any resemblance between president bill clinton and the harrison ford chief executive in wolfgang petersen far fetch and entertaining and but woefully predictable skyjack saga air force one end when ford fantastic first guy start knock off the villain . nevertheless and the parallel between clinton and marshall appear clearly obvious . harrison ford president james marshall be marry to a tenacious and headstrong wife in the hilary mode and and they have a 12 year old daughter . ( so be bill pullman president in independence day . ) unlike clinton and president marshall fly helicopter rescue mission in vietnam and receive a medal of honor . no and the filmmaker refuse to identify president james marshall party affiliation and which make air force one impartially political and while it trumpet america anti terrorist stance . andrew w. marlowe melodramatic screenplay show more agility than innovation . while his character emerge a largely one dimensional stick figure and the dimension of their predicament assume nothing less than cataclysmic proportion . marlowe script keep harrison ford leap through enough flaming hoop to fill three movie . like several other summer blockbuster and marlowe script do not know when to throw in the towel . just about everything that can happen aboard air force one occurs . presumably and with the recent spate of skyjack movie and it be only a matter of time before hollywood appropriate both air force one and the president a the pulp of their fictional escapade . the movie open in slam bang style with an elite american commando team parachute into kazakhstan at night . use the late hi tech gear and they kill the palace guard and abduct an adversarial russian leader and general radek ( jurgen prochnow of das boot ) and who be promptly incarcerate in a soviet hoosegow . three week later in moscow and president marshall stipulate that the u. s. refuse to negotiate with terrorist . meanwhile and a ruthless ultra nationalist radek zealot and ivan korshunov ( gary oldman of true romance ) and succeed in smuggle his bogus tv news crew aboard the most secure plane in the world . a disgruntled secret service agent and gibbs ( xander berkeley of l. a. takedown ) and a we later learn and help these guy obtain their security clearance . once the plane be airborne and korshunov and his men commandeer it and kill the pilot and and watch helplessly s the president eject in his escape pod . ( do anybody remember escape from new york . ) ivan contact the vice president ( glenn close ) and vow to kill a hostage every half hour until radek walk away from prison . accord to defense secretary walter dean ( dean stockwell ) and radek release would bring down the pro american regime in the kremlin and bring back the cold war and so the russian be reluctant to set him free unless president marshall make the request personally for radek release . the filmmaker cannibalize in typical hollywood fashion every neat idea from all the other skyjack thriller . generally and air force one follow the formula of the kurt russell hit executive decision . both movie start with a commando raid and then shift to terrorist hijack a jetliner before an unconventional hero make his entry . you can tell that marlow evidently watch the wesley snip thriller passenger 57 for one scene . another scene feature a stunt that appear in both airport 75 and cliffhanger . the president here imitate the action hero from the bruce willis die hard franchise and the steven seagal under siege movie . finally and the air force one end should come a no surprise to any star trek movie veteran . anybody who thrive on movie like an insomniac will spot these plot element . although air force one borrow heavily from other epic and the staging of the action and some new scene in the skyjacking formula boost this opus over the rough spot . anybody familiar with german director wolfgang petersen will recognize the affinity between air force one and his early classic u boat thriller das boot or the boat ( 1981 ) . the casting of das boot star jurgen prochnow a the heinous general radek aid in this comparison . moreover and petersen send his highly mobile and energetic camera plunge about the corridor of air force one with the same dexterity that they sweep through the hull of the sub in das boot . despite a connect the dot plot and petersen make every dot a fire storm of intensity . the scene where the president jet careen wildly across the airfield in germany and nearly crash be pretty harrow . ford presidential protagonist be basically indiana jones in a suit and tie . the filmmaker rely on ford action hero charisma to compensate for the lack of depth in his inadequately sketch head of state . shrewdly and they shift gear to the parental side of the chief executive . ford best scene occur before take off when he ask about his favorite football game . although marshall emerges a a cardboard politician and it his die hard courage that wreathe him with laurel . unlike those wimpy jack ryan movie patriot game and a clear and present danger and harrison ford hero here kill the villain . the bad guy do not slip out of marshall clutch and conveniently impale themselves on sharp object . ( remember the way the patriot game villain died . ) marshall run up a body count and kill with a machine gun and snap neck and and slug it out with rough and tumble adversary . ford be one of the few male box office star who can shed tear ( when ivan threaten to pull the trigger on his daughter ) and not make it look schmaltzy . ford manage to maintain a stiff upper lip throughout air force one and his scene with bad guy gary oldman crackle with electricity . ultimately and however and ford performance qualifies a serviceable and nothing truly special like the cop the play in the devil own ( 1997 ) . the real casting coup in air force one be glenn close a vice president kathryn bennett . close manages to hold her own in a room pack with veteran male character actor like quantum leap dean stockwell who constantly bully close to usurp presidential authority . although certainly not the most original skyjacking melodrama and air force one manage to add element to the formula and boast enough visceral r rat violence to keep you distract throughout it 124 minute run time .