Air Force One (1997)

Written by Wuchak on June 15, 2023

When the President’s plane is seized by Communist radicals

After a Russian terrorist (Gary Oldman) hijacks Air Force One with his cronies, the President (Harrison Ford) is intent on saving his wife & daughter and the other hostages (e.g. William H. Macy). Glenn Close plays the Vice President while Dean Stockwell is on hand as the Defense Secretary.

“Air Force One” (1997) is a political suspense/thriller that combines “Under Siege” (1992) with “Executive Decision” (1996). While I prefer those two, this one’s in the same league.

The Russian prison sequences were shot at Mansfield Reformatory, Ohio, which is where “The Shawshank Redemption” was shot.

The movie runs 2 hours, 4 minutes, and was shot at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland (Presidential palace, Kazakhstan), Rickenbacker Airport, Columbus (Ramstein AFB in Germany), Mansfield Reformatory and Los Angeles International Airport (Moscow airport scenes).

GRADE: B-