Where am I landing? Top of the World Trade Center.
- S.D. Plissken. American Lieutenant. Special Forces Unit, Black Flight. Two Purple Hearts, Leningrad and Siberia. Youngest man to be decorated by the President. You robbed the federal reserve depository. Life sentence, New York Maximum Security Penitentiary. I’m ready to kick your ass out of the world, War Hero.
- Who are you?
- Hauk Police Commissioner. Bob Hauk. Special Forces Unit. Texas Thunder.
- Why are we talking?
- I have a deal for you. You’ll receive full pardon for every criminal act committed in the United States. There was an accident about an hour ago. A small jet went down inside New York City. The President was on board.
- President of what?
- That’s not funny, Plissken. You go in, find the President and bring him out in 24 hours, and you’re a free man.
- 24 hours, huh?
- I’m making you an offer.
- Bullshit.
- Straight just like I said.
- I’ll think about it.
- No time. Give me an answer.
- Get a new president.
- We’re still at war, Plissken. We need him alive.
- I don’t give a fuck about your war… or your president.
- Is that your answer?
- I’m thinking about it.
- Think hard.
- Why me?
- You flew the Gullfire over Leningrad. You know how to get in quiet. You’re all I’ve got.
- I guess I go in one way or the other. Doesn’t mean shit to me. Give me the paper.
- When you come out.
- Before.
- I told you I wasn’t a fool, Plissken.
- Call me Snake.//
- Some of them have cars. They took old junkers that were left behind and converted them to steam. We 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. Tracer. Sends a radio signal for fifteen minutes. You push it, we can track you on radar.
- Where am I landing?
- Top of the World Trade Center. Only place you can land. They won’t see it. On the roof there’s a service elevator. It’s still operational. We use it to infiltrate the prison. There’s a power box. It’ll activate the elevator down to fifty. From there on down you walk. You can locate the President by his vital signs bracelet, on his wrist. It sends out a sig pulse. Use this. Homing device. Shows directions and distance. Strong antitoxin. Stops bacteria and viral-proofs you for hours. Take off the jacket.
- I’ll be OK.
- Let’s go, Plissken.
- I don’t like needles. Twenty-two hours, twenty-nine minutes, fifty-seven seconds… We talked about twenty-four.
- 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. He has a briefcase attached to his wrist. The tape recording inside has to reach Hartford in hours.
- What’s on it?
- You know anything about nuclear fusion? It’s about the survival of the human race, Plissken. Something you don’t give a shit about. I’m going to inject you. It’ll sting for a second or two… That’s it, Plissken.
- Tell him.
- Tell me what?
- That idea you had about turning the Gullfire around 180 degress and flying off to Canada.
- What did you do to me, asshole?
- My idea, Plissken. Two microscopic capsules lodged in your arteries. They’re already starting to dissolve. In twenty-two hours, the cores will completely dissolve. Inside the cores are that heat-sensitive charge. Not a large explosive. About the size of a pinhead. Just big enough to — open up both your arteries. I’d say you’d be dead in ten or fifteen seconds.
- TAKE THEM OUT NOW.
- They’re protected by the cores. Fifteen minutes before the last hour is up, we can neutralize the charge with X-rays. We’ll burn out the charges IF you have the President.
- What if I’m a little late?
- No more Hartford Summit. And no more Snake Plissken.{ Escape from New York, 1981 | Script-o-rama }
