Critical Reception and Legacy (Air Force One) Air Force One

The film opened at number one and held the R-rated opening-weekend record

Air Force One opened on July 25, 1997, earning $37.1 million in its first weekend — enough to dethrone Men in Black at the top of the box office and set the record for highest opening weekend for an R-rated film, a record it held for three years. It went on to gross $172.6 million domestically and $315.2 million worldwide against an $85 million budget, making it the fifth highest-grossing film of 1997. The audience gave it a CinemaScore of "A." (wikipedia, boxofficemojo)

Contemporary reviews praised Ford and Oldman but split on the formula

The film holds a 79% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 63 reviews, with an average score of 7/10. The consensus reads: "This late-period Harrison Ford actioner is full of palpable, if not entirely seamless, thrills." The critical response clustered around a shared observation: the material was preposterous, but the performances sold it. (rottentomatoes)

Variety's Todd McCarthy set the template for the positive reviews — acknowledging the hokiness while crediting the execution:

"A preposterously pulpy but quite entertaining suspense meller that gets by splendidly on the basis of some spectacularly staged action scenes and Harrison Ford's star power." — Todd McCarthy, Variety (1997)

McCarthy found Ford's performance deliberately understated — a "monotone, physically unexciting performance" that somehow worked because Ford's "definite star power" carried the film through its weaker passages. On Oldman, McCarthy was more enthusiastic:

"Oldman registers strongly as a veteran of the Afghan campaign pushed to desperate lengths to newly ennoble his country." — Todd McCarthy, Variety (1997)

The Hollywood Reporter's Duane Byrge was more uniformly positive, praising Ford's embodiment of presidential authority:

"It's hard to remember when someone acted so presidential. Ford is forthright, charismatic, brave and honorable." — Duane Byrge, The Hollywood Reporter (1997)

Byrge also credited Petersen's direction for generating "thrust in a contained space," comparing the filmmaker's tight framing to his submarine work, and praised cinematographer Michael Ballhaus for "tight framings and sharp slants" and editor Richard Francis-Bruce for the film's "white-knuckle cadence." (hollywoodreporter)

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was more measured, giving the film 2.5 out of 4 stars:

"Air Force One is a fairly competent recycling of familiar ingredients, given an additional interest because of Harrison Ford's personal appeal." — Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (1997)

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone was the most enthusiastic among major critics, awarding 3.5 out of 4 stars and calling the film "superior escapism" and "a class act." (wikipedia)

Clinton watched it twice and endorsed the casting

President Bill Clinton screened Air Force One twice during an August 1997 visit to Los Angeles and praised it enthusiastically to friends and supporters. Clinton had a personal connection to the production — he had encouraged Glenn Close to take the vice president role at a Jackson Hole party the previous summer, telling her: "You'd make a great Vice President." He noted that the film's replica of Air Force One included certain "refinements" absent from the real aircraft, specifically the escape pod and the rear parachute ramp. (variety)

The Academy recognized the craft but not the film

Air Force One received two Academy Award nominations — Best Sound and Best Film Editing — losing both to Titanic. It won a Bambi Award for Wolfgang Petersen's direction and Harrison Ford's performance, a BMI Film Music Award for Jerry Goldsmith, and a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Glenn Close as Best Supporting Actress. It was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills list in 2001. (wikipedia)

Retrospective views frame it as the last of its kind

Twenty-five years on, the film's reputation has settled into a specific niche: the last great presidential action film, and one of the final entries in the mid-budget star-driven action blockbuster before franchise cinema took over. The We Live Entertainment retrospective identified the cultural moment the film occupied:

"Air Force One fulfills an ideal that every American longs for — a leader to be proud of, one who embodies all the ideals this country was built on and strives for." — We Live Entertainment, 25 Years Later Retrospective (2022)

The same piece noted that Air Force One may represent "the last film in which [Ford] stars in a movie as the hero" — the end of an unprecedented twenty-year run of iconic leading roles that began with Star Wars in 1977. (weliveentertainment)

The InSession Film 25th anniversary review argued that the film's reliance on practical, in-camera action rather than CGI spectacle is what gives it longevity: "What works best about the film is the near-constant tension aboard the airplane." The exceptions — particularly the CGI ocean crash in the finale — are the moments that have aged worst. (insessionfilm)

"Get off my plane" entered the permanent lexicon

The line's cultural persistence surprised even its creator. Marlowe admitted he was never confident in it:

"I was always concerned that the line was a little cheesy, so I was like, 'Okay, I'm gonna think of something better.' But I never did." — Andrew W. Marlowe, Syfy Wire (2021)

Byrge placed it in the "Make My Day" category of action one-liners — lines that transcend their films and become cultural shorthand. Ford's delivery, combining exhaustion and fury, is what made it stick. (hollywoodreporter)