Executive Decision 1996

     A 747 is bound from Athens to Washington DC.  Terrorists take over the plane and they demand that their leader be released from prison.  El Sayed Jaffa is an imprisoned terrorist leader and Nagi Hassan is one of his lieutenants.  Intelligence expert David Grant suspects there are also other reasons for the takeover.  He convinces the US military that the plane should not be allowed to enter US airspace.  Grant is correct in his assumption and there is a bomb on board the plane with the capability of blowing up the entire east coast of the US!!  The decision is made that a specially equipped plane designed for mid-air crew transfers will connect with the bottom of the plane.  Grant and a team of military anti-terrorists must defuse the bomb and overpower the terrorist team.

     Everything about this mission is very risky.  The person with the expert knowledge of bombs is hurt during the transfer to the plane.  He has to be stabilized and not moved while he instructs engineer Cahill how to defuse the bomb.  A camera is inserted into the passenger space to allow the military team to see what is going on with the terrorists and the passengers.  They also know there is an unknown terrorist onboard acting as the trigger man for the bomb.  There is also an armed sky marshal on board and he can help the military team.  There is a LOT of tension because you don’t know what the terrorists will do next, if the bomb can be defused, who is the trigger man and will the terrorists discover that there is an air marshal on board?  Slightly dated.  3* This movie was OK)  

    

133 min, Action directed by Stuart Baird with Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, Steven Seagal, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, BD Wong, Len Cariou, Whip Hubley, Andreas Katsulas, Marla Maples.

Note:  Imdb 6.4 out of 10, 63% critic 53% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3*, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 298 reviews, Metacritic 62 out of 100 with 20 critics, Empire Online 3* out of 5*.

Special Note:  Filmed in San Bernardino, Sierra Madre, Mojave, Chino, Burbank, California; Mobile, Alabama; San Juan, Puerto Rico.  John Leguizamo frequently improvised and this angered Kurt Russell so much that they got into a shoving match.  Steven Seagal physically attacked Leguizamo because he laughed at something Segal said.  Leguizamo thought it was a joke but Segal also wanted his actions to scare the cast and crew.  Originally, Halle Berry refused her part in this movie.  She changed her mind when she was offered her first one million dollar paycheck.  The US Navy Tomcats were from the squadron VF-4 Jolly Rogers and the Navy agreed they could be used in this movie.  Kurt Russell is shown taking flight lessons but in real life he is an FAA licensed pilot holding ratings for several aircraft types.