Splash247: Jason Statham goes full Die Hard at sea

Published by Splash247

Jason Statham’s latest action movie, Mutiny, puts the British hardman aboard a containership packed with mercenaries, with much of the maritime action filmed not on a studio set but aboard an actual 30-year-old feeder.

Statham plays Cole Reed, a former special forces operative and cop turned private security contractor who is framed for the murder of his billionaire shipping tycoon boss. His escape route is one of the company’s containerships, where things rapidly deteriorate into the sort of confined-space mayhem Statham has made a career out of.

The floating film set was the 1,042 teu Sky Light, a 149 m boxship built at Szczecin in Poland in 1996.

Transport Malta issued notices to mariners ahead of filming in October and November 2024, confirming that shooting would take place aboard the ship at Malta Freeport, Valletta and offshore on Malta’s east coast. Other vessels were instructed to give Sky Light and its support craft room during filming.

The ship has had a rather more eventful career than the average Hollywood prop.

Now Vanuatu-flagged, Sky Light is 12,380 dwt and has traded under a string of names including CGM Jean Laborde, MSC Biscay and Mekong Spirit.

It was under the latter name that the vessel once appeared on the US sanctions list in connection with Iran-linked Hafiz Darya Shipping Company. Washington removed IMO 9118513 from its Specially Designated Nationals list in November 2011.

Mutiny, directed by Jean-François Richet, the man behind Plane, runs for 95 minutes and reaches US cinemas today.

Reviews have inevitably reached for comparisons with the great enclosed-location action movies, with The Times describing its finale as heading into “Die Hard-style” territory.

John McClane got Nakatomi Plaza. Jason Statham gets a 1,042 teu feeder.