Executive Decision (1996, dir. Stuart Baird) An intelligence analyst (Kurt Russell) accompanies a commando unit lead by Lt. Colonel Austin Travis (Steven Seagal) for a midair boarding operation of a hijacked plane

Seagal's best performance.

I’m still amazed they fit so many people into a single seat “fighter”/bomber

interesting the airline is Oceanic.  Rough few years for that company. 

One of my friends cheered at the spoiler in the theater, way too hard 🫢

Easter 1996. My dad took the whole family out to Easter Dinner at Old Country Buffet. We then followed that up by heading over to the theater to watch Executive Decision. I will always remember the shocked gasp from the audience when>!Seagal's limp body goes rag dolling out of that plane.!< That viewing was also the first time I saw the Twister teaser trailer. The one that featured ILM's proof of concept shot of a CGI tire flying right into the camera. 13 year old me was blown away! Pun intended. I ended up forcing my mom to take me to see Twister six or seven times that summer. EDIT: Found that Twister teaser. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB7haistlIE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB7haistlIE)

The best part of this film happened in the first 27 minutes.

Spoiler was a result of Spoiler-Individual having overrun budget so badly on previous film such that Spoiler-Individual owed the film studio money. Scenes had to be re-written a couple of times, because Spoiler-Individual was dissatisfied, and, even in the theatrical scene, did it under protest.

Mainly, Halle Berry's heavy breathing and fetching bosoms.

I remember watching this as a kid. My mom wanted to watch it because Steven Seagal was in it and >! until the movie was almost over she swore that he had survived somehow and would show up later. !<

I thought that was a pretty good movie. Shocked at the Steven Seagal scene

This is the movie that made me realize John Leguizamo is actually a pretty good actor.

The reaction of the audience at this moment in the theater was really interesting. It was pretty obvious who the people were who thought they had come to watch a Steven Seagal movie.  Nobody left, though.  Credit to the studio for managing to keep this a secret.

This movie truly had the FATTEST F-117 ever.

The filmmakers told Steven Seagal that his character survived the fall, which was the only reason he agreed to go along with it

Seagull best role. Snubbed by the Oscar

Haven't seen this in almost 30 years. In my head Kurt russell was the president lol

Austin Travis. You can’t get much more a ‘Mercia! name than that.

I saw this in the theater and that is the only thing I remember about this movie.

Awesome movie!

I remember word spread really fast about his death. This was when the internet was for the rich. Everyone immediately started talking about it, even if you were planning to go see it. People were more interested in Kurt Russell's role and then Halle Berry. Liguizamo was fun but most people didn't even bring him up in conversations. It was the top three billed mostly.

Whatever you do, don’t cut that wire!

Great action flick! Might have to give it a rewatch as it’s been awhile.

This one always made me laugh because the remora plane is so absurd. Part of that was of course because the performance and other specs of the F117 and what actually make it stealthy were still pretty murky, so they didn’t necessarily know. That said, as shown it’s significantly more than double the size of the real thing, with a giant cabin and plane weiner poking out the top that would destroy its stealth, while even the real thing (even without a huge cabin and a bunch of dudes inside) would struggle *hard* to intercept a 747 at cruise; it’s max speed of Mach .92 is the exact same as the 747’s with comparable cruise and a fraction the range. Even past all of that, there would never be any reason to develop a stealth boarding plane like that, because stealth doesn’t work that close to a radar emitter; it blocks radar returns from passing through from the far side. Its radar cross section is tiny, and the blank return is tiny. It’s a hole in the sky, undetectable from a distant perspective (especially against the sky), but huge if it’s fifty feet away and against terrain. A mile away that shadow is invisible to the computer, but 20% of the scans returning completely blank (including blocked terrain returns, it’s literally no return at all) when the thing is 50 feet away is going to be noticeable and raise immediate questions. And civilian aircraft don’t have air to air radar, so there’s no point there either; in that case it doesn’t matter if it’s stealth. It’s played so seriously while being so hilariously absurd that it’s a classic.

Best Steven Seagal movie

was this film the beginning of Steven Seagal's "gimmie the highest hourly rate" career?

Seagal was never cooler onscreen

So fuckin weird about two hours ago I search for this movie and discussions on listnook and now I see in the last hour this thread pops up? A 30 year old movie?

The best moment of Steven Seagal's film career.

One of the best bait and switch movies I've ever seen. The marketing made it look like Seagal was the main character and it was one hell of an amazing moment when it was made very clear he was not. 1996 was such a great year for movies, I must have seen more than 30 of them in the theater that year (Twister and Independence Day like 3 times alone).

Best Steven Seagal movie ever.

I wonder how much of an ego hit this was to Seagal. I remember reading that John Leguizamo was laughing at how much of a diva-like/aggressive behavior Seagal was acting on set, to which Seagal proceeded to slam Leguizamo into a wall. Has hated Seagal ever since.

GET OFF MY PLANE!!!

This and *Passenger 57* make a decent double header on a given night!

The most disappointing part about the movie was that his body didn’t crash land next to them at the very end.

Excellent action-thriller, Sir David Suchet was superb as the crafty but dead-serious villain, and wish it more known for being way better than a standard potboiler (Passenger 57, etc.) than because a certain actor is gone early-ish.

F117 fighter…. With room for 6? Never thought about that when I was a kid. That’s hilarious

Loved this movie! The suspense was palpable and you really end up rooting for the good guys. Leguizamo has given interviews years after wherein he describes how Seagal was a huge d\*\*k and threw him against the wall without any provocation.

I saw this in theaters when it was new. The theatre applauded at "that" Seagal scene. It showed that audiences had already wised up to how bad a person he was by then, even before he begain his direct-to-video exile.

OKAY THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE STORIES EVER!!! (spoilers ahead and I’m too dumb to blank). John Leguizamo was on the Daily Show ages back and he tells this story about being in an “action movie” with a “big action star.” He describes this scene where the big action star gets killed off early as a surprise. Big action star is in this tube between two planes and the tube breaks up and he blows away. Big action star gets in a heated argument with the director because he wants his character to hold on to both the jet and the stealth plane for a few seconds to show how badass he is. Director tells him no, that’s stupid and physically impossible. Big action star blows up big angry and ends up storming off to his trailer literally crying; tears down his face. Leguizamo never said the name because he’s a pro, but c’mooooooooon. Tl;dr - Steven Seagal is a cry-baby fraud that runs like no one that has ever seen a human run before.

That is a spacious F-117

Watched this movie probably 50x as a kid. So good.

What a cast that somehow included Steven Seagal. Pretty corny but tense. The plane at the end ignored every law of physics and aerodynamics.

They should have had Oliver Platt’s character as co-lead rather than Steven Seagal

When Seagal died, the whole cinema cheered Did this happen anywhere else ?

Rockbusters!!’

I was soooo pissed when I went to see this in the theaters.