Air Force One (film): Difference between revisions

[[File:airforceone.jpg|framethumb|350px|And he wants you off his plane.]]

{{quote|''"[[Air Force One (Filmfilm)/Awesome|Get off my plane!]]"''|President James Marshall}}

''Air Force One'' is a [[The Nineties|pre-9/11]] film in which [[Harrison Ford]], as James Marshall, the President of the United States, [[Authority Equals Asskicking|personally thwarts]] a [[Die Hard Onon an X|hijacking]] of [[Air Force One]]. The film also includes Vice President Kathryn Bennett ([[Glenn Close]]), First Lady Grace Marshall ([[Wendy Crewson]]) and First Daughter Alice Marshall ([[Liesel Matthews]]).

* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: "When you talk to the President, you might remind him that I am holding his wife, his daughter, his chief of staff, his national security adviser, his classified papers - ''[[Crowning Moment of Funny|and his baseball glove]]''!"

* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]] --: Ironically subverted by the terrorists, not realizing that it's the President kicking ass, believing that it's a Secret Service agent who's holding out. Unfortunately, said trope is averted when {{spoiler|the President stays hidden despite knowing that a terrorist has threatened to execute a female secretary, and then carries out that threat}}.

* [[Bond One -Liner]]: A case of one being delivered by the villain. After executing {{spoiler|National Security Adviser Doherty}} Korshunov tells the Vice President;:

{{quote| '''Korshunov''': {{spoiler|Your national security advisor}} has just been executed. He's a very good negotiator. He bought you another half-hour.}}

{{quote| {{spoiler|'''Halo Lead''':''Four more bandits, heading zero-nine-zero, [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|Engage!]]''}}}}

* [[Conveniently -Placed Sharp Thing]]: President Marshall tries to stall Korshunov as he cuts his hands free using a shard from a broken drinking glass.

* [[Die Hard Onon an X|Die Hard on Air Force One]]

* [[Don't Celebrate Just Yet]] -: The bad guys are dead, the plane has been secured, and the evil General has been killed before he could return to power. {{spoiler|1=A flight of MiGs has launched from one of the bases loyal to the bad guys, and proceeds to intercept and attack Air Force One.}}

** {{spoiler|Evidently, nobody told the Khazak pilot not to celebrate his victory while the battle still rages, [[What an Idiot!|especially when outnumbered 2 to 1]]. One of the American pilots gets in a [[Pre -Mortem One -Liner]] as he lines up on the enemy's six and swats him.}}

{{quote| {{spoiler|'''Halo Lead''':''Not so fast, [[This Is for Emphasis, Bitch|you son of a bitch!]]''}}}}

* [[The Dragon]]: Korshunov.

* [[Dragon Their Feet]]: At the end of the film, the terrorists have been dispatched and a mid-air zipline transfer is about to take the remaining passengers to the rescue plane, Liberty 2-4. However, {{spoiler|the traitor Agent Gibbs pulls a gun and demands that he be rescued over Major Caldwell and President Marshall.}}

* [[The Great Politics Mess -Up]]: The flick reflects the brief Yeltsin-era rapprochement between Russia and the U.S.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]] - Twice: first, when {{spoiler|Lloyd Shepard dives in front of the President to [[Taking the Bullet|take the bullet]]}} (he got better); again towards the end, when a MiG tries to shoot down [[Air Force One]], {{spoiler|one of the fighter planes flies into its path (even managing to look like someone [[Taking the Bullet]])}}. One of the few times a [[Red Shirt]] gets a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

** Then, to a lesser degree, when Marshall, Major Caldwell and Agent Gibbs argue over who will be rescued (from the plane as its crashing) {{spoiler|luckily Gibbs happens to be [[The Mole]], [[The Reveal|kills Caldwell, who wanted the President to leave them]], and suffers his [[Karmic Death]]}}.

* [[High Concept]]: It's ''[[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]]'' [[Die Hard Onon an X|on]] [[Air Force One]] and President [[Harrison Ford]] is taking back his plane. That's the entire movie in one short sentence.

* [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]: Harrison Ford played Jack Ryan in two movie adaptations of [[Tom Clancy]]'s [[Jack Ryan (Literature)|Jack Ryan]] novels. The novel published a year before the movie shows the character dealing with becoming the US President.

* [[Hot Chick in Aa Badass Suit]]:

* [[The Mole]]: ({{spoiler|Agent Gibbs, played by Xander Berkeley, who would marry another famous "mole", Sarah "Nina Myers" Clarke}}, after they appeared together in ''[[Twenty Four|24]]'').

{{quote| '''Vice-President Kathryn Bennett''': What are your intentions?<br />

'''Ivan Korshunov''': What arrogance to think you could ever understand my intentions.<br />

'''Bennett''': I want to understand what it is that you want.<br />

'''Korshunov''': What do I want...When Mother Russia becomes one great nation again, when the capitalists are dragged from the Kremlin and shot in the street, when our enemies run and hide in fear at the mention of our name, and when America begs our forgiveness...on that great day of deliverance, you will know what I want. }}

** Also subverted by [[Dragon Ascendant|Korshunov]], actually taking the time to explain himself, not because he snaps, but because he seems to want to justify his patriotic motives to the President's daughter (who happened to just witness the execution of {{spoiler|the National Security Advisor}}). Gary Oldman plays this to the hilt, and at least for that one scene Korshunov becomes [[Pet the Dog|somewhat sympathetic]].

{{quote| '''Korshunov:''' That's the first time you ever seen a man killed, huh? You think I'm a monster? That I would kill this man? Somebody's son? Somebody's father? I am somebody's son too. I have three small children. Does that surprise you?<br />

'''Alice:''' Why did you kill him?<br />

'''Korshunov:''' Because I believe. [[Moral Event Horizon|And when I shoot this man I know...how deep was my belief. That I would turn my back on God Himself...for Mother Russia. My doubts, my fears, my own private morality...it dissolves in this moment...for this love.]] }}

* [[Multitasked Conversation]]: President Marshall finally gets through to the White House phone line, but is cornered by one of the terrorists. He hides the phone in his pocket, and in what appears to be idle conversation with the terrorist, instructs the Vice-President to {{spoiler|order that Air Force One be fired upon, allowing him to take his captor by surprise}}.

* [[Neck Snap]]: Accomplished rather realistically by the President, who is [[My God, What Have I Done?|understandably unsettled after doing it,]] considering it is probably the first time he has killed with his bare hands.

{{quote| '''Marshall''': Never again will I allow our political self-interest to deter us from doing what we know to be morally right. Atrocity and terror are not political weapons. And to those who would use them, your day is over. We will never negotiate. We will no longer tolerate and we will no longer be afraid. It's your turn to be afraid. }}

{{quote| '''Korshunov:''' (speaking to The President) This is all your doing. This infection you call "freedom"...without meaning, without purpose. You have given my country to gangsters and prostitutes. You have taken everything from us. There is nothing left.}}

{{quote| '''Korshunov:''' You know your father has also killed, is he a bad man?<br />

'''Alice:''' That's not true.<br />

'''Korshunov:''' Why? Because he does it in a tuxedo with a telephone call and a smart bomb? }}

** Alice hits back with a non-violent [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: "You ARE a monster...and my father is a great man."

** Korshunov also responds to First Lady Marshall arguing with him about rules by saying:

{{quote| '''Korshunov''': You who murdered a hundred thousand Iraqis to save a nickel on a gallon of gas are going to lecture me on the rules of war? Well, DON'T. }}

{{quote| '''Korshunov:''' That's the first time you ever seen a man killed, huh? You think I'm a monster? That I would kill this man? Somebody's son? Somebody's father? I am somebody's son too. I have three small children. Does that surprise you?<br />

'''Alice:''' Why did you kill him?<br />

'''Korshunov:''' Because I believe. [[Moral Event Horizon|And when I shoot this man I know...how deep was my belief. That I would turn my back on God Himself...for Mother Russia. My doubts, my fears, my own private morality...it dissolves in this moment...for this love.]] }}

* [[The PresidentsPresident's Daughter]]: Alice Marshall.

* [[Rule of Cool]]: The features on the plane in the film (the escape pod, <s>the mid-air refueling</s>,<ref>the real plane can be refuelledrefueled during flight from a tanker aircraft, see [[The Other Wiki]]</ref>, the parachute ramp, and, <s>the counter-measures</s>,<ref>the real plane has the most advanced counter-measures in the world, they are classified, however. Experts assume in addition to radar jamming and flares, the plane currently has lasers to burn out the sensors on heat seeking missiles, and more</ref>), are not on the real planes that transport the US President but can be explained by this.

* [[Taking the Bullet]]: {{spoiler|One of the F-15's protecting Air Force One intercepts a missile headed for the titular plane, sacrificing himself and saving everyone on it. In a subversion the shrapnel still damages the tail, making the plane unable to continue flying; but this is still less damage than the missile itself would have caused.}}

** Played straight with {{spoiler|Lloyd Shephard, Marshall's Chief of Staff}}.

* [[That's an Order]]: Said by Vice President Bennett after President Marshall has {{spoiler|ordered the escorting jets to fire on Air Force One}}.

{{quote| '''White House General''': Is he saying what I think he's saying?<br />

'''Vice-President Bennett''': If we're going to act, we have to act now.<br />

'''Defense Secretary Dean''': It's too risky.<br />

'''Bennett''': The president is up there with a gun to his head!<br />

'''General Northwood''': He's asking us to do that to Air Force One?<br />

'''Bennett''': He's not asking. Your commander-in-chief has issued a direct order. Do it! }}

* [[Twenty -Fifth Amendment]]: Fairly early in the movie, when it's discovered that the President is still on Air Force One, the Cabinet quickly drafts a letter stating the intent to invoke this, as the President is compromised. The Vice President, however, refuses to sign it, considering it an affront to the situation on the plane. At the end of the film, she tears it up.

* [[What Measure Is a Mook?]]: Korshunov is shown lamenting the death of one his henchmen, saying that they served together in Afghanistan.

** Also happens with {{spoiler|General Radek as he's leaving prison}}.

[[Category:Air Force One{{PAGENAME}}]]