Con Air

Corrected entry: In the scene where Cendino is double crossing the inmates. Cyrus tosses a cigarette on the fuel and it ignites. Though this is cool in the movie it is actually impossible. Since this is more than likely airplane fuel, the cigarette would simply be extinguished. It takes a heat source much hotter and more constant than a cigarette to ignite that type of fuel.

Correction: It is the gas that came out of the gas pumps located at the service station, not gas from the plane itself.

The correction is wrong. The cigarette is splashing into the pool of kerosene, which explodes on contact. That's impossible.

Question: What is the actual likelihood that a decorated serviceman, with no prior criminal record (we know this because if Poe had any priors he wouldn't have been in the Army) would actually get prison time for killing two men who attacked himself and his girlfriend? Seeing as there were witnesses (said girlfriend and bartender) I find it hard to believe he would have gotten more than an extended period of probation. A prison term, even a year or two, seems severely harsh considering the circumstances.

dablues7

Chosen answer: Zero. As you said, he was attacked and there are witnesses that he tried to avoid the fight and the killings were in self-defense. It is an extremely weak plot hammer to get Poe onto a plane full of criminals. It's foolish as well. The writers could have had Poe framed for a crime then exonerated and put in the same situation much more believably.

Grumpy Scot

It's in Alabama. People are put in prison here for much less.

First, Poe is a federal prisoner, not subject to State laws or legal procedures. Secondly, he is not in Alabama. During a conversation with Billy Bedlam we hear that he is incarcerated in the "Q" - prison slang for San Quentin in California. It makes you wonder why a Federal prisoner is in a State prison, but that's another type of mistake.

He was incarcerated in San Quentin, but the incident in which he was arrested happened in Alabama.

jshy7979

Would it really be considered self-defense, though? After he beat the guys to the ground he could have just stopped and walked away, but he didn't. He kept beating them until they died.

He is defending his wife against two armed assailants, and use of lethal force is allowable. No DA in the United States would even think about pressing charges, knowing full well a grand jury would throw them out in a second.

This is not at all how it happened. Two of the assailants survived; we see them get up and run away. Cameron killed only one person, unintentionally, accidentally killing him with a lethal blow under the chin.

jshy7979

Corrected entry: When the villains have made their lousy landing at the airfield and the police are coming, Cyrus opens a box with shotguns and throws one to his fellow convicts. The next scene shows the convict catching the gun, and it has somehow turned into an M-16.

Correction: There were three different boxes. One (the one Cyrus opened) contained the shotguns, behind him was another box that contained the M-16's, and the third box on the left (the one Diamond Dogg opens) contained the grenade launchers that were used to blow up the propane tanks.

While this is true that the crates carry different weapons, the original mistake is pointing out how Cyrus picks up a shotgun, tosses it to Swamp Thing, but the weapon Swamp Thing catches is an assault rifle. This is a valid mistake.

jshy7979

Corrected entry: When Johnny tries to rape the female guard, Poe comes to the rescue and knocks him out. Poe then handcuffs him to an overhead rail with both hands in the cuffs over the rail. Yet after the crash, while the police are doing clean-up, they drag away Johnny leaving one arm hanging off, as if Poe put only one of his hands in the cuffs, and one cuff on the overhead rail. Even with one arm severed, they couldn't naturally have got out of that position without the severed arm going over the rail, in which case it would be lying on the floor with the rest of him.

Correction: We don't see Johnny the whole time from the cuffing till the crash. There would have been enough time for somebody, even Poe, to uncuff one arm so that Johnny could be better prepared for the imminent crash.

Ronnie Bischof

That is incorrect. We see Johnny 3 times during the crash landing scene. 2 times he's yelling at Cyrus, trying to wake him up. And right before the final crash, we do see him in the plane, both hands still bound.

jshy7979

Character mistake: When Cyrus and Johnny-23 are talking they both pronounce the Spanish version of Johnny-23's name as Juaniyo. That is not how Johnny is pronounced in Spanish. It is pronounced Juanito with a T. Normally I would have chalked it up as a language barrier but Danny Trejo is of Spanish ancestry. He should have known better. (00:20:41)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: "Juanillo" is another, though less common, diminutive of Juan.

LorgSkyegon

I can appreciate you doing a google search but you would have noticed in your google search that the Juanillo you speak or is predominantly an Asian name and is not a translation of Johnny in Spanish. I am Spanish and can assure you that it was a mistake as Juanito is the correct pronunciation. Thank you for doing your due diligence however he was not playing the role if an Asian.

It should be pointed out that there's a town in Mexico called Juanillo and Juanillo Beach is in the Dominican Republic. So it is a word Hispanic and Latinos might be aware of.

Bishop73

Don't know why the previous guy said that Juanillo is not a common name in Spain... I am Spanish and know 2 guys that go by the name Juanillo. I would say that not only Juanillo and Juanito, but also Juanele are commonly used in Spain and probably Latin America as well.

Corrected entry: The idea that Baby-O needs to get his shot or he will die is completely incorrect. Anyone who is diabetic would know that it's not high blood sugar that can kill you, but an insulin overdose. Assuming that he had eaten breakfast that morning, he should be glad he had not been given an injection, because he was on the plane for who knows how long and then crashed at the remote airstrip with nothing to eat; his insulin levels would have been so high that he could go into a coma.

Correction: This is incorrect. Baby-O has severe Insulin Dependent Diabetes - a form of diabetes that requires the daily injection of the hormone insulin to maintain normal body chemistry. Avoidance of insulin in these patients will result in a severe metabolic derangement known as diabetic ketoacidosis, the symptoms of which are very accurately portrayed in this film. (Though I doubt that someone in ketoacidic shock would survive a bullet impact.) There are milder forms of diabetes that fit the description above, but Insulin Dependent Diabetes is not one of them.

Whilst plausible, It's highly unlikely DKA would develop within 24 hours of not having background insulin.

Since we don't know when Baby-O had his last insulin shot, the time frame is irrelevant.

Correction: Whilst plausible, it's highly unlikely DKA would develop within 24 hours of not having background insulin.

Since we don't know when Baby-O had his last insulin shot, the time frame is irrelevant.

Factual error: The whole basis of the trial and conviction of Cameron Poe is a crock. The judge can not arbitrarily mete out a sentence that is harsher based on the ability of someone to defend him/herself. In justifying the harsher sentence because of Poe's military skills, the judge effectively says that Poe is more guilty than an average person due to his honorable and decorated service in uniform to his country. In my entire time in law school, I never read one out of the literally hundreds of cases I was assigned in which a judge issued a harsher sentence because of someone's innate or learned abilities to defend themselves. But since this was a movie court room proceeding, the fact that Poe had a witness to the fight (his wife), the fact that he was injured in the fight, and the fact that his uniform was torn and otherwise ruined as a result of the fight are never examined. A D.A. wouldn't have taken this to a grand jury on a bet, because they would have never returned an indictment or "true bill."

More mistakes in Con Air

[Poe is looking out of the back of the plane at the DEA agent's car tethered to it, flapping about.]
Cameron Poe: On any other day, that might seem strange.

More quotes from Con Air

Trivia: The original plan for the ending of the movie was to crash the plane into the White House.

More trivia for Con Air

Question: Why is there a cache of weapons in the belly of the plane? Is there some reason in US Marshall rules?

Answer: If there was ever an emergency landing the weapons would be needed with the prisoners as they most likely will have to exit the plane at some point. There doesn't seem to be any information around that says that every prisoner transport plane would have the same amount of weapons or in the same spot but it seems likely most would have backup weapons for situations like that.

Lummie

More questions & answers from Con Air

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