After accidentally killing a man in a drunken punchup, ex-army ranger Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) is finally on his way home to see his wife and daughter after seven years in jail. Unfortunately, Poe's plane is transporting a selection of America's most dangerous criminals, who are planning to execute a potentially disastrous escape attempt. Led by psychopathic criminal genius Cyrus 'The Virus' Grissom (John Malkovich), Nathan 'Diamond Dog' Jones (Ving Rhames), Johnny 'Johnny 23' Baca (Danny Trejo) and the rest of the crazy crims hijack the plane, causing carnage and chaos in the skies. From the ground, US Marshall Vince Larkin (John Cusack) employs Poe's help to bring the aircraft down safely, but Larkin's bosses are just itching to resort to more drastic measures.
The words action-packed don't do this Jerry Bruckheimer-produced testosterone extravaganza justice. Full to bursting with fiery crashes and mid-air punch-ups, Simon West's film is an adrenaline junkie's dream. Perhaps belying its trashy aura, Con Air boasts a cast of real quality, with heavyweights Cage, Cusack and Malkovich lending some dramatic gravitas to the attention-grabbing stunts and set pieces. An able supporting cast includes Steve Buscemi as crazed serial killer The Marietta Mangler and Irishman Colm Meaney as Cusack's fiery colleague.
Sanity takes a back seat throughout, but West's film never threatens to take itself too seriously, providing as much in-flight entertainment as you can handle.
Con Air is a Film programme that first aired in 1997 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
