Air Force One (film)

Air Force One
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Wolfgang Petersen
Written by	Andrew W. Marlowe
Produced by	Armyan Bernstein Gail Katz Jonathan Shestack Wolfgang Petersen
Starring	Harrison Ford Gary Oldman Glenn Close Wendy Crewson Xander Berkeley William H. Macy Paul Guilfoyle
Edited by	Richard Francis-Bruce
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures (United States) Buena Vista International (worldwide)
Release date	July 25, 1997
Running time	124 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English / Russian
Budget	$85,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$315,156,409

Air Force One is a 1997 American action film written by Andrew W. Marlowe and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, director of In the Line of Fire. It stars Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, and Glenn Close, and also features Wendy Crewson, Xander Berkeley, William H. Macy and Paul Guilfoyle.

Plot

The film opens when a joint team of Russian Spetsnaz and American Delta Force commandos arrest the genocidal dictator of Kazakhstan, General Alexander "Ivan" Radek (Jürgen Prochnow), after killing most of his bodyguards. Three weeks later, U.S. President James Marshall (Harrison Ford) makes a speech in Moscow announcing a new offensive against terrorism. Having visited the Red Cross camps and witnessing the brutality and atrocities committed under Radek's regime, Marshall vows to continue the offensive against the terrorists, stating that the U.S will never tolerate any kind of terrorist government.

The President boards Air Force One to return to Washington, however, six Soviet neo-nationalist terrorists supportive of Radek, led by Egor Korshunov (Gary Oldman), posing as a Russian news crew, take weapons from the weapons locker and take control of the plane with help from a mole in the Secret Service, Agent Gibbs (Xander Berkeley) killing many passengers and Secret Service agents. An emergency is declared by the pilot, causing Air Force interceptors to take off from Ramstein Air Base in Germany to intercept and escort Air Force One. Marshall is rushed to an escape pod in the plane's cargo hold, but he refuses to leave his family behind, hiding behind the machinery when the pod is launched, although Korshunov believes that the President has escaped.

After shooting the pilots and disabling the telephone communication lines, Korshunov narrowly averts landing the plane at Ramstein Air Base, diverting it towards Russia and calls Vice President Kathryn Bennett (Glenn Close), demanding the release of Radek in exchange for the remaining passengers onboard Air Force One, including the wife and daughter of the President, threatening to kill one hostage every half-an-hour until Radek is released. Bennett refuses to cooperate, and discovers that Marshall never entered the escape pod and he could be either dead, held hostage or still aboard the plane.

It is revealed that President Marshall was a former U.S. Air Force helicopter pilot who won the Medal of Honor in Vietnam as he kills one of the terrorists (Vladimir Krasin), and hides in the cargo section; forcing Korshunov to think that one of the Secret Service agents is still free, ordering his men to kill him. Marshall then kills another terrorist (Boris Bazylev), sent to look for him in the cargo bay but being wounded in the shoulder in the battle. As General Radek is still not released, Korshunov executes one of the hostages, Jack Doherty, (Marshall's national security advisor), and takes the First Lady, Grace, and his daughter, Alice, to the cockpit with him and the other terrorists.

Marshall manages to establish contact with the White House and with the help of an Air Force general, initiates a fuel dump hoping it would force the terrorists to land the plane. To make the "Secret Service agent" reveal himself, Korshunov threatens to shoot Melanie Mitchell, the president's deputy press secretary, unless Marshall reveals himself in 10 seconds, however, Marshall remains hidden and Melanie is executed. With the loss of fuel, Korshunov forces Bennett to agree to a mid-air fueling. Marshall, who sneaked into the room where the hostages have been held after taking a terrorist hostage is told by his military advisers that they can parachute all the hostages off the plane if they can force the plane down to 15,000 feet. Marshall relays this to Bennett using the fax machine, and the refueling KC-10 tanker instructs Korshunov to drop to 15,000 feet.

As the plane is refueling, Marshall sneaks the hostages to the cargo hold with parachutes and out of the back of the plane. Korshunov notices the indicator in the cockpit that the ramp is opening, forcing Air Force One away from the refueling tanker, causing its fuel line to spark and detonate the refueling plane. Although more than half of the hostages escape, many fall off the plane without parachutes, including the hostage terrorist. A terrorist (Sergei Lenski) arrives in the cargo hold in time to prevent Marshall and his advisers from jumping although Marshall had decided to stay to rescue his family from Korshunov. Marshall, White House Chief of Staff Lloyd Shephard, military advisor Major Caldwell (William H. Macy) and Gibbs are taken to the plane's communication room and tied down. Korshunov reveals to Bennett he has the President captive and demands Radek's release, forcing Marshall to make the request to Russian President Petrov to do so. Bennett's advisers tell her that under the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, she could declare the President to be incapacitated, thus allowing her to override Marshall's command, but she refuses to, believing Marshall to still be in control.

Korshunov reneges on his promise to free the hostages once Radek is released, leaving Marshall with nothing to lose. As Korshunov hears the ceremony of Radek's release, Marshall manages to free himself and fights Korshunov, killing two other terrorists. However, Shepherd is wounded in the fight. Marshall pursues Korshunov into the cargo bay where he plans on making his escape, and eventually snaps Korshunov's neck and lets the parachute pull his body out of the plane. Marshall manages to call Petrov to announce that all the terrorists have been neutralized to stop Radek from leaving the prison facility; Radek is gunned down as he tries to make his escape when word reaches the prison.

As Marshall takes over piloting of the plane, US Central Command informs him that at least six Kazakh MiG-29s, piloted by militants loyal to Radek, have taken off to avenge Radek's death. A flight of three pairs of USAF F-15 fighters are scrambled to guard the President. As the MiGs approach their target, a dogfight breaks out between the MiGs and F-15s and despite Marshall's efforts to avoid enemy missiles, an F-15 pilot sacrifices himself to protect Air Force One by flying his fighter into the missile. The rest of the F-15s destroy 3 enemy MiGs, forcing the remaining MiGs to retreat. With amount of damage done to the plane during the battle, Air Force one is unable to land properly so an Air Force Pararescue C-130 Hercules plane is arranged to zip-line the remaining passengers from the plane. Marshall insists on going last, ensuring his family's survival. Chief of Staff Shepherd was taken across next. However, when it is announced that only one more retrieval can be made, Gibbs kills Caldwell and the remaining parajumper. Marshall fights off Gibbs and manages to zip line across seconds before Air Force One plummets into the Caspian Sea, killing Gibbs in the process. The Pararescue plane retrieves Marshall, and announce their success as they change their call sign to "Air Force One".

Cast

• Harrison Ford as President James Marshall
• Gary Oldman as Egor Korshunov
• Glenn Close as Vice President Kathryn Bennett
• Wendy Crewson as Grace Marshall
• Liesel Matthews as Alice Marshall
• 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
• Paul Guilfoyle as White House Chief of Staff Lloyd Shepherd
• Xander Berkeley as United States Secret Service Agent Gibbs
• William H. Macy as Major Caldwell
• Alan Woolf as Russian President Petrov
• Dean Stockwell as Secretary of Defense Walter Dean
• Tom Everett as National Security Advisor Jack Doherty
• Jürgen Prochnow as General Alexander Radek
• Donna Bullock as Deputy Press Secretary Melanie Mitchell
• Michael Ray Miller as Colonel Axelrod
• Carl Weintraub as Lieutenant Colonel Ingraham
• Spencer Garrett as White House Aide Thomas Lee
• Bill Smitrovich as General Northwood
• Glenn Morshower as Agent Walters
• Dan Shor as Notre Dame Aide
• Philip Baker Hall as U.S. Atty. General Andrew Ward
• Richard Doyle as Colonel Bob Jackson, AFO Backup Pilot
• Willard Pugh as White House Communications Officer
• Pavel D. Lychnikoff as Prison Guard #1
• Oleg Taktarov as Prison Guard #2
• Alex Veadov as MiG Pilot
• Ren Hanami as Reporter #4

Production

The first trailer of Air Force One did not include Gary Oldman's character, but the widely positive popular response to his acting caused later trailers to feature him.

A large part of the crew took a tour of the real Air Force One before filming. They based some of the scenes in the film, where the Russian terrorists disguised as journalists survey the layout of the plane and begin to take their seats, on the touring experience. The character of Deputy Press Secretary Melanie Mitchell was based largely on their real life tour guide, and the crew felt uncomfortable having to film the character's execution by the terrorists.

Gary Oldman did not stay in character between the scenes. The director later said he called the filming experience 'Air Force Fun' because of how comedic and genial Oldman would be off-screen. He also said that Oldman would suddenly return to the menacing film persona like a shot.

Reception

Air Force One received favorable reviews from critics, with an overall approval rating of 78% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The performance of Gary Oldman was praised, claimed as "flawless and menacing." Conversely, The Independent called it "so preposterous that it begins to seem like a science-fiction artifact…the product of a parallel-universe 1990s which somehow by-passed the decades since the 1950s."

The film was a major box office success, earning $172,650,002 (54.9%) domestically and $142,200,000 (45.1%) in other countries. It grossed a total of $315,156,409 worldwide in the box office.

Then-President Bill Clinton saw the film twice and gave it good reviews. He noted, however, that certain elements of the film's plane, such as the escape pod and the rear parachute ramp, did not reflect actual features of Air Force One. In the audio commentary, Wolfgang Petersen reflected that although the real plane did not have those features at the time of the filming, it would- according to him- be probably added by future governments. However, because of the highly classified nature of Air Force One's security features, the possibility of the capsule and parachute ramp existing cannot be completely ruled out.

The film was nominated for two Academy Awards; one for Best Film Editing, the other for Best Sound.

Score

Randy Newman was initially hired to write the film score; however, Petersen considered his version to be almost a parody and commissioned Jerry Goldsmith to write and record a more sombre and patriotic score in just twelve days (with an assist from Joel McNeely). After the harried experience, Goldsmith vowed never again to take on such a last-minute task.

As for Newman, some of his material from the rejected score was used in Toy Story 3.

Varese Sarabande released a soundtrack album featuring Goldsmith's music (McNeely receives a credit on the back cover for "Additional Music in the Motion Picture," but none of his work is on the CD).

1. The Parachutes (5:14)
2. The Motorcade (2:40)
3. Empty Rooms (4:02)
4. The Hijacking (7:30)
5. No Security (2:59)
6. Free Flight (4:41)
7. Escape From Air Force One (5:25)
8. Welcome Aboard, Sir (2:06)

External links

• Air Force One at IMDb
• Air Force One at the TCM Movie Database
• Air Force One at Rotten Tomatoes
• Template:Amg movie
• *"Air Force One Movie Gallery". Retrieved October 5, 2010.
• *"Ivan Korshunov character information at Villain Abode.com". Retrieved October 5, 2010.
• *"Air Force One as Political Communication". Retrieved October 5, 2010.