History YMMV / AirForceOne

* ValuesDissonance: Not to the point of rooting for the villains, but in Europe the retorts Korshunov gives about the US President - being a killer in tuxedo; making war and killing thousands to save a nickel on the price of a gallon of gas - were considered to be not far off from truth and Korshunov himself was considered way more sympathetically.

* ValuesDissonance: Not to the point of rooting for the villains, but in Europe the retorts Korshunov gives about USA President - being a killer in tuxedo; making war and killing thousands to save a nickel on the price of a gallon of gas - were considered to be not far off from truth and Korshunov himself was considered way more sympathetically.

* TearJerker: Most notably when [[spoiler: the President]] is given a SadisticChoice between [[spoiler: the life of an innocent woman and his chance of saving everyone else]]. [[DragonInChief Korshunov]] turns on the intercom so everyone on the plane can hear [[spoiler: her plead for her life, right up until he shoots her]], and we see the other hostages either close to breaking down or openly sobbing.

** The premise of the movie is heavily tied to the geopolitics of the mid to late 90's. At the time, the US had no major foreign enemies, so the idea of Kazakh radicals hijacking Air Force One could be played for harmless spectacle rather than realistic horror. Additionally, dialogue makes reference to UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein being the President of Iraq (the only reference to a real-life head of state in the movie, oddly enough), instantly dating it to before the United States' invasion of the country in 2003.
** The movie was also made during the presidency of UsefulNotes/BorisYeltsin, who presided over Russia after the fall of Soviet Union. Back then, it was a source of "hope" that with the fall of the Soviet Union and the introduction of capitalism and democracy to Russia, Russia and the United States would become partners in a new global age. The first act of the movie heavily leans on how the fictional presidents of Russia and America have such a good friendship, with a joint Russia-US operation being what kicks the plot, after the arrest of a fictional Kazakh dictator. Yeltsin's successor was UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin, and to keep things quick and simple, Russian and American relations took a sharp nosedive for the worst with Russia's annexations and war in UsefulNotes/{{Ukraine}} (Crimea and Donbas in 2014 then the large scale invasion in 2022).

** TheMole is [[spoiler:[[Series/{{NCIS}} Agent Gibbs]].[[Series/TwentyFour And he dies on a plane during a terrorist incident]]]].

* EvilIsCool: [[BigBad Ivan Korshunov]] who [[ColbertBump to the film's audience members who are also military first-person shooter video gamers]] is basically an EvilCounterpart to his portrayer Creator/GaryOldman's later well known heroic video game character [[VideoGame/CallOfDuty Viktor Reznov]] as they are both badass Russian combatants who are AxCrazy {{Large Ham}}s, {{Blood Knight}}s and {{Sociopathic Soldier}}s, while three of his {{Mook}}s Vladimir Krasin, Andrei Kolchak and [[Creator/AndrewDivoff Boris Bazylev]] happened to be [[VideoGame/{{Battlefield 3}} Vladimir Kamarivsky]], [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyVanguard Boris Petrov]] the father of a ColdSniper ActionGirl and one of Reznov's personal mortal enemies himself and Dragovich's terrifying, AxCrazy, {{sociopath}}ic badass of a [[TheDragon lapdog]] [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps Lev Kravchenko]] (and both Kravchenko and Boris are "[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsColdWar not a patient man, Belikov. Or a compassionate one]]").

* MagnificentBastard: [[BigBad Ivan Korshunov]] is the leader of a group of Russian terrorists who infiltrate Air Force One by means of killing and replacing a film crew and then by breaking into the weapons vault and killing most of the Secret Service, hijack the plane. He seeks to have Russian prisoner General Ivan Radek released from prison. He also successfully prevents an emergency landing while the plane is on the runway. Impeded by US President James Marshall, Korshunov first threatens a hostage to try to lure him out and then forces Vice President Kathryn Bennett to send for fuel when the plane loses it. Once capturing Marshall, Korshunov gets him to agree to and follow through with the release and later, Korshunov nearly escapes with a parachute. Korshunov proves constantly how he's a NoNonsenseNemesis with every challenge he's met with and manages to retain honor in the process.

* NarmCharm: The shots of Ivan's face as he tries to take off in Air Force One. He has a goofy excited grin at first, and as he barely avoids collision he starts straining in a way that seems like he's screaming silently. Very goofy, but how else would you react to hijacking and almost crashing a cool jet?

-->'''Korshunov:''' He was in Afghanistan with me for five years. Find out who did this or you lie down next to him.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheMole Secret Service Agent Gibbs]] is the [[BodyguardBetrayal despicable turncoat]] who is in league with Russian [[WesternTerrorists terrorist]] Egor/Ivan Korshunov and his men, who seek to free the violent and oppressive General Ivan/Alexander Radek from a Russian prison. Gibbs starts by murdering three of his fellow agents in order to open the weapons vault onboard Air Force One, with multiple people killed as Korshunov and his men hijack it. Two other people are also executed by Korshunov as Gibbs idly stands by and plays innocent—and also watches without any response as US President James Marshall's wife and young daughter are threatened and another colleague is wounded. When freed with the other hostages, Gibbs continues [[FalseFriend pretending to be a friend]] as Marshall takes Korshunov and his men out as well—along with Radek being killed before he's released. Finally, Gibbs then murders both a paratrooper and Major Caldwell while attempting to not only escape the crashing plane, but [[DirtyCoward to also abandon Marshall]] to certain doom.