Pushing Tin is a 1999 comedy drama film directed by Mike Newell. It centers on a cocky air traffic controller (Cusack) who quarrels over proving "who's more of a man" with fellow employee Bell (Thornton). It is filmed partially on location in and around Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Canadian location work is, perhaps, never more obvious than when Cusack's character is seen driving past a VIA Rail station, an impossibility in the United States.

Nick and the other boys (and Vicki Lewis) working the hotspot of air traffic control in New York are impressed with themselves, to say the least. They thrive on the no-room-for-error, fast-paced job and let it infect their lives. The undisputed king of pushing tin, "The Zone" Falzone, rules his workplace and his wedded life with the same short-attention span that gets planes where they need to be in the nick of time. That is, until Russell Bell, a new transfer with a reputation for recklessness but a record of pure perfection shatters the tensely-held status quo. The game of one-upmanship between the two flies so high as to lead Nick into Russell's bed with his wife. His sanity slipping just as fast as his hold on #1, Cusack's controller is thrown out-of-control when Thornton's wanderer quietly leaves town. Nick must now find a way to regain his sanity and repair his marriage before he breaks down completely. Written by Lordship

Nick "The Zone" Falzone is an air traffic controller at New York TRACON, where it's busy 24 hours a day. He's acknowledged as the best, until a quiet guy Russell Bell arrives on the scene from the Southwest somewhere. Russell and his wife Mary don't quite fit into the close-knit community of controllers and their wives, and a rivalry soon builds. Written by Michael C. Berch