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| “ | Put the bunny back in the box. | „ |
| ~ Cameron Poe's most famous line. |
Cameron Poe is the main protagonist of the 1997 action thriller film Con Air. He is a recently paroled prisoner who is forced to retake the plane he is flying in when it is taken over by violent criminals.
He is portrayed by Nicolas Cage, who also played Sean Archer in Face/Off, Rick Santoro in Snake Eyes, Tom Welles in 8mm, Randall Raines in Gone in 60 Seconds, Big Daddy in Kick-Ass, Ben Gates in National Treasure, Ghost Rider in Ghost Rider, Grug Crood in The Croods, Balthazar Blake in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Spider-Man Noir in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Zoc in The Ant Bully, and Stanley Goodspeed in The Rock.
Biography[]
A native of Mobile, Alabama, Poe joined the US Army Ranger after marrying Tricia, and is deployed on several missions, the most recent being Desert Storm. After his service is completed, he is discharged and returns to Mobile, where he reunited with a pregnant Tricia.
Soon, some gang members begin assaulting Tricia, and Poe, in defense, fights them off, killing one. A court sentences him to a ten-year prison term in San Quentin State Prison for involuntary manslaughter. Because of his sentence, Poe never met his daughter, Casey, who was born three months after his conviction. During his prison stint, he befriends his diabetic cellmate, Mike "Baby-O" O'Dell.
Eight years later, he is paroled for good behavior. He and "Baby-O" are boarded onto a plane that is also transporting several murderers to another facility. One of these murderers, Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, instigates a hijack, forcing Poe to defend himself and "Baby-O", who is beginning to fall ill after his insulin is crushed by the inmates during the takeover. He and Grissom also foil Johnny 23 Baca's sexual assault attempts on the flight's lone female correction's officer, Sally Bishop. During the stop in Carson city, he is introduced to narcoterrorist Francisco Cindino and serial killer Garland Greene. Poe discreetly plots to retake the plane and secretly communicates with US Marshal Vince Larkin on the flight's whereabouts, while playing along with Grissom's plans.
When mass murderer William Bedford peruses Poe's belongings, a standoff ensues wherein the latter impales him on a pipe. The plane lands in Lerner, where Poe discovers terrorist and black nationalist Nathan Jones attempting to kill the captured corrections officers; he orders Jones to spare the officers as they are still useful as hostages and if left alive, the cons can flee the country easily, before he informs him, Grissom, and the other inmates on Cindino's treachery. Grissom agrees to this backup plan.
Poe uses this time to find a syringe to Baby-O his insulin and chances upon Larkin, who reveals that Tricia and Casey are in protective custody. They also discover Cindino's escape and death. With a gunfight erupting in the boneyard between the National Guard and inmates, Poe returns to the plane with the syringe, only to find Johnny 23 attempting to rape Sally Bishop again; Poe viciously attacks and handcuffs him. He then attempts to stop the plane from leaving by tying it up on a post but Grissom shoots it lose. While airborne, both Jones and Grissom discover Poe's identity, wherein Grissom attempts to kill him. However, the arrival of Larkin and DEA agent Duncan Malloy in helicopters distracts Grissom, an aerial gunfight erupting thereafter. With Sally Bishop protecting an injured Baby-O, the shootout buys time for Poe to fight his way to the cockpit, taking down three convicts that boarded in Carson city: Ku Klux Klan member Viking, Conrad, and transvestite drug dealer Ramon Martinez.
Poe eventually breaches the cockpit, where he orders Swamp Thing to land the plane and reveals himself to the agents, ordering them to hold fire; Malloy obeys the order when Larkin reveals Poe's identity as a parole and their exposé in the retaking. Ultimately, the plane crash-lands in Las Vegas. As Baby-O is taken to the hospital, Poe reassures Sally that he will be alright as the latter thanks him. Suddenly, Poe and Larkin spot Grissom, Jones, and Swamp Thing flee on a stolen fire truck and give chase on motorcycles.
During a scuffle on the truck, Grissom threatens to kill Casey; enraged, Poe knocks him out and handcuffs him to the truck's service ladder, which goes flying through an overhead walkway and onto some power lines, and Grissom is killed when he lands on the conveyor belt of a pile driver, which comes down on his head. Poe is lauded as a hero, and reunites with Tricia and Casey.
Trivia[]
- Cameron Poe would have been dropped of manslaughter charges if the knife was not taken by the surviving gangsters.