Executive Decision – 25th Anniversary

By Reggie's Take on March 15, 2021

So, what do you get when you take the “Airport” movies of the 1970’s and combine it with the likes of a James Bond movie? You could probably end up with several possibilities, but in this case, you get Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal as Executive Decision celebrates its 25^th Anniversary.

If you have never seen Executive Decision, you may notice that Steven Seagal is on the poster in the trailer and is listed right below Kurt Russell’s name, but do not get comfortable in seeing much of Seagal as his character amounts to nothing more than a cameo. Although in 1996 it was a ballsy move to kill off Seagal’s character early on as Seagal was still a very viable action star.

Executive Decision is listed as an action-thriller and yes there is some action in the movie, but most of this movie lives on the thriller side. The movie gives the audience plenty of mental anguish, sweaty foreheads as time begins to run out in order to avert a disaster and save lives.

One thing about this movie is it does not get away from what it is, a thriller but that did not stop the writers from inserting some humor. When the mid-air insertion team boards the 747, one of the soldiers makes the comment, “I hope they have a good movie on this flight” and then the movie concludes hearing Frank Sinatra singing, “It’s nice to go traveling, but oh so much nicer to come home.”

Something else you will find missing, besides Steven Seagal and that is the President of the United States. One would think that if you have a 747 heading towards the United States that has been hijacked with a bomb on board that at some point the President might be consulted, but in this movie the President is nonexistent. Instead, it is the Secretary of Defense who calls all the shots. Executive Decision is not the first movie where there is a major crisis going on and the President is no where to be found, something that in real life probably would not happen but is something that Hollywood seems to do often.

Twenty-five years later Executive Decision still holds up as a thriller and action movie with a 2h 13m runtime and is rated R. It was released to theaters on March 15, 1996 earning $122 million worldwide on a $55 million budget.

Cast: Kurt Russell, Steven Seagal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, David Suchet, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, BD Wong, Len Cariou

Executive Decision Synopsis:

When terrorists hijack a plane traveling from Greece to Washington, D.C., U.S. Army specialist David Grant (Kurt Russell) and Lt. Colonel Austin Travis (Steven Seagal) join forces to bring the plane to safety. While terrorists on board the plane claim they hijacked the plane to force the U.S. government to release their leader, who was captured by military forces, David and Austin discover that the plane is carrying a bomb full of nerve gas to be released on Washington, D.C.