Why we never got an Air Force One sequel

Last Updated on January 24, 2024

Air Force One – which found president Harrison Ford telling that darn Korshunov to “Get off my plane!” – was a massive hit at the box office, taking in $173 million domestically and another $142 million in the international market to be one of Wolfgang Petersen’s biggest hits. And so, with the influx of sequels in the ‘90s, it’s a bit surprising that Air Force One never had a follow-up. Come on, the vice president literally flies on Air Force Two!

Getting a sequel to Air Force One off the ground was in consideration for a while but as screenwriter Andrew W. Marlowe told SYFY WIRE, it was the repetitive nature of franchises like Die Hard that kept another installment from ever happening, saying, “…every time John McClane goes on vacation or goes anywhere, the terrorists take over.” As such, he and some execs at Beacon Pictures could never come up with a passable idea. It seems the farthest they ever got was having “Harrison as president goes someplace, he’s on an Air Force carrier, it’s attacked, he’s in the middle of an unstable geopolitical situation. And so, there are things he can and can’t do, because you don’t want to inflame it. He’s got to navigate it and he’s the person at the heart of it.”

While we may never see Harrison Ford reprise President James Marshall for an Air Force One sequel, it’s nice to know it at least has less to do with age – a president in their 80s isn’t exactly unfathomable… – than it does a suitable plot. Still, there is always the possibility for a reboot, provided there is a real purpose. “We don’t want to do something that’s just exploitative storytelling, we want to do something that feels like it has a purpose in the world. And when we were doing it, the presidency and that position was not as politically charged as it is today. And so, I think that there are specific challenges about doing it in the contemporary climate that we would have to figure out. But believe me, people keep talking about it.”

Do you think an Air Force One sequel or reboot could work? What could you see the main character tackling? Give us your thoughts below.