Wolfgang Petersen (Air Force One) Air Force One
Wolfgang Petersen directed Air Force One in 1997, at the peak of a Hollywood run that produced five consecutive box office hits. He came to the project with a specific expertise: confined spaces under extreme pressure. Das Boot was a submarine. In the Line of Fire was the Secret Service perimeter around a president. Air Force One was both — a sealed tube at 30,000 feet with the most important man in the world trapped inside it.
Das Boot gave Petersen a career-long template for filming claustrophobia
Petersen spent $18.5 million — then the largest budget in German film history — on Das Boot (1981), a World War II submarine film that earned six Academy Award nominations, including two for Petersen himself (Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay). The film made an international audience care about German submariners, which Petersen understood was the fundamental challenge.
"It was a big ask to expect an international audience to identify with Nazis in a submarine." — Wolfgang Petersen, The Hollywood Reporter (2011)
The submarine became Petersen's recurring metaphor — people locked in a space they cannot leave, where every decision is life or death. The cargo hold of Air Force One, which production designer William Sandell deliberately modeled on Das Boot's corridors, is the same dramatic environment with different furniture.
"You can really go into the characters and see how they react when there is no way to open the door." — Wolfgang Petersen, The Hollywood Reporter (2011)
Petersen's moral compass was shaped by growing up in postwar Germany. He found his heroes not in his own country's recent past but in American cinema.
"I knew my teachers at school had been Nazis, I couldn't look up to them. But I could look up to Gary Cooper." — Wolfgang Petersen, The Hollywood Reporter (2011)
"I think High Noon made me want to be a director." — Wolfgang Petersen, The Hollywood Reporter (2011)
In the Line of Fire proved Petersen could direct American political thrillers
In the Line of Fire (1993), starring Clint Eastwood as a Secret Service agent haunted by failing to protect JFK, was Petersen's breakthrough American hit. It proved he could handle Washington settings, institutional tension, and the particular pacing of a thriller built around presidential danger.
"It's my greatest experience after 'Das Boot.' Working with Clint was a great experience." — Wolfgang Petersen, Variety (1993)
That film led directly to Outbreak (1995) and then Air Force One — three consecutive thrillers about institutions under siege, each raising the production scale.
Petersen ran the Air Force One set with efficiency and humor
Glenn Close, who played Vice President Bennett, described a director who maximized his actors' time through inventiveness. Petersen used a remote-controlled rotating camera for the Situation Room scenes, allowing continuous filming of ensemble reactions without conventional coverage.
"Being directed by Wolfgang on Air Force One remains a special memory. Even though the script was thrilling and incredibly intense, I remember a lot of laughs, especially in the scenes around the huge table in the War Room." — Glenn Close, Deadline (2022)
"He would point to us in turn and say, 'Acting...acting...NO acting...NO acting...ACTING...aaaacting!' He didn't waste anyone's time." — Glenn Close, Deadline (2022)
The tone on set was loose enough that Petersen nicknamed the entire production "Air Force Fun," largely because of Gary Oldman's off-camera comedy — a sharp contrast to his ice-cold on-screen performance as Korshunov. (flipthemoviescript)
Rolling Stone credited Petersen's craft as the film's distinguishing feature
The reviews that praised Air Force One consistently separated Petersen's direction from the formulaic premise. Rolling Stone's assessment captured the consensus.
"'Air Force One' doesn't insult the audience. It is crafted by a filmmaker who takes pride in the thrills and sly fun he packs into every frame." — Rolling Stone, as quoted in Variety (1997)
Newsweek's David Ansen praised Petersen for bringing "his own special flair to the action scenes" — a polite way of noting that the director's submarine-honed sense of spatial tension elevated material that could have been generic in other hands. (hollywoodreporter)
Five consecutive hits, then the streak broke
Air Force One was the fourth in a run of five straight commercial successes: In the Line of Fire (1993), Outbreak (1995), Air Force One (1997), The Perfect Storm (2000), and Troy (2004). The streak ended with Poseidon (2006), a disaster-film remake that cost $160 million and grossed $181 million — technically profitable but widely seen as a failure.
"I shouldn't have done the film, but I was on such a roll at the time... but it just doesn't work like that. At some point, you fail." — Wolfgang Petersen, The Hollywood Reporter (2011)
Petersen died on August 12, 2022, at age 81, from pancreatic cancer. Close's final tribute distilled the man.
"My memory is of a man full of joie de vivre who was doing what he most loved to do." — Glenn Close, Deadline (2022)