History YMMV / ExecutiveDecision

** Sure that one flight attendant was gushing about her recent wedding a little ''too'' much. She still didn't deserve to be so unceremoniously murdered that way, and left on the floor.

* WTHCastingAgency:
** Creator/DavidSuchet, an English actor (of Lithuanian Jewish and French descent) as a [[PlaysGreatEthnics Middle Eastern terrorist]]
** While they're both convincing, [[Creator/BDWong B.D. Wong]] and [[Creator/JohnLeguizamo John Leguizamo]] aren't exactly the first guys who come to mind when one pictures "bad-assed Special Forces black ops commandos."

** John Leguizamo, who played "Rat", would voice a talking rat in ''Film/DrDolittle''.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Marla Maples, ex-wife of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump,
as Nancy, one of the flight attendants.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Louie Jung is played by BD Wong, best known as Dr. George Huang on Series/LawAndOrderSVU

* RetroactiveRecognition: “Doc” is played by BD Wong - best known as Dr. George Huang on Series/LawAndOrderSVU

* WTHCastingAgency: Seriously... ''[[Creator/DavidSuchet David freaking Suchet]] as a Middle Eastern terrorist...''
** Not without precedent for him, he played the BigBad in ''Film/IronEagle''.

** While they're both convincing, [[Creator/BDWong B.D. Wong]] and [[Creator/JohnLeguizamo John Leguizamo]] aren't exactly the first guys who come to mind when one pictures "bad-assed Special Forces commandos."

* {{SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic}}: The film has a pretty damn cool soundtrack which nicely increases the tension, courtesy of the one and only Music/JerryGoldsmith.

* IdiotPlot: Hassan's plan is mostly pointless. He already got the gas bomb on the plane and on the way to US. He didn't need to orchestrate Jaffa's arrest, the first bombing or the hijacking. Most of the other terrorists didn't even know the bomb was there. He could have simply sent the bomb on a regular flight and then taken responsibility after millions died. Even if the bomb needed adjustments on the fly, Demou would be the one doing it and he was already successfully hidden among the passengers. The hijacking merely alerted the americans to the situation and increased the likelihood of the flight being shot down. The only reason Hassan could have wanted the direct control of the plane would be to divert the flight to the ideal location for detonation, but if Grant was right about the gas's effectiveness, even that was unnecessary.

* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:Rat gunning down Hassan.]]

* CatharsisFactor: Rat gunning down Hassan.
* CompleteMonster: [[TheHeavy Nagi Hassan]] is the second-in-command of a powerful terrorist group and a [[TheFundamentalist radical fanatic]]. When the group's leader El Sayed Jaffa is captured by the US military, Hassan and his men hijack a plane and demand Jaffa be released. However it is soon revealed that [[TheStarscream Hassan himself was behind Jaffa's capture]] and is using this hijacking as a pretext to set off a powerful [[DeadlyGas nerve gas bomb]] in Washington DC (with a high chance of doing damage as extensive as ''gassing the entire Eastern Seaboard''). [[ProveIAmNotBluffing To prove he is serious]], Hassan has a [[SuicideAttack suicide bomber]] blow up a restaurant in London. When the US military frees Jaffa, Hassan wants to go ahead with his plan and [[BadBoss kills one of his men]] for [[EvenEvilHasStandards questioning this decision]]. When US fighter planes try to force the plane to land, Hassan kills a US Senator on board and threatens to kill a passenger every minute if the plane is not allowed to land in Washington. When [[TheHero Dr. David Grant]] and his team ruin Hassan's original plan, Hassan kills the pilots flying the plane, [[TakingYouWithMe hoping that the plane will crash into Washington and set off the nerve gas bomb]].

* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: This is a pretty decent DieHardOnAnX movie, but everyone remembers it as the film where [[spoiler:Steven Seagal is killed off in the first half. Which is kind of ironic, as Seagal was the biggest star in the film at the time, and him dying that quickly was actually a pretty big surprise at the time.]]

* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: This is a pretty decent DieHardOnAnX movie, but everyone remembers it as the film where [[spoiler:Steven Seagal is killed off in the first half.]]

* TearJerker: Travis's death.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The title comes from the fact that the government loses contact with the special forces after they board the plane and it becomes an "executive decision", i.e. a decision from the President, whether or not to shoot the plane down to prevent it. The officials on the ground make a huge deal about this, ruminate about the moral and political ramifications of such an act and think it will ruin the administration in the eyes of the public to do so, especially without proof that a bomb is on board, even though the public knows that the flight has been hijacked. The fighter planes even try to get the plane to turn around with them as escort. In the aftermath of 9/11 however, it has become official and highly publicised US policy that a plane is liable to be shot out of the sky if it is even ''[[SeriousBusiness suspected]]'' of being hijacked by suicide bombers, never mind suicide bombers who have a weapon of mass destruction on board - if such an incident happened in RealLife today, the plane may have been shot down pretty much immediately.

* WTHCastingAgency: Seriously... ''David freaking Suchet as a Middle Eastern terrorist...''
** Not without precedent for him, he played the BigBad in ''Film/IronEagle''.

** Travis' death (and Creator/StevenSeagal being the DecoyProtagonist), in light of how bad his career as an action hero (and his [[AuthorAppeal penchant]] to play the BoringInvincibleHero) has become.

* MagnificentBastard: Nagi Hasan is a ruthless extremist and would-be mass murderer, but he is a highly intelligent DiabolicalMastermind who seizes control of his terrorist cell by manipulating the Americans into capturing the leader, his superior, and using this to manipulate the cell into carrying out a terrorist atrocity under the guise of releasing said leader from ransom, when in reality he intends to launch an assault on the United States and slaughter millions of people regardless of whether they accede to his demands or not. He accounts for numerous variables, notices every mistake the heroes make and nearly catches them each time, immediately sees through the Senators' bullshit when he tries to "negotiate" in order to score political points, and when the heroes seemingly thwart his plans manages to nearly make their victory {{pyrrhic|Victory}} by killing the pilots.
** he and Jaffa are even greater [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent Bastards]] in the April 1991 draft. After the hijacking and destruction of the plane, Jaffa intended to frame a certain Arab country of the crime, and then make an alliance with that same country (or perhaps one of its local enemies.)

* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: This is a pretty decent DieHardOnAnX movie, but everyone remembers it as the film where [[spoiler:Steven Segal is killed off in the first half.]]

** he and Jaffa are even greater MagnificentBastards in the April 1991 draft. After the hijacking and destruction of the plane, Jaffa intended to frame a certain Arab country of the crime, and then make an alliance with that same country (or perhaps one of its local enemies.)