After Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) finishes his jail term for involuntary manslaughter, he is placed on a flight with several other convicts who are being transported to a new maximum security prison. Unlike Poe, these guys are very bad people, so when the plane is hijacked by one of them, Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom (John Malkovich), all hell breaks loose. Poe is the only one on board who can stop them from breaking free, but to do that, he’ll have to take them down one by one without crashing the plane.
Con Air has a silly title and an even sillier premise, but with a cast featuring some of the best character actors of the ‘90s, the film works far better than it should. Sporting a buffed-up physique and an ugly mullet, Cage is the grungy action hero we all deserve, while Malkovich and Steve Buscemi compete with who can chew the most scenery as the film’s wild, over-the-top villains. Con Air is pure Hollywood hokum, and it achieves a kind of machismo-fueled perfection that most action films aspire to reach.
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