Air Force One (1998, DVD)

Pre-takeoff Preliminaries: Musings and Comments.

1997 was a very good year for me as a movie-goer. I not only got to see the 20th Anniversary Special Edition re-releases of the original Star Wars Trilogy (which, of course, co-starred the top-billed star of "Air Force One") on the big screen, but I also got to see my favorite action-adventure actor in one of his last true-blue, sure-fire hits.

Let's face it, since Harrison Ford turned his back on his third franchise role as Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (he rejected the script for Sum of All Fears in its first draft, prompting a rewrite and the jiggering of the Ryan series to accomodate Ben Affleck), the guy has not had any really successful films. (Yes, the comedy he filmed with Anne Heche wasn't that bad, but it was no Indiana Jones-type blockbuster, either!) There are rumors that Ford, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg are working on a fourth Indy film due out in the summer of 2005, but until and unless rumor becomes fact, Air Force One will probably be his swan song as an action-adventure actor.

Ironically, had Paramount, Mace Neufeld (producer of the four Jack Ryan films), and Ford gone on with the filmed adaptations of Clancy's novels, the actor could have, conceivably, ended up as the "accidental" President of the United States in the film version of Debt of Honor. (In the sometimes convoluted chronology of the novels, The Sum of All Fears basically ends Ryan's CIA career and sets up the sequence of events in which a 9/11-like scenario thrusts the burdens of the Oval Office upon ol' Jack.)

Full Throttle: The Review

Air Force One, the 1997 summer hit directed by Wolfgang Petersen (The Boat/Das Boot, In The Line of Fire) and starring Harrison Ford as President James Marshall, stretches the term willing suspension of disbelief to its limits, yet, incredibly, it works.

Co-starring Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Wendy Crewson, Liesel Matthews, William H. Macy, and Dean Stockwell, Air Force One s premise is simple: Russian ultra-Communist terrorists take over the President s plane on its way back to the U.S. from Moscow. Marshall, who by happenstance is separated from his family and staff during the takeover, must use his military training (he s a former Air Force pilot) and his wits to regain control of Air Force One and rescue the hostages before the terrorists achieve their aims.

The terrorists, led by Ivan Korshunov (Oldman), are seeking the immediate release of General Alexander Radek (Jurgen Prochnow), who was snatched from his palace in Kazakhstan by a joint team of Russian and American Special Forces. Radek and his followers believe in the restoration of the old Soviet Union, and until both Russia and the U.S. intervened, had ruled Kazakhstan with as much regard for human life as the Taliban exhibited when they ruled Afghanistan. After a ceremony hosted by the grateful Russian President in which Marshall warns rogue nations and terrorists that we will no longer be afraid. It s your turn to be afraid, the American delegation heads to one of Moscow s main airports to board the Presidential plane.

Little do they know that Korshunov and his team, using falsified press credentials, have passed through both Russian and American security and are aboard. Ironically, they are given a tour of Air Force One by the unsuspecting assistant press secretary, Melanie Mitchell (Donna Bullock). And why not? To the Secret Service agents and the Air Force Security detachment, Korshunov and his people are reporters, harmless and unarmed. So how in the world are these guys going to storm Air Force One, the most secure aircraft in the world? Hmmm .and why do Korshunov and Secret Service agent Gibbs (Xander Berkeley) exchange that glance as they pass each other, eh?

Petersen and screenwriter Andrew W. Marlowe never do explain Gibbs motivations for his subsequent actions (as the director admits in the audio commentary track), but by the time audiences start asking those real life questions about plausibility, the sheer adrenaline rush provided by this action-packed film suppresses the yeah, right response to its premise. The Air Force (which willingly participated in the production of this film) says there is no escape pod in Air Force One s list of defensive measures, and viewers know that no sane person, whether terrorist or not, is going to fire automatic weapons inside an airborne plane unless he or she knew the mission was going to fail anyway.

Mixed in with the gunfire and explosions that punctuate the film, Petersen and Marlowe endow their characters with depth and believability. Petersen makes viewers care about each person being held hostage, warts and all, so that when one is lost, it feels real. Even Korshunov is played in such way that his motivations feel true and heartfelt, even if his cause is not just.

Yet Petersen and his cast and crew make audiences forget these dull real life facts. By the time the credits roll to Jerry Goldsmith s rousing End Title Suite, the viewer will wish the current occupant of the Oval Office were replaced by Harrison Ford s President Marshall, who is not only a man of political integrity but also a man of action.