Plot

Kimble is photographed with a Congresswoman during her inspection of a military construction project. After they are trapped underground, Lt. Gerard arrives on the scene, confident that he has finally caught Kimble.

Dr. Kimble, going by the name of Parker, is working as a laborer and first aid man on a crew tunneling under the southern Nevada desert to create a missile launching silo. It's dangerous work. A congresswoman is there for an on-site inspection, along with her assistant Susan and a photographer with the Interstate News Service. The contractor on the job and the congresswoman know each other and are not friendly.

Congresswoman Snell twists her ankle while down in the tunnel. As Kimble tends to her, the photographer takes a picture of them. He says it's just for her private collection and he won't release it to the newspapers. Colonel Lawrence, who's along for the inspection, says he'll go get her some crutches; so he, Susan, and the photographer ride back up the 200 feet to the surface. At the top of the shaft, while the photographer is trying to get another picture, he accidentally kicks a can of gasoline down into the tunnel, at the bottom of which is a worker using an acetylene torch. A fire breaks out. Although the workers try to smother it with dirt, there's a big explosion. One of the workers down below dies. The colonel tells the photographer no more pictures. The photographer drives off with his camera.

Down in the tunnel, Jack, Kimble, and a couple of others who had barricaded themselves in the control room survive along with the congresswoman. Up above, the colonel tries to reassure Susan. Susan informs the colonel that Interstate News wants to pay her for a story about the congresswoman. The colonel realizes that Susan isn't as upset about the congresswoman's likely demise as he thought. The colonel also discovers that the wire service has picked up the picture of the congresswoman with Susan and Kimble (the one the photographer promised not to release) and that it's on the front pages of all the newspapers coast to coast. Lt. Gerard in Indiana sees the picture, recognizes Kimble and announces he's flying to Nevada. "This time, one way or another, I've got him."

Back underground, as the workers are trying to dig their way out, they find the buried dead man, a beloved member of the crew. Discussing how long it'll take to dig out, Jack thinks 15-20 hours but they all know the air supply won't last that long. Jack then remembers a conduit outside the shaft. Maybe a man can snake his way through the spaces in the fallen concrete to get to it. Kimble volunteers. In a moment of levity, when another worker wonders to Kimble, "who said you?" Kimble answers "It's going to be a tight fit, Solly" while playfully tapping Solly's belly.

As the workers above ground use heavy equipment and a clamshell bucket to dig out the cave-in, Lt. Gerard arrives to see the man in charge. He shows Kimble's wanted poster to the colonel, who's surprised that the quiet, intelligent man he knows is wanted for murder. Gerard doesn't want anyone to know Parker's real identity or the purpose of Gerard's visit, so he's identified as "Parker's friend." Meanwhile, it's getting hard to breath underground. Kimble makes his way through the rubble to the conduit. He bangs on the metal pipe and workers up above hear him. As the four workers celebrate, the congresswoman seems disturbed. Air is piped down into the tunnel and a headset is lowered the same way. The congresswoman takes the headset and gives a statement to her secretary Susan to release to the wire services. She hails "Parker" as a hero and gets Kimble to get on the line to talk to her secretary. Susan tells Kimble that his friend Gerard is standing right there beside her.

By nightfall, workers are still slowly digging out the cave-in. With his cover blown, Gerard tells the colonel that if Kimble doesn't come above ground after the shaft is cleared, they'll go in after him.

As everyone is sitting around waiting for freedom, Kimble notices that the congresswoman's bandage seems tight. After he loosens them, she says, "You should have been a doctor." She sees that that seems to bother Kimble. The workers can hear the sounds of rescue getting closer and start joking around. Their camaraderie somehow bothers the congresswoman, which Kimble notices. She deflects and talks about how fulfilling her work is and how she's formed close and lasting associations with the people she's worked with for years. Her secretary, for instance, is like her sister. She also decided a long time ago that she needed thick, tough skin and a suit of armor so that people couldn't hurt her. Kimble tells her that she can get locked inside her armor and that every human being needs someone to talk to. Switching topics, the congresswoman says to Kimble, "Who is Gerard? You're afraid of him, aren't you?" The others overhear and Kimble reveals to all that Gerard's a policeman who's after him because "they think I killed my wife." Jack doesn't believe it.

Just then, enough of the rubble has been cleared so that they can see out. They've dug through and can send down a cage that fits one person at a time. The congresswoman is the first to go up. "Back into my suit of armor," she says to Kimble. After the cage starts to rise, Jack says to Kimble, "Now how do we get you out of here?" Kimble says, "Don't get mixed up in it, Jack." But Kimble's a member of the crew and Jack's loyal to his crew. The feeling is mutual. Solly and Alec both want to help too. "You could end up in jail," Jack says to them. Regardless, they all decide to help Kimble.

As the congresswoman arrives at the surface to cheers, the colonel greets her. She asks where her secretary is and the colonel informs her that Susan's probably busy killing the Interstate News story about her. Susan runs up to her employer and says, "We were so frightened!" but the congresswoman knows she's been betrayed.

Speaking Apache, the crane operator talks via the headset to Solly down below, then Solly breaks the headset. Jack yells up to Gerard that Parker has smashed the headset and is hiding in the control room. Gerard climbs into the cage and goes down the shaft. The workers trick Gerard into going into the control room and then close the heavy door behind him, saying that it's jammed. Then they run towards the tunnel opening, tapping on a piece of tarp that Kimble's hiding under. The crane operator lowers the big clamshell bucket into the shaft and all 3 workers are seen on it when it's brought back up. The operator then swings the bucket away from the crowd and it's revealed that hiding at the bottom of the bucket under a tarp is Kimble. And though the congresswoman sees him and Kimble sees her, they say nothing. Kimble runs to one of Jack's construction trucks and drives away. Jack urges the congresswoman to let Kimble escape.

Epilogue: Congresswoman Snell tells Jack that the photographer has given a complete statement, so there's no question of negligence. She won't blame the contractor for the accident.