Air Force One was hijacked and the President (Carpenter mainstay Donald Pleasence) managed to escape in a pod that crash - landed in
New York City, where he was promptly abducted by ne'er - do - wells called the Crazies — their name and «tude owing a debt to George Romero's hostile mutants
of the same appellation, though Carpenter, a rebel spirit but not the Sid Vicious
kind, seems to attribute their
aggression to the spread
of punk rather than to a viral contagion.