Die Hard on a plane, with the President? That is the kind of pitch you could confidently sell to any studio back in the 90s. “High-concept” action thrillers were such a thing for a few glorious years back then. Air Force One was as high-concept as it came.
The 1997 movie featured a heavyweight cast and pulled in $316 million worldwide at the box office – nearly four times its budget. It even snagged Oscar nominations despite having a scene that is a textbook example of terrible CGI of the time.
Scooper Daniel Richtman has now reported that Sony Pictures is developing a follow-up, and Harrison Ford’s President James Marshall could be returning. In the first movie, Ford featured as the US President who is trapped on board Air Force One when terrorists take control of the aircraft and he decides to fight back.
Air Force One co-starred Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, William H. Macy, Jurgen Prochnow, Dean Stockwell, Paul Guilfoyle, Xander Berkeley, and Andrew Divoff.
My first memory of the movie is when I turned up late as the trailer for this was playing before another film, and having missed the opening 20 seconds of it I was convinced they had made another Jack Ryan movie, this time based on one of the books where Ryan was President.
Writer Andrew Marlowe has frequently said they had been kicking around ideas around the property for years, but they could never align on how to do it. Have they broken the impasse?
So how does a long-retired US President end up back on Air Force One? Or will Marshall be the one on the ground this time in the Glenn Close role from the original?