Steven Seagal was at the height of his stardom when he co-starred in this tense 1994 thriller with Kurt Russell. Both the poster and trailers sold the movie as a two-hander, with Russell as the brain and Seagal as the brawn. The story has Seagal and his elite SEAL team being recruited by Russell's straight-laced government man to board a hijacked 747 in mid-air using an experimental plane. It's established that there's some tension between the two men, so the stage is set for some head butting as they work together to rescue the hostages. Think you know where the film is headed, don't you smart guy? They learn to overcome their differences and wind up becoming buddies at the end after saving the day right? Roll credits right? WRONG! As the team is stealthily entering the 747 the fragile boarding sleeve connecting the two planes starts to fracture. As the last man up the ladder Seagal is trapped as the sleeve starts breaking apart, and sensing there's no time to save himself he quickly seals the 747 hatch door closed. The sleeve finally splits open and Seagal is sucked out into the air, to the mutual "WTF!" of everyone watching. If the film is brave enough to kill off its action hero before he even gets on the plane then you know it's not messing around. Now knowing Seagal and the insane, hero-preserving logic of his films, he probably just caught an albatross and glided safely to the ground and brushed himself off, but they don't show that in the final film.
