Marshall is saved by one F-15 pilot who sacrifices himself to intercept a missile the resultant explosion damages the plane's tail, and they start to lose altitude. Marshall and Caldwell direct the plane back to friendly airspace, accompanied by the F-15s, only to be quickly tailed by a second batch of Radek-loyal MiG-29s. Marshall then lifts his order to release Radek who is subsequently shot dead when he attempts to escape. While Korushunov and his men celebrate the news of Radek's release, Marshall breaks his bonds and kills Korshunov and his remaining henchmen. Bennett is urged by Defense Secretary Walter Dean to declare the president incapable under the 25th Amendment, thus overriding Radek's release, but she refuses. With the president and his family under his control, Korshunov violently scolds Marshall (in revenge for killing his men) and forces him to contact Russian President Petrov and arrange for Radek's release. Some hostages and the captured loyalist fall out of the plane without parachutes. Korshunov discovers the deception and forces Air Force One to leave, causing the fuel to ignite and thus destroying the tanker the consequent shockwave disrupts the escape process, and Korshunov is able to stop Marshall, Chief of Staff Lloyd Shepherd, Major Caldwell and Gibbs from escaping. As a KC-10 tanker docks with Air Force One, Marshall helps to capture another loyalist and escorts the hostages to the cargo hold, where most parachute away. Marshall and military advisors devise a plan to trick Korshunov to take Air Force One to a lower altitude for a mid-air refueling, buying time for the hostages to parachute safely off the plane. Korshunov, assuming that it is merely a Secret Service agent that is in the cargo hold, contacts Bennett and demands Radek's release, threatening to kill a hostage every half-hour. He silently kills some of Korshunov's men and uses a satellite phone to communicate with Vice President Kathryn Bennett, letting his staff know he is alive after all. Unknown to Korshunov, Marshall, a veteran of the Vietnam War and a Medal of Honor recipient, has remained hidden in the cargo hold instead of using the pod, and stealthily observes the loyalists. A squadron of F-15s escort Air Force One as Korshunov has it piloted towards a Radek-loyal airbase in Kazakhstan. Korshunov breaches the cockpit and slays the crew, narrowly preventing the plane from making an emergency landing at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. Marshall is raced to an escape pod in the cargo hold while pursued by Korshunov's men, but they are too late as the pod is ejected. In addition, members of the press have been invited aboard, including six Radek loyalists disguised as journalists led by Egor Korshunov.Īfter takeoff, Secret Service agent Gibbs, a mole, enables Korshunov and his men to obtain weapons and storm the plane, killing many of the other security and military personnel before taking the rest hostage, including Grace and Alice. Marshall and his entourage, including his wife Grace and daughter Alice, and several of his cabinet and advisers, prepare to return home on Air Force One. will no longer negotiate with terrorists.

President James Marshall attends a diplomatic dinner in Moscow, Russia, during which he praises the operation and insists the U.S. A joint American and Russian Special Forces team captures General Ivan Radek, the dictator of a rogue neo-Soviet regime in Kazakhstan that retained its nuclear weapons, threatening to start a new Cold War.

Air force one 1997