Air Force One (film)

Air Force One theatrical poster
Written by	Andrew W. Marlowe
Directed by	Wolfgang Petersen
Produced by	Armyan Bernstein Thomas Bliss Gail Katz Jonathan Shestack Wolfgang Petersen
Starring	Harrison Ford Gary Oldman Glenn Close Dean Stockwell Xander Berkeley William H. Macy Paul Guilfoyle
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography by	Michael Ballhaus
Editing by	Richard Francis-Bruce
Studio	Beacon Pictures
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures (United States) Buena Vista International (International)
Release Date	July 25, 1997
Run time	124 min.
Budget	$85,000,000
Grossed	$315,156,409

Air Force One is the 1997 action-thriller film. It was released in the U.S. on July 25, 1997 and it was written by Andrew W. Marlowe and directed by Wolfgang Petersen.

In this movie, it has President James Marshall (Harrison Ford) is trapped onboard his presidential plane, Air Force One when it was hijacked by Russian terrorists, led by the sadistic Egor Korshunov (Gary Oldman). As terrorists plan to have President Marshall to have the Russian president release vicious dictator of Kazakhstan General Ivan Radek (Jürgen Prochnow), President Marshall, an ex-soldier and a Medal of Honor recipient himself, silently battles Korshunov and his men onboard and save the hostages, including his own family. Meanwhile, Vice President Kathryn Bennett (Glenn Close) handles the crisis from the White House situation room.

Air Force One is unanimously regarded as one of the best Die Hard scenario movies, due in no small part to Gary Oldman's performance.

Plot

An American and Russian joint military operation results in the capture of General Ivan Radek, the dictator of a rogue terrorist regime in Kazakhstan that had taken possession of former Soviet Union nuclear weapons. Three weeks later, a diplomatic dinner is held in Moscow to celebrate the capture of the Kazakh dictator, at which President of the United States, James Marshall expresses his remorse that action had not been taken sooner to prevent the suffering that Radek caused. He also vows that his administration will take a firmer stance against despotism and that they will never negotiate with terrorists.

President Marshall, along with his wife Grace, daughter Alice, and several of his Cabinet and advisors, board Air Force One to return to the United States. United States Secret Service agent Gibbs, acting as a mole for a group of six Radek loyalists led by the sadistic Egor Korshunov, sneaks them onto the plane disguised as journalists. Once in flight, Gibbs kills several Secret Service agents guarding the plane's armory, allowing Korshunov and his men to seize control of the plane. When the attackers start a firefight, the pilots attempt to land the plane at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. However, the pilots are killed, and the terrorists take control, diverting the plane towards Kazakhstan. Secret Service agents take Marshall to an escape pod in the cargo hold, while the rest of the passengers are taken hostage by the hijackers. Believing the President has escaped, the hijackers plan to use his wife and daughter as leverage.

At the White House Situation Room, Korshunov contacts Vice President Kathryn Bennett, threatening to kill a hostage every half hour until Radek is released. Meanwhile, the U.S. military locates the escape pod but finds it empty. Unbeknownst to the hijackers, President Marshall, a retired military aviator, veteran of the Vietnam War, and Medal of Honor recipient, stayed aboard the plane to rescue everybody. He contacts the White House via satellite phone, reminding Bennett not to negotiate with the terrorists. The hijackers request mid-air refueling after Marshall forces a fuel dump and secures the hostages. Marshall sends a fax to the White House, instructing the tanker to force the plane low enough for the hostages to parachute to safety. When Korshunov discovers the deception, he forces the plane away from the refueling tanker, causing the fuel to ignite and destroy the tanker. He captures Marshall and the remaining advisors before they escape.

With Marshall and his family held hostage, Bennett is forced to contact Russian President Petrov to endorse Radek's release. Korshunov and his men celebrate as the event is broadcast over the plane's speakers, and Marshall escapes. While Marshall's advisers deal with the remaining terrorists, Korshunov takes Grace to the plane's parachute ramp, and dumps the remaining parachutes. Marshall arrives, and the two fight. Korshunov loses his weapon, and is garrotted with the parachute chord. Marshall then belays his earlier request to release Radek, who is killed attempting to flee custody. Marshall directs Air Force One towards friendly airspace unaware that MiG-29s piloted by Radek loyalists follow them. Escorting U.S. F-15s counterattack, but the shrapnel from explosions, and machine gun rounds, destroys Air Force One's tail controls, rendering landing impossible. Marshall pilots Air Force One out toward the Caspian Sea to prevent civilian casualties, and a nearby patrolling Air Force Special Operations Command IMC-130E Combat Talon is called in to rescue Marshall and the others via zip-line. After his family and the injured Chief of Staff Lloyd Shepherd are evacuated, Marshall, Gibbs, and Major Caldwell remain on the plane, with time for only one to be rescued. Caldwell tells Marshall to go, but Gibbs, revealing that it was he who aided the terrorists in hijacking Air Force One, pulls a gun, kills Major Caldwell and a United States Air Force Pararescue, and attempts to save himself on the last remaining zip-line. Marshall overpowers him (having once trusted Gibbs with his life), attaches himself to the line, and unhooks it from the plane before it crashes into the water. The MC-130E crew reel in the President, and Marshall is reunited with his family.

Cast and characters

The President and His Family

• Harrison Ford as President James Marshall
• Wendy Crewson as First Lady Grace Marshall
• Liesel Matthews as First Daughter Alice Marshall

Terrorists

• Gary Oldman as Egor Korshunov
• Xander Berekley as Gibbs
• Elya Baskin as Andrei Kolchak
• Levan Uchaneishvili as Sergei Lenski
• David Vadim as Igor Nevsky
• Andrew Divoff as Boris Bazylev
• Ilia Volok as Vladimir Krasin
• Jürgen Prochnow as General Ivan Radek

Air Force One passengers and personnel

• Paul Guilfoyle as White House Chief of Staff Lloyd Shepherd
• William H. Macy as Major Caldwell
• Tom Everett as U.S. National Security Advisor Jack Doherty
• Donna Bullock as Deputy Press Secretary Melanie Mitchell
• Michael Ray Miller as Colonel Axelrod, pilot of Air Force One
• Carl Weintraub as Lieutenant Colonel Ingraham, co-pilot of Air Force One
• Glenn Morshower as Secret Service Agent Walters
• David Gianopoulos as Secret Service Agent Johnson

U.S. Government

• Glenn Close as Vice President Kathryn Bennett
• Dean Stockwell as Secretary of Defense Walter Dean
• Spencer Garrett as White House Aide Thomas Lee
• Bill Smitrovich as General Northwood
• Philip Baker Hall as U.S. Attorney General Andrew Ward
• J.A. Preston as White House general
• Richard Doyle as Colonel Bob Jackson

Others

• Alan Woolf as Russian President Petrov
• Don R. McManus as Colonel Jack Carlton, F-15 "Halo Flight" Leader

External Links

• Air Force One on IMDb.com
• Air Force One on Wikipedia