Nicolas Cage, cosmic space travel, and ’90s madness: the ‘Con Air’ sequel that never was
These days, virtually every successful action blockbuster is guaranteed a sequel because no self-respecting studio is going to miss the opportunity to get the band back together and make more money. And yet, despite starring in three huge hits that rank among the best, Nicolas Cage found himself shut out in the cold.
After winning an Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ in Leaving Las Vegas, the star decided that he wanted to become an action hero. Within the space of 12 months, he’d not only managed it but done so by headlining a trio of classics that are as rewatchable now as they ever were. Looking back, it might just be the greatest transition from ‘serious thespian’ to ‘gun-toting icon’ there’s ever been.
Cage’s first three roles following his Oscar win came in The Rock, Con Air, and Face/Off, which is incredible stuff. Besides being utterly fantastic, the one thing they all have in common is that they’re all standalone spectaculars unless, of course, Adam Wingard ends up moving ahead with his follow-up to the latter.
That simply wouldn’t be allowed to happen in the 21st century, but even though it was absolutely deserving of one, a Con Air sequel never got any further than the idea stage. That’s a crime because there’s no action junkie on the planet who wouldn’t want to see Cage, his preposterous southern accent, his even more ludicrous wig, and his white vest get put through the wringer for a second time.
If Con Air was basically ‘Die Hard on a prison transport plane‘, then the sequel would have been ‘Die Hard in space’. Something similar eventually happened in Guy Pearce’s Lockout, but it sucked tremendously and was successfully sued for plagiarism by John Carpenter, so there’s definitely still a gap in the market for something that isn’t awful.
In an interview with Screen Daily, director Simon West stated his proposal. “Con Air in space, for example, a studio version where they’re all robots or the convicts are reanimated as super-convicts, or where the good guys are bad guys, and the bad guys are good guys,” he mused. “Something shocking. If it was clever writing, it could work.”
West’s idea, which is genius it should be noted, was to basically remake Con Air. Except in space this time. The filmmaker suggested that not only would Steve Buscemi’s Garland Greene potentially be the president this time around, but the majority of the original cast would be brought back for no other reason than the hell of it, presumably plunging Cage’s Cameron Poe and John Cusack’s Vince Larkin into a cosmic battle for the ages, where they’d travel beyond the stars to stop criminals wreaking havoc on a commercial space flight.
The ‘let’s make a sequel, but go to space for reasons’ fad has birthed Fast & Furious 9, Moonraker, Jason X, Hellraiser: Bloodline, Leprechaun 4, and Dracula 3000, to name but a few, all of which weren’t great in all honesty. However, if there’s one thing the golden age of 1990s action cinema was missing above all others, it was an intergalactic adventure or two.
Who wouldn’t want to see Con Air in space, with Cage and his mullet fighting off reanimated character actors and robotic henchmen, topped off with a power ballad just like the first one? Nobody, that’s who, but apparently, Hollywood was far too much of a coward to make it happen.
