Spoilers for Carry-On and Toy Story 2 are ahead!
I’m of the opinion that Toy Story 2 is the best Toy Story film and one of the best Pixar sequels, and I watched it so much as a kid on VHS that I know the movie beat-for-beat – and that includes the epic airport rescue. So, when I watched the new airport thriller on Netflix’s 2024 schedule, Carry-On, you bet your bottom dollar I was drawing parallels to the Disney flick as Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman fought over a bomb in luggage.
Now, I can’t stop thinking about these parallels, and let me tell you, once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it.
On the surface, other than some airport action, you likely wouldn’t think “Yes, Carry-On and Toy Story 2, those movies will be similar.” The Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman movie on the 2024 movie schedule is about a terrorist threat and a TSA agent trying to stop a bomb, while the Toy Story sequel is about a collector who is trying to sell Woody and the other toys from his collection (among other things).
However, when it comes down to the airport action, low-key, these two movies are almost identical in my mind.
First of all, both flicks feature cars frantically being driven onto a sidewalk so the person behind the wheel can bolt into the airport – albeit one is driven by toys and the other by a woman who works for the LAPD. Both films also have moments where one sketchy man is yelling at an airport employee to take care of their suitcase. Oh, also, there’s even a suitcase mixup in each movie, as Toy Story involves two green suitcases while Carry-On has one black suitcase being mistaken for another. And I haven’t even gotten to the biggest parallels yet!
In Toy Story 2 and Carry-On, the third acts rely on three action-packed luggage-centric moments that take place in the part of the airport where the suitcases get moved, on the tarmac and then in the cargo part of an airplane. So, let’s break these down…
Toy Story 2 is why I think so hard about how luggage gets to the plane, and Carry-On amplified that. While Buzz and co. chased suitcases around the conveyor belts in the animated movie, Egerton's Ethan similarly fled a bad guy working for Bateman's traveler, using conveyors and slides to escape him.
Then – at a later time – Egerton’s character realizes he can stop the bomb if he gets on the plane that’s about to take off and deactivates it, because he knows it’s not in an overhead bin, it’s in the cargo part. So, he (obviously if you’ve seen Toy Story 2) steals the vehicle they use on the tarmac to chase the plane down and jump on it. Do you know who else does that in a way? Woody.
Finally, the final action moments take place in planes that are in the process of taking off. While Toy Story 2’s is about Woody saving Jessie, who got stuck on the plane, Carry-On’s full final battle happens there, and it ends with Ethan putting Bateman's traveler in an air-locked container where he’s killed by his own nerve gas.
Also, did I mention that Jason Bateman’s character just kind of oozes the same energy as the Prospector? Because that’s definitely a parallel too.
Now, I’m sure this wasn’t really intentional. However, they are parallels nonetheless, and honestly, I love both movies more because of them! So, if you are looking to go see all this for yourself, you can stream Carry-On with a Netflix subscription and Toy Story 2 with a Disney+ subscription.
