Con Air
1997 film directed by Simon West
Con Air is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Simon West (in his feature directorial debut) and starring Nicolas Cage, John Cusack and John Malkovich in the lead roles. Written by Scott Rosenberg and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the film centers on a prison break aboard a Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS) aircraft, nicknamed "Con Air". It features an ensemble supporting cast of Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Colm Meaney, Mykelti Williamson and Rachel Ticotin, with Monica Potter, Dave Chappelle, M. C. Gainey, and Danny Trejo in minor roles.
Con Air was released theatrically on June 6, 1997, by Buena Vista Pictures through Touchstone Pictures and was a box office success, grossing over $224 million against a production budget of $75 million. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the acting, musical score and action sequences, but criticized the inconsistent tone, direction and character development. The film achieved a cult following among action aficionados and the Nicolas Cage fanbase. It received Oscar nominations for Best Sound and Best Original Song for "How Do I Live", performed on the soundtrack by Trisha Yearwood.
Plot
Decorated honorably discharged Army Ranger Cameron Poe is convicted of involuntary manslaughter for killing a bar patron in self-defense when the other man drunkenly attacks him and his pregnant wife, Tricia. During his eight-year sentence, he writes letters to Tricia and their daughter Casey, whom he has never met. Eight years later, he is paroled and boards a flight to Alabama on the Jailbird, a Fairchild C-123 Provider converted to a prison transport plane, so he can be reunited with his family on Casey's birthday.
“Con Air” enters the record as 1997 film directed by Simon West. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what film, directed and Simon can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Con Air” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, film, directed and Simon provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q607910. VIAF identifies the subject as 807152331596403260003. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1997.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Con Air” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.