Jackie Brown works as a flight attendant for the fictional airline Cabo Air. The small Mexican shuttle airline flies between Los Angeles and Cabo San Lucas, giving Jackie a believable route for moving money across the border.
In Quentin Tarantino’s 1997 film, Jackie is a middle-aged flight attendant whose job has become a dead-end. She supplements her income by smuggling cash for Ordell Robbie, a Los Angeles gunrunner. Her arrest by federal agents forces her to devise a plan that can protect her while turning the tables on Ordell.
Cabo Air is easy to confuse with a real commercial carrier because the film presents it with uniforms, boarding announcements, and a recognizable route. It is fictional, while the story itself was adapted from Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch, whose heroine has a similar airline job.