प्लॉट

Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garber into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime.

In early afternoon, four armed men hijack a subway train in Manhattan. They stop on a slight incline, decoupling the first car to let the rest of the train coast back. Their leader is Ryder; he connects by phone with Walter Garber, the dispatcher watching that line. Garber is a supervisor temporarily demoted while being investigated for bribery. Ryder demands $10 million within an hour, or he'll start shooting hostages. He'll deal only with Garber. The mayor okays the payoff, the news of the hostage situation sends the stock market tumbling, and it's unclear what Ryder really wants or if Garber is part of the deal. Will hostages, kidnappers, and negotiators live through this?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

In New York, four criminals led by the smart Ryder hijack the subway train Pelham 123, stopping the first car with nineteen hostages in a higher plane in the tunnel in Manhattan. Ryder calls the subway control center and the operator Walter Garber talks to him. The abductor demands ten million dollar and gives one hour to the delivery by the City Hall. The Mayor accepts to pay the ransom while the NYPD negotiator Camonetti assumes the negotiation. However Ryder demands that Garber, who was demoted from an executive position due to the accusation of accepting kickback in the purchase business of Japanese trains, continues to be his liaison with the authorities. Within the tense hour, Ryder empathizes with Garber and asks him to bring the money to the train.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

A New York City subway dispatcher draws on his extensive knowledge of the subway system in order to outsmart a dangerous criminal mastermind who's hijacked a subway train in this remake of the 1974 thriller inspired by John Godey's best-selling book. Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) is drifting through his daily routine when he receives word that a heavily armed gang of four has hijacked a subway train and is holding all of the passengers hostage. Led by cunning master thief Ryder (John Travolta), the gunmen will begin executing everyone aboard should the authorities fail in delivering ten million dollars in the space of just one hour. With the tension in the tunnels rising, Walter races to save the hostages before the shootings start. But through it all, there's one part of Ryder's plan that Walter can't quite comprehend: even if the thieves do succeed in getting their money, how could they possibly get out of the tunnels undetected?—ahmetkozan

In an audacious attempt to extort $10 million, the ruthless former convict and criminal mastermind, Ryder, and his armed-to-the-teeth gang take over the Pelham 123 subway train, using the eighteen passengers and the conductor as leverage. Under those circumstances--with Ryder threatening to kill everyone on board unless the enormous ransom is paid--the unlucky train dispatcher who is on duty, Walter Garber, suddenly becomes the on-site negotiator of this volatile hostage situation. Now, the mayor has only sixty minutes to deliver the money, before Ryder starts killing the helpless commuters one by one. Can the inexperienced mediator outsmart Ryder and save the day?—Nick Riganas

A man calling himself Ryder (John Travolta) and his accomplices - Bashkin (Victor Gojcaj), Emri (Robert Vataj), and former train operator Phil Ramos (Luis Guzmán) - hijack Pelham 123, a New York City Subway 6 train, at 77th Street. Uncoupling the front car of the train below 51st Street (and sending the decoupled back cars in reverse), they take the passengers hostage. Metropolitan Transportation Authority employee Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), working the Rail Control Center as a train dispatcher (he can see all the events unfolding on his big monitor), receives a call from Ryder (Garber had been calling the motorman Jerry Pollard (Gary Basaraba) of Pelham 123 on radio and knew him from school days, so Ryder decided to call him), demanding $10 million in cash to be paid within 60 minutes. Ryder warns that every minute he waits past the deadline, he will kill a hostage.

Bashkin kills a suspicious New York City Transit Police officer, and all the passengers not in the front car, except the motorman, are released. Garber reluctantly negotiates with Ryder as Ramos and Emri set up Internet access in the tunnel. On his laptop, Ryder watches the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunge nearly 1,000 points in response to the hijacking. A hostage's laptop also connects to the Internet, and its webcam allows the control center to observe Ryder and Ramos. Lieutenant Camonetti of the New York City Police Department Emergency Service Unit takes over negotiations, which infuriates Ryder, who kills the train's motorman to force Camonetti to bring Garber back. John Johnson (Michael Rispoli), Garber's boss, hated his guts, and sent him back home as soon as Camonetti came on the scene with his team. Camonetti is forced to bring Garber back when Ryder kills Jerry Pollard. Ryder has the motorcar parked on a high hill and can see anyone approaching the car from over a mile away inside the tunnels.

Camonetti learns that Garber is being investigated for allegedly accepting a $35,000 bribe over a contract for new Japanese subway cars. Ryder also discovers the allegations online and forces Garber to confess by threatening to kill a passenger. To save the hostage, Garber claims that he was offered the bribe while deciding between two companies, using the money to pay for his child's college tuition, and insists he would have made the same decision regardless. Meanwhile the SWAT teams move into position and take aim at the motorcar and its captors.

The mayor agrees to Ryder's ransom, ordering the police to deliver it. En route, the police car is involved in an accident and fails to deliver the money in time. Garber attempts to bluff Ryder that the ransom has arrived, unaware he has been monitoring events on his laptop. Ryder threatens to execute a child's mother, but another hostage, a former soldier, sacrifices himself and is killed. A brief gunfight erupts after an Emergency Services Unit sniper is bitten by a rat and discharges his weapon, killing Ramos.

Based on clues from Garber's conversations, the police discover that Ryder is Dennis Ford, a manager at a private equity firm who was sentenced to prison for investment fraud. Ford had agreed to a plea bargain to serve three years but received ten years instead. One of the mayor's aides mentions the extreme drop in the major stock indexes, and the mayor deduces that Ryder is attempting to manipulate the market via put options.

Ryder demands that Garber deliver the ransom himself, and Garber is given a pistol and flown to the terminal. Ryder brings Garber aboard and orders him to operate the train down the tunnel below 33rd Street, where Garber and the hijackers exit, rigging the train to go on without them. Garber manages to separate himself at a railway crossing (when a train comes between him and the hijackers) and follows Ryder to the Waldorf Astoria hotel (the tunnel where they got off led to the back entry of the Waldorf Astoria hotel). Ryder parts from Bashkin and Emri, who are shot dead after being surrounded by police and provoking deadly force in an apparent suicide-by-cop. The train comes to a halt safely just before Coney Island, and the police discover Ryder is no longer on board.

Ryder hails a taxi, followed by Garber, and finds that his scheme has amassed $307 million. He reaches the Manhattan Bridge's pedestrian walkway, where Garber holds him at gunpoint. Ryder gives him a 10-second ultimatum to pull the trigger, and in the final seconds, pulls out his own gun and forces Garber to shoot him. Telling Garber, "You're my goddamn hero", Ryder collapses and dies (as Garber solemnly looks on while Camonetti observes approvingly from a chopper). The mayor (James Gandolfini) thanks Garber and assures him the city will "go to bat" for him over his bribery admission. The film concludes as Garber returns home to his wife with groceries he had promised to pick up.