Planes are a terrifying concept that stretches back a long way in cinema. From the first Oscar Best Picture Winner being based on pilots in the army to the most recent Gerard Butler action movie Plane being about a crash landing, airplanes have always been significant to the cinema.
But defining which films set on and about planes are the very best is difficult. From tense action-thrillers to comedies, movies set on planes are some of the strangest and greatest films there are. The fascination with potential crashes added into the mix often makes for high-octane action.
7 Air Force One
Before Gerard Butler broughtDie Hard-style movies to the White House in Olympus Has Fallen, Harrison Ford actually starred as the President on his private plane, Air Force One, as he was pitted against a gang of hijackers led by Gary Oldman as a ruthless extremist.
Ford was perfect as the President turned hero in a showdown that can only be described as Violent Night if it took itself more seriously. Gary Oldman’s villain was a better counterpart in this type of film than any villain since Alan Rickman in Die Hard himself. The movie deserves to be remembered as a fantastic case of how ludicrously fun and completely nonsensical 90s action could be.
6 Airplane!
When airplanes first became a big deal in cinema, it was with films like Airport, a terrorizing thriller turned disaster film with a big cast that tried to deal with multiple issues at an airport, including the potential crashing of an airliner.
Airplane took this to another level with a comedic take on all of these emerging tropes, forcing a former pilot to take over as a series of ridiculous events lead to both the pilot and co-pilot of his flight being unable to carry out their duties. One of the most beloved and nonsensical comedies of all time, Airplane is well-remembered for many of its most quotable and beloved moments.
5 Non-Stop
It feels like ever since Takenwas released in 2008, Liam Neeson has been a tough, no-nonsense action hero in every situation imaginable. But one of his better efforts featured him as an air marshal who is framed for hijacking a plane when in fact he is trying to hunt down and stop the mysterious person really behind the ordeal.
Non-Stop is another film that doesn’t manage to feel overly realistic but is incredibly fun. Including the whodunit aspect alongside the tense thrills and Neeson’s attempts to keep calm on the plane for as long as possible make this feel like a good mixture of major action and claustrophobic thriller.
4 Con Air
Nicolas Cage is a good guy prisoner that gets put on a plane filled with convicts and has to fight back when some of the others hijack the plane sounds insane, and it is insane. Con Air is another great example of how ludicrous but wonderfully fun 90s action movies could be.
While the movie mostly follows the same layout as other plane hijack films, it is helped to another level by the great cast surrounding Cage, such as John Cusack, John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, and Danny Trejo. Together, they made another one of the more memorable 90s action films, and one that Nicolas Cage fans in particular remember very well today.
3 Red Eye
One of the best tension-filled films set on a plane, Red Eye is directed by Scream director Wes Craven and deals with a woman, played by Rachel McAdams, who meets a man on her flight that turns out to be a domestic terrorist. The man attempts to force her into compliance during the flight with their plan to assassinate a government official at the hotel where she works.
With the terrorist played by Cillian Murphy, this quickly becomes a tense, claustrophobic thriller using the plane set to the best of the limits it has. The pair is a great duo and despite the ending of the film being a mad rush from the airport to the hotel, the majority of it is set on the plane while the terrorist attempts to not alert everybody as to his plans.
2 Snakes On A Plane
Giving 90s action films a run for their money on the scale of how ridiculous but fun a piece of action can be, Snakes On A Plane does what it says on the box. Samuel L Jackson stars as Neville Flynn, an agent trying to keep a witness alive while the flight they are on is attacked by hordes of snakes sent by the man the witness is supposed to testify against.
The film co-stars Elsa Pataky and Nathan Phillips and lives with pure joy as a completely ludicrous, yet massively enjoyable action film. Though it is insane, there is nothing more enjoyable than hearing Samuel L Jackson scream out iconic lines while fighting with snakes on a plane.
1 Executive Decision
Another 90s action film, Executive Decision stars Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal at the heart of a great cast that also included Halle Berry. When a flight is taken captive and hijacked, a military operation will try to dock with the plane in order to retake it the hard way.
The duo as well as tension as they try to uncover whether there is really a bomb on the plane and whether they can disarm it is palpable. The film deals with both the claustrophobia of the plane setting and the huge action sequences as it nears the conclusion, making for the perfect plane action movie.