Carry-On tells the story of Ethan Kopek (Egerton). Ethan has struggled to advance in life after being denied entry to the police academy. He’s now working for the TSA at LAX. His life is about to change after he takes charge and asks his boss, Phil Sarkowski (Dean Norris), for a promotion.
On Christmas Eve, he gets moved to scanning baggage as it moves through the airport. That’s not all. He receives an earpiece from The Traveler (Jason Bateman). The Traveler has precise instructions for Ethan. If he doesn’t follow directions, his girlfriend, Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson), will die.
He now has a choice. Will he do his job and alert authorities or will he let the carry-on baggage get through the x-ray scanner? This dilemma will challenge him and endanger those around him.
We can place ourselves in his shoes as we watch Ethan struggle with moral and ethical decisions. We can think through what we would do in his place. Watch Carry-On with a leadership mindset and you will grow.
Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Carry-On
1. Bad business is bad business:
The Traveler meets with Olek (Jeff Pope) at Olek’s Christmas tree business. They exchange goods and The Traveler gives Olek a bag of cash.
Olek begins to count the bag of money. Soon, Olek’s coughing. The coughing worsens and he begins to spew blood.
That’s from The Traveler. He poisoned the cash. When Olek began counting it, he began to die. It was bad business.
We think we can get away doing business with those who are untrustworthy, unethical, or rude. We think it’s just business.
It’s not.
When you do business with bad business, you put yourself in a place of compromise. You can find yourself struggling, drowning, even your business dying.
Let’s stop doing business with bad businesses.
2. Nora Parisi (Sofia Carson):
It’s okay to be nervous.
Nora and Ethan are driving to work at LAX on Christmas Eve. They begin talking about the baby. They just discovered they were pregnant.
Nora was excited. Ethan was less than excited.
He gave a reason. He thought they’d have longer as they had just begun to try to conceive.
They didn’t. Now, Ethan was nervous. And it was okay.
Leaders think they have to be stone-cold, stoic, fearless. Let’s get that lie out of our minds.
Only a foolish leader doesn’t get nervous at some point.
There’s good reason to be nervous. It may be a major deal, you may be bringing on an important new role, or the business may be tanking.
Be nervous. Use it to fuel you forward.
3. Go for what excites you:
Years ago, Ethan applied to the police academy. However, they had turned him down after he answered truthfully on a lie detector test.
He put his dreams of becoming a police officer on ice. Maybe forever.
As they get to the airport, Nora tells Ethan he should reapply to the police academy. It was the last time she’d seen him excited.
By the movie’s end, Ethan has applied and become a police officer. His life was changed.
What excites you? Are you doing it?
Think about the why… Why aren’t you? What’s holding you back from doing the work that truly excites you?
I want to encourage you to take a bold, courageous step today. Apply for that position, ask for the promotion, find what excites you.
4. Don’t let rejection stop you:
We know Ethan had applied to join the police academy. What we didn’t realize is the reason he didn’t reapply.
Ethan had been rejected from the academy. So had his father. His father applied again and again and again. All he received was rejection.
That’s not what Ethan wanted. He didn’t want to deal with the pain, hurt, and frustration of not getting what he wanted.
Yet, by not getting what excited him, he found himself miserable. He let rejection stop him.
We’ve all been rejected at some point. It may have been by a guy or girl we liked, a parent, or a career opportunity. It stung. We didn’t like the feeling, so we backed off.
Looking back, we can see how those times of rejection wounded us. The rejection stopped us from moving forward.
Let’s reject rejection. Let’s move forward regardless of whether or not one person or place rejects us.
5. Bad leaders blame others:
The Traveler uses coersion to get Ethan to allow a carry-on through the baggage checker. More than that, The Traveler begins to kill Ethan’s coworkers including Lionel Williams (Curtis Cook). Why did The Traveler kill Lionel? Eethan tried to let him know the danger the airport was in.
The Traveler wouldn’t take responsibility for the death(s). Instead, he blamed Ethan. The Traveler told Ethan it was his fault they died. He didn’t follow instructions and a point had to be made.
Was that the truth? Was Ethan to blame? No! Not at all! Ethan was trying to do what was right. The Traveler and his Watcher (Theo Rossi) were the ones doing the damage.
Have you been under a leader who blames others for their actions? Maybe you’ve been that leader?
We know that good leaders accept responsibility for their actions. They know their actions may be painful, dangerous, or regrettable. Still, they’re not willing to place the blame on those they lead.
Let’s stop blaming others. Let’s accept responsibility for our actions.
6. Listen to your people:
Agent Elena Cole (Danielle Deadwyler) had called Homeland Security about the danger at LAX. Her boss tells Elena she’s reaching for something that’s not there.
Was Elena? Of course not.
Elena had seen the signs. She’d interrupted what was happening. And she presented what she saw.
The people in charge didn’t want to listen.
We see this all the time with leaders. Leaders can fall into believing they know everything. Those below them… well, not so much.
We must listen to those who report to us. They’re seeing situations and things we cannot because we’re in a different position.
Listen to your people. They have valuable intel.
7. Ethan:
This is over.
The Traveler kept pushing Ethan. He kept making him do more and more and more. Ethan had had enough.
He finally stands up to The Traveler. He tells him he’s not going to do more for him. It’s over.
This included using a roundabout way to check Mateo Flores’s (Tonatiuh) carry-on bag.
Leaders have to stand up and say enough is enough. You can’t continue to be walked on, abused, and taken advantage of.
Learn to say enough is enough.
8. Leaders protect their people:
Watcher is chasing down Nora as he drives his Ready Teddy van. Nora runs to Ethan. Ethan wraps his arms around her.
He’s ready to protect her. Even unto death. He’s now put himself in harm’s way.
Leaders take actions like this. They know they’re the only thing standing between their people and the danger in the business.
What’s stopping you from protecting your people? They’re yours! It’s your responsibility to be there for them.
9. Keep promoting:
Eddie (Gil Perez-Abraham) is Ethan’s coworker. He was also an aspiring rapper. His new album was being released soon and he had been telling people at the airport about it.
But Eddie took it a step further. After Eddie was stabbed, he was wheeled out on a stretcher. Know what he did? He saw this as a great moment to continue promoting what he was doing. He talked about the album even more! He told those watching him (a captive audience) that they could find it on SoundCloud and Patreon.
Do you promote yourself? Do you let others know your skills and talents?
If you don’t promote yourself, no one else will. You have to be your own advocate.
Don’t hesitate to promote yourself in an appropriate manner.
10. Ethan:
I diffused it once. I can do it again.
The Traveler pulled a switchero on the team at LAX. Ethan thought he was going on one flight when he was really going on another.
Ethan and the rest of the security team must track down The Traveler. Good thing Ethan had tagged the bag with a barcode to let him know where it was last scanned.
The bag is scanned and Ethan is alerted. He tells everyone he’s going to get the bomb. Why? Because he’s the only one who has diffused it before.
When we’ve done something in the past, we gain confidence we can do it in the future. Our past experiences help us know what we can do.
Try lots of different things. Find what you do well. Find what you love. Then keep doing it.
If you’ve done it once, you can do it again. The more experience you have, the more you can do.
