''Strategic Command'' is a 1997 air

hijack Hijack may refer to: Films * ''Hijack'' (1973 film), an American made-for-television film * ''Hijack!'', a 1975 British film sponsored by the Children's Film Foundation - see Children's Film Foundation filmography * ''Hijack'' (2008 film), a Bol ...

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 ...

film directed by

Rick Jacobson Rick Jacobson is an American film director, television director and producer, and stage and television actor. Biography A graduate from the California Institute of the Arts film and television program, Rick Jacobson began his professional fi ...

, starring

Michael Dudikoff Michael Joseph Stephen Dudikoff Jr. (born October 8, 1954) is an American actor and martial artist. Born in New York City, his family later moved to Los Angeles. Dudikoff did different jobs to pay for his education, during this time he became a mo ...

, and co-starring Richard Norton,

Paul Winfield Paul Edward Winfield (May 22, 1939 – March 7, 2004) was an American stage, film and television actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark fi ...

Bryan Cranston Bryan Lee Cranston (born March 7, 1956) is an American actor and director who is best known for portraying Walter White in the AMC crime drama series ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and Hal in the Fox sitcom ''Malcolm in the Middle'' (2000–2 ...

, and

Stephen Quadros Stephen "The Fight Professor" Quadros (born November 9, 1952, in Santa Cruz, California, United States) is an American broadcaster, specializing in play-by-play and color commentary, as well as interviews for the combat sports genre on cable, pay ...

. The film was written by Sean McGinly and Tripp Reed.

Plot

Rick Harding (

) is a former

US Marine The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

officer, now working as

biological weapon A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterroris ...

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...

for the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

. The movie starts, with Harding's lab being infiltrated, which results in terrorists getting their hands on a deadly

nerve agent Nerve agents, sometimes also called nerve gases, are a class of organic chemicals that disrupt the mechanisms by which nerves transfer messages to organs. The disruption is caused by the blocking of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), an enzyme that ...

called Bromax 36. Led by Carlos Gruber ( Richard Norton), the terrorists

Air Force Two Air Force Two is the air traffic control designated call sign held by any United States Air Force aircraft carrying the U.S. vice president, but not the president. The term is often associated with the Boeing C-32, a modified 757 which is most ...

(the aircraft of the

Vice-president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

), a

Boeing VC-25 The Boeing VC-25 is a military version of the Boeing 747 airliner, modified for presidential transport and commonly operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) as ''Air Force One'', the call sign of any U.S. Air Force aircraft carrying the p ...

en route from

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Harding must participate in a midair effort to retake Air Force Two and save the Vice President and his wife.

Cast

as Dr. Rick Harding *

Amanda Wyss Amanda Louise Wyss (born November 24, 1960) is an American actress. She began her career in the early 1980s in teen-oriented roles such as Lisa in the coming-of-age comedy film ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), Tina Gray in the slasher fi ...

as Michelle Harding * Richard Norton as Carlos Gruber *

as Rowan *

as Vlos *

as Phil Hertzberg *

Tim Abell Tim Abell (born July 1, 1958 in Manassas, Virginia) is an American actor, and former Army Ranger. He has appeared in over fifty movies and TV shows, including ''Desert Thunder'' (1998), '' The Substitute: Failure Is Not an Option'' (2001), ''Cu ...

as Dino

Notes

The aircraft pictured in this film features the prototype

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...

(in its red and black livery) and the

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. It was operated by the United States Air Force ...

, changes from the original 1996 source film

Executive Decision ''Executive Decision'' is a 1996 American action film directed by Stuart Baird in his directorial debut. The film stars Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, and B.D. Wong. It depict ...

which shows an

Oceanic Airlines Oceanic Airlines, and less frequently, Oceanic Airways, is the name of a fictional airline used in several films, television programs, and comic books—typically works that feature plane crashes and other aviation disasters, with which a real ...

747 and the

Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a retired American single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). It was the first operational air ...

respectively

References

1997 films 1997 action thriller films American aviation films American action thriller films 1990s English-language films Films directed by Rick Jacobson 1990s American films {{action-thriller-film-stub