Con Air

Plot hole: The convicts remove the radar transponder from the Conair aircraft and put it aboard a tour plane to distract their pursuers. That won't work. By law the tour plane will have a working radar transponder of its own, and two working transponders that close together will show up on radar as a collision. Air traffic controllers would immediately alert emergency services who would, obviously, wonder how two aircraft that had collided had managed to stay in the air. Nobody disconnects the first transponder - Pinball carelessly tosses the second transponder under the rear seat of the aircraft (the implication being that it continues to operate, perhaps on backup battery power). He doesn't disconnect the original transponder either - Swamp Thing, a skilled pilot, does that. There is no time for him to do any of this before he is stopped by the female security guard anyway.

Plot hole: All pilots are carefully trained and have the technology to secretly transmit a code that tells air traffic control there is a hijacking in progress, without having to say a word. They also have a hijack code, something that sounds completely innocuous to you or me, but would be instantly recognisable to the airport authorities.

Plot hole: At the end of the film when Cyrus is handcuffed to the ladder of the fire truck, he crashes through a restaurant bridge and falls towards the road below, (the fire truck passes below him) but somehow he lands in a construction yard on a conveyer belt leading to a crusher. (01:39:43)

Plot hole: When Larkin runs towards the crane to use it to stop/damage the business jet, he totally outruns it. In the beginning shot he is right next to it (alongside), and as the plane accelerates he starts running, he makes it to the crane, then in one shot from the front you can see how close the plane is already to the crane, and in the shot from the side you can see that it's farther away again but much faster, with Larking already sitting in the crane. Cindino is in a rush, they taxi/accelerate as fast as they can. It's impossible to outrun it, climb into the crane, and start operating it in a desired manner. (01:18:50)

Plot hole: In one shot before the almost-collision between the C-123 and the Cessna, you see both of the planes on/above a runway. In the next shot, just before the almost-collision, you see the C-123 from behind, with the Cessna in front of it, but this shot is not on that runway anymore, it looks like a taxiway, and there is some airport building in close proximity at the end of it. Nobody would intend to land there (this is before the evasive maneuvre of both). (01:06:05)

Plot hole: Cyrus takes over the plane and tells the pilot not to radio anyone and then leaves the cockpit, no one is watching the pilot why doesn't he report the take over on the radio?

Plot hole: Removing the radar transponder from the C123 would not render it invisible to radar – it's a huge aircraft with a large radar signature. It would be easily tracked by airport radar, and anyone who wanted to know would know exactly where it was going. How to identify which radar track is theirs? Easy. It's the one without the transponder signal.

Plot hole: The convicts remove the radar transponder from the Conair aircraft and put it aboard a tour plane to distract their pursuers. That won't work. By law the tour plane will have a working radar transponder of its own, and two working transponders that close together will show up on radar as a collision. Air traffic controllers would immediately alert emergency services who would, obviously, wonder how two aircraft that had collided had managed to stay in the air. Nobody disconnects the first transponder - Pinball carelessly tosses the second transponder under the rear seat of the aircraft (the implication being that it continues to operate, perhaps on backup battery power). He doesn't disconnect the original transponder either - Swamp Thing, a skilled pilot, does that. There is no time for him to do any of this before he is stopped by the female security guard anyway.

More mistakes in Con Air

[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.

More quotes from Con Air

Trivia: The original plan for the ending of the movie was to crash the plane into the White House.

More trivia for Con Air

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.

dablues7

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.

More questions & answers from Con Air

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.