The European consortium Airbus recently unveiled the prototype of its superjumbo jet the A380, a massive double-decker that will carry nearly 800 passengers. On this side of the Atlantic, plane maker Boeing is touting its next-generation aircraft, a smaller, sleeker and equally fuel-efficient jet dubbed the Dreamliner.

The setting for Flightplan is a plane on route from Berlin to New York that looks to be a combination of the two designs. The spacious cabin of Alto Air's E-474 (the model number mimics Boeing's 747) is similar to the A380, while the exterior profile and pointed nose call to mind the Dreamliner.

Both manufacturers will have mixed reactions. The airplane is the real star of Flightplan, giving headliner Jodie Foster a run for her money. Producer Brian Grazer and director Robert Schwentke are credited with the design and it's undeniably cool. If the set is still standing on a Los Angeles soundstage, Airbus and Boeing designers should take a look. And yet, so fragile are the economics of the airline industry these days, anyone whose livelihood depends on it must keep their fingers crossed when turbulence, albeit fictional, is depicted aloft. 

Audience members will likewise have mixed reactions. With gas prices at an all-time high, those reluctant to shell out for a drive to the multiplex should probably skip it. A variation on Foster's tense 2002 picture Panic Room, Flightplan is a satisfactory pay-per-view, rental, or (though it'll never happen) in-flight movie.  You'll find yourself gripping your armrests through the middle section when the tension reaches its apex. But, as is often the case, anticipating the explanation of what's really going on proves more interesting than the explanation.

The scenario, which echoes a famous episode of "The Twilight Zone" in which William Shatner portrays an airline passenger who spies a goblin on the wing, doesn't exploit one's fear of flying as much as one's fear of knotty, illogical thrillers that are too implausible for words. Especially post 9/11. 

A clenched Foster is in mother-bear mode again as Kyle, a propulsion engineer traveling back home from Germany to bury her husband, who has died suddenly. Her six-year-old daughter, Julia, accompanies her, and her husband's body is in the cargo hold. When Kyle wakes after a nap, having stretched out on some unoccupied seats, Julia is missing. The kicker is: there's no record of her on the passenger manifest and no one saw her board. 

Kyle, grief-stricken to begin with, raises hell. The plane is thoroughly searched. Passengers are inconvenienced. The crew starts to humor her and eventually, after she becomes too insistent, she's subdued and shackled.

Flightplan comes down to whether Kyle is crazy, or whether there's a more sinister, external explanation for what's happened. The seeds for both are planted during the pre-flight routine, as she visits the Berlin morgue and goes back to her apartment on the eve of departure. The movie exploits anti-Arab sentiment for its most memorable red herring when Kyle confronts an Arab passenger and accuses him of having something to do with Julia's disappearance.

Eventually the plane is diverted to Goose Bay, Newfoundland, where the resolution is swift and sure, if not too believable. Leaving aside whether what transpires is feasible, the villains aren't up to it. Figuring out their motives and identities is challenging. Sean Bean, typically cast as the baddie, has the controls as Captain Rich. Peter Sarsgaard is on board playing a sky marshal with a sarcastic sense of humor. Erika Christensen is an ingénue flight attendant, and Aussie actress Kate Beahan is Stephanie, the coolly efficient purser. You can't discount the possibility that the little girl is just messing with her mom, and as Julia, Marlene Lawston makes the most of her screen time. 

There's no actress you'd trust more to find her missing daughter -- or your own for that matter -- than Jodie Foster. And you have to ask yourself one question when pondering whether Kyle is paranoid or not: Would Foster sign on to play an unstable widow in a big-budget movie?  If only. A crazy Kyle would be much more fun to watch.

(Released by Touchstone Pictures and rated "PG-13" for violence and some intense plot material.)