Newly-paroled former US Army ranger Cameron Poe is headed back to his wife, but must fly home aboard a prison transport flight dubbed "Jailbird" taking the “worst of the worst” prisoners, a group described as “pure predators”, to a new super-prison. Poe faces impossible odds when the transport plane is skyjacked mid-flight by the most vicious criminals in the country led by the mastermind — genius serial killer Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, and backed by black militant Diamond Dog and psychopath Billy Bedlam.
Acting
Malkovich's soft-spoken menace vs. Cage's drawl
Practical Effects
Real plane crash in Las Vegas strip finale
Score
Trevor Rabin's heroic cheese perfectly aged
Director
Simon West
Nicolas Cage
Cameron Poe
John Cusack
Agent Vince Larkin
John Malkovich
Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom
Ving Rhames
Nathan "Diamond Dog" Jones
Mykelti Williamson
"Baby-O" O'Dell
Dave Chappelle
"Pinball" Parker
Colm Meaney
Agent Duncan Malloy
Monica Potter
Tricia Poe
Landry Allbright
Casey Poe
Rachel Ticotin
Guard Sally Bishop
Steve Buscemi
Garland Greene - "The Marietta Mangler"
Nick Chinlund
William "Billy Bedlam" Bedford
M.C. Gainey
"Swamp Thing"
Danny Trejo
"Johnny-23"
Renoly Santiago
"Sally-Can't Dance"
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The iconic 'Con Air' plane was a real decommissioned C-123 that the production bought and modified. It later appeared in other films and sadly crashed in 2010.
This film birthed the 'Nicolas Cage is crazy' meme era—his southern drawl, the bunny obsession, and 'Why couldn't you put the bunny back in the box?' became internet canon.
US
