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Actors: Harrison Forde, Gary Oldman
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Air Force One |
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While the President is returning from Russia with 50 others, including his family, his plane is hijacked. The terrorist want to have an evil general released from prision. The President fakes his escape from the plane and instead stays on to try to take back his plane. He runs into problems because there is a mole onboard.
--Jack Bauer, Resident Scholar
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When President James Marshall (Harrison Ford) goes off of the regular script at an international dinner and announces that the United States will not bargain with terrorists in any fashion, he has no idea that his challenge will soon be put to the test. On his way home from Russia, after his remarkable pronouncement, Air Force One is hijacked by terrorists led by Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman). They are determined to win the freedom of General Ivan Radek (Jurgen Prochnow), a military leader who murdered thousands of people in his bid for power. The secret service agents on the plane sacrificed themselves to get the President into the escape pod in the belly of the plane, leaving the President's closest advisors, as well as his wife and daughter, at the mercy of the terrorists...
Vice President Kathryn Bennett (Glenn Close) immediately tries to negotiate with the terrorists to get the hostages off the plane alive while the military follows the beacon to the president's escape pod. Everything changes when the escape pod is found - empty. President James Marshall never left the plane and he is determined to make the terrorists pay. However, the terrorists quickly notice that their numbers are dwindling and assume that there is a secret service agent loose on the plane. They begin killing hostages in the hopes that they will find one that matters enough to the unknown man for him to give himself up. With the clock ticking and increasing numbers of hostages being murdered, President Marshall soon finds that he is forced into negotiating with the terrorists and arranging for the release of General Radek from prison. But that doesn't mean that he is beaten as he uses every trick in the book to get the terrorists off his plane...
Air Force One is a great movie. It is fast paced, full of action and you almost instantly identify with the characters, especially Harrison Ford, as we have seen him play the president so many times that it is instantly believable. It is true that many of the details of the movie are obviously fantasy, such as the mythical escape pod (that doesn't exist on the real Air Force One), the ease with which the terrorists boarded the plane, and the constant firing of weapons on the plane without ever puncturing anything important, but the director is so talented and the cast so believable that you don't really think of any of this until after the movie is over. This is a big-budget blockbuster action adventure film at its very best!
--Debbie, Resident Scholar
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The President has returned from a meeting in Russia. With him is his wife and young daughter. Terroists have stowed away aboard Air Force One. They take over Air Force One, and they demand their leader be let free. The President sneaks off and soon wages war against the terroists.
--Tony Lucas, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Air Force One |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 40%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
Time/Era of Movie:
- 1980's-1999
Spying & Terrorists
Yes
Cloak & Dagger Plotlets:
- plane hijacking!
The terrorist enemy is...
- terrorist group
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- politician/elected ruler
Age:
- 40's-50's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- short/standard straight (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Events of movie makes character more...
- aggressive
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- blonde
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn, straight
Body type
- average (woman)
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- terrorist
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- average (man)
Physique
- average physique
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Setting
United States
Yes
Air?
Yes
Air:
- skyjacking
- air force one
Misc setting
- fancy mansion
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately messy visuals of dead
Movie makes you feel...
- excited
How many deaths in film?
- dozens
How much use of techno gadgets?
- 2 (a little)
Kind of violence:
- mission to rescue
- hand to hand
- guns
Unusual forms of death
- dropped from large heights
- hanging
- perforation--bullets
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
Lot of special effects?
Yes
Kinds of F/X
- exploding bombs
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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