In the course of writing and making the film the recession took hold just as Mr. Reitman and his wife began having children, which got him thinking about the homes and families torn apart by layoffs. The film, with its idealized depiction of air travel that leads to brutal consequences, suggests that while we can now go almost anywhere in a heartbeat, where exactly are we headed?

“I’m very at home here. Look, I get to see a plane take off over your shoulders every few minutes, which is always exciting for me,” he said, gesturing to the tarmac as we settle in to a booth at T.G.I. Friday’s. “It would be fine for me to sit down at the bar, approach anyone here and talk to them about stuff and learn about their lives. The rest of the world turns off, no one expects anything of you, and I talk to strangers, I learn about lives I would never otherwise know about.”

That may sound a bit affected, a postmodern accommodation of a peripatetic existence, but Mr. Reitman looks at home in the booth even though he grew up in and around Los Angeles as the son of the Hollywood director and producer Ivan Reitman, who is a producer on the film and whose company put up half of the $25 million budget.

“All the airports kind of feel and look the same now,” Mr. Reitman said, grabbing one of the small burgers in the middle of the table. “Some are more beautiful, some are less beautiful, but for the most part you’re going to find a Starbucks in every airport. You’re going to get your coffee and the USA Today or New York Times in every airport. All the things that you want are there, so you can land anywhere, and you feel at home. You’re given the sense that you’re everywhere, but you’re nowhere; that you are constantly with your community, yet you have no community. There’s kind of a terrific irony to that.”

It is a short metaphorical walk, Mr. Reitman suggests, from the temporary bonhomie of airports to the social networks proliferating through our wired society.

“Technology works the same way. Things like Facebook have made you feel as though you’re connected to everybody,” he said, indicating his iPhone. “You’ve got a thousand friends on Facebook, but you don’t actually talk to anybody. You’re not close to anybody.”