Con Air is an adrenaline-pumping action drama directed by Simon West and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Cameron Poe (Nicolas Cage) is a former Army Ranger who has just finished serving eight years in prison for killing a man in a fight outside a bar. As a loving husband and dedicated father, he can't wait to get home to see his daughter for the first time.
But the U.S. Marshal's Service airplane he is aboard is taken over by some hardcore prisoners being transferred to a maximum security facility. Poe must lock horns with Cyrus "the Virus" Grissom (John Malkovich), a creative criminal whose cohorts include a black militant (Ving Rhames), a psychopath (Nick Chinlund), and a career rapist (Danny Trejo).
Later they are joined by a serial killer (Steve Buscemi) who makes everyone edgy. U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin (John Cusack) and a high-strung DEA agent (Colm Meaney) are clueless on how to handle the situation until Poe singlehandedly sets out to derail Grissom's plans. When his prison buddy Baby-O (Mykelti Williamson) is badly shot and says he can't believe in God, Poe's righteous deeds make him a believer! Nicolas Cage convinces the rest of us that he's ready to graduate into the all-American pantheon of action heroes.