A rookie Secret Service agent on her first job aboard Air Force One is suddenly thrown into chaos when a group of terrorists seizes the aircraft in a bid to sabotage a vital energy deal. As history seems to hang in the balance with the president’s life as well as a key conflict, her mettle and wits are seemingly put to their utmost test in an unyielding struggle which could alter the events of the world as we know it.
Movie Review
In anticipation of elections set for 2024, I have come to a conclusion that the most ludicrous aspect here is not the scene in which terrorists take over of the aircraft, nor even of the singular secret service ploughing through the evil henchmen. No, it is of having a president of the age less than fifty: A personiac Wo can mix up thoughts in a couple of line, Leap from an aircraft without spilling a hip: Actually jump across an enemy or two and take the shot rather than to swoop down like a drone. Bear in that it’s not happening anytime soon. But otherwise this stands at the border of being as banal as its title. But it passes muster due to decent performances, especially of McNamara as agent Allison Miles, and coherent action from Bamford, who worked in stunts for over thirty years.
The story begins when Miles is put on the same plane as president Edwards (Bohen) who is on his way to Astovia to cut a deal on oil. There are both in Astovia and out, people who entirely disagree with the deal. More specifically General Rodinov (the same Serbedzija, who I know as Boris the Blade of Snatch) wants to wrest control of Air Force One and force the President to change his mind. He doesn’t take into account Miles, and after a bit of “Die Hard on a plane”, she and Edwards are off with parachutes. This is not the end of it, Rodinov taking them, Planning to use her as a bargaining chip against the President. Again: he doesn’t take into account Miles. Surely the General ought to have picked something from all this by now.
There is definitely some question about this whole “leverage” concept; if I were an evil overlord, I would shoot Allison in the head the second I had her under my control. It could be just me. The story hits all the cliches like the one where the President and his agent engage in heavy petting [a President who is not married?] However, Bohen and McNamara make their characters fun and interesting. I’d vote for him, put it that way, while she has a commendably uncomplicated attitude about her job and everything else. Maybe she got it from her uncle Hall who was a secret service agent and had a different background than the breakfast club.
The action certainly increases the stakes and brings breath of fresh air. At times the camerawork is erratic, but these are surprisingly long takes too, and it is reasonable to suppose that McNamara does much of her own work. The best part though is a long shot video (it is not one long shot but done precisely and seamlessly enough not to know the difference) where she escapes from her captors and traverses the building, killing foes in a variety of creative ways. It will stay in your head for a fair amount of time more than some of the order based but ridiculous events, though this does get tempered a bit by what happened to Miles subsequently and how the president had to ‘rescue’ him. I would want to have looked at more of that sort of thing, because it is really cutting edge stuff. If all else does not quite reach such heights, the film still is an entertaining enough package, where the enjoyable aspects offset the lacklustre plot.
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