Air Force One

When radical Russian ultra-nationalists hijack the heavily guarded presidential Boeing 747 mid-flight, an idealistic U.S. President and decorated war veteran refuses to abandon ship, launching a dangerous guerrilla war from inside the cargo hold to save his family and crew.

Harrison Ford is one of the most beloved movie actors today and the airborne action flick is one of the most beloved movie genres today. It was only a matter of time before a team-up occurred. AIR FORCE ONE is the latest film to set its violence and carnage aboard a plane, although as the title suggests, it’s the first to set its action in the American President’s plane. The novelty of a butt-kicking chief executive, and the performance of Ford as the president, makes this a watchable action thriller, but there are a lot of unbelievable sequences with less-than-credible special effects and bad writing that makes even Ford and Glenn Close look bad.

Ford is an idealistic president with a picture-perfect family who stuns the world, at the beginning of AIR FORCE ONE, by scrapping a scripted speech for an impromptu address promising no tolerance on terrorism. Everyone climbs aboard Air Force One, a state-of-the-art luxury ship sporting tight security, as Russian “journalist” Gary Oldman and his “news crew” board. Luckily, Oldman’s performance here as a loyalist to a captured rogue general works much better than previous roles; he’s crazy, but we at least understand his reasoning and loyalties.

Oldman and his boys take the plane with lightning speed, helped out by a traitorous Secret Service agent. The manic sequence that follows, with Ford avoiding the escape pod to stay behind in the baggage hold shooting terrorists and sabotaging the plane, is good tense action. Most of the over-the-top melodrama unfolds in Washington, D.C. where Vice President Glenn Close wrestles power away from the Secretary of Defense while Jerry Goldsmith’s loud score kicks in. AIR FORCE ONE isn’t as classy as most Harrison Ford action films, but it fits right in with the premier popcorn entertainment reviewed on MovieToWatch.

Following a joint US-Russian military operation that captures rogue Kazakh dictator General Radek, U.S. President James Marshall attends a diplomatic dinner in Moscow where he boldly vows zero tolerance for terrorism. Shortly after taking off aboard Air Force One to return to Washington, D.C., a rogue group of six Russian ultra-nationalists disguised as a press team—led by the fanatical Egor Korshunov—hijack the aircraft with inside assistance from a compromised Secret Service agent.

As the hijackers breach the flight deck and execute cabin crew, the Secret Service ushers President Marshall into the aircraft’s emergency escape pod, which is promptly ejected from the aircraft. Korshunov takes Marshall’s wife, adolescent daughter, and senior cabinet staff hostage, threatening to execute a passenger every thirty minutes unless General Radek is released from Russian custody.

Unbeknownst to the terrorists and the frantic White House situation room led by Vice President Kathryn Bennett, the escape pod was jettisoned empty. Marshall—a decorated combat pilot and Medal of Honor recipient—chose to remain hidden inside the dark labyrinth of the plane’s baggage hold, utilizing improvised tools and tactical combat training to pick off the terrorists one by one and regain control of the sky.