Is the Movie ‘Carry-On’ Accurate?

Entertaining, yes. Accurate, no. Movies are not documentaries so it is okay that Hollywood ignores details to make exciting movies. However, Carry-On (2024) operates on many errors that are central to the plot. Here are some of the issues:

1. TSA agents are not assigned a dedicated workstation as depicted in the movie.
A planogram in the movie shows where each agent will be stationed for the day. This would be a terrible idea at a security checkpoint, that’s why it’s not done. This is critical to the plot because the main character (Ethan) would need to be working the scanner, not any of the other stations.

2. TSA agents rotate stations and tasks.
Agents move and do different tasks to lower the value of exploiting a single officer. In the movie Ethan only works the scanner.

3. The scanner operator does not inspect bags when operating the scanner.
This is done at another station down the line. In the movie the main character (Ethan) flags a bag, stops the line and inspects the bag himself. These tasks are broken up into multiple stations in the real world.

4. You cannot use a UV light pen to find fake boarding passes.
There is no requirement that boarding pass be printed on special paper, you can print one at home from your inkjet. You would have to scan the pass to see if is real and/or has been used more than once. In the movie Ethan uses invisible ink on a boarding pass than is given to an officer than has a UV pen to check for fake boarding passes.

5. It depicts security as one layer.
“Well, they probably couldn’t show real security issues, that would endanger people.” Moreso than giving bad guys the idea to exploit TSA agents? I disagree, the movie actually does the opposite. It gives the impression that exploiting TSA officers is easy, and that you would only need to exploit one agent. Depicting a more realistic security environment would deter people itself and make the movie more exciting. I was expecting Mission Impossible or Ocean’s 11, the bad guys doing impossible things but still in the confines of reality. Here, they watered down the security situation, they went the wrong way.

The issues above are easy to fix without compromising inside security information. Here’s how I would have fixed the issues in the movie:

• Depict the agents rotating stations like normal, have Ethan do thrilling / crafty things to speed up his turn to the scanner station. It would have been exciting to have Ethan move the target bag down the line, thinking the next station would inspect it – and then finding out that the inspector was also compromised.
• Use fake currency as a subplot rather than fake boarding passes, TSA can alert the police about fake money too.