Life on the Line (2015) (2025)

Popular reviews

• Review by Curtis ★½

  I'm going to assume, allowing for maximum possible benefit of the doubt, that someone wanted to pay tribute to people who do very important and very dangerous things to keep us alive and lit. And that someone was hopelessly out of their depth when it came to making a movie. Because this turned out pretty bad.

  What could very easily have been a solid character drama ends up being ridiculously melodramatic, with characters seemingly changing personality sentence-to-sentence and a tediously Rube Goldberg-ian plot contrivance to get us to the inevitable climax.

• Review by Brian O. ★

  I've come to expect this level of quality from Grindstone Entertainment, and unfortunately, John Travolta. This felt like a TV series with (soapy) subplots crammed into a 90-minute running time. Before the end, I found this to be dumb but harmless, however when they tack on showing pictures of those who died in the line of duty (none portrayed in this film that I could tell), I became a tad angry. If they wanted to do a film honoring linemen, fine, then keep it focused on them instead of a poorly written script.

• Review by Lucy Valentine ★★½

  Because we’relinemen. It’s what we do.

  an absolutely incredible 1 hr 33min recruiting advertisement for the linemen of America, America’s heroes, braver than the troops. Just when you think John Travolta can’t look stupider they do another flashback with another wig.

• Review by Mark Tinta ★ 1

  A look at the life of linemen done with all the depth and insight of a Budweiser "Real American Heroes" commercial, LIFE ON THE LINE gets lost in soapy subplots, crummy country ballads, empty platitudes about "walking the line," and too many emphatic declarations of "We're linemen...this is what we do!," all centered on a tough-as-nails lineman played by a phony beard precariously glued to the face of John Travolta.

  Full review to come.

• Review by 👹 Lee, or El Duderino, if, you're not into the whole brevity thing ★★ 2

  "Remember, look out for each other. You are your brother's keeper."

  A more dramatic VOD role for late-game John Travolta. Life on the Line was surprisingly a touching sponsored piece of positive propaganda for U.S. Linemen, not to be confused with cable workers. Apperently 112 of them have died between 2013-2016, making it easily a daily vital occupation that must go underappreciated around the globe. Sure, it plays like a lifetime movie (paired with it being based on a true story) with a heightened cast, but I found its caring - almost commercial hiring - message to be genuine. Same as Only the Brave and Backdraft must do for firemen, so too does this for electrical line workers. Life on…

• Review by Zandalee's #1 Fan ★★★½

  "Life is a series of collected moments and experinces that we gather over the course of time.
  It's more about the quality of life, than the height of the climb.

  We are more than 1,000,0000 strong, but together we act as one. We walk the line whether hurricanes, tornadoes, rain, wind or sun

  Our main mission is to protect the grid, even if one of us meets our maker. We are lineman, it is what we do, the credo we chant, you are your brother's keeper."- Beau Ginner

  This is a quality film, I don't get the hate. John Travolta plays Beau, a Lineman who puts his Life On The Line to fix a telephone line during a deadly storm.…

• Review by Cathal ★★

  Wasn’t expecting much from this and I was right. If it wasn’t for Travolta I probably wouldn’t have watched. That said it was kinda entertaining and watchable but very forgettable.

• Review by holas79 ★½ 2

  Seems to have been made to raise awareness or money for a charity that supports families who have lost people working as linesmen, so yes, that's all very noble, but this was an incredibly poor film. The set up is very over the top, with Travolta's onscreen brother getting zapped by lightning and his sister-in-law dying in a car crash as she rushes to the hospital. Billed as a disaster movie, we don't get much in the way of disaster until the last twenty minutes, so it's all character build up up until then. Bailey's love life, Eugene's PTSD, Sharon Stone's depression... it's like a ruddy soap opera. When you think of the great disaster movies of the 70's, character development happened in the face of the disaster rather than this turgid build up. Travolta isn't too bad, but his heroics in the last act look silly.

• Review by Ricoche1895 ★½

  Einfach ein richtig schlechtes Drehbuch, was wirklich kein - ich wiederhole - kein Klischee auslässt.

• Review by Monster_Groupie ★ 6

  What is the worst Thing you could ever think of?
  My Nightmare (for Example) came true, a Drama-Disaster-Movie, who tells you the usual, casual 08/15 Drama Storyline, without anything remarkable or even interesting.

  Just bored me to Death, holy Fuck, I want my Time back damn it!
  Only cool Scene was the last shocking Travolta Death, Thunder-Kills are always a Win.

  Stay away!

• Review by Furbukit ★½ 1

  Voltage doesn’t run through people current does. Also lines don’t just explode like that. However i do respect the linemen.

  Original country soundtrack goes off through

• Review by Mason Bowen ½ 1

  Why did I do this