''Air Collision'' is a 2012 American

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by Liz Adams and starring

Reginald VelJohnson Reginald VelJohnson (born Reginald VelJohnson; August 16, 1952) is an American actor. He is best known for playing police officer characters, such as Carl Winslow on the sitcom ''Family Matters,'' which ran from 1989 to 1998, and LAPD Sergeant A ...

Jordan Ladd Jordan Elizabeth Ladd is an American actress. The daughter of actress Cheryl Ladd and producer David Ladd, she initially worked with her mother in several made-for-television films, before making her big screen debut at 19, in the vampire film ...

and Gerald Webb. ''Air Collision'' was released on March 27, 2012 by

The Asylum The Asylum is an American independent film company and distributor that focuses on producing low-budget, direct-to-video films. It is notorious for producing titles that capitalize on productions by major studios, often using film titles and sc ...

Plot

After a major electromagnetic storm cripples communications worldwide, a new satellite-based

Airborne collision avoidance system An airborne collision avoidance system (ACAS, usually pronounced as ''ay-kas'') operates independently of ground-based equipment and air traffic control in warning pilots of the presence of other aircraft that may present a threat of collision. ...

(ACAT) air traffic control system is struck, with debris hitting the earth. The malfunctioning satellite puts all air traffic in danger on the U.S. east coast where it is being operated on a "pilot project". Consequently, two aircraft are heading on a collision course. One is a commercial airliner carrying hundreds of passengers while the other is

Air Force One Air Force One is the official air traffic control designated call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. In common parlance, the term is used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modified and used ...

, carrying President Phillips (Andy Clemence), the President of the United States, and his family. The ACAT begins sending out errant commands that put both aircraft into serious jeopardy. In the severe electric storm, satellites begin failing with debris hitting major populated areas in the United States. Dr. Antonia "Toni" Pierce (Erin Coker) comes upon some of the debris and contacts

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

FAA Air Traffic controller Bob Abbot (

). Abbot tries to prevent the looming disaster, overriding all top level directives to keep aircraft flying, he wants to ground all traffic. Both the commercial airliner and Air Force One are struck by repeated lightning strikes that partially disable the aircraft. The damaged satellite signals cause the ACAT to wreak havoc on the escorting

F-16 The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it ...

fighters. The

McDonnell Douglas MD-80 The McDonnell Douglas MD-80 is a series of five-abreast single-aisle airliners developed by McDonnell Douglas. It was produced by the developer company until August 1997 and then by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The MD-80 was the second gene ...

airliner also loses both engines but gets a restart just before impacting. A rogue Sidewinder missile from Air Force One also strikes the converging airliner and both aircraft impact in a glancing hit. The airliner crash-lands in Cleveland. An Air Force

Lockheed C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 was originally design ...

rescue effort ultimately fails to bring Air Force One's passengers to safety, and electrical impulses affecting the president's aircraft kill the flight crew, leaving the only alternative being the President's daughter (Stephanie Hullar) attempting to disable the ACAT system. When the ACAT is finally overridden, the President takes control of Air Force One and brings it into a landing at Detroit.

Cast

as Bob Abbot *

as Lindsay Bates * Erin Coker as Dr. Antonia "Toni" Pierce * Gerald Webb as First Officer Ken Aoki * Michael Teh as Captain Roscoe Simms * Darin Cooper as Colonel Chuck Lawler * Darren Anthony Thomas as Major Eric Lewis * Andy Clemence as President Phillips * Meredith Thomas as First Lady Kimberly Phillips * Stephanie Hullar as Milani Phillips * Caryn Ward as Presidential Purser Joan Watts (Caryn Ward Ross) *

Aurora Perrineau Aurora Perrineau is an American actress and model. She is best known for starring as List of Jem characters#Jem and the Holograms, Shana Elmsford in ''Jem and the Holograms (film), Jem and the Holograms'' (2015), the live-action film adaptation o ...

as Radhika Darshan * Dave Vescio as Eli Reyher * Korey Simeone as Cody Marler * Jonathan Nation as Brent Powel * Jewel Greenberg as Carlene Wheeler * Edward L. Green as Klaus Ingram

Production

Principal photography took place at

Santa Clarita, California Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17th ...

. Footage of Air Force One was featured. In reality VC-25As are Boeing 747-200Bs, not the 747-400 shown in the movie.

Reception

While not reviewed by critics in mainstream media, ''Air Collision'' did have a brief theatrical run and did garner some interest from internet bloggers and other film critics. Michael Allen in ''28dayslateranalysis.com'' said, "'Air Collision' is not really a mockbuster, as director Liz Adams experiments with the disaster genre. The film is pure fantasy. The President of the United States' life is in danger, satellites fall from the sky and special agents fly through the air. This is ridiculous! But, maybe that is the magic that drives The Asylum production machine. 'Air Collision' requires that viewers have fertile imaginations as well. There are just too many strange going-ons to see this film as believable on any level. And, perhaps, therein lies the charm of The Asylum's latest." In a similar vein, Christopher Armstead in ''Film Critics United'' said, "I was initially going to advise you that an unhealthy dose of suspended belief will be required to get the most of ‘Air Collision’, but upon further examination... don't bother. You see almost from beginning to end, almost nothing that happens in this movie has any real relation to anything that could possibly happen on the actual Planet Earth. ... But what is it that makes ‘Air Collision’ arguably the greatest Asylum movie ever? Because it goes. And it goes. And just when you think it's about to slow down, it goes some more. Because while the movie itself is completely ludicrous, the stellar cast of hundreds took this movie deadly serious which created a perfect storm of serious insanity."Armstead, Christopher
"Review: 'Air Collision’."
''Film Critics United''. Retrieved: December 22, 2015.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Dorr, Robert F. ''Air Force One.'' St. Paul, Minnesota: Motorbooks International, 2002. .

External links

* * {{YouTube, id=0wnTTAH-XH0, title=''Air Collision'' American action films The Asylum films American disaster films American aviation films 2012 action films 2012 independent films 2012 films Films set on airplanes Films shot in Los Angeles County, California Films about Air Force One 2010s English-language films 2010s American films