Okay, it’s Die-Hard-on-an-airplane the way _Speed_ is Die-Hard-on-a-bus, _Under Siege_ is Die-Hard-on-a-battleship, and _The Rock_ is Die-Hard-at-Alcatraz. But it’s a fine action flick and it beats the heck out of _Air Force One_.
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I like Kurt Russell; to my mind he’s never gotten the credit he deserves as an actor. And if (like me) you’re not a big Steven Seagal fan, you’ll be gratified to learn (about half an hour into the film) that he’s _not_ the hero of the story.
This film probably couldn’t have been made today. In the post-9/11 world, every moviemaker is carefully shying away from the ‘Arab terrorist’ stereotype; the screen adaptation of Tom Clancy’s _The Sum of All Fears_ substituted neo-Nazis, and even the Gubernator took the safe route (using Columbian drug lords in _Collateral Damage_). But in fact, this script does a pretty good job of making clear that the head terrorist (David Suchet) is a loon who doesn’t represent even the views of his collaborators, let alone those of the larger Arab/Muslim world.
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Anyway, if you like a good action-suspense yarn, you’ll like this one. Sure, parts of it are implausible, but less so than in lots of other good action films. And Russell makes an excellent hero.
Even though Executive Decision today would remind the viewing audience of the tragic, if not cowardly attacks made by Islamic terrorists on September 11, 2001 AD, it is still an entertaining and enjoyable action/suspensful/political thriller. I mean, if any film has Steven Segal killed off within the first 40 minutes of the picture (mirroring Roy Thinnes’s demise in Airport 1975) and British actor David Suchet playing an excellent heavy, then it has to be worth watching.
Released in 1996 by Warner Brothers, Executive Decision was the directorial debut of British film editor Stuart Baird (Superman – The Movie and Outland). With the material he had been given by screenwriters Jim and John Thomas, Baird does an excellent, if not remarkable job in film direction. Especially when it comes to the staging and filming of the action sequences.
The plot of the storyline centers around a group of Islamic Terrorists from the Middle East who hijack a 747 en route from Athens to Washington DC. The Islamic extremists main plan is to force the release of a known terrorist leader, who had been captured and imprisoned by British and American military forces.
Unknown to some of the terrorists, their leader has smuggled a Soviet nerve toxin gas left over from the Cold War. A nerve gas hooked up to a bomb, which is controlled by an al-Queida sleeper agent. The real purpose of the terrorist leader is soon revealed. His plans are to use the 747 as a weapon and detonate the nerve agent over Washington, killing all citizens there and those living along most of the East Coast.
Enter into the picture a group of U.S. Army anti-terrorist commadoes, along with a intelligence analyst/field operative from the Pentagon and an aircraft designer. Their mission is to transfer from a U.S. Air Force stealth fighter onto the 747 in mid-air, locate the nerve toxin, deactivate the bomb, kill all of the terrorists and sleeper agents with extreme prejudice, re-take the plane, and ensure the safety of the passengers and flight crew. Easier said than done. With the help of a courageous flight attendant/stewardess and a U.S. Sky Marshal, it becomes a fight to the death five miles above the Earth, with the fate of the U.S. Capitol and the eastern seaboard hanging in the balance.
Better than Air Force One, The Delta Force, The Die Hard Trilogy, and the Under Siege films, Executive Decision pulls all the punches and the stops when it comes to high flying action and high octane political thrillers. With a cast that consists of Kurt Russell, David Suchet (in a non-Hercule Poirot role), Halle Berry, Whip Hubley, Oliver Platt, B.D.Wong, Joe Morton, John Leguizamo, Andreas Katsulas, the late Charles Hallahan and J.T. Walsh, it is an ultimate winner in explosive action and political thrillers. Even the soundtrack by veteran composer Jerry Goldsmith is explosive and excellent. One of his best soundtracks since the 1968 version of Planet Of the Apes.
If you enjoy films that deal with politics, the U.S. Government’s policy of not negotiating with terrorists, and the right-winged, if not the best way, to eliminate Middle Eastern terrorism, then Executive Decision is the film for you. Civilian, veteran, any patriotic citizen who wants to stop terrorism dead in its tracks!
