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.