Weapons Room: Rehme talks as we pan across a table full of weapons. We see two guns, a belt, grenades, several pouches full of various stuff, a flashlight, an Uzi, throwing stars, and more. Snake surveys them with a cool expression. Rehme explain that some of them have cars. They took old junkers that were left behind and converted them to steam. They think they may also have a gasoline source in there, and power. Greenhouses, rigged up generators. Some areas have streetlights.

The Crazies. Live in the subways. Complete control of the underground. They're night raiders. Snake's not into this. He'll figure it out when he gets there. He picks up a bracelet with an eagle on it. Hauk explains it's a tracer. Sends a radio signal for fifteen minutes. He pushes it, they can track him on radar. Just like Leningrad. But they added something. A safety catch. Snake pushes the safety catch. Simple enough. And yes, there's the button. This is familiar. He smiles.

Snake has his jacket slung over his shoulder now and walks down the hall to the medical room with Hauk. Rehme has disappeared. Hauk explains to Snake he will land on top of the world trade center. Only place to land. They won't see it, and he can take off from a free fall. On the roof there's a service elevator. It's still operational. They use it to infiltrate the prison. There's a power box. It'll activate the elevator down to fifty. From there on down he must walk. Snake shrugs on his jacket.

He knows Hauk is just trying to assert his authority, and it's not working very well. Hauk continues, Snake can locate the President by his vital signs bracelet, on his wrist. He hands Snake a homing device, shows directions and distance. Snake and Hauk walk into the medical room. They're met by a young medic. Hauke explains further, strong antitoxin. Stops bacteria and viral-proofs him for 24 hours. Snake braces himself against a table. The medic is holding an injection-type tech gizmo. Snake shrugs off his jacket, disoriented by the place.

He's nervous. His hackles are up. Hauk straps a timer gauge onto Snake's left hand. He activates it and the time blinks on and counting down as we speak. Twenty-two hours, twenty-nine minutes, fifty-seven seconds. In twenty-two hours the Hartford Summit meeting will be over. China and the Soviet Union will go back home. The president was on his way to the summit when his plane went down. Snake snorts. He has a briefcase attached to his wrist. The tape recording inside has to reach Hartford in 22 hours. It contain vital information regarding nuclear fusion.

Snake turns away. Nuclear fusion is not his area of expertise. Hauk continues it's about the survival of the human race, something Plissken doesn't give a shit about. Hauk steps aside. The medic swabs Snake's neck on both sides. He raises a couple of hypos and injects Snake with them. Snake jumps a little; clearly, this is not one of the world's most pleasant things. Snake gets off the table. The medic turns around, "Tell him." Hauk thinks he's got him this time. Snake doesn't like that.

Hauke explains he has two microscopic capsules lodged in his arteries. They're already starting to dissolve. In twenty-two hours, the cores will completely dissolve. Inside the cores are that heat-sensitive charges. Not a large explosive. About the size of a pinhead. Just big enough to open up both his arteries, he would be be dead in ten or fifteen seconds. This ensures that Snake does not abandon his mission, or turning the Gullfire around 180 degrees and flying off to escape, or find another way to remove them.

Hauk stops talking because Snake has grabbed him by the throat and demands he take them out now. But they're protected by the cores. Fifteen minutes before the last hour is up, they can neutralize the charge with X-rays. Snake lets go of Hauk to look at his watch. 22:57:38. 37. 36. This is his life he's watching tick away. They will burn out the charges IF Snake has the President. Snake promises to kill Hauk when he returns.

Runway: Snake pulls up in a Jeep. He walks up to the tiny plane called the Gullfire. Two guards stand by to make sure he just gets in the plane and does his job. He throws his cigarette out onto the runway and closes the overhead window. Inside the Gullfire, Snake turns on his monitors, he's ready. Snake asks what if the President is dead, will they burn those things out of his neck. Hauk and Rehme exchange a glance; Hauk's been expecting this question to come up, "Get them both back, Plissken."

Snake doesn't like the response, but figures he can't do anything about it. A larger plane hauls the Gullfire into the air; the Gullfire is essentially a big hang glider. Snake starts controlling the plane. He flips the tracer open and hits the button, testing it, he takes the plane in. Snake looks over his monitors. He sees New York coming up. The plane aims for the World Trade Center. Snake calmly angles the plane up. He checks his instruments.

The plane comes down. It hits hard. Snake puts on the brakes, adds a grappling hook, and finally comes to a stop right at the edge. Snake activates the elevator and travels down. He reports to Hauk the Gullfire is functional but taking off will be near impossible. He says he'll work it out and makes his way to the building exit. Snake walks along with his tracer.

He goes through alleys and streets. He draws his gun as he walks by a group of people. He's armed and ready to fight. After wandering the dark streets, Snake is accosted by the 'Crazies' a subterian gang that hunts the streets at night. Snake locates the hijacked plane wreckage and the escape pod, but the President is gone. The plane is still burning. Smoke is coming from everywhere. The plane is severed in the middle. No other survivors. Snake walks and notices a few people go by. His tracer beeps, he looks at it. A small red dot lights up in the southeast corner.

He gets closer and comes up to a building, formerly a theater. He walks in. Snake meets a friendly inmate nicknamed "Cabbie" (Ernest Borgnine), who offers to help. Snake tracks the President's life-monitor bracelet signal to the basement of an abandoned theater, only to find it on the wrist of an incoherent old coot (George "Buck" Flower). Snake pulls out his walkie-talkie and informs Hauk that the person with the tracer is not the President and wants to abort the mission. Hauk gives him an ultimatum to continue or he's a dead man.

Snake walks on. He's in an area with streetlights. He keeps going. No clues. He looks around. Nothing. As he comes back up, he sets up a chair and sits down heavily. He touches his neck. It's like he can feel the cores dissolving. A Crazy walks past, bangs on manhole covers. Snake doesn't know what he's doing, but he doesn't like it. Especially not, when the manhole covers start to rise up. He runs off.

Snake finds a restaurant, the abandoned Chuck Full of Nuts, and runs inside. No one follows. Snake backs into a corner. He gets into the shadows. There's someone there. A seductive young woman (Season Hubley), asks him if he's a cop. She recognizes him and asks him for a cigarette, she's surprised it's a real one. She tries to entice him to take her with him, but the Crazies soon attack the diner, and Snake is forced to run, leaving the nameless young woman to her fate at the hands of the Crazies.

After a chase down a back alley, Cabbie shows up in his taxi. Snake climbs in the taxi and notices a tape player which is playing the theme from "American Bandstand." Cabbie lights a rag stuffed down the neck of a bottle which is full of gasoline. Cabbie throws the bottle into the alley, where it explodes. Cabbie makes a sharp turn. Snake points his gun at Cabbie and asks him where's the President? Cabbie responds there's no need to point a gun at him, the Duke (Isaac Hayes) has him.

Snake wants to meet this Duke, but Cabbie says nobody wants to meet the Duke. You meet him once and then you're dead. Snake points the gun more insistently. Tough. Forced at gunpoint, Cabbie takes Snake to see Brain (Harry Dean Stanton), a savy and well-educated inmate who has made the New York Public Library his personal fortress. Cabbie parks the cab and he and Snake walk up to Brain's building. He and Snake walk up to the door and Cabbie knocks. From the inside, someone answers. Cabbie announces someone wants to see Brain.

Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau) first refuses, then opens the door. She stands there and surveys the pair. She's knows it's Plissken, who tells her he want to meet the Duke. She thought Plissken was dead. Snake and Maggie exchange a glance. She leads them in. Maggie is Brain's squeeze. The Duke gave him to Brain just to keep him happy. Snake can tell that Maggie's more than just Brain's squeeze; she's his bodyguard, too. She looks like she'd be willing to kill to protect Brain. They enter Brain's room and Maggie announces them to Brain.