Trivia for
Con Air (1997) More at IMDbPro »

• The Las Vegas scenes were filmed at the legendary Sands Hotel immediately prior to its demolition in late 1996. When the production team heard about the city's intentions to raze the historic landmark, they immediately scheduled a multiple camera setup to take advantage of the rare event, which is what you actually see in the movie.
  
  
• According to the letter Cameron Poe received from his daughter, Jailbird flight took place on 14 July. In France, 14 July is Bastille Day, commemorating the liberation of seven inmates from a prison called Bastille.
  
  
• Colm Meaney's key chain has a Star Trek Communicator ornament on it, a reference to his role as Chief Miles O'Brien on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993).
  
  
• The writer Jonathan Hensleigh did a uncredited re-write on the script.
  
  
• The song "How Do I Live" was nominated for both an Oscar as Best Original Song and a Razzie as Worst Original Song. It did not win either award.
  
  
• The sight of the planes flying in low formation over the Strip during filming caused a number of Las Vegans to call the police.
  
  
• The movie was inspired by a newspaper article about a plane that transports convicts.
  
  
• In an alternate version shown on ABC, an extended scene of Malloy's tirade after learning that fellow DEA Agent Simms was killed is featured. Malloy went on to explain how he met Simms early in his career and explained the motivation to shoot the plane down with no questions asked.
  
  
• While "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd is playing in the background, Garland Greene (Steve Buscemi) says: "Define irony: a bunch of idiots dancing around on a plane to a song made famous by a band that died in a plane crash." On October 20, 1977 Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crashed. It was the model Convair 240.
  
  
• This is the first film that Jerry Bruckheimer produced without the late Don Simpson. The new Jerry Bruckheimer Films logo was featured for the very first time in front of this film.
  
  
• In the trailer for this movie, the flying scene where the 2 AH-1 Cobras escort Jailbird 1 during their landing in the Las Vegas strip included the dialog "Where are they going to land this thing?" spoken by one of the Cobra pilots, and the response by John Cusack's character: "How about the blackjack tables". Neither dialog was included in the final cut.
  
  
• Dave Chappelle improvised most of his lines.
  
  
• The dead cons Benson, Karls and Popovich are named after second assistant cameraman Garrett Benson, first assistant cameraman John Karls and key grip J. Michael Popovich.
  
  

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