Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Writer: Andrew W Marlowe (Screenplay)
Starring: Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Wendy Crewson, Liesel Matthews, Paul Guilfoyle, Xander Berkeley, William H Macy
Plot: Communist Radicals hijack Air Force One with The U.S. President and his family on board. The Vice President negotiates from Washington D.C., while the President, a Veteran, fights to rescue the hostages on board.
Tagline – Impenetrable. Invincible. In Trouble.
Runtime: 2 Hours 4 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Classic 90’s Action
Story: Air Force One starts after America has led an attack to bring down one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist, President James Marshall (Ford) gives a stirring speech about not talking to terrorist in Russia. Returning home on Air Force One, the President, his family and his staff on board, find themselves being taken over by a Russian military group led by Ivan Korshunov (Oldman) who wants the terrorist released.
When the President refuses to just escape, he stays aboard to continue his fight against terrorism, with his Vice President Kathryn Bennett (Close) needing to find a solution back in America, going through the political paperwork to find a solution to get the people home safely.
Thoughts on Air Force One
Characters – President James Marshall is a former soldier that has always managed to use his reputation of speaking and acting from the heart lead his actions. He has just declared war on terrorism with a zero tolerance of negotiating with terrorist, when his flight home is hijacked, forcing him into using his skills to save the plane and maintain the new policy bought in by the country. Ivan Korshunov is the terrorist that leads the hijacking on Air Force One, an extremist who wants his leader released, one that will die for the cause if he needs to, he will kill hostages every 30 minutes if he doesn’t get his demands met. Vice President Kathryn Bennett must run the operations from DC with the advice from remaining cabinet members who will do anything to keep the country safe. She must remain strong through the members trying to get their own agenda through. Grace and Alice are the wife and daughter of the President who are left on board the only reason he doesn’t leave, used as pawns in Ivan’s game.
Performances – Harrison Ford in the leading role is great because we know he is a top-level action star, while giving us a President that people could fully support. Gary Oldman as the villain is great for the era, he is completely over the top which works wonders the for film. Glenn Close does a great job keeping her and the situation grounded while the action happens in the sky. Elsewhere we do have a wonderful cast that all work very well for the film.
Story – The story here follows a group of hijackers that take Air Force One demanding the release of a known terrorist only for the President refusing to go down without a fight. This could easily just be branded Die Hard on Air Force One, which on the outside it can be, only we do get to deal with a lot more deeper because of political outcome of everything. This is an easy to follow action story and will show just how intense the situation will become if the President I caught in the middle of a hijacking situation.
Action – The action in this film does give us plenty of action on the plane with tight fights or gun fire, only being available on the plane we are on, which each starts to get bigger as the situation escalates.
Settings – The film uses two key settings, first Air Force One itself, which leaves us watching the helpless people hijacked with no easy rescue, while also showing us the DC side of the events as they look to remain in control.
Scene of the Movie – Get Off My Plane!
That Moment That Annoyed Me – While interesting to see, we don’t get enough of the political side of the events.
Final Thoughts – This is a high octane action movie which might well be Die Hard on a Plane, it works wonders for keeping us on the edge of our seats.
Overall: Edge of the Seat Action.
