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The in-flight refuelling hardware on the real Air Force One makes a bulge visible below the cockpit window. The Boeing 747 used in the film lacks this bulge. See more...

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The plot of the movie bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Edwin Corley's 1978 novel Air Force One. Corley is also the author of Sargasso, about an escape pod that lands with nobody inside, vaguely similar to a plot point in the movie. See more...

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Air Force One (1997) - 34 corrections

Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, starring Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Harrison Ford (add more)

Genres: Action, Thriller, Drama

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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In the scene when the terrorists burst into the cockpit, after the pilot is shot they hold a gun to the co-pilot and demand him to take off. He reaches over and pulls a lever which causes the plane to veer off the runway. In fact that lever is the speed brake, normally used when landing, which actually causes the plane to slow down, not veer off the runway. [Immediately after pulling the lever, the co-pilot is shot in the back, causing him to fall forward & to the right, pulling the stick over. That's what causes the plane to veer, not the lever he pulled.]
Edit Corrected by DavidRTurner
When they attempt to land at Ramstein AB, Germany, the base launches some F-15's, problem is, there are no F-15's stationed at Ramstein. [Ramstein Air Force Base is a HUGE European stopover for aircraft coming in and out of the area. Even though they don't have facilities for a permanent F-15 squadron doesn't mean they don't come in and out frequently. I live at Robins AFB in Georgia, and we see TONS of choppers come in and out on a regular basis, even though there aren't any stationed here permanently.]
Edit Corrected by Kimberly Mason
In the shot where the 2 agents are escorting the President down to the escape pod, one of the agents is shot and killed at the stairs, leaving only one agent left. But in the next shot the same agent who was shot is seen escorting the president and shot a second time when he enters the code to the pod. [Although the Secret Service agent is shot whilst entering to go down the stairs, he is shot only in the shoulder and not actually shot in a vital area. Thus making him able to continue down the stairs to protect the President, until he is shot and killed.]
Edit
Jumping out of a plane at 200 knots and immediately opening a parachute of the kind in the movie is probably going to break the sail, yet only clean openings are shown. [Like you said, it PROBABLY would break a sail. Apparently this time it didnt.]
Edit
The Secret Service puts up an utterly pathetic showing. Despite being surprised, numerous armed agents are shown resisting the terrorists. In fact, the Secret Service outnumbers the terrorists by at least a factor of two, and have the advantage of being able to take defensive positions. Despite this, they are wiped out within minutes, and do not so much as wound a single terrorist. [This is your opinion, not a mistake.]
Edit Corrected by jhoffman100@yahoo.com
In the scene where the Russian president is speaking at the banquet there is a shot of the audience and you can see the president's autocue. When Harrison Ford goes to his speech, we switch back to the audience and the autocue screens have disappeared. A few shots later they use the same audience shot as before and the autocues have reappeared. [The autocue (teleprompter) never moved, but the camera did. The first camera position is behind Ford while the second is at the front of the podium in-line with the autocue.]
Edit Corrected by Guy Time
As the air to air rescue scene is about to begin, the door to Air Force One is opened by turning the handle and pushing the door into the air stream. Aircraft doors are designed to open inward. When the aircraft is pressurized, the door seal becomes stronger preventing passengers from opening the door in-flight. [When opening an aircraft door, you first pull the door inward to break the pressure seal and then swing the door outward (or it slides up overhead like a garage door). Go to this link http://public.andrews.amc.af.mil/Air_Force_One/JPEGs/Photo_Gallery/afone01.jpg to see a picture of Air Force One with the door opened outwards.]
Edit
Xander Berkeley plays a turncoat government agent assisting terrorists attempting to assassinate the President. In 2003, Berkeley married "24" co-star Sarah Clarke, who played a similar character on the show. [Not really trivia.]
Edit Corrected by Mister Ed
Towards the end of the film when the President has been told to change course to get out of hostile territory, a man named Bob says 'look above the central control column and you will see a set of LED numbers', the lights shown are not illuminated by LED's (Light Emitting Diodes) but rather a Digital Light Emitting Display Unit, which have now become the standard indicational lights for the heading control panel in all modern aircraft. [Artistic license so the audience wouldn't get confused.] [Yes a factual error, but most likely a character mistake.]
Edit
When the F-15 flies in front of the oncoming missile, this would be an almost impossible maneuver. The planes would be traveling at around 500 knots, and the missile would probably be traveling at around 2000 knots. The timing would have to be precise, not to mention being able to spot the missile, change course, set up the approach, and stop a 40,000 lb fighter on a dime (considering all this would have to happen in approximately 10 seconds or less). Almost every AAM (air to air missile) has a blast fragmentation warhead, so this would still do massive damage to AF1, more so than what occurred in the film, even while having an F-15 in the path of it. [The missile vector is a simple tail chase. Since they were in full air-air intercept mode, it would be likely the F15s were high supersonic. The Eagle only has to swing up between the MiG and AF1 to snatch the missile. The way it was shown getting hit in the backbone is a bit unrealistic - but an F-15 in full afterburner with maximum surface area angled toward the missile makes a much more visible and inviting target than AF1. And AAM blast warheads are very short range critters.]
Edit
In the scene where the special forces guys enter the presidential palace in Kazakstan, they go to turn off the electricity. However, the electricity goes off before they throw the switch. [The special forces guy pulls two main electric switches. The first switch is hard to see but he pulls the first and some of the lights go out then he pulls the second switch and everything goes out.]
Edit Corrected by Mister Ed
When the terrorist shoot into the 3 bathroom doors (they think Harrison Ford is in one of them), the bullet holes aren't aligned with the shots in the doors after they open the doors. [When facing the door, as the terrorist fires, the trajectory of every individual bullet distinctively differs, so when each bullet goes through the door it ends up in a different position on the wall inside.]
Edit Corrected by lmao
Once Harrison Ford gets his gun, he never reloads. He must fire about 300 rounds from a 30 round clip. [In reality, Harrison Ford only fires about twenty rounds. Just because you don't see him reload does not mean he doesn't do it. Then during the final shootout, he grabs another gun.]
Edit
Air Force One's armory has H&K MP5's which the terrorists hand out. Problem is, the Secret Service only uses UZI's. [From the official website of the Secret Service: What types of weapons do agents carry? Secret Service agents and officers carry the Sig Sauer P229, 357 caliber pistol. They also are trained on the Remington Model 870 shotgun, the Uzi submachine gun, and the "MP5 automatic weapon". http://www.secretservice.gov/kids_faq.shtml#13.]
Edit Corrected by Rlvlk
In the opening scene, as the assault team is dropping in on the palace, a laser pointer targets the forehead of an enemy sentry. However, when the sentry is neutralized he is shot in the shoulder and the exit wound is in the front, as if shot from behind. [There are three people shot in this scene. The laser pointer is aimed at the back of the first man's head. He is shot in the the head (back to front). The second man is shot in the right side of his chest. We don't see for sure where the third man is shot.]
Edit
In the scene where the President is relaxing with his family, his daughter comes to kiss him goodnight and she is dressed in a nightgown. After the plane is taken over and the hostages have been rounded up, she is fully dressed in jeans, a sweater and a flannel shirt. Later, after she and her mother have been identified by the terrorists, we see alternating scenes with and without the flannel shirt. [When the President's daughter first comes in to see him, she is actually dressed in a red jacket, a matching red skirt, and a light pink shirt. The next time we see her, she has removed the jacket, but she is still wearing the pink shirt and has a pink blanket over her lap. After a passage of time, she is dressed in the jeans and flannel shirt (which means she probably changed out of her dress clothes into something more comfortable).]
Edit
There is a scene late in the movie, when they send a fax to the White House - "it's on a different line" So why don't they just use the handset of the fax machine to make a normal voice call? If the machine had no handset (can't remember) just switch the jacks of the phone and fax... [The "future Postmaster General" doesn't just say that the faxes are on different lines, but on different encryptions. If the fax lines are encrypted, the code for deciphering it would lie in the fax machine itself. You can therefore not switch jacks. And the fax has no handset.]
Edit Corrected by Twotall
When Air Force One is first attacked by US jet planes, the terrorist pilot states that he can't move the control column at all, because the onboard computer has stuck it, and he can't do anything about it. Later on, when the plane is again attacked, (this time by planes coming from Kazakhstan), Harrison Ford can steer the plane freely. Was the onboard computer turned off this time? [The President just asked the Colonel who's helping him fly how to disengage the auto-pilot.]
Edit
When press liason Melanie Mitchell is brought up to the communications deck for execution she is wearing black nylons. When her corpse is carried out several minutes later her legs are skin tone. [She has the skin tone coloured nylons on the whole time, she is just standing in shadows, but as she walks forward, you can see they are still skin toned.]
Edit Time
Air Force One is always escorted by American fighter planes, and although it is considered courteous for foreign countries to offer escort, offers are always refused. [Not always. When AF1 came to Australia he was given an RAAF F/18 escort. Certainly he didn't refuse an escort on this occasion.]
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