The “Die Hard in a [insert location/mode of transport] here subgenre may have been born from trying to piggyback on the success of one of the greatest action movies there’s ever going to be, but spiritual successors like Air Force One have shown that capitalizing on what worked elsewhere can deliver greatness in its own right.
When you think about it, several of the finest actioners to emerge in the immediate aftermath Bruce Willis’ era-defining adventure in, on, and around the Nakatomi Plaza are basically Die Hard clones when you boil them down to their essence; Speed is Die Hard on a bus, The Rock is Die Hard on Alcatraz, Con Air is Die Hard on a prison transport, and on and on it goes.
Harrison Ford’s presidential turn easily ranks among the best, though, with Wolfgang Petersen making the most of having the iconic star weaponize his gruff charisma to convince as both the holder of the highest office in the land, as well as a capable hero who could believably take down a rogue terrorist cell led by Gary Oldman’s scenery-inhaling villain.
Even though a Reddit thread looking back at Air Force One uses terms that sound disparaging on the surface, which is included but not limited to “silly,” “cheesy,” “corny,” “simple,” “and a product of its time,” it’s nonetheless encouraging to discover that nobody has lost their mind and declared the explosive extravaganza to be overrated, underwhelming, or remotely close to terrible.
There’s a very obvious reason why Air Force One is held up as one of the best blockbusters to emerge from a decade that was ludicrously stuffed to the gills with top-tier offerings; because it did, does, and always will rule.
