Harrison Ford is a bit of an exception among its Star Wars cast members in that he had a large and successful career in action/thriller films even after leaving the Galaxy Far, Far Away. It helps that he moved away from Star Wars be Indiana Jones In another one of the most popular franchises of all time, but it also had Blade Runnerher Tom Clancy movies (Patriot Games And Clear and present danger), And The fugitive. But even these mostly stellar films are less likely to elicit a “hell yeah” from Ford fans than Wolfgang Petersenthe political thriller Air Force One.
Released in 1997 to reasonably positive reviews, mainly due to Ford’s performance, the film settled at a respectable 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Wall Street Journal also surveyed readers in 2016 and determined that Ford Chairman James Marshall was the best fictional president of all time, edging out Martin SheenPresident Bartlet of The west wing And Bill PullmanPresident Whitmore of Independence Daywhich is frankly absurd (besides, Frank Underwood didn’t come last, which says a lot about our national mood in 2016). Always, Air Force once kicks ass in a typically American way – without being as obnoxious as it implies.
Why is “Air Force One” so iconic?
Air Force One is extremely stupid in an extremely attractive way. The film centers on Ford’s President Marshall as Air Force One is hijacked by a group of terrorists, at which point he becomes Die hard on a plane (but the plane is Air Force One and John McClane is the president). From the start, it’s clear that the film takes place in a zany but serious universe, because there’s no world where — even with a traitor inside — Air Force One could be hijacked so easily, let alone the fact that we’re talking about a president who would take it upon himself to save the day simply because he’s a Vietnam War veteran.
Either real presidents are too sensible to be action heroes, or they…you know, actively avoided military service because they had a medical certificate. Purely hypothetically, someone like him probably wouldn’t put themselves in danger for any reason. But that’s a big part of the fun of Air Force One. It is, on its face, completely ridiculous, and this is evidenced by its most famous scene: Ford, having no choice but to confront terrorist leader Egor Korshuov (Gary Oldmanhaving fun) all alone, fights the bad guy in front of an open cargo door and growls “Get off my plane!” before killing him. It’s silly, but Ford sells it harder than a million Han Solo toys, so it works. Overall, it’s the kind of movie that makes no sense but is undeniably entertaining simply because Ford gives it his all, or at least pretty close to all he’s always given.
- Release date
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July 25, 1997
- Runtime
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124 minutes
- Director
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Wolfgang Petersen
- Writers
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Andrew W. Marlowe
- Producers
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Armyan Bernstein, Gail Katz, Jonathan Shestack
