The Untold Truth Of Con Air

"Con Air" may be one of the worst films in Nicolas Cage's repertoire, or it may be one of the best. That distinction is a matter of taste, but you can't argue with the fact that the film has become something of a cult classic since its release in 1997. 

In the film, Cage plays Cameron Poe, a former Army Ranger who's sent to prison for killing a man attempting to assault his pregnant wife. Poe is paroled eight years later and on his way home to see his wife and daughter, only to be caught up in an inmate escape plan on a prisoner transport plane. In a desperate attempt to get out alive, Poe secretly works with U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin (John Cusack) in order to stop genius serial killer "The Virus" (John Malkovich) from completing his diabolical plan.

It's a totally outrageous film, but as with every movie in his filmography, Cage pulls it off by being utterly committed to the role. With his over-the-top Southern accent, his long, dirty hair, and his ripped physique, Cage did his best to make "Con Air" a character study wrapped inside of a Hollywood action spectacle. The supporting cast –- which includes the likes of Dave Chappelle, Steve Buscemi, and Danny Trejo –- adds a lot of color to the film, and even if you hate it, it's hard not to respect the big swings that were taken here.

With a movie as wacky as this, there's bound to be some good stories from behind the scenes, right? If you've been hankering to learn more about this harebrained movie, then you've come to the right place. Keep reading to discover everything you never knew about "Con Air."

In between all of the fighting, plane crashes, and explosions, "Con Air" is filled with memorable quips and dramatic sequences that have stood the test of time — such as the scene with the stuffed bunny. Poe has brought a stuffed bunny with him on the flight, and he's determined to take it back to his daughter, no matter the cost. When one of the crooked guards on board discovers the bunny (and the fact that Poe is actually a free man), Poe confronts him, delivering one of the most iconic lines in cinema history. "Put the bunny back in the box" he demands, deadly serious.

It's a marvelous scene, and Cage was actually the one to come up with the idea of the stuffed bunny in the first place. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer told Empire that he gave Cage an early script for "Con Air" while he was still working on "The Rock," and they fleshed out the story together. Their main goal was to make Poe a more sympathetic character, so the first order of business was to make him an Army Ranger. It was Cage who had the idea to give Poe a stuffed bunny that was meant for his daughter, something that was to be "protected at all costs." Without Poe's stuffed bunny, what would "Con Air" even be? Just a bunch of guys fighting on a plane, probably, and not the cult classic it is today.

"Con Air" may have been director Simon West's first feature film, but it wasn't his first directing gig. West got his start directing music videos, and one of them might just be one of the most (in)famous music videos of all time. West happens to be the director behind Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" video, which started the "Rickrolling" prank.

West was surprised that the video became so big many years later because, as he told Metro, it was a "cheap, very quick" shoot. While the song was popular following its initial release, its popularity skyrocketed following the Rickrolling trend. As West put it, the song become "one of those things that haunts you."

Surprisingly, West hasn't actually been Rickrolled much himself. "People are sensitive to it, [but] people who know me really well know that I'm not gonna go ballistic," West said, noting that it's only ever happened to him "three or four" times. Nonetheless, West doesn't like it much at all, complaining, "When it happens, it's the worst thing!" Though he's now the director of action classics like "Con Air" and "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," it seems that West may never escape his "Never Gonna Give You Up" legacy.

Director Simon West told Metro that John Malkovich was always the first choice to play Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, but there were other actors in the running, including Jason Isaacs. West's reasoning for not casting Isaacs was that he was just too good-looking, explaining, "He was very handsome, and he still is, and he was never gonna be the bad guy — no one would be scared of Jason Isaacs with his blue eyes and square jawline!" 

We might have to disagree with West here since Isaacs did convincingly play the conniving Lucius Malfoy in the "Harry Potter" series, but we're not going to argue with Malkovich's casting. In an interview with Collider, Isaacs said that auditioning for the role was actually pretty terrifying. He read a scene where the character was meant to be holding a gun, so Isaacs picked up a pencil as a prop. The camera operator told him to wait and instead put an actual gun in his hand, reassuring Isaacs that the safety was on. Isaacs was understandably freaked out by the incident, as was West, who didn't know one of his crew carried a gun.

West told Empire that Mickey Rourke also read for the part, and his audition was also somewhat harrowing. As West tells it, Rourke was reading a confrontational scene with an assistant casting director reading the part of Poe when the actor pulled out a huge knife and held it to the poor assistant's neck. West says they let the scene keep going, but suffice it to say, Rourke was not cast in the role. (Luckily, no one was harmed in the process.)

As director Simon West has said, Nicolas Cage is all about preparation. In order to prepare for the role of Cameron Poe, one of the things Cage did was visit Folsom Prison and talk with the inmates. In an interview for the film, Cage called it an "intense" experience. He said it was difficult doing interviews with the incarcerated men because, "Whereas they were very polite, they were, you could trip out on what it was exactly they had done." Meanwhile, he said that the men he spoke to all wanted tips for how to break into the acting business.

Cage wasn't alone when he visited the prison, as he was accompanied by director Simon West, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and screenwriter Simon Rosenberg. Rosenberg told Empire that the experience was slightly frightening as crowds started to envelop them when people began recognizing Cage. Suddenly, as things began to get a little intense, there was a stabbing across the yard. Guards grabbed the group and quickly got them out, but Bruckheimer hasn't forgotten what it felt like. "I say this now," Bruckheimer said, "I felt okay — but that's 'cause I'm out of there. I was nervous."

"Con Air" is a movie filled with burly men and very few women in sight, so it's not surprising that the set would've been a pretty macho environment. But don't take our word for it, take it straight from Danny Trejo. Trejo played Johnny 23 in the film, and he's famously an ex-con himself. In an interview with Den of Geek, Trejo described the film as "the biggest test of testosterone I've ever had." He went on to say how competitive things got on set, saying, "​​If you spit, somebody would try to spit further and then further and further and pretty soon you'd have a spit war going on -– everything was a contest on that movie!"

They shot much of the film on the Utah/Nevada border, where the temperature reached 120 degrees. "You can imagine, it got pretty macho out there in the desert," Simon West told Empire. He recalled that everyone was shirtless on set because it was so hot, and everyone was competing to see who could do more push-ups and pull-ups. The cast and crew would all wrestle each other during lunch, and West says, "It did become a bit like a prison." Cage, who was extremely focused on his role and all the preparation he had done, didn't participate in all of the off-screen shenanigans, said writer Simon Rosenberg.

All of the characters in "Con Air" have distinct personalities, and they also have some pretty unique names. As it turns out, most of the characters in the film were inspired by music, as screenwriter Simon Rosenberg was listening to a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band while he was working on the script, reports Empire.

Poe was inspired by Southern rockers like Ronnie Van Zant and Gregg Allman, who both sported long hair. Diamond Dog, who was played by Ving Rhames, got his name from the David Bowie song, and Jonny 23 (Danny Trejo's character) was inspired by the Bruce Springsteen song "Johnny 99." Meanwhile, Sally Can't Dance (Renoly Santiago) is the title of a Lou Reed album. The film itself doesn't feature a ton of classic rock, but Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" does play during the credits at the end of the film.