Air Force One

Air Force One is a 1997 American political action thriller film directed and co-produced by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Wendy Crewson, Xander Berkeley, William H. Macy, Dean Stockwell, and Paul Guilfoyle. The film was written by Andrew W. Marlowe. It tells the story of a group of terrorists who hijack Air Force One and the President's attempt to rescue everyone on board by retaking his plane. The film was a box office success and received mostly positive critical reviews. It became the fifth highest-grossing film of 1997, earning $315.2 million worldwide. It also received two Academy Award nominations for Best Sound and Best Film Editing, losing both awards to Titanic. Plot A joint operation between American and Russian Special Forces captures General Radek, the dictator of a rogue neo-Soviet regime in Kazakhstan that retained its nuclear weapons, threatening war. Three weeks after the mission, United States President James Marshall attends a diplomatic dinner in Moscow, Russia, during which he praises the operation and insists the United States will no longer negotiate with terrorists. Marshall and his entourage, including his wife Grace and daughter Alice, and several of his cabinet and advisers, prepare to return home on Air Force One. In addition, members of the press have been invited aboard, including six Radek loyalists disguised as journalists, led by Egor Korshunov. After takeoff, Secret Service agent Gibbs, a mole, enables Korshunov and his men to obtain weapons and storm the plane, killing many of the other security and military personnel before taking the rest hostage, including Grace and Alice. Marshall is raced to an escape pod in the cargo hold while pursued by Korshunov's men, but they are too late to stop the pod from ejecting. Korshunov breaches the cockpit and kills the crew, narrowly preventing the plane from making an emergency landing at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. A squadron of F-15s escort Air Force One as Korshunov has it piloted towards a Radek-loyal airbase in Kazakhstan.