room here, and I am disappointed with this part of the story, is why.the.plane.crashed in the first place(!) Crashes have become rare in America. Only one or two in the twenty years after 9/11, which, of course, was a criminal act. TWA 800 (1996) was supposedly an accident, I won’t go there on this blog. If Claire and Eva weren’t a big enough coincidence, wouldn’t it have been more logical if:

• Eva, being a “Breaking Bad” type chemist, had put a plastic explosive on the flight, and then slipped away? Of course, that would have made her really Evil and unsympathetic.
• Dex/Fish’ boys had tailed her and done the same OR
• Rory’s flunkies had done the deed. That would dovetail nicely with the sudden change of plans; Detroit to Puerto Rico.

See-the whole book (while engrossing) had such logical faults. Like the badass-looking limo driver with the tattoo who was described as a possible henchman of Rory, turning out to be OK.

This story begs for a sequel to tie up all the lose ends.

Hi Elliott! Ooh, interesting and I like the way you think. I have been on smaller planes where you walk up the metal staircase, in which case you could touch the plane, but this seemed like a larger plane. To play devil’s advocate on the bag theory: if her bag were large enough for her to fit inside, they would never let it past the check-in.

I don’t know – to me the part of the story that was saddest was that she plotted her escape and then was done in by fate in the form of the (I agree, unlikely) plane crash. Like a new lyric for Ironic by Alanis Morrisette. But I agree, I do not like this trend of thrillers with unresolved endings and I have a new post up about it: Last Minute Plot Twists

Love the way you think. Sorry everyone. Eva is dead. RIP.

Hahahahaha… I was with you but everyone made me reconsider.

I actually thought the bastard Rory had the plane blown up!!

Does anyone else think Rory somehow made the plane go down? I mean, what are the chances? Why did he make her switch flights?

I did enjoy the book, but the amount of coincidences had me rolling me eyes a little

I had that same thought

I thought that right when he switched her plans. Who knows? There could be another book where it all comes out…

I just wrote that I thought Rory had the plane blown up!

I thought Claire saw Eva at a news conference after the crash and referred to the pink sweater she had been wearing?

Claire does see a photo of a blond woman in a pink sweater when she’s watching footage of the news conference. Claire did give Eva her pink sweater and Eva does mention (as we discussed above) bleaching her hair blond and not getting on the plane. When I read the book I didn’t see that as definitive proof and I just assumed Eva got on the plane but I love how so many of you believe that Eva is alive. I might be convinced!!

Great book, and initially, I was skeptical of the connection between the Danielle/Liz/Eve/Clare connection however, I don’t think it was a stretch.I kept going back to Clare seeing Eve at the press conference. IMO, that’s the only concrete reason for her to think that Eve was still alive…

No. The other auspicious reason to believe that Eva wasn’t on the flight to P.R. was that they failed to count the POB. And one seat was empty. I want this author, to give us an answer. Or maybe she’s just finagling to entice us to a sequel. If she doesn’t clarify soon, one way or the other, I’m done.

Wait, wasn’t Eve blond; isn’t that why Clare bleached her own hair?

Yes, I think that is right.

Yes. I read that as well. Kept trying to go back and find it but lost interest. Who was that supposed to be? Why didn’t we learn who this person was and why she was wearing Claire’s sweater. I assumed it was Eva. Confused!!!!

You are not alone! I wish there had been more clarity on this because the book definitely hints that she’s alive.

I still think Eva was so smart and found a way to distract and did not get in the plane …

I hope 🤞🏻 so too

I went and reread page 42. When her purse was knocked off of her shoulder, I believe she got out of line and became Claire Cook.

Did the author do thus on purpose? I read the epilogue 3 times and cldnt tell what happened to Eva! Now, after reading your comments, I believe it WAS done on Purpose, huh?

We think it was on purpose and can’t decide if she is alive!

I think this book was excellent!! The idea that so many are unsure of Eva’s survival makes me smile. A great author would do just that!! So instead of criticizing the books ending you should be embracing the success of book that would make us all question and then be able to chose our own ending!!

Hello, Judith! Eva surviving didn’t even occur to me (does that make #TeamRIPeva a bunch of cynics?) and I loved that so many people firmly believed that she never got on the plane. I enjoyed this book too and am looking forward to the author’s next book, out in June. Hope you’ll come back and discuss more thrillers with us 🙂

I was wondering the same thing. it certainly left an opened door (no pun intended) to the theory that somehow Eva changed her mind at the last minute.

I wonder if the author ever addressed this anywhere. I have to believe that leaving that open door for Eva was purposeful!

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Critic’s Pick

‘Last Flight Home’ Review: An Intimate Memorial

The director Ondi Timoner creates an account of her father’s final days.

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By Ben Kenigsberg

In the moving, boundlessly humane documentary “Last Flight Home,” the director Ondi Timoner filmed the final days of her father’s life. Her father, Eli Timoner, chose to die at age 92 under California’s End of Life Option Act , which at the time required, among other steps, a 15-day waiting period after the patient’s first oral request to a doctor for aid-in-dying medication.

“Last Flight Home” is far more than simply a countdown of those days, but it is that, illuminatingly. Eli is questioned by doctors and counselors. Ondi and other family members manage logistics, such as trying to find a cup and a straw that Eli, who must take the drugs himself, will be able to hold in his immobilized state. (Confined to a bed, he has congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was partly paralyzed by a stroke at 53.)

But even more than it is a procedural, “Last Flight Home” is a record of what Lisa Timoner, Eli’s wife of more than five decades, calls the “unreality” of what is happening, as Eli winds down his life — saying goodbye to loved ones and friends, often by video call because of Covid — with a known final date.

Ondi, who filmed with inconspicuous cameras that were simply left running, has emerged with an amazingly intimate portrait of Eli and his family, including Ondi’s two siblings, Rachel and David Timoner, their partners and their children. There is even some humor. Death date or no, Eli still needs to watch Rachel Maddow. When asked how he feels about being mic’d all the time, Eli waggishly says that he doesn’t want to “cross the director.”

Near the end, Ondi makes sure that Lisa simply spends some time quietly sitting with Eli. Rachel Timoner, a rabbi, helps him unburden lingering shames. “Last Flight” is at once a memorial to Eli, the last of that generation of the family to die, and — almost incidentally — a philosophical argument about how death can be faced well.

Last Flight Home Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. In theaters.

‘Last Flight Home’ Review: Ondi Timoner’s Beautiful Tribute to Her Father Documents His Last Days

The veteran doc director celebrates her dad’s life as she tracks his chosen path to his own demise

This review originally ran January 24, 2022, for the film’s Sundance Film Festival premiere.

There’s a Jewish phrase that people often say after someone dies: “May their memory be a blessing.” It represents different things to different people, but is intended as an active remembrance, a way to both honor and extend the virtue of the deceased. Ondi Timoner’s deeply moving documentary, “Last Flight Home,” ends with a version of this phrase. But every scene serves as an example of its many meaningful facets.

Timoner’s films — including two Sundance Grand Jury Prize winners, “Dig!” and “We Live in Public” — tend to be searching and intense, but none have ever dug more deeply than this one. Last year, when her father Eli was 93 and failing swiftly, he declared that he wanted to end his life on his own terms. Because his home state of California has a Death with Dignity law, he had the freedom to make that choice under carefully prescribed conditions. The first of these was a 15-day waiting period — and this is the time Timoner records.

Whereas documentarian Kirsten Johnson took a high-concept approach to her father’s decline in 2020’s Sundance standout “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” Timoner uses a stripped-down, totally straightforward method. She sets up a camera in her parent’s living room, where her father is resting in a hospital bed and her mother is silently worrying on the couch. And then she begins counting down the days.

On Day 15, the family reminisces about their life together. Through old home movies and faded photographs, we see Eli and his wife, Lisa, as a handsome couple with three cute young children. Eli founded Air Florida in 1972, and Timoner shows us in a range of ways that the company’s motto — “Fly a Little Kindness” — reflected Eli’s lifelong personal ethos. 

He was a philanthropist and fundraiser for a range of important causes, and as we learn from past employees, he aimed to treat everyone in his company with equal respect. Though Eli and Lisa do reference some serious financial difficulties, their daughter focuses primarily on the positive. If there were rifts among this tightly-knit clan, we don’t hear about them. And here, it feels right: This is a movie about the impact of one man’s life, and Ondi’s father remains, until the end, a remarkably sanguine force.

On Day 12, the family and their heroic hospice nurse begin to assess the practicalities of Eli’s coming death, lining up doctors and discussing medications. An obituary draft is read to him on Day 7, and a meeting with a death doula is set up on Day 5. On Day 2, his grandsons go into his closet to pick out the ties they’re going to wear to his funeral.

If this sounds unbearably sad, well — let’s just say it’s probably for the best that you can see this movie in the privacy of your own home, with a very large box of tissues close at hand.

But it’s Eli who really defines the tone, and it is revelatory to watch the way he handles this most human, and humbling, of experiences. He is unable to get out of bed or to speak with much strength. But he’s not sad or bitter or even scared. He is purely grateful for the freedom to choose when and how to define his final days. When he Zooms with old friends and colleagues, who reminisce about tennis games and business meetings, we can see how the most fleeting moments build memories. When he prays with Ondi’s sister Rachel, a Rabbi, we witness firsthand the value of generational rituals.

He tells his heartbroken wife that he has every intention of going to Heaven, where he will “make some kind of a protective shield around your lives.” First, though, his family plans to do the same for him.

After one of his grandsons asks him for advice on how to live well, Eli says, “Start off with respect for the people you don’t know, and love for the people you do know.” “Last Flight Home” represents the results of a life already lived by this standard. The Timoners’ tiny living room is so overflowing with love for Eli that we can almost see a physical cloak of gratitude, respect and affection surrounding him at all times.

He remains a proud liberal until the end, but despite the controversial nature of California’s End of Life legislation, Ondi never explicitly injects politics into the film (though there is a very sweet cameo from Rachel Maddow). She doesn’t need to. It’s hard to imagine anyone judging Eli for choosing, as Ondi says, “to be thoughtful and conscious about his departure.” She also notes with gratitude that this choice is a luxury many others never get, a point underscored by his visitors’ ever-present pandemic masks.

Timoner’s films are always entertaining or engaging but they also start with an irresistible hook, like badly-behaved rock stars (“DIG!”) or hard-living artists (“Brand: A Second Coming,” the biopic “Mapplethorpe”). Here, she calls upon her talents and experience to tell the unassuming story of a man who lived quietly, as a devoted husband and dedicated friend and father. Profound in its simplicity, wrenching in its honesty, and beautiful in its humanity, “Last Flight Home” is the blessing Eli Timoner earned.

“Last Flight Home” opens in US theaters Oct. 7 via MTV Documentary Films.

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Common Sense Media Review

Patriarch's final days in right-to-die docu; intense images.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Last Flight Home is a documentary about the desire by airline executive Eli Timoner to end his life due to declining health. References and images include aid-in-dying medications, a dead body, bedsores, partial nudity of a terminally patient, COVID-19 protocols, stroke, paralysis,…

Why Age 14+?

Swear words include "ass," "bulls--t," "f---ed up," "hell," "s--t," and "s--tty.

Images and references include plans to use aid-in-dying medications, a dead body

Images and references include aid-in-dying medications, cigarettes, and glasses

Eli and Lisa Timoner's more than 50 years of marriage, and images of partial nud

Images include apparel with logos and messages, camera equipment, laptops, and s

Any Positive Content?

Enduring love and support for family and friends. Overcoming life's obstacles.

Eli Timoner's daughters Ondi, a documentarian who films Timoner's right-to-die d

Kids and teens, as well as young and older BIPOC, LGBTQ+, White, and disabled ad

Swear words include "ass," "bulls--t," "f---ed up," "hell," "s--t," and "s--tty."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Images and references include plans to use aid-in-dying medications, a dead body, bedsores, COVID-19 protocols, massive stroke, and paralysis.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Images and references include aid-in-dying medications, cigarettes, and glasses of wine.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Eli and Lisa Timoner's more than 50 years of marriage, and images of partial nudity of a terminally ill patient.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Images include apparel with logos and messages, camera equipment, laptops, and smartphones.

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

Eli Timoner's daughters Ondi, a documentarian who films Timoner's right-to-die decision-making process, and Rachel, who is a rabbi and plans to officiate at her dad's funeral. Social worker Janis Powell, physician Holger Bracht, and death doula Alua Arthur counsel the Timoner family about end-of-life protocols. Family and friends make online and in-person visits with Timoner to share their memorable moments and final farewells.

Diverse Representations

Kids and teens, as well as young and older BIPOC, LGBTQ+, White, and disabled adults who also work in occupations such as the airline, clergy, home health care, and filmmaking industries.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Last Flight Home is a documentary about the desire by airline executive Eli Timoner to end his life due to declining health. References and images include aid-in-dying medications, a dead body, bedsores, partial nudity of a terminally patient, COVID-19 protocols, stroke, paralysis, cigarettes, and glasses of wine. Swear words include "ass," "bulls--t," "f---ed up," "hell," "s--t," and "s--tty." The film emphasizes the positive theme of enduring love and support for family and friends. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In LAST FLIGHT HOME, Air Florida creator Eli Timoner experiences deteriorating health, which includes paralysis from a stroke 40 years ago. Now at age 92, Timoner wants to stop living. People with life-limiting illnesses such as Timoner may have the choice to terminate their lives under California's End of Life Option Act. The story of Timoner's decision-making process is shared through the lens of daughter and documentarian Ondi Timoner , with firsthand interviews, archival footage, and family photos.

Is It Any Good?

Ondi Timoner's visual narrative about dad Eli's life, final days in hospice care, and family legacy is memorable storytelling. "Even though he ran an airline," recalls Eli's wife, Lisa, in Last Flight Home , "he'd let me sleep in the morning and he would drive the carpool and get the kids to school. The mothers who were part of the carpool couldn't believe it." But Eli admits that current health concerns may show that it's time to get "ready to go to the next adventure" and be "up above with my folks looking over my wife and children and friends protecting them."

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the courage of the people in Last Flight Home . How do they also demonstrate communication , compassion , gratitude , and teamwork ? Why are these important character strengths ?

What do you think about Eli Timoner's preference to die now? Should people have the right to choose to end their life? Why, or why not?

Timoner's grandchildren are allowed to visit his bedside at home. Why is it important to discuss the death of a loved one with kids and teens?

Movie Details

• In theaters : October 7, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : November 29, 2022
• Cast : Eli Timoner , Lisa Timoner , Rachel Timoner
• Director : Ondi Timoner
• Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors, Lesbian actors, Female writers
• Studio : Paramount+
• Genre : Documentary
• Topics : Great Boy Role Models , Great Girl Role Models , History
• Character Strengths : Communication , Compassion , Courage , Gratitude , Teamwork
• Run time : 104 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : December 27, 2022

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‘Last Flight Home’ Review: A Powerful Case for the Right to Die

David ehrlich.

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When Ondi Timoner ’s 92-year-old father told her that he was determined to end his life, the acclaimed documentary filmmaker (“Dig!,” “We Live in Public”) naturally decided to capture his final weeks on camera — to record the 15-day waiting period mandated by the California End of Life Option Act. Deep within her grief a few weeks later, she found herself assembling this most intimate home video footage into something intended for other people to see: a (relatively) commercial product that would premiere at a festival and play in select theaters before living in perpetuity on VOD.

On paper, that might sound like a morbid and/or cynical exercise in mining public content from private loss. On screen, however, Timoner’s warm, open, and unexpectedly gentle “Last Flight Home” rescues a rare grace from the inherent performativity of saying goodbye. The director’s camera encourages her family to make themselves vulnerable and meet the moment head-on, while legal euthanasia offers them enough control over the timeline to let go of their precious Eli with love in both hands.

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Yes, this crushingly personal film can make you feel like you’re intruding on a sacred ritual between perfect strangers, but that sense of trespassing (or TMI) is also what allows “Last Flight Home” to be such an immediate argument for the universal right to die.

Eli Timoner did not arrive at his decision to die lightly. A second-generation immigrant who founded the now-defunct Air Florida and grew the low-cost carrier into one of the fastest-growing and most affordable airlines in the United States, Timoner suffered a massive stroke in 1982 — six months after a tragic Air Florida crash that “Last Flight Home” opts to omit — and was paralyzed on the left side of his body for the rest of his life. In the wake of Eli’s disability, Air Florida’s board of directors asked him to resign because they didn’t think Wall St. would approve of a CEO in a wheelchair.

Once a prolific philanthropist and a widely beloved pillar of his community, Timoner shrank into a shell of his former self. But he was also fiercely loved in spite of his perceived failures, and that love was enough to sustain him for the last 40 years of his life. It was only when he was confronted by severe breathing issues in January 2021, in the midst of a pandemic that put his imminent mortality into even clearer focus, that Timoner began telling people he was ready to go.

“Help me end this agony,” he croaks to his daughter in the opening moments of the film she eventually made about that process.

What follows is an unvarnished, day-by-day account of bringing Eli home and preparing for him to leave it. The first portion of the film is defined by the matrix of Zoom calls that brings the scattered Timoner family together and allows them to participate in their patriarch’s decision. As “Last Flight Home” takes flight, the Los Angeles house where the vast majority of it takes place grows increasingly crowded with Eli’s children (including his daughter Rachel, whose rabbinical energy helps facilitate the many difficult exercises that fill these days of waiting), their children, and so on.

No matter how many people might be standing around Eli’s bed, his wife Elissa always manages to remain in focus; she rolls her eyes at all of the fuss and attention, only to lower her guard in the film’s inevitably heart-wrenching final scenes. But it’s the inevitability of those scenes that allows them to be so beautiful, as scheduling Eli’s departure invites his family to think of their loss as a mutual letting go — to redeem the perverse relief that comes with a long-suffering loved one’s death, and grant Eli the gift of knowing that he was and will continue to be loved. Anyone who’s stood at the foot of a deathbed and found their thoughts hopelessly clouded by the uncertainty of when and how nature might take its course will be able to appreciate just how valuable that gift must have been, especially because Eli was often lucid enough to receive it.

The fact is that most families would struggle to be as open and honest as Timoner’s is here, just as most incapacitated 92-year-old men would struggle to sustain a film like this through sheer force of will. But Eli is one hell of a character, and he’s determined to go out with his sense of humor intact (one of the first things we hear him say is how much he’d like to see Trump’s balls get stuffed down his own throat as he’s booted out of the White House, a wish that Timoner was effectively granted before the end).

The director likens her father to “a great tree I’ve been able to shade under,” and her film makes it clear how freely he offered that shade; former Air Florida colleagues who Timoner may not have spoken to for decades make time to Zoom in, tears in their eyes. When Eli, mere hours before his death, grips his grandson’s hand for the last time, he’s more concerned about giving warmth than taking it.

Timoner wasn’t perfect, but “Last Flight Home” — despite being cut with an eye towards the comfort it might provide to the filmmaker’s mother and relatives — recognizes why those imperfections are precisely why it was so crucial that he get to choose how to leave this world. Ondi Timoner doesn’t shy away from the details of that process (offering special attention to the drug cocktail that stops her father’s heart, and the nitty-gritty of administering it), but the procedural aspect restores an element of cause-and-effect that ironically makes Eli’s death feel all the more natural.

“We don’t have to wait until the last night of our lives to measure our lives in love,” Rachel says during her first Yom Kippur sermon following her father’s death, “What if we begin right now? What if we begin today?” It’s a nice thought, but most of us will never be able to act on it. How beautiful that Eli Timoner and his family were at least able to know when the last night of his life would be.

MTV Documentary Films will release “Last Flight Home” in theaters on Friday, October 7.

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SHEFFIELD DOC FEST 2021

Review: Carlos Ghosn: The Last Flight

by  Kaleem Aftab

16/06/2021 - Nick Green’s documentary reveals how the former CEO of Renault-Nissan escaped house arrest in Japan by fleeing to Lebanon

In December 2019, Carlos Ghosn – the former CEO of the Renault-Nissan Alliance charged with various financial crimes – stunned the world by fleeing Japan in an escape which filmmakers claim is worthy of a Hollywood thriller. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for that as it was a documentary by Nick Green , part of the BBC's usually excellent Storyville strand, that world premiered in the Into the World strand at Sheffield Doc/Fest .

Carlos Ghosn: The Last Flight   [ + see also: trailer film profile ] tells the audience what to expect and what the stakes are right off the bat — presuming correctly that many of the audience will wonder why they should care about an apparently dastardly capitalist, who isn’t exactly the most sympathetic of characters. So, there are two big questions: what triggered Ghosn's spectacular fall from industry leader to international fugitive? And, how did he escape from house arrest in Japan to flee to Beirut, where he now resides?

Surprisingly the answers are largely given by Ghosn, interviewed for the film in September 2020 where he pushes the line that he is the collateral damage of a battle between France and Japan over the future of Nissan. Also, he claims he is innocent. Green gives this some play in a film that suggests that nothing is exactly as it seems.

The film suggests that Ghosn could be an unreliable narrator. An interview with the Japanese prosecutor slams Ghosn. The film, however, is remarkably sympathetic to Ghosn. The prosecutors’ 99.4% success rate isn’t used to show that the investigators are thorough before they charge someone, but that the system might be unjust. This view is given further credence by an intertitle informing us that the United Nations condemned the length of time that Ghosn had been detained.

Ghosn tells of how he flew into Japan in November 2018 for around the 600th time, when he was arrested. Born in Brazil, he grew up in Lebanon with his mother and grandmother. He glosses over his father's conviction for murdering a priest in Sawfar, Lebanon in 1960. The version he prefers is that, as a Brazilian growing up in Beirut, "I'm used to being an outsider." An "outsider" who was part of the jet-set walking the red carpet at Cannes. He tells us how his career ruined his first marriage. There are interviews with his second and current wife, Carole Nahas , whom he married in 2016, but what his first wife has to say might have been far more interesting.

The film is all geared up to the big reveal of how Ghosn escaped, but by the time we get there, the formulaic documentary style combined with the unlikeable character of Ghosn make it difficult to care. In any case, the revelation of how Ghosn achieved the impossible mission is no Man on Wire .

Green does throw in more of a questioning attitude towards the end of the film. Other men, such as Ghosn's former right-hand man at Nissan Greg Kelly , are still in the dock. A father-and-son team who facilitated the escape have also been arrested. Ghosn doesn't talk about them for fear of incriminating them. He also makes clear that the case shows there is one rule for the superrich and another for the rest of us.

While it's true that Green has delivered an even-handed version of the story, the film would have benefitted from a stronger editorial line or a massive reveal proving his guilt or innocence one way or another.

Carlos Ghosn: The Last Flight is a French, UK, Lebanese and Saudi production by Alef One , BBC Storyville and MBC Studios.

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more about: Carlos Ghosn: The Last Flight

Nick Green’s documentary reveals how the former CEO of Renault-Nissan escaped house arrest in Japan by fleeing to Lebanon   

16/06/2021 | Sheffield Doc Fest 2021

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The Last Flight

A woman goes on a journey to find her lover after his plane disappears in the Sahara. A woman goes on a journey to find her lover after his plane disappears in the Sahara. A woman goes on a journey to find her lover after his plane disappears in the Sahara.

• Karim Dridi
• Pascal Arnold
• Sylvain Estibal
• Marion Cotillard
• Guillaume Canet
• Guillaume Marquet
• 7 User reviews
• 8 Critic reviews

Top cast 16

• (as Frédéric Epaud)
• (as Ben Aïssa El Jirari)

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• Trivia The film is a mix of fact and fiction. William Lancaster was a British aviator who vanished in the Sahara in 1933 whilst attempting to set an England-South Africa speed record. He was married, but had a long-term affair with an Australian woman, Jessie Miller, who was also a pilot. Miller did not go to search for Lancaster. His body was found in 1962 by French troops. His diary was sent to Miller. His plane was recovered in 1975 and acquired by the Queensland Museum in Australia. The plane, the Southern Cross Minor, had been purchased by Lancaster from Charles Kingsford Smith, a noted Australian aviator.
• Crazy credits Hunter of snakes and scorpions: Ait Talb Mohamed (The whole movie takes place in the Sahara desert)

User reviews 7

• Jul 20, 2011
• December 16, 2009 (France)
• Official site (France)
• The Last Voyage of the Lancaster
• Merzouga, Erfoud, Morocco
• Les Films du Dauphin
• France 3 Cinéma
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $24,000,000 (estimated)

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• Runtime 1 hour 38 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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The Last Flight: A Novel Paperback – May 4, 2021

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES , USA TODAY BESTSELLER, & INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!

Look for The Lies I Tell , the next novel from Julie Clark, coming in June 2022!

" The Last Flight is thoroughly absorbing—not only because of its tantalizing plot and deft pacing, but also because of its unexpected poignancy and its satisfying, if bittersweet, resolution. The characters get under your skin."— The New York Times Book Review

Two women. Two flights. One last chance to disappear.

Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns bright and he's not above using his staff to track Claire's every move.

What he doesn't know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish. A plan that takes her to the airport, poised to run from it all. But a chance meeting in the airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision.

The two women switch tickets, with Claire taking Eva's flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico crashes, Claire realizes it's no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva's identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.

For fans of Lisa Jewell and Liv Constantine, The Last Flight is the story of two women—both alone, both scared—and one agonizing decision that will change the trajectory of both of their lives.

Praise for The Last Flight :

" The Last Flight is a wild ride: One part Strangers on a Train , one part Breaking Bad , with more twists than an amusement park roller coaster! Julie Clark is a devilishly inventive storyteller."

— Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Watch Me Disappear and Pretty Things

" The Last Flight is everything you want in a book: a gripping story of suspense; haunting, vulnerable characters; and a chilling and surprising ending that stays with you long after the last page."

— Aimee Molloy, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Mother

"The perfect combination of beautiful prose and high suspense, and an ending that I guarantee will catch you off guard."

— Kimberly Belle, internationally bestselling author of Dear Wife and The Marriage Lie

" The Last Flight sweeps you into a thrilling story of two desperate women who will do anything to escape their lives. Both poignant and addictive, you'll race through the pages to the novel's chilling end. A must read of the summer!"

— Kaira Rouda, internationally bestselling author of Best Day Ever and The Favorite

• Print length 288 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Sourcebooks Landmark
• Publication date May 4, 2021
• Dimensions 5.5 x 0.72 x 8.25 inches
• ISBN-10 1728234220
• ISBN-13 978-1728234229
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

"Thoroughly absorbing—not only because of its tantalizing plot and deft pacing, but also because of its unexpected poignancy and its satisfying, if bittersweet, resolution. The characters get under your skin." — The New York Times Book Review

"A premise that sounds highly thrilling takes its share of poignant turns, too." — Entertainment Weekly

""There are lots of twists and turns. It will keep you guessing. You won’t be able to put it down." — People.com ?" — People

"The moral dilemmas that the multifaceted, realistic characters face in their quest for survival lend weight to this pulse-pounding tale of suspense. Clark is definitely a writer to watch." — Publishers Weekly, STARRED review

"A tense and engaging womancentric thriller." — Kirkus Reviews , STARRED review

"Clark is an exceptional writer…Highly recommended for fans of thriller, mysteries, and crime fiction." — Library Journal, STARRED review

"A delicious thrill ride of a read...a suspenseful, timely tale about smart, strong women who support one another in their determination to not just survive, but also thrive, uncertainty and risk be damned." — BookPage, STARRED review

"An exciting thriller that examines what happens if you try to leave your past behind… and asks if anyone, in today’s world of constant surveillance, can truly disappear." — Caitriona Balfe, the star of Outlander , for Book of the Month

"[A] powerful, high octane, suspenseful read." — New York Journal of Books

"An exciting, suspense-filled thriller that shines the spotlight on two women who are desperate to escape lives dictated by powerful men." — The Patriot Ledger

" The Last Flight is everything you want in a book: a gripping story of suspense; haunting, vulnerable characters; and a chilling and surprising ending that stays with you long after the last page." — Aimee Molloy, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Mother

"I’m a sucker for suspense stories crafted around an airplane crash, and Julie Clark’s The Last Flight lived up to the hype and then some. Clark starts with a bang then keeps the pace at full throttle, deftly weaving two seemingly separate stories into one wild and entertaining ride. The perfect combination of beautiful prose and high suspense, and an ending that I guarantee will catch you off guard." — Kimberly Belle, internationally bestselling author of Dear Wife and The Marriage Lie

" The Last Flight sweeps you into a thrilling story of two desperate women who will do anything to escape their lives. Both poignant and addictive, you’ll race through the pages to the novel’s chilling end. A must read of the summer!" — Kaira Rouda, internationally bestselling author of Best Day Ever and The Favorite Daughter

"Julie Clark’s The Last Flight is a stunner: both a compelling, intricately woven tale of suspense and a thoughtful, nuanced portrayal of two very different women, each at a dangerous crossroads in her life. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!" — Kathleen Barber, author of Truth Be Told and Follow Me

"Strong women take center stage in this Breaking Bad meets Sleeping with the Enemy thriller. The Last Flight has it all - original characters, fast pacing, and clever twists, all in one explosive package!" — Wendy Walker, nationally bestselling author of The Night Before

" The Last Flight will propel you headfirst into the frantic lives of two women, both determined to escape their current reality. Julie Clark weaves their stories effortlessly, delivering a pitch-perfect suspense novel that absolutely lives up to its hype. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up!" — Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke, authors of The Two Lila Bennetts

"Get ready to hold onto the edge of your seat. This is a fantastic thriller about real people facing tremendous challenges. Exciting, touching, haunting, The Last Flight will stay with you long after you turn the final page. Julie Clark has written a bang of a novel." — Rene Denfeld, internationally bestselling author of The Child Finder and The Butterfly Girl

" The Last Flight is a wild ride: One part Strangers on a Train , one part Breaking Bad , with more twists than an amusement park roller coaster! Julie Clark is a devilishly inventive storyteller. " — Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Watch Me Disappear

About the Author

Julie Clark is the New York Times bestselling author of The Lies I Tell and The Last Flight , both of which were also #1 international bestsellers and have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and a goldendoodle with poor impulse control.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sourcebooks Landmark; First Edition (May 4, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1728234220
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1728234229
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.72 x 8.25 inches
• #198 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
• #684 in Psychological Thrillers (Books)
• #1,165 in Suspense Thrillers

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About the author

Julie clark.

Julie Clark is the New York Times bestselling author of The Ones We Choose and The Last Flight, which was also a #1 international bestseller and has been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and a golden doodle with poor impulse control.

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Customers find the characters believable and intriguing. They also describe the plot as fascinating, suspenseful, and unputdownable. Readers appreciate the pacing as great from the first page to the last. They describe the writing style as well-written and the themes as well developed. Opinions differ on readability, with some finding it engaging and easy to follow, while others say it's disappointing and easy for them to put down.

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Customers find the plot fascinating, suspenseful, and relatable. They also appreciate the surprising ending and the author's writing style and attention to detail. Overall, they describe the book as unputdownable and taut.

"...The story’s clever structure , alternating between two protagonists with intersecting fates, creates a dynamic narrative that is both engaging and..." Read more

"...Boy, was I wrong. Great book, with a surprising ending . I was so excited to see where each character ended up and how the story was going to end...." Read more

"... Loved the ending , which I didn't expect." Read more

"... Lots of twists and turns . Surprise ending. Thoroughly enjoyed this book!" Read more

Customers find the writing style well-written, well executed, and vivid. They also appreciate the themes and characters.

"...Clark’s writing shines with vivid descriptions and well-drawn characters, making the reader feel deeply invested in their journeys...." Read more

"...I felt the themes were pretty well developed ." Read more

"...I thought the writing was very good - descriptive and sophisticated in an unobtrusive way...." Read more

" So well executed . I love that it was full of twists and tension without relying on sex, foul language or gore to create mysterious atmosphere." Read more

Customers find the characters in the book believable and intriguing.

"...Clark’s writing shines with vivid descriptions and well-drawn characters , making the reader feel deeply invested in their journeys...." Read more

"This book had me fully engrossed for the past two days!! I totally enjoyed the characters and really felt sad for both Eva and Claire; both being..." Read more

"...Even the secondary characters were compelling . I can imagine being friends with Kelly, Liz and Petra. I love all these strong women...." Read more

"This story was not what I expected! The characters were believeable and the plot intriguing...." Read more

Customers find the pacing of the book surprising, quick, and easy to get involved in. They also say the book hooks them early and the author makes it easy to connect with the characters.

"...It’s a fast read with less than 300 pages, so a great book to read at the beach or on snowy day." Read more

"I enjoyed this book and read it quickly . It was an engrossing thriller but it lacked depth...." Read more

"I really enjoyed the pacing and the storyline kept my interest. So glad I chose this book ! You will enjoy it." Read more

"...The pacing keeps the reader fully engaged and eager to keep going. I'm definitely going to seek out other books by Julie Clark." Read more

Customers are mixed about the readability. Some find the story engaging, sharpening their brains following the timeline. They also say the book is good for book club discussions, easy to follow, and hard to put down. However, others say the story line is disappointing and slow moving.

"...with intersecting fates, creates a dynamic narrative that is both engaging and insightful...." Read more

"...Easy , simple reading. Good for book club discussions on abusive relationships and the paths women need to take to achieve independence." Read more

"...The plot is creative but the book is not profound reading ." Read more

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The Last Timbit

Cast & crew.

Chilina Kennedy

Deann DeGruijter

Kaya Kanashiro

Kimberly-Ann Truong