April 1980 in the Iranian desert, 200 miles southeast of Tehran, as a military helicopter explodes on an airstrip, Col. Nick Alexander, commander of America’s Delta Force, orders Maj. Scott McCoy to abandon the mission. Instead, McCoy rescues trapped soldier, Pete Peterson, from a burning helicopter, and carries him to safety. A news broadcast reports that a mission to free American hostages in Tehran failed. Soon, McCoy tells Col. Alexander that he is resigning. Five years later in Athens, Greece, an airport maintenance worker hides several weapons in an airplane bathroom supply closet. When he leaves, he tells a flight attendant he fixed a plumbing leak. Soon, Abdul, a Middle-Eastern terrorist, removes the hidden weapons from the bathroom. He gives a gun to his partner, Mustafa, and they announce they are hijacking the airplane. Abdul grabs the purser, Ingrid, and orders her to open the cockpit. She knocks on the door but gets no response. Abdul gets impatient, and removes the pin from a grenade and lets it fall to the ground. Finally, the door opens, and the pilot, Capt. Campbell, cooperates. Abdul orders Ingrid to pick up the grenade pin, and he instructs another pilot to insert it back into the weapon. He tells the crew they will take orders from him now. As the pilot redirects the flight to Beirut, Lebanon, he pushes a hidden switch that alerts the American Embassy in Iran and the White House of the hijacking. At the Pentagon, General Woodbridge tells staff that the president has ordered Delta Force to stop the terrorists, and Col. Alexander is summoned to lead the mission. On the plane, Abdul announces that he declares war on American imperialists, Zionists and other “antisocial atrocities.” In the cabin, a Jewish woman named Sylvia Goldman hides her wedding ring because it has Hebrew letters on it. The terrorists order first class passengers to join the others. Soon, Delta Force assembles at Pope Air Force Base [AFB] in North Carolina, and members wonder if McCoy will join them although he is ostensibly retired and now raises horses. Mustafa empties Sylvia’s purse, and discovers her wedding ring. He shows it to Abdul, who orders Ingrid to identify all the Israelis that transferred from a connecting El-Al flight, and collect their passports. The terrorists hold three American Navy divers hostage in the first class section and beat them. They order Ingrid to select the passports with Jewish names or die, but she refuses and Mustafa slaps her. McCoy arrives at Pope AFB at the last minute, and joins Delta Force on its mission. Ingrid announces the names of Jewish passengers to be segregated in first class. As Ben Kaplan is called, his wife, Edie, pleads with him to stay, but he cooperates, and tells his wife that they will survive just as they survived the concentration camps. Edie stands in the aisle, and hysterically pleads with the other passengers to fight the terrorists. Passenger Robert Levine calms her and settles her in her seat. Harry Goldman and Robert Levine are called. When David Rosovsky is summoned, he protests he is not Jewish. A nun named Sister Mary vouches for him, but Mustafa points his gun and orders her to sit. Then, Father O’Malley ignores Mustafa and tells Abdul in first class that he is as Jewish as Jesus Christ. The terrorist orders him to sit. When the hijacked plane reaches Lebanon, the air traffic controller tells them the airport is closed to all international flights. Abdul orders Capt. Campbell to land the plane, but cars and trucks block the runway. The captain tells the air traffic controller to clear the runway or all 144 passengers and crew will die. The Lebanese minister of defense repeats by radio that the plane cannot land. Then Capt. Campbell explains Mustafa is torturing a Navy diver, he overrides the minister’s command, and lands the plane as the runway is hastily cleared. In the air, Col. Alexander briefs his men that the mission has been organized into three parts to rescue the passengers and crew with maximum efficiency. As the hijacked plane sits on the runway, Jamil, a Lebanese commander speaks on the radio to persuade Abdul to release women and children. Abul refuses, and demands fuel. Several more armed terrorists board the plane, while the Jewish men, two Navy divers, and the priest are covered in black hoods and taken to a jail cell at the terrorists’ headquarters in Beirut. Soon, Delta Force is alerted that the hijacked plane is on its way to Algiers in Africa. When the plane lands, the American ambassador to Algeria demands the release of women and children. As they are evacuated, the terrorists collect their valuables. Before Abdul returns Sylvia Goldman’s wedding ring, he licks it. Soon, Col. Alexander receives orders from Gen. Woodbridge to attack and gives McCoy the signal to begin the mission. Soon after, Alexander talks to Ingrid, and learns that several hostages were taken to an undisclosed location in Beirut, and aborts the mission. With thirty seconds to go, Alexander sounds a warning siren. The terrorists hear the noise, and begin shooting at whatever is on the runway. Abdul orders the captain to fly the plane, then stands by an open cabin door, shoots the remaining Navy diver and his body drops onto the runway. Col. Woodbridge gives Delta Force orders to travel to Israel for reinforcements, because the hijacked plane is on its way to nearby Beirut. There, Col. Raffi Amir, head of Israeli Intelligence, promises to put Alexander and McCoy in touch with operatives in Lebanon. After conducting a funeral in Mediterranean Beach, Lebanon, Father Nicholas, a Greek Orthodox priest, observes terrorists transferring hooded hostages to a nearby schoolhouse. Abdul notices the priest, but Jamil claims he is trustworthy. Soon, Father Nicholas, an operative, shows McCoy and Pete Peterson the schoolhouse where the hostages are being held. He leaves the men in a parked van, and returns to his church to transmit a message. There, Abdul and his men abduct the priest, who warns the Americans to escape before he is thrown from a balcony and killed. Delta Force members are chased by other terrorists through Beirut until the terrorists crash and die. On a Navy ship, Col. Amir notes that Father Nicholas’ message was interrupted. Alexander responds that the mission must continue. When McCoy and Peterson reunite with the rest of the Delta Force, McCoy reveals that some hijacked hostages are at the schoolhouse, while others were taken to the terrorists’ headquarters. McCoy leads a team through underground tunnels to the school perimeter. Once inside the building, he uses portable explosives to blow a hole in the floor of the room in which the hostages are being held. The American team charges in, killing surprised terrorists, and transporting hostages to safety. Soon, Peterson radios Alexander that terrorists and hostages have already left headquarters, and Alexander orders the Delta Two team to find them. Back at the schoolhouse, McCoy and team member, Bobby, kill Jamil with rocket launched grenades when he and reinforcements return. When McCoy detonates the school building, an angry terrorist mob disburses. Meanwhile, McCoy travels by motorcycle to the Lebanese desert to find the terrorist convoy. On a deserted road, Abdul berates the driver of the lead car for stopping when he sees McCoy on his motorcycle in the distance. Before the driver can restart his vehicle, McCoy launches rockets from the bike, blowing up the lead car. When Abdul orders his men to drive back to Beirut. McCoy blows up another terrorist jeep and Peterson’s Delta Two team arrives with backup. As a full-scale attack begins, McCoy knocks the driver of a military truck unconscious. Meanwhile, Abdul wounds Peterson, and causes the American’s vehicle to crash. Abdul escapes to a nearby house. McCoy orders the existing Delta team to meet Alexander at the airport. Meanwhile, McCoy crashes through the window of the house with his motorcycle and attacks Abdul. They fight until Abdul escapes to his car. McCoy launches a rocket from his motorcycle that kills Abdul. When the hijacked plane is heavily guarded at the airport, Alexander and his men sneak through a chain link fence, and kill several terrorists, clearing a path to the aircraft. In the cockpit, Alexander asks Capt. Campbell if he has enough fuel to fly to Israel. The captain says as long as the runway is clear, they can take off. Alexander and his team load all the passengers onto the plane. Although McCoy is missing, the plane prepares for takeoff. Terrorists guarding the airport entrance see the airplane’s turbines move, but before they can stop the plane, McCoy kills them and several other terrorists in jeeps racing toward the moving plane. At the rear airplane door, Delta team members throw a rope to McCoy. He guides his motorcycle beneath the door, grabs the rope and pulls himself to safety. As the plane takes off, Delta team hands out cans of beer to rejoicing passengers, In first class, as a doctor administers to Peterson, he asks McCoy if everyone was saved. When McCoy responds, “Yes," Peterson promises to see him when he sees him, and dies. At Israel-Ben-Gurion Airport, women and children passengers and a marching band cheer the returning hijacked airplane. Families joyfully reunite while Delta Force solemnly lowers Peterson’s body onto a military transport plane. Delta Force team glances back at the American passengers dancing and rejoicing on the runway. McCoy and Alexander shake hands on a job well done, then the transport plane returns to America.