Why no president?

I'm kind of glad the president isn't included. Most of the time when the president is in these kind of movies the film becomes overly patriotic and melodramatic. Kind of like 'Air Force One', a film I think 'Executive Decision' wipes the floor with.

WINGED FREAK...Terrorizes?....Wait till they get a load of me...

In 96 POTUS was dallying with Monica L. A basic plane hijacking with nuke was too trivial for the C in C.

Interesting, I never thought of that before.

But it occurs to me that showing a president, even a fictional one, may "date" the movie.

Another possibility: the movie may seem more "real" if there are no glaring differences between its reality and our reality. If we never see the president as a character, we get to imagine he's the actual president at the time.

They don't always show the president. Outbreak did the same thing a year earlier. In fact, JT Walsh had an unbilled cameo in it.