In 1988, following a 400% increase in crime, the United States has turned Manhattan into a giant maximum-security prison. A 50-foot (15 m) wall surrounds the island, bridges have been mined, and all prisoners are sentenced to life terms.
In 1997, NATO is engaged in an escalating war with the Soviet Union across much of Europe, which threatens to become a nuclear holocaust. While traveling to a peace summit, Air Force One is hijacked by a domestic terrorist posing as a flight attendant. The president is given a tracking bracelet and is handcuffed to his briefcase, containing a cassette tape describing the secret to using nuclear fusion for electricity generation, intended to be a peace offering. He ejects in an escape pod, landing in Manhattan just before the plane crashes.
Police are dispatched to rescue the President. Romero, the right-hand man of the Duke of New York, the overall crime boss, warns that the Duke has the president, who will be killed if any further rescue attempts are made. Commissioner Bob Hauk offers a deal to Snake Plissken, a former Special Forces soldier convicted of attempting to rob the Federal Reserve. If Snake rescues the president and the cassette tape, Hauk will arrange a presidential pardon. To ensure his compliance, Hauk has Plissken injected with micro-explosives that will rupture his arteries within 22 hours. If Snake is successful, Hauk will neutralize the explosives.
Snake uses a stealth glider to land atop the World Trade Center. He follows the tracking bracelet to a vaudeville theater, only to find it on the wrist of an insane old man. Convinced the president is dead, Snake radios Hauk but is told that he will be shot down if he comes out empty-handed.
Snake meets "Cabbie," who remained in Manhattan after it became a prison and now drives an armored taxi. Cabbie takes Snake to Harold "Brain" Hellman, an adviser to the Duke and a former associate of Snake. Brain is a brilliant engineer and has established an oil well and a small refinery, fueling the city's remaining cars. Brain tells Snake that the Duke plans to lead a mass escape across the Queensboro Bridge by using the president as a human shield and following a landmine map that Brain has drawn up. Snake forces Brain and his girlfriend Maggie to lead him to the Duke's compound at Grand Central Terminal. Snake finds the president but is captured.
