Nathan "Diamond Dogs" Jones

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Evil-doer
Full Name	Nathan Jones
Alias	Diamond Dog
Origin	Con Air
Occupation	Domestic terrorist
Powers / Skills	Militant philosophy Marksmanship Writing
Goals	Escape to a non-extradition country. Start a revolution (both failed).
Crimes	Mass murder Robbery Hijacking Terrorism Kidnapping Hate crimes
Type of Villain	Right-Hand Supremacist

“	It's a means to an end, my white friend. A means to an end. See, I's can play house n****r tills we get to where we're goin'. And then, the Day of the Dog begins.	„
	~ Jones rationalizing working with Cyrus Grissom.

Nathan "Diamond Dog" Jones is the secondary antagonist of the 1997 action film Con Air. He is an African American militant terrorist who conspires with criminal mastermind Cyrus Grissom to hijack the plane carrying them and several other criminals to another prison.

He was portrayed by Ving Rhames, who also portrayed Leroy in The People Under The Stairs, Marsellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction, James Allen in Animal, Thaddeus in The Star and Buffalo Belzer in Wendell & Wild.

Biography

Nathan "Diamond Dog" Jones is a self-described black supremacist who preaches a warped philosophy in which black people fight a race war with whites and exterminate them. He has committed several murders, all of which he claims were acts of "revolution". He authors a book while in prison titled Reflections in a Diamond Eye which, despite its racist and antisocial content, is well-received by critics; at one point, a film adaptation was in the works starring Denzel Washington as Jones. It is not specified in the film, but the specific political movements Jones seems to subscribe to include Pan-Africanism, black nationalism and Islamic supremacy.

Behind his rhetoric, however, Jones is simply a gangster and a murderer whose only real cause is himself. For example, while he claims to hate white people, he is more than willing to join forces with white career criminal Cyrus Grissom in a plot to escape from prison. The two of them mastermind a plan to hijack the Jailbird, an airplane on which they and several other convicts are set to board in order to be transferred to a Supermax prison in Mobile, Alabama. Jones also is shown to have a sense of humor when he put on a woman's pair of sunglasses and jokingly aimed a gun at Poe.

Con Air

Upon boarding the Jailbird with the other convicts, Jones breaks free of his restraints with a pin he had smuggled onboard and kills a guard. During the ensuing chaos, he and Grissom take control of the plane. Jones promises the other prisoners that, if they go along with his and Grissom's plan, they can spend the rest of their lives in a non-extradition country with "suntans, umbrella drinks, and dirty naked freaks".

When they land in Carson City, Nevada, for a scheduled prisoner transfer, Jones wants to kill the remaining guards, but Grissom persuades him to spare their lives so they can disguise them as prisoners and get rid of them; the convicts, meanwhile, dress in the guards' clothes. Meanwhile, Jones helps Grissom free serial killer Garland Greene from his restraints.

Unbeknownst to Jones and the others, one of the prisoners, Cameron Poe, is in fact a parolee who is only onboard to go home to Alabama. Jones takes an immediate dislike to Poe, calling him "hillbilly". Nevertheless, he brags to Poe that he is only playing along with Grissom's plan until they arrive at Lerner Air Field to meet with their contact, drug lord Francisco Cindino; he then plans to kill Grissom and take control of the plane himself.

On Grissom's orders, Jones and Poe inspect the belly of the plane to find out what is slowing them down. They find the lifeless body of one of the prisoners, Pinball, who has been crushed by the plane's tires. When Jones' back is turned, Poe scribbles a message to the police on Pinball's corpse before throwing it out of the plane.

At Lerner Air Field, Jones prepares to execute three guards just for fun, but Poe stops him by persuading Grissom that the guards can be useful as hostages, while giving details of Cindino's treachery such as using people to serve his needs and abandoning them to be either recaptured or killed. Although Jones is infuriated, he agreed with Poe's plan. After Grissom kills Cindino for attempting to betray him, Jones warns him about an approaching cadre of police and SWAT officers, and they get into a fierce gun battle in which Jones kills several officers. Nonetheless, the prisoners are forced to board the Jailbird and take off.

During the flight, Jones finds a letter from Poe's daughter and learns that he is due to be released, and figures out that Poe has been working against them the entire time. He alerts Grissom, who is about to kill Poe when the plane is attacked and severely damaged by military helicopters, forcing them to crash-land on the Las Vegas Strip. Jones and Grissom escape on a fire truck, but Poe and Air Marshal Vince Larkin pursue them on the former's motorcycle, which they ram into the truck, killing Jones as the vehicle explodes in a ball of flame.

Trivia

• Much like how Garland Greene was inspired by real life serial killers, Diamond Dog seems to have been inspired by real-life violent black ethno-nationalists.
  • In particular, Malcolm X seems to have been a clear inspiration for the character. Malcolm X was sentenced to eight-to-ten-years in prison for larceny, where he converted to Islam and developed his violent views on race and religion.
    • Like Malcolm X, Diamond Dog is apparently a Muslim because he yells "Allahu Akbar", an Islamic Arabic phrase meaning "God is great".
    • Malcolm X was also played by Denzel Washington in the film about his life. In Con Air, Denzel Washington was said to be in talks to play Diamond Dog in a film based on his book. If this is not a sly nod to Malcolm X, it makes little sense because Denzel Washington and Ving Rhames do not resemble each other at all.

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