The action-drama brings together many of the top stars from South Korea together for an action packed thrill ride. Song Kang-ho (“Parasite”), Lee Byung Hun (“G.I. Joe”) and Jeon Do-yeon (“The Housemaid,” “Secret Sunshine”) all star in the police procedural akin to the likes of Dirty Harry or The French Connection. The plot follows a veteran police detective who receives a tip-off about an unspecified terrorist threat against a plane. He discovers that the chief suspect has got on the flight too. Meanwhile, the political authorities kick into emergency response mode. Fear and chaos spread on the ground and at 40,000 feet.

The film had great responses when it was first presented at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival as a midnight release. “Emergency Declaration” was expected to be a highlight of Korean cinemas’ 2021 summer season. But that was not calculating with the arrival of new variants of the coronavirus which extinguished a brief late-summer 2021 box office revival in Korea. The film’s theatrical release got pushed back to December, then January 2022. Now, with COVID largely being contained the film is set to release in South Korea in August. The film’s American release is set to be coming some time this year, and is sure to be a definite highlight.