The skies are a lot less friendly to fly with a balding, unhinged Mark Wahlberg in the pilot seat.

That’s the takeaway from the new trailer for “Flight Risk,” a thriller from Mel Gibson, who is exchanging the battlefields of Scotland (“Braveheart”) and the Pacific Theater (“Hacksaw Ridge”) for an in-flight face-off between Wahlberg’s psycho killer and Michelle Dockery’s FBI agent. She’s been tasked with escorting a government witness (Topher Grace) to trial; he’s got a contract to shoot the turncoat before he can sing. The two collide on a small plane that’s charting a course over the Alaskan wilderness.

Wahlberg is clearly having the time of his life as the follically challenged hitman, which is a departure from his typical heroic roles. Dockery, best known for her upper-crust turn on “Downton Abbey,” is also playing against type. Lionsgate is releasing the movie on Jan.