Executive Decision
Tags: mystery, suspenseful, murder, violence, flashback, revenge

Plot synopsis:
Lieutenant Colonel Austin Travis leads an unsuccessful raid on a Chechen mafia safe house in Italy by a U.S. Army Special Forces team to recover a stolen Soviet nerve agent, DZ-5. One of his men is killed during the raid. Dr. David Grant, a United States Naval Academy graduate and now a consultant for the U.S. Army's intelligence community, learns that terrorist El Sayed Jaffa has been arrested. Shortly after, Oceanic Airlines Flight 343 a Boeing 747-200 leaves Athens, Greece, bound for Washington, D.C, with U.S. Senator Mavros onboard. Jaffa's lieutenant, Nagi Hassan, and his men hijack the flight.
Grant joins a team led by Travis to intercept the plane. After listening to Hassan's demands, Grant disbelieves that Hassan wants Jaffa released. Instead, he thinks Hassan engineered Jaffa's capture and plans to use the plane to detonate a bomb loaded with the nerve gas over U.S. airspace in a suicide mission. The Pentagon authorizes a mid-air transfer of an Army special operations team onto the hijacked airliner using an experimental version of the F-117 stealth aircraft. Grant and DARPA engineer Dennis Cahill accompany the team.
The boarding is only partially successful. When an operator, "Cappy," is seriously injured with a broken neck, Grant boards to assist Cappy. The Oceanic Airlines 747 pulls up, though, putting too much stress on the boarding sleeve. Unable to board, Travis sacrifices himself when he closes the 747's hatch. The survivors enter the 747's lower deck, but with half their equipment and no communication. The Pentagon assumes the team failed to board. With limited options, the operators search for the supposed bomb. Grant makes contact with a flight attendant, Jean, despite Hassan's suspicions, and recruits her.
U.S. officials release Jaffa to resolve the situation. Meanwhile, the team locates and begins dismantling the bomb. Despite his injuries, Cappy aids Cahill in disarming the bomb. The remaining team readies to take control of the aircraft, when the Cappy shortly discovers that the bomb's arming device is barometrically activated. They have seemingly disarmed the bomb, but another trigger is revealed. The team's attack is aborted while they determine the next move. Jaffa calls Hassan from a private jet, telling him he is free and on his way to Algeria, but Hassan will not be swayed from his plan. Grant realizes Hassan's men don't know about the bomb and his true intentions, which means that one of the passengers is a sleeper (the trigger man to the bomb).
Jean spots a man with an electronic device and informs Grant. Mavros is called to speak to the President of the United States, only to realize he is to be sacrificed as a warning that Hassan is serious. Hassan points a gun to Mavros' head as he tries in vain to get the President to listen, but is shot in the head. Meanwhile, the soldiers use the plane's taillights via Morse code to signal U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter jets that they are on board and not to shoot them down.
Grant and Jean enter the passenger cabin and take the suspected individual by surprise, but what Jean thought was an electronic device was merely a case of diamonds carried by a smuggler. However, Grant spots the real sleeper: Jean-Paul Demou, the man who built the bomb. Hassan attempts to fire at Grant, but is shot from behind by the onboard federal air marshal, who is then shot by another terrorist. The operators kill the lights, make entry, and storm the cabin, where a firefight ensues. Stray bullets strike and break passenger windows, causing explosive decompression which sucks three passengers and Demou out of the plane. The remaining terrorists (other than Hassan) are killed during the exchange, the bomb is finally disarmed, and the plane regains its stability. In a last act of desperation, a seriously wounded Hassan kills both pilots, hoping the bomb will detonate if the plane crashes. Wounded operator "Rat" kills Hassan.
Grant assumes control of the 747 and attempts to land it at Washington Dulles International Airport despite his limited piloting experience. He misses the approach, forcing him to pull the plane back up to circle around and try again. As the plane begins to climb, Grant recognizes the area surrounding Frederick Field, which is where he normally practices flying. Deciding to land the 747 there, with Jean's assistance, Grant makes a sloppy and fiery but safe landing. The 747 is slowed to a stop by ramming into a sand berm at the runway's overrun area, where emergency workers are able to safely evacuate the remaining passengers.
Grant is saluted by Rat and the team for saving the passengers, he is then wanted by the Pentagon, not before inviting Jean along with him.

Review: Baird really takes his time, and just occasionally it feels like the story could use a little tightening, but not too much.The movie is not meant to be mind enriching, but in a way it does make you realize, how much we took freedom and safety for granted, before 9/11 occurred.
I saw this in 1996 and thought it was extremely entertaining--an action movie with emphasis on suspense over shoot-em-up thrillers and explosions.
And this film deserves extra kudos for making the ones that save the world a bit on the "misfit" side (Oliver Platt, John Leguizamo, Joe Morton, BD Wong, and yes, even Kurt Russell).
At the end of the movie, one character kind-of goes against his team, but the focus is also on trusting one's teammates, something that the other guys does during this moment.If you want a quintessential 90s action flick, this is a good pick!.
A fun, tense, and exciting action/thriller with an excellent ensemble cast, headed by Kurt Russell and including Halle Berry, David Suchet, and John Leguizamo.
He even manages to enunciate his lines clearly!The plot might have seemed a little far-fetched when the movie was released, but not anymore.I'm not even much of an action film fan, but this one is really a lot of fun..
This is simple stuff that, although obviously given added emotional impetus post 9/11, remains a whole slice of tension pie laced with a disaster movie sauce.Kurt Russell heads the cast as fish out of water suit, Dr. David Grant, and joining him for the malarkey is Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton and Joe Leguizamo.
Most of this movie is simply one extremely long suspense scene as a team of Americans try to board a passenger jet, disarm a bomb and capture terrorists.
I expected such with Kurt Russell and Steven Segal in it, but those two were much more subdued than usual.Oliver Platt, Halle Barry, John Leguizamo and Joe Morton rounded out a very diverse and solid cast.
I have watched many other hijack movies like The Air Force One, Con Air....many I forgotten the name also but "Executive Decision" is cut above the rest.
EXECUTIVE DECISIONAspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision)Sound formats: Dolby Digital / DTS / SDDSNormally, the name Steven Seagal would be enough to send any self-respecting movie fan screaming from theaters in a state of advanced colonic distress, but he makes only a brief appearance in this barnstorming blockbuster as the leader of a crack commando unit who is unceremoniously dumped (literally) from a great height during a botched rescue mission, leaving terrorist expert Kurt Russell to save the day for Humanity and the American Way. David Suchet (Hercule Poirot himself!) is the villain this time out, a fanatical Arab assassin who hijacks a passenger plane and threatens all manner of unpleasantness if the US doesn't release a fellow terrorist from custody.
Russell manages to sneak on board the plane with Seagal's commando unit (now led by John Leguizamo), but they find themselves sharing space with a deadly nerve bomb, which Suchet intends to detonate over Washington DC, come what may...Former editor Stuart Baird (THE OMEN, SUPERMAN) makes his directorial debut with this gung ho potboiler, which looks decidedly hammy post-9/11, and which could never be accused of enriching our understanding of the Human Condition.
Baird directs with sure-footed economy (the film doesn't feel padded at all, despite the 132 minute running time), and while some of the early scenes threaten to submerge viewers beneath a wave of unbridled testosterone, matters improve when Russell takes center-stage, playing the Everyman hero who proves every bit as resourceful as his militaristic companions.
However, I'm so glad I did."Executive Decision" is a 1996 film and also stars Kurt Russell, John Leguziamo, David Suchet, Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, B.D. Wong, Joe Morton, Len Cariou and a special appearance by "Marla Maples Trump" as Berry's fellow flight attendant.
A team of American special forces commandos, led by an intelligence analyst rushed to the scene while he's still in his tuxedo (Russell) board a plane (in the most fascinating way) after it has been hijacked by terrorists in order to take out the terrorists and defuse the dangerous gas planted on board.This is a movie jam-packed to the gills with heart-pounding suspense, tension and excitement.
One of the best things about "Executive Decision" is its offbeat casting in the commando department: energetic, quirky John Leguziamo, Oliver Platt as a nervous wreck who is borderline nervous breakdown for most of the time and Joe Morton as a wounded bomb expert who manages to keep his sense of humor.
To prevent the catastrophe from happening, a group of commandos proceeds with a risky mission - to commence a mid-air transfer via a state-of-the-art stealth jet capable of transferring people from the jet to an airplane.Kurt Russell has the spotlight in this movie and shines all the way through, although the rest of the actors - Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, David Suchet, Joe Morton, J.T. Walsh, and even Steven Seagal in his minor yet important role - gave above-average performances.
A valiant Kurt Russell stars here as Dr. David Grant, an intelligence analyst who comes up with an idea right out of a movie after hearing that a passenger airliner has been hijacked by violent terrorists.
He accompanies a commando team led by Colonel Travis (Steven Seagal in a character arc you've never seen him do before) to secretly board the plane mid air and eliminate the threat by force.
It's a volatile plan rife with opportunities for suspenseful situations, which we get in spades, sans the occasional flag waving which got annoying in Air Force One. in addition to Russell and Seagal here we've got Halle Berry as a flight attendant with remarkable survival instincts, JT Walsh as a senator in the wrong place at the wrong time, A very scary David Suchet as the terrorist leader, with terrific work also from.
The anti-terrorist operatives receives help from an inexperience intelligence analyst David Grant (Kurt Russell) and an engineer (Oliver Platt) to go along with the mission but the leader of the ATO dies.
Grant has no other choice to take command of the mission and as well for disarming the bomb before it arrives in Washington D.C. But the team are also in luck, when a Flight Attendant (Oscar-Winner:Halle Berry) decides to help to stop the terrorists.Directed by Stuart Baird (U.S. Marshals, Star Trek:Nemesis) made an entertaining action-thriller that has some suspense and exciting action sequences.
The cast are good here (especially Suchet in a strong role as the lead villain) but one of the reasons why "Executive Decision" remain memorable for over the years is Seagal's supporting role.
Now it's up to a commando unit and an intelligence analyst to board the plane in midair, via a stealth jet, and defuse the bomb before it reaches the Washington airspace, and before the plane is blown out of the sky, killing everyone on board.EXECUTIVE DECISION is among the films I classified as "Great Action Movies", those action flicks that provide such action, thrills and suspense, that you are forced to look for a seat belt at the height of all the thrills.
A stealth mission to board this aircraft is lead by Steven Seagal, but when it doesn't go exactly to plan, Kurt Russell and Oliver Plait have to race against time before the U.S. military blasts the plane from the sky.Executive Decision is crammed with suspense and tension, using this approach rather than big bangs and explosions.
There are good performances from the entire cast, including Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, B.D. Wong, Joe Morton, Oliver Platt (who never gives a bad performance), David Suchet (refreshingly underplaying his villain in the same way that Alan Rickman did in "Die Hard") and even Steven Seagal rises to the occasion here.
With a great script from Jim and John Thomas (a surprise considering their previous hit, "Predator"), an excellent score from the always brilliant (and sadly missed) Jerry Goldsmith (who manages to excel himself here - no mean feat given the quality of much of his previous work), great editing from Baird, "Die Hard" editor Frank Urioste and Dallas Puett, some classy camera-work from the great British cameraman Alex Thomson and a great 747 set from production designer Terence Marsh, the whole film is an example of what happens when you get a good team of people together and let them do what they do best.Sadly only the end lets this film down.
Halle Berry is quite good; J.T. Walsh is, and always was a real standout (R.I.P); but I think it's Kurt Russell that really makes the film 'fly'.
What with Steven Seagal and Kurt Russell, I expected this film to be action packed with a lot of blow ups and shooting and mayhem.
He believes the plane should not be allowed to enter U.S. airspace and decides to have a special team lead by Lt. Colonel Austin Travis (Steven Sagall) with troopers like Rat (John Leguizomo), Cappy (Joe Morton), Louie (BD Wong) and more who have to defuse a bomb and overpower the terrorists.One of the most disappointing action films ever!
with a script by Predator writers Jim and James Thomas you would expect to be a quality actioner even with a solid cast like what i mentioned to Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, JT Walsh (who would be in the next year's even better JT Walsh/Russell movie Breakdown), Charles Halahon, Richard Riehel and more you except to be a decent actioner or a good one.
But sadly, it's none of those things as it's an overlong, poorly paced and not well written excuse for an action thriller when it's just a bore of a movie.Sagall was only in the film for 30 minutes then gets killed off when he should had been in the rest of the movie as Sagall and Russell would had made a good team.
Plot In A Paragraph: When terrorists seize control of an airliner, Dr David Grant (Kurt Russell) an intelligence analyst accompanies a commando unit led by Col Travis (Steven Seagal) for a midair boarding operation.Kurt Russell has been a bit hit and miss the last decade and a half, but back in the mid 1990's when this was made, he was a very reliable actor.
When it is nine minutes in, and you see the main character learning how to fly and land an airplane, you know it will come back up later (probably the finale) in the movieDirector Stuart Baird has directed a movie that is a highly professional piece of work, swift and suspenseful, with a good sense of pace and atmosphere it makes for great entertainment.
We get some good supporting turns from the likes of Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, Oliver Platt, and John Leguizamo.Overall, Executive Decision is a solid action film and it's your typical popcorn flick that is action-packed and features expendable characters.
Executive Decision (1996) is the story of when a small military group and a few civilians take on an impossible looking task when an airplane is hijacked by terrorists.There isn't much to say about Kurt Russell and his character, Dr. David Grant, because it's likable like any other character that he's done before.
Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, Steven Seagal, David Suchet, and Oliver Platt head up a solid cast playing out a terrorist scenario that hits home post-9/11.
'Executive Decision' is THE BEST SUSPENSE-ACTION-THRILLER FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN...and guess what...I have seen it seventeen times!
Actually, this movie should serve as a role model for any action+suspense+thriller film(s) in the years to come.
The first 20 minutes are excellent and full of tension and the odd surprise, but once on plane the film plays with the promise of action and delivers a good solid tense atmosphere which I enjoyed.Yes of course it's flawed  it's all quite clichéd for one.
But don't do this with Executive Decision, you'll miss out on a good movie.Film starts off with a suicide bomber blowing up a London restaurant (I bet the filmmakers didn't realize just how accurate that scene would be.....) When a group of terrorists capture a Washington bound 747 demanding the release of their leader, a special forces team led by Segal is assigned to board the plane in mid air via a F-117.
Also the main reason I enjoyed this movie is that instead of the goodies simply walking on board and blasting dozens of terrorists to kingdom come, the film actually relies on suspense and the teams attempts to go undetected.
Kurt Russell is good, this time playing more of a nerd in this film as opposed to his usual macho characters.
The fact that Steven Seagal is killed off after only 10-15 minutes of screen time tips off that this is less an action movie and more like a Tom Clancy movie, particularly since the hero, played by Kurt Russell, is an analyst.
The whole movie, it could be argued, is a tug of war between Russell and John Leguizamo (like Russell, he's very good), the leader of the commando team and a member of the "shoot first, ask questions later" club, and the fact that it comes down on the side of the analyst is refreshing.It's also refreshing that director Stuart Baird and writers Jim and John Thomas take their cue from the hero, making a movie which respects our intelligence, unusual for a thriller.
Executive Decision has great acting by Kurt Russell as David Gant, Steven Seagal as Lt Colonel Austin Travis, Halle Berry as Jean, John Leguizamo as Rat, Oliver Platt as Cahill, Joe Morton(aka Miles Dyson from Terminator 2) as Cappy, BD Wong as Louie, Whip Hubley(aka Hollywood from Top Gun) as Baker and David Suchet as the extremely malicious Nagi Hassan.
The situation with the terrorists on board, their demands, the bomb, the political consequences, whether to shoot down the plane or not, the special ops team ready to engage, all of it mixed end up in a very thrilling and exciting movie, with the right amount of action, just like it was back in the 90's.
That criticism aside, it's very suspenseful, with surprisingly little action for a Steven Seagal movie.
This is one of the greatest action films I have ever seen (even better than Air Force One and Passenger 57) and is full of suspense that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
EXECUTIVE DECISION (1996) *** Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, Steven Seagal, BD Wong, JT Walsh, Whip Hubley, Len Cariou, Eugene Roche, Marla Maples Trump (film debut) (!) Better than average on the edge-of-you-seat actioner with Russell spearheading a small group of commandos to dispatch a terrorist siege of an American jet airliner en route to Washington, DC with enough nerve gas to wipe out the eastern seaboard.
While the title is a bit misleading (the presidential decision of whether or not to shoot down the plane is actually a minor point in the story), that doesn't keep this film from being one of the best "terrorism" action movies out there.
You're often not sure where you are, but it's still an entertaining ride.****** Executive Decision (3/15/96) Stuart Baird ~ Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt.
This film was completely, predictable from the beginning to end, but was still exciting enough to watch, Halle Berry is so gorgeous you just want to look at her throughout the film, Kurt Russell always does a good job playing the tough guy ,and knocked seagal out of the picture, well out of the plane anyway.
Unlike other recent movies along these lines this one was so much more believable.I am a fan of Kurt Russell and I think he was perfect for the role of David Grant.
Kurt Russell is very good in this one,so is Halle Berry.Steven Seagal died during the movie.I didn`t care,he did no good in his part.
The action and suspense never let up as a team led by Kurt Russell tries to sneak aboard a 747 to fight terrorists and defuse nerve gas while racing against the clock before the President decides to blow it out of the sky via military aircraft.I get excited each time I see this film.
The supporting cast in this film does solid work also, for anyone who likes this movie I also reccomend "Air Force One".
The film features a good cast, headed up by Kurt Russell and also featuring appearances from the likes of John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Steven Seagal and Halle Berry.
Anyway, I went to this movie with the anticipation of seeing another great Steven Seagal mindless action flick with all of the blistering-fast fight scenes we've come to expect but after the first 30 seconds of action they kill him off and we're stuck watching a nerdy Kurt Russel defend mother, apple pie and the good ole USA.
I would expect Steven Seagal to appear in a movie like this, but even Kurt Russell has done better than this.
"Executive Decision" is an action movie in which terrorist hijacked an airplane and a group of commandos are trying to take control of the airplane and to land it safely.First of all about the plot I have to admit that it was not something extraordinary and new since I have watched also some other movies with the same script.
Halle Berry played also very well and David Suchet who played as Nagi Hassan was very good.To sum up I have to say that "Executive Decision" is a good movie to spend your time but do not have high expectations.
Everything was perfect and very suspenseful.Over all, a good movie for action and thriller fans.9/10..
i had watched "Executive Decision" maybe 5 years ago and i remember enjoying it then.however,i was more impressed this time.Kurt Russel does a good job as on of the heroes of the piece.a great supporting cast surrounds Russel.Halle Berry is very convincing in her role.