Review | Shadow in the Cloud movie review: Chloe Grace Moretz stars in pulpy mix of World War II adventure thriller and Twilight Zone monster mash
- Moretz plays a flight officer on a secret mission, who is banished to a plane’s gun turret by the all-male crew
- When she sees a monster on the wing, she is ignored by the crew and has to take action herself
2.5/5 stars
Chloe Grace Moretz plays a female flight officer who goes toe to toe with a stowaway critter in Shadow in the Cloud, a knowingly pulpy airborne thriller that is equal parts World War II adventure and Twilight Zone monster mash. Filmmaker Roseanne Liang reworks a screenplay by Max Landis into a gleefully ridiculous romp that fully embraces its more outlandish narrative elements, while championing the women of the allied forces who risked their lives alongside their sometimes unwelcoming male counterparts.
Moretz plays British WAAF officer Maude Garrett, who boards a B-17 bomber at Auckland air base on a classified mission to transport top secret documents to Samoa. The all-male crew (that includes Nick Robinson, Callan Mulvey, and Beulah Koale) are immediately hostile, and relegate Maude to the plane’s sperry, a precarious ball turret on the bomber’s underside. She is also forced to stow her valuable package elsewhere on the craft, where she is unable to assure its safety.
Soon after take off, Maude spots a strange creature on the bomber’s wing, but her warnings to the rest of the crew are widely ridiculed, and they cut off her comm link. She also spies a Japanese plane tracking their progress, and, unable to warn the rest of the crew, is forced to take matters into her own hands.
For much of the film, Maude is confined to the sperry, and Liang stays with her throughout, rather than follow the action unfolding elsewhere onboard. This heightened sense of vulnerability and frustration adds palpable tension to Maude’s predicament, while serving as an effective metaphor for her struggles in the male-dominated military.
