Good News ending explained: The eventual fate of the hijacked plane

Good News is a South Korean film inspired by the 1970 hijacking of the Japan Airlines Flight 351. The disaster dark comedy flick is helmed by Byun Sung-hyun who also wrote it with Lee Jin-seong. It's world premiere took place at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival in special presentation section. The film was released on Netflix on October 17, 2025.

Here is the official synopsis as per Letterboxd:

"When hijackers seize a Japanese flight and demand to fly to Pyongyang, a mysterious mastermind hatches a zany scheme to reroute the plane to Seoul."

Let's decipher how it ends and what happened to the hijacked plane.

What is the plot of Good News?

Good News takes its inspiration from the real life hijacking of Japan Airlines Flight 351 by the Japanese Red Army Faction on March 31, 1970.

It focuses on a team of people who are tasked to negotiate with the terrorists and ensure the safe return of all the passengers.

How does Good News end?

Towards the end of Good News, (Mr.) Nobody (played by Sul Kyung-gu) cracks a negotiation with the hijackers and all the lives are saved. Later on, Nobody reveals that South Korean President spoke to American President and Soviet Union regarding the unification of Korea. This rules out the involvement of any South Korean in the entire hijacking. North Korea is also almost coerced to play into this narrative as they are on the good side of the Soviet Union.

The hijacked plane reached Seoul's Gimpo Airport. Sang-hyeon comes out for negotiation, offering the hijackers to take the plane if they release all the passengers. Nobody then twists the narrative adding that one passenger from South Korea is also on board. After the climax in Good News, we see Japan's Deputy Minister of Transportation Shinichi Ishida (Takayuki Yamada) offering himself as a hostage so that the passengers can be freed. We realize that the hijackers were carrying fake bombs and ammunitions. They also did not have the skills actually to kill someone. This information brings a sense of absurdity into the mix. What makes it interesting is that it takes leaf from a set of real incidents around the 1970s hijacking of a Japanese Airline Flight 351.

The Leader had told his team to die by suicide if the mission fails as they did not want to be caught. In the end, Ishida is freed and returns to Japan. Meanwhile, everyone acknowledge's the smartness of air lieutenant Seo Go-myung (played by Hong Kyung).

In a Times Magazine interview, director Byun Sung-hyun spoke about Good News, and films that revolve around hijacking.

“All the films that deal with an event like this one, there's just so much detailed process of the hijacking part. They all try to depict the tension in every detail. And I felt like we've seen too much of that already. I remember when I was writing the actual hijacking sequence, it almost felt like I was writing somebody else's film. So that's when I got to thinking, what if we just omit the process and then start from after that?”

Good News is currently streaming on Netflix.