Air Force One (film)

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Air Force One

Directed by	Wolfgang Petersen
Produced by	Armyan Bernstein Gail Katz Wolfgang Petersen Jonathan Shestack
Written by	Andrew W. Marlowe
Starring	Harrison Ford Gary Oldman Glenn Close Wendy Crewson William H. Macy
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Distributed by	Beacon Pictures - USA - Columbia Pictures - non-USA - Buena Vista International Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s)	July 25, 1997
Running time	124 min.
Language	English
Budget	$85,000,000 (estimated)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Terrorist Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman) confronts the President of the United States (Harrison Ford).

Air Force One is a 1997 action movie starring Harrison Ford as the President of the United States, and directed by Wolfgang Petersen.

1 Plot
2 Box-Office
3 Weapons
4 Aircraft
5 Trivia
6 External links
- 6.1 Analysis

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

President James Marshall (Ford), on a visit to Moscow, has just told the world in a speech that the United States does not negotiate with terrorism. Three weeks earlier, the combined special-forces of the United States and the Russian Federation had captured the tyrannical leader of Kazakhstan, Gen. Ivan Radek in Astana, the capital.

His visit to Moscow complete, the President is now on his way home to Washington in Air Force One. However, Kazakh neo-nationalists have boarded the aircraft in the guise of the journalists they killed, and they hijack the aircraft; the President is rushed to his escape capsule, over his objections about his family, and the capsule is launched before the terrorists can stop it. Meanwhile, the pilot and co-pilot are attempting to land the aircraft at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, even as the terrorists attempt to break into the cockpit. When the cockpit door is finally forced, the aircraft is virtually touched down but still moving fast. The pilots are killed and a terrorist attempts to take off again, swinging wildly at high speed around the airfield and barely clearing obstructions as it lifts off.

The Vice President of the United States Kathryn Bennett is flown in to the White House meeting with the Defense Secretary Walter Dean and COTJC General Northwood. The terrorists phone the VP and order that Radek be released or they kill a hostage every half-hour.

The terrorists now all believe that they failed to capture the President, but he is still aboard and in hiding; the team sent to recover him from his capsule find it empty. The terrorists shoot NSA Doherty. The President gets into the cargo bay and finds a satellite phone which he uses to call the White House, but not remembering the direct phone number, has to use the main public number; the switchboard operator is convinced the caller is a prankster and says she'll trace the call... and it is a satellite phone under contract with the State Department.

The call is sent to the crisis room where the Vice-President is coordinating operations. The V-P has been faced with a nearly impossible decision -- to give in to terrorist demands to release Radek or sacrifice the dignity of the United States and the lives of the first family, the wife and daughter now being held by the terrorists.

The President arranges to subdue guards on the room where the staff are being held, and gets one woman out who helps him send a fax to the White House to arrange a mid-air refuelling at a low altitude at which people can safely bail out through the rear. With technical help by phone, the President jumps circuitry to cause the aircraft to dump fuel.

A number of people get off the plane during the fueling operation, but the terrorists discover what's happening and break off from the refuelling plane, which explodes. The president kills the lead terrorists but his head of his Secret Service detail Gibbs is a traitor and kills a pilot of a rescue plane and the Air Force Advisor Major Caldwell. As he and the president fight over the strap that will get them off the plane, Marshall knocks him out for a few minutes. He manages to get off and Gibbs is killed in the crash.

[edit] Box-Office

This Movie was one of Ford`s last notable box office success in recent years. Air Force One was a success earning $172,650,002 at the US Box Office.

Rated R for violence

[edit] Weapons

Beretta 92FS
SIG-Sauer P226
Heckler & Koch MP5 (A5 & K Models)
Colt M4 Carbine

Kalashnikov AK-47

[edit] Aircraft

[edit] Trivia

In order to meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article's trivia section requires cleanup.
Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.

Kevin Costner developed the film but decided to pursue post-production on The Postman instead. He personally offered the role to Harrison Ford.
Many people believe that "Air Force One" refers to a single airplane. "Air Force One" is actually the call sign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft in which the President rides. In fact, the rescue plane at the end - Liberty 2-4 - changes its call sign to Air Force One, signaling to the cabinet in Washington that the President is safely on board. Despite this fact, there are only two planes maintained by the Air Force exclusively for use by the President as Air Force One.
Viewers are given a detailed tour of the aircraft and its systems; both real and fictional. Most notable among the departures from reality include that the real Air Force One does not carry a known escape capsule (However, many details about the craft are classified, so the possibility that the real Air Force One carries an escape capsule is present), and that automatic weapon fire in the corridors of the aircraft would quickly shred its aluminum skin and ruin its aerodynamics. Contrary to popular belief, however, it would not necessarily result in instant death for all aboard; it would merely force a quick landing. But Air Force One may very well have bulletproof skin and therefore able to withstand at least small-arms fire.
In real life, the President would be the last person to board the plane rather than one of the people in the middle.
The prison scenes where General Radek is being held captive were filmed in Mansfield, Ohio at the Ohio State Reformatory, which has been used in other films including The Shawshank Redemption.
The opening scene features parachuters landing on the "Presidential Palace" in Kazakhstan. The palace is actually Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra, on the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
The exterior flyover shots that were said to take place at Ramstein Air Base actually were shot at Rickenbacker Air Force Base near Columbus, Ohio
When Radek is being released the radio of the aircraft depicts the men at Radek's prison singing L'Internationale, the most common communist and socialist anthem in the world.
The Moscow Airport scenes were shot at Los Angeles International Airport.

The Boeing-747 leased and painted in the Air force One livery in the film

The producers leased an actual Boeing 747 (originally built for Japan Airlines JA8103) from Kalitta Air, an international cargo airline and painted it in the Air Force One livery. During filming at several airports, the aircraft was mistaken for an actual Air Force VC-25. The most obvious difference between the aircraft used for filming and the actual VC-25 was the lack of a hump in front of the cockpit that in the real thing, contains the aerial refueling receptacle. Also the aircraft has Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines, while the real VC-25 has GE CF6 with the newer style cowlings, similar to the ones on the 747-400.
Air Force One was shot in open matte format.
The film features four future stars of 24: Xander Berkeley, and recurring guest stars Glenn Morshower (seasons 1 - 5) (who, coincidentally, plays a Secret Service Agent in both projects), an uncredited Timothy Carhart (season 2), and Wendy Crewson (season 3), who in both projects played the love interest/wife of the President. Also Bill Smitrovich, who played General Northwood in the film, was a guest star for one episode of 24's fourth season. Oleg Taktarov played a Russian terrorist during Day 5. Mark Thompson regularly plays a reporter on 24.
To that end, Morshower had a recurring role as a member of the joint chiefs on The West Wing. Glenn Close, Philip Baker Hall, Thom Barry, Berkeley, Tom Everett, Elya Baskin, Spencer Garrett, Albert Owens, Thomas Crawford, Don McManus, E.E. Bell, Allan Kolman and Lee Faranda all had guest spots on the program.
In Scary Movie 3, Ford was referenced as a former President, most likely from this movie.
Originally, the filmmakers hired Randy Newman to compose the score for the film. Unsatisfied with the results and with only three weeks left until the film had to be completed, the filmmakers hired Jerry Goldsmith to write a replacement score. Because of the time crunch, Goldsmith hired Joel McNeely to compose a handful of tracks, most notably the climactic dog fight. (Goldsmith later said he would never take on another replacement score with such little time available.) None of McNeely's music appears on the official soundtrack. Bootleg recordings of Newman's original score have circled around the Internet.