Con Air (1997)

Most people think so. 84% of audiences gave it a thumbs up based on 4,603 votes. Critics scored it lower at 56%, but audiences disagreed.

Newly-paroled former US Army ranger Cameron Poe is headed back to his wife, but must fly home aboard a prison transport flight dubbed "Jailbird" taking the “worst of the worst” prisoners, a group described as “pure predators”, to a new super-prison. Poe faces impossible odds when the transport plane is skyjacked mid-flight by the most vicious criminals in the country led by the mastermind — genius serial killer Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, and backed by black militant Diamond Dog and psychopath Billy Bedlam. Wikipedia ↗

Con Air is a 1997 American action thriller directed by Simon West, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Nicolas Cage stars as Cameron Poe, a decorated U.S. Army Ranger who was imprisoned for involuntary manslaughter after killing a man in self-defense outside a bar.

After serving his full sentence, Poe boards a prisoner transport plane to be paroled, sharing the flight with the most dangerous criminals in the federal system — including the brilliant, sociopathic Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, played by John Malkovich, who orchestrates a midair hijacking. Poe must protect the few non-criminal passengers, including a diabetic guard who needs insulin, while secretly working to thwart the hijacking from the inside. Con Air was a quintessential late-1990s Jerry Bruckheimer production — loud, ridiculous, and irresistibly entertaining, with a cast of scenery-chewing villains including Steve Buscemi as a Hannibal Lecter-inspired serial killer and Ving Rhames as a militant.

Nicolas Cage's sincere, earnest performance — he played Poe completely straight amid the mayhem — was the perfect anchor. Con Air earned $224 million worldwide on a $75 million budget.