Con Air (1997)
Con Air is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Simon West and starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich. Written by Scott Rosenberg and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the film centers on a prison break aboard a Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System aircraft, nicknamed “con air.” It features Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Colm Meaney, Mykelti Williamson, Dave Chappelle, Rachel Ticotin, Danny Trejo, and Monica Potter in supporting roles.
Con Air was released theatrically on June 6, 1997, by Buena Vista Pictures through Touchstone Pictures and was a box office success, grossing over $224 million against a production budget of $75 million. The film received mixed reviews, though the cast, the score and action sequences were praised. The film gained a strong cult following among Nicolas Cage’s aficionados. It received Oscar nominations for Best Sound and Best Original Song for “How Do I Live,” performed on the soundtrack by Trisha Yearwood.
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Plot.
In 1991 Mobile, Alabama, U.S. Army Ranger Sgt. Cameron Poe returns home from Desert Storm to his pregnant wife Tricia after being honorably discharged. However, on the night he returns home, three intoxicated men attempt to assault Tricia, which leads to him being given a ten-year prison sentence for accidentally killing one of the men. Eight years later in 1999, Poe is paroled and boards a flight to Alabama on a Fairchild C-123 Provider known as the Jailbird, a converted JPATS prison transport plane. Accompanying him is his diabetic cellmate Mike “Baby-O” O’Dell. Most of the inmates boarding the flight are being transferred to a supermax prison: mass murderer William “Billy Bedlam” Bedford, serial rapist John “Johnny 23” Baca, Black Guerrilla member Nathan “Diamond Dog” Jones, and professional criminal Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom. The flight is overseen by deputy U.S.
Marshal Vince Larkin, who is approached by DEA agents Duncan Malloy and Willie Sims; the latter plans to go undercover to get information from drug kingpin Francisco Cindino, who is being picked up en route.
After taking off, inmate Joe “Pinball” Parker sets another prisoner on fire using smuggled kerosene as a distraction, allowing Grissom and Diamond Dog to take over the plane. They plan to land at Carson Airport as scheduled, pick up and transfer other prisoners, and then fly to a non-extradition country. Sims tries to retake control, but Grissom kills him and takes his gun. Poe and Grissom also put halt to Johnny 23’s rape attempts on the plane’s female guard, Sally Bishop.
Production.
With second unit work beginning on June 24, 1996, principal photography began shortly after at Salt Lake City, on July 1, 1996 and continued until October 29, 1996, at a number of locations.While most of the interiors of the Fairchild C-123 Provider transport aircraft were filmed in Hollywood Center Studios soundstage #7, Wendover Airport in Utah, as the stand in for the fictional Lerner Airfield, was used for the C-123 flying and taxi scenes. Director Simon West chose the barren and remote Wendover area “because it looked like the surface of the moon … My idea was that it was perfect for the convicts who had been locked up for 10, 20, 30 years in little cells.” The old wartime bomber base was also used for the aircraft boneyard scenes while the original swimming pool at the base was used in a scene where Garland Greene was talking to a young girl.