Harrison Ford’s Groundbreaking Action Film Became an Instant American Classic

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Harrison Ford’s Groundbreaking Action Film Became an Instant American Classic

Rotham October 23, 2025 0 Comments

Harrison Ford is a bit of an outlier among his Star Wars cast members in that he had a big, successful career in action/thriller movies even after he left the Galaxy Far, Far Away. It helps that he segued from Star Wars to being Indiana Jones in another one of the most popular franchises of all time, but he also had Blade Runner, his Tom Clancy movies (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger), and The Fugitive. But even those mostly stellar films are less likely to elicit a “hell yeah” from Ford fans than Wolfgang Petersen’s political thriller Air Force One.

Released in 1997 to reasonably positive reviews, mostly because of Ford’s performance, the film has settled into a respectable 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Wall Street Journal also polled readers in 2016 and determined that Ford’s President James Marshall was the best fictional president of all time, beating out Martin Sheen’s President Bartlet from The West Wing and Bill Pullman’s President Whitmore from Independence Day, which is, frankly, absurd (also, Frank Underwood didn’t come in last, which says a lot about our national state of mind in 2016). Still, Air Force Once kicks ass in a distinctly American way — without being as obnoxious as that implies.

Why Is ‘Air Force One’ So Iconic?

Image of Gary Oldman from 'Air Force One' (1997) — Image of Gary Oldman from ‘Air Force One’ (1997)

Air Force One is extremely dumb in an extremely appealing way. The movie centers around Ford’s President Marshall as Air Force One is hijacked by a group of terrorists, at which point it becomes Die Hard on a plane (but the plane is Air Force One and the John McClane is the president). From the very beginning, it’s clear that the movie takes place in a goofy-yet-self-serious universe, because there’s no world where — even with a traitor on the inside — Air Force One could be hijacked this easily, to say nothing of the fact that we’re talking about a president who would take it upon himself to save the day just because he’s a trained Vietnam War veteran.

Real presidents are either too sensible to be action heroes or they… you know, actively avoided military service because they had a doctor’s note. Speaking purely hypothetically, someone like that probably wouldn’t put themselves in harm’s way for any reason whatsoever. But that’s a good amount of the fun of Air Force One. It is, on its face, completely ridiculous, and that’s highlighted by its most famous scene: Ford, with no choice but to face off against terrorist leader Egor Korshuov (Gary Oldman, having a blast) by himself, battles the villain in front of an open cargo door and growls “Get off my plane!” before killing him. It’s silly, but Ford sells it harder than a million Han Solo toys, so it works. In general, it’s the kind of movie that doesn’t make any sense but is undeniably entertaining simply because Ford is giving it his all, or at least as close enough to his all as he ever gives.