Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) is taking the red eye back to Miami after attending her grandmother’s Texas funeral. When the flight is delayed she strikes up a conversation and shares a drink with the charming Jackson (Cillian Murphy). As the plane finally boards, Lisa is pleasantly surprised to discover she and the good looking young man are sharing a row together, this well-mannered guy really starting to appeal to her the more she gets to know him.

But Jackson isn’t what he appears to be. He needs a favor from Lisa, a favor that could take the lives of one of the country’s most prominent Americans and that of his blue-blood family. To assist in the action would be terrorism, but to refuse will cost the life of her couch-lounging father (Brain Cox) sitting at home clueless as to the hired killer lurking outside in the car parked across the street. With only hours until her plane lands and even less time to make a decision, Lisa must discover some way to keep her captor content while constructing a plan to stop him from committing both of these blood-thirsty acts.

Welcome to the tightly wound and tautly executed “Red Eye,” the new thriller from “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Scream” maestro Wes Craven. This is a stripped-down adrenalinized crowd-pleaser, a cat-and-mouse chamber piece playing itself out 35,000-feet about the surface of the Earth. It builds suspense expertly, propelled by the sizzling performances of the two leads, a reasonably intelligent script and Craven’s crackerjack direction. Sure, it isn’t the most original cookie in the jar, but that doesn’t make it any less tasty, this slick B-movie thrill-ride breaking out as one of the summer’s most white-knuckled surprises.

Let’s be clear. Carl Ellsworth and Dan Foos’ story doesn’t have an original bone in its entire 85-minute body. Any reasonably intelligent viewer is going to know what’s going to happen from start to finish long before the characters do. Also, there are an awful lot of coincidences and timely opportunities bumbling into one another during the frenzied final, so many even the most forgiving person might be hard-pressed to not let out at least a quiet hiss of disapproval. It just doesn’t matter, though, the script – while not offering anything new – never talking down to or treating its audience with disrespect. “Red Eye” is easily the single best big studio old-fashioned suspense potboiler to hit screens since Kurt Russell lost a wife in the deserted highways of “Breakdown.”

As assured and confident as Craven’s direction is, this is easily his best work since the original “Scream,” he’d be nowhere without stars McAdams and Murphy. The latter takes this stock villain and runs with him, the actor carefully crafting a portrait of evil so seductively chilling it’s no reason Murphy is considered one of the finest young actors working today. As good as he was in “Batman Begins,” there wasn’t enough time to let him to develop his character there fully. This certainly isn’t the case this time, almost half the picture dedicated to finding out what makes Jackson tick.

But, as good as Murphy is, this is McAdams show start to finish. Quickly proving herself to be one of best fresh-faced talents of her generation, she’s done everything from light comedy (“Mean Girls”), to straight romantic drama (“The Notebook”), to out-and-out farce (“Wedding Crashers”) and soared in every one. Now she gets to use all those abilities in one distinct, emotionally empowering package, her Lisa emerging as a tightly-wound fireball gaining strength the closer the plane gets to its final destination.

Craven keeps the claustrophobia high and the pace fast, smoothing out many of the script’s bumpier passages simply by pressing down upon the accelerator. He also sets everything up beautifully, showcasing numerous quiet character moments or glimpses of the people populating the plane all in order to set the stage for each of the tools and tricks Lisa will need to make a getaway. It’s all very old-school, Craven and noted director of photography Robert Yoeman using the aisles of the plane much in the same ways Wolfgang Peterson navigated the submerged hallways of “Das Boot.”

Not that I want people to think this is anywhere near as good as that. It’s isn’t, but by the time rockets are fired, cars are crashed and a crazed maniac pulls a knife it’s still nearly impossible not to admit Craven’s pic is a class B-movie act. The audience gasped, laughed, jeered and cheered all the way to the requisite western-style showdown, the mouse finally finding a way to become the cat’s worst nightmare. Sure it’s silly (and definitely more than a bit contrived) but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining. In fact, I’d go so far as to say “Red Eye” is a flight worth booking, not just once, but twice.

Final Rating: êêê out of 4