Con Air main backdrop
Con Air main poster

6.7/10 • 4.1K

1997-06-051h 56m

ActionThrillerCrime

They were deadly on the ground. Now they have wings.

Newly-paroled former US Army ranger Cameron Poe is headed back to his wife, but must fly home aboard a prison transport flight dubbed "Jailbird" taking the “worst of the worst” prisoners, a group described as “pure predators”, to a new super-prison. Poe faces impossible odds when the transport plane is skyjacked mid-flight by the most vicious criminals in the country led by the mastermind — genius serial killer Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, and backed by black militant Diamond Dog and psychopath Billy Bedlam.

Directors
Simon West
Editors
Glen Scantlebury

Top Billed Cast

View Credits
  1. Nicolas Cage

    Nicolas Cage

    Cameron Poe

  2. John Cusack

    John Cusack

    Agent Vince Larkin

  3. John Malkovich

    John Malkovich

    Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom

  4. Ving Rhames

    Ving Rhames

    Nathan "Diamond Dog" Jones

  5. Mykelti Williamson

    Mykelti Williamson

    "Baby-O" O'Dell

  6. Dave Chappelle

    Dave Chappelle

    "Pinball" Parker

  7. Colm Meaney

    Colm Meaney

    Agent Duncan Malloy

  8. Monica Potter

    Monica Potter

    Tricia Poe

  9. Landry Allbright

    Landry Allbright

    Casey Poe

Reviews4

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Per Gunnar Jonsson Avatar

Per Gunnar Jonsson

Aug 24, 2014

8/10

This is one of those movies which are simply good solid entertainment. The fact that I do like Nicolas Cage, even though he is at times really lousy at choosing which movies he participate in, is of course an additional plus. Naturally I do like the performance of Nicolas Cage in this movie but John Malkowich is also great as the main bad guy and Steve Buscemi is perfect as the nutcase although his role could have been a bit more expanded upon. The rest of the actors are doing nicely as well although it always saddens me to see Colm Meaney playing a dumbass and/or bad guy after his role in Star Trek. The story is not really bad although it has the usual Hollywood mistakes here and there. The ease by which they pick locks in this high security flight is somewhat laughable and I seriously doubt that they would have been able to haul the plane out of that desert junkyard in flyable condition in real life for instance. Still, it is not a bad story and it works for moving the movie forward. There are plenty of action and it is mostly quite entertaining. Sometimes it is a bit silly and rather unrealistic of course but, as I wrote, mostly it is quite entertaining. The ending is definitely a bit on the silly side with the plane touching down on the Las Vegas Strip. This bit felt like the producers realized that they had some FX budget left and just had to burn it. Anyway, on the whole a quite entertaining movie.

Media

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  • Con Air poster
  • Con Air poster
  • Con Air poster

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Status
Released
Original Language
English
Budget
$75,000,000.00
Revenue
$224,012,234.00
Keywords
prisonhelicopterairplaneescapeundercoverambushwar veterangas stationpsychopathbraverymexican standoffsandstormhijackingus armyprison guardu.s. marshalserial killershootoutlas vegasexplosionbrutalityconvictdesertwar herodiabeticdea agenthostile takeoverskyjackermotorcycle chasedisguisesaction heroarmy veteranprisoner transporttransport planeabsurd