The Peacekeeper (1997)

United States air force Major Frank Cross is in trouble with the "brass" again. This time he's made an unauthorized humanitarian relief flight ... dropping sacks of rice to starving Kurds. To the press, he's a hero. The Pentagon would like to court martial him, but can't because the President wants the highly photogenic media hero by his side--at least until after the next election. So Cross has a new assignment. He's to carry the "black bag"-- the President's high-tech briefcase containing the "go codes" and communications computer for launching America's nuclear ICBM arsenal in case of national emergency. It should be a piece of cake, but... On his first day on the job, a team of mercenaries steal the briefcase and drop Cross off a tenth floor balcony. Miraculously, he not only survives, but pursues the terrorists in a hijacked taxi. The ensuing car chase careens through the alleyways and streets of Chicago, up the ramps of a parking garage and then, unexpectedly, continues over the rooftops of the adjacent buildings! When the taxi takes a fiery plunge off one of the buildings, the mercenaries think they've seen the last of him ... but Cross has bailed out and manages to stowaway on the helicopter that plucks them, and the black bag, from the rooftops, into the night sky and onwards to their final target... United States Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Facility K-7. Disguised as one of the terrorists, Cross slips into the missile silo as the crack team murders the silo personnel and takes over launch control using the secret codes contained in the black bag. Led by ex-Marine Colonel Douglas Murphy, who went "missing in action" during an undercover operation in Iraq, they launch a terrifying warning shot: a Peacekeeper nuclear missile that destroys Mount Rushmore! Only then does Murphy call the President and make his chilling demand. The President is to kill himself in front of a live television audience, or the two remaining nuclear missiles will be targeted on Washington D.C. Only Frank Cross, Joined by the surviving commander of the Missile Facility, Lieutenant Colonel Bernard Northrop, can stop the madness that threatens the President and millions of civilians. The odds are overwhelming. The countdown has started. The PEACEKEEPER is ready to blast off!