Continuity mistake: The last shot of the plane as it's taking off from the runway with Malloy's car attached to it is a flipped shot. Notice the logo and Jailbird writing near the nose of the plane are backwards.
Con Air (1997)
61 mistakes - chronological order
Directed by: Simon West
Starring: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, John Malkovich, Ving Rhames, Danny Trejo, Colm Meaney, Monica Potter, Mykelti Williamson, Nick Chinlund
[Poe is looking out of the back of the plane at the DEA agent's car tethered to it, flapping about.]
Cameron Poe: On any other day, that might seem strange.
Trivia: At the end of the movie, the plane is crashing into the front of a casino. This building is actually The Sands hotel. The scene was done a few weeks/months before the hotel was demolished, this way the damages to the hotels entrance as the plane was launched into it didn't matter.
Question: What is the actual likelihood that a decorated serviceman, with no prior criminal record (we know this because if Poe had any priors he wouldn't have been in the Army) would actually get prison time for killing two men who attacked himself and his girlfriend? Seeing as there were witnesses (said girlfriend and bartender) I find it hard to believe he would have gotten more than an extended period of probation. A prison term, even a year or two, seems severely harsh considering the circumstances.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Chosen answer: Zero. As you said, he was attacked and there are witnesses that he tried to avoid the fight and the killings were in self-defense. It is an extremely weak plot hammer to get Poe onto a plane full of criminals. It's foolish as well. The writers could have had Poe framed for a crime then exonerated and put in the same situation much more believably.
Grumpy Scot
It's in Alabama. People are put in prison here for much less.
First, Poe is a federal prisoner, not subject to State laws or legal procedures. Secondly, he is not in Alabama. During a conversation with Billy Bedlam we hear that he is incarcerated in the "Q" - prison slang for San Quentin in California. It makes you wonder why a Federal prisoner is in a State prison, but that's another type of mistake.
Would it really be considered self-defense, though? After he beat the guys to the ground he could have just stopped and walked away, but he didn't. He kept beating them until they died.
He is defending his wife against two armed assailants, and use of lethal force is allowable. No DA in the United States would even think about pressing charges, knowing full well a grand jury would throw them out in a second.