Nick 'The Zone' Falzone (John Cusack) and his fellow air traffic controllers at New York TRACON pride themselves on their ability to handle the intense stress of being a controller for one of the busiest airspaces in the country, even boasting of the 50% drop-out rate for new additions to the staff who are unable to cope with the pressure. The group is joined by the quiet and confident Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton), a veteran of TRACONs in the Western United States. Russell quickly proves to be exceptionally capable of handling the increased workload by using unorthodox and risky methods. Nick feels challenged by the new controller's ability to out-perform him at seemingly every task and warns his supervisor that Bell is a loose cannon, especially after discovering that Russell once stood on a runway to allow himself to be violently propelled by a landing commercial airliner's jetwash.
29 May 1960, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
17 March 1960, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
9 April 1968, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
14 May 1969, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
June 27, 1926 in Lafleche, Saskatchewan, Canada
4 June 1975, Los Angeles, California, USA
29 January 1972, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
15 December 1966, North Plainfield, New Jersey, USA
1984 in Brampton, Ontario, Canada
15 January 1950, Ontario, Canada
