‘Deadly Mile High Club’: Lifetime movie explores the story of an obsessive lover in a well-laid out plot
Spoilers for 'Deadly Mile High Club'
What happens when a trauma drives a person into psychological disorder? They often end up creating dangerous situations for themselves and those around them. Lifetime’s latest feature presentation, ‘Deadly Mile High Club’ explores exactly that.
When Tanya Jackson (Allison McAtee) a private pilot, faces a near fatal crash while flying with her co-pilot on a stormy night, she goes into severe trauma, both mental and physical. Months later, Tanya heals and joins a local flight training school as an instructor. And then she meets Jake (Marc Herrmann), a young, handsome, aspiring pilot, but devoid of the much-needed confidence for flying.
Tanya takes a fancy to the new student but is surprised to find herself drawn to him. Her memories of her earlier love interest, who she lost in the air crash, keep coming back the more she sees Jake. And thus she develops a deep, dark obsessive infatuation towards the young man.
Jake, on the other hand, is a sincere student, eager to learn how to fly no matter what the roadblocks. But little does he know that she is all smitten by him and would do anything to make him her own. Jake is married but that does not stop Tanya from pursuing her obsession. She spends longer hours and takes extra classes just to spend time with Jake.
Tanya’s bubbles are burst when Jake’s wife and his mother-in-law come into the picture and get a whiff of her intentions. And that is when the plot starts to thicken. Tanya gets violent and her passion becomes aggressive, to the extent that she will go any length to eliminate anyone who stands between her and Jake.
In short, the movie might seem like a woman’s obsession turned deadly for others. But without saying it in so much words, it also shows how being lonely and frustrated with life can make one desperate, so much so that they don’t even flinch from taking dangerous steps, whether they are towards themselves or towards others. While they might be out to destroy others that create hindrance, they also end up hurting themselves.
This is essentially a psychological disorder, which needs to addressed and handled like any other disease. And most often than not, such a dangerous obsession stems from failures. Tanya had failed herself on the night her flight crashed. She might have physically recovered but she remained damaged emotionally. And when she saw Jake, she tried to fix what she thought she did wrong earlier — of being the best. In the process of trying to outdo herself, Tanya didn’t realize that she was hurting others and breaking herself more.
The movie has managed to perfectly capture the effects of a deep-seated trauma and sentiments of a woman who considers herself to be failure. With love, obsession, thrill, drama, and lots of psychological obsession, ‘Deadly Mile High Club’ makes for a great weekend night watch.
'Deadly Mile High Club' aired on Saturday, May 2, 8pm/7c, only on Lifetime.
