CON AIR

'''Con Air''' (1997) is an American action/thriller movie by Touchstone Pictures, starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich. It is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Simon West. The film is set aboard, and borrows its title from, the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, an airline used by the government to transport criminals across the country.
The film featured the hit song "How Do I Live", performed by Trisha Yearwood. The movie was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Song and Sound, losing to ''Titanic'' in both categories.

Contents

Plot

Characters

Criticisms

Portrayal of diabetes

Trivia

TV/movie references

Box office

References

External links

Plot

Cameron Poe, an honorably discharged United States Army Ranger returns to Alabama from his tour of service in Operation Desert Storm to reunite himself with his pregnant wife, a waitress at a local diner. Upon leaving the diner, he is assaulted by three belligerent customers and accidentally kills one of them in self-defense. He is tried and found guilty of manslaughter and receives a sentence of 7-10 years because his military skills classify him a deadly weapon. He is incarcerated before his daughter is born.
Poe maintains correspondence with his daughter throughout the duration of his sentence. During this time, elements of his personality reveal a sense of honor, nobility, and utilizing violence only as a last resort to resolving conflicts. To pass the time, Poe becomes a heavy reader, learns Spanish and origami. He develops a close friendship with fellow prisoner Mike "Baby-O" O'Dell. Eventually, he is paroled on his daughter's seventh birthday, having served seven years in prison.
Poe is scheduled to fly home to Alabama along with an assortment of inmates bound for a new Supermax prison being constructed in his home state. The inmates are incarcerated for a variety of extreme offenses, ranging from serial- and mass-murder to a variety of petty offenses. Many are extremely dangerous and chained to their individual transport cages inside the airplane, a C-123 appropriately called the "Jailbird." Several of these inmates, William Bedford ("Billy Bedlam"), Nathan "Diamond Dog" Jones and Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, are the worst and are serving life sentences.
The transfer is overseen by U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin (John Cusack), brought in to ensure a safe and efficient transfer and DEA agent Duncan Malloy, interested in planting an undercover officer among the officers to acquire valuable intelligence from one of the convicts on the flight. Larkin discourages Malloy's intent to plant an armed undercover DEA agent aboard the plane. Malloy grudgingly accepts the conditions, but slips the agent a concealed firearm in his sock just before he boards the plane.
After take-off several of the prisoners remove hidden pins from beneath their skin. One of the inmates, Pinball (Dave Chappelle), retrieves petrol and matches lodged in his throat and ignites a fellow convict, causing a distraction and allowing Grissom and Jones the opportunity to open their handcuffs. Pinball unlocks Grissom and Jones's security cages. The inmates revolt, killing or detaining the guards in the cabin and killing the co-pilot with the security firearm. Grissom instructs the pilot to reassure the control tower below that the flight is on schedule, and the inmates take control of the plane.
As Pinball unlocks the restraints of the undercover DEA agent he discovers his hidden gun. The agent panics and immediately takes Pinball hostage and starts making demands for a prompt landing. After being momentarily distracted, the agent is shot by Grissom. The plane makes its scheduled landing in Carson City for a prisoner swap, where an assortment of prisoners and guards disguised as prisoners are transferred off the plane. Several other convicts are transferred aboard the plane, one of them Garland 'The Marietta Mangler' Greene, a notorious serial killer.
For the duration of the movie Poe remains the anti-hero, thrust into a heroic stance to protect both Baby-O, who suffers from diabetes and needs a now-missing insulin shot, and one of the female guards, who is restrained and of particular interest to "Johnny 23," an infamous serial rapist, with "23" being the number of his victims. Poe, on numerous occasions, is responsible for alerting local authorities to the dire situation of the plane and, in one sequence, writes messages to Larkin on the shirt of Pinball (he died during the rush to get back on the Jailbird in Carson City after he removes the plane's transponder), which he drops out of the plane onto the streets of a crowded city. He is successful in concealing his identity until the end of the film, where he actively resists the inmates on the plane and aids Larkin on a ground chase through Las Vegas.

Characters

★ 'Cameron Poe' (Nicholas Cage), a paroled ex-con and former Army Ranger catching a ride home aboard Con Air from San Quentin to Alabama where he will be returned to his family.

★ 'Vince Larkin' (John Cusack) - a chief U.S. Marshal looking to take back the "Jailbird" with Poe's help.

★ 'Cyrus 'The Virus' Grissom' (John Malkovich) - a cunning, intelligent murderer and leader of the inmate uprising, who has spent 25 of his 39 years in the prison system and has been deemed a "true product of the system."

★ 'Nathan 'Diamond Dog' Jones' (Ving Rhames) - black militant leader imprisoned for murdering NRA members and acts as Cyrus's second-in-command during the uprising.

★ 'Joe 'Pinball' Parker' (Dave Chappelle) - a drug addict, arsonist and inmate responsible for distracting the guards, allowing Grissom and Jones the opportunity to initiate the uprising.

★ 'Mike 'Baby-O' O'Dell' (Mykelti Williamson) - Poe's nonviolent cell-mate transferring between prisons. A steadfast friend and one of the few decent prisoners aboard the plane.

★ 'William 'Billy Bedlam' Bedford' (Nick Chinlund) - mass murderer responsible for killing his adulterous wife's entire family. Classified as a "Separate" inmate along with Grissom, Jones and Greene.

★ 'Garland 'The Marietta Mangler' Greene' (Steve Buscemi) - an infamous, soft-spoken serial killer feared by the other inmates and revered by Grissom. Imprisoned under the highest security measures, including extreme body restraints and a Hannibal Lecter-style mask.

★ 'Johnny 'Johnny-23' Baca' (Danny Trejo) - a serial rapist. Derives his nickname from the number of convicted rapes, although he claims to be responsible for 600. Wears a string of heart tattoos on his arm to mark each occasion.

★ 'Swamp Thing' (M. C. Gainey) - Vietnam veteran and drug smuggler imprisoned for landing a jet full of controlled substances. His pilot expertise is sought after and used to fly the "Jailbird" following its takeover.

★ 'Francisco Cindino' (Jesse Borrego) - heir of a Colombian drug cartel family financing Grissom's escape.

★ 'Ramon 'Sally-Can't Dance' Martinez' (Renoly Santiago) - an effeminate inmate who appears sexually subservient to his fellow detainees.

★ 'Duncan Malloy' (Colm Meaney) - an overzealous DEA Agent looking to shoot down the plane after death of Agent Sims.

★ 'Guard Sally Bishop' (Rachel Ticotin) - a female prison guard transporting Poe and O'Dell who remains protected by Poe during inmate takeover of plane.

★ 'Guard Falzon' (Steve Eastin) - a prison guard who dislikes inmates, who is saved by Poe (whom he had dubbed "trailer trash.")

★ 'Willie Sims' (Jose Zuniga) - an undercover DEA agent posing as an inmate to interrogate Cindino about family drug business, killed during takeover of the plane.

★ 'Tricia Poe' (Monica Potter) - Cameron Poe's wife.

★ 'Casey Poe' (Landry Allbright) - Cameron Poe's daughter.

Criticisms

Portrayal of diabetes

''Con Air'' has been criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of diabetes. Baby-O displays some symptoms of hypoglycemia (extreme low blood sugar) rather than the hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) that he is supposed to be suffering from. He also appears to recover immediately on receiving insulin which is unrealistic, and the degree of urgency attached to his needing treatment is generally more like that of someone with hypoglycemia (who needs urgent treatment within minutes) than someone with hyperglycemia (which takes longer to develop). The movie contributes to the dangerous misconception that the appropriate treatment for a diabetic "in crisis" is insulin: in fact it is much more likely the patient is hypoglycemic and needs sugar, and treatment with insulin is extremely dangerous in this circumstance.^[1]

Trivia

★ In one scene of the movie when the prisoners believe that they are home free, they play Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" while dancing in celebration. This leads to the memorable quote by Garland Green, played by Steve Buscemi: "Define irony: a bunch of idiots dancing on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash."

★ In addition to the above, the plane Lynyrd Skynyrd was flying in was a Convair.

★ The main action of the movie takes place on July 14, Bastille Day, when the infamous prison was destroyed in the French Revolution.

★ This is the second of three consecutive movies featuring Nicolas Cage, all of which are of the action genre, to feature a finale where Cage is flying through the air during an explosion. The movie preceding this one is ''The Rock'' and the movie following this one is ''Face/Off''. This one features Cage jumping to avoid the explosion caused by the collision between the firetruck he was riding on and an armored truck filled with money.

★ On the DVD commentary of ''Chappelle's Show'', Dave Chappelle states that he improvised most of his lines in this film.

★ MaximOnline.com named the airplane crash in ''Con Air'' #1 on its list of "Most Horrific Movie Plane Crashes."

★ Jerry Bruckheimer wanted to cut the final scene of Garland Green at the craps table in Vegas and end the movie with the heartfelt family reunion. The screenwriters convinced Bruckheimer to include the scene in test screenings, and audiences loved it. The scene stayed.

★ The infamous "bunny in the box" was stuffed with 90% cotton and 10% polyester; this was somewhat uncommon for stuffed bunnies of this make and model in 1997. The special bunny was requested by Nicholas Cage -- he refused to do the scene until the stuffing was correct.

★ Three actors in this movie would all later appear in the television serial drama ''Lost'' including M.C. Gainey

TV/movie references

★ In ''The New Guy'', Dizzy Harrison (D.J. Qualls) arrives at his new school in the same restrictive outfit that Garland Greene wears when he is first loaded on the plane.

★ In the movie ''Dogma'', Chris Rock falls from the sky and hits the ground near Jay and Silent Bob. Jay remarks "Do you think he has a message on him like that dude in ''Con Air''?" This rouses Rock's character to reply, "Oh, God, did that suck!" Referring to the fall he took from heaven. It is debatable, however, whether Rock's character is referring to the fall from heaven or to the movie ''Con Air'', as he immediately states "Con air, Con Shit!"

★ Was referenced in an episode of ''Code Monkeys''.

Box office

US Gross Domestic Takings	US$ 101,117,573
Other International Takings	$122,894,661
Gross Worldwide Takings	$224,012,234

References

1. Diabetes in the Movies

External links

★ Boxoffice Information

★

★

★ "Con Air" Plane Crash Video #1 on Maxim's "Most Horrific Plane Crashes"