John Harker was a former United States senator who was serving a term as President as of 1997.
Biography[]
Harker set out on Air Force One to the Hartford Summit at the height of World War III, carrying a top-secret taped recording that explained the principles of nuclear fusion in the hope of ending the conflict with China and the Soviet Union.
However, the jet was hijacked by the National Liberation Front of America, who crashed the plane into the New York Maximum Security Penitentiary. During the crash, a pod that Harker had been placed into ejected itself from the jet.
After landing, he was taken captive by the Duke of New York, and his left ring finger was severed. Meanwhile, Commissioner Bob Hauk arranged for prisoner S.D. "Snake" Plissken to rescue the President in exchange for a pardon for his crimes.
Harker was held at a trainyard, where Plissken managed to rescue him, but was soon ambushed and Harker was taken back into captivity. The Duke then tortured the President by shooting Snake's gun in his direction, ultimately opening his briefcase that held his tape, which was taken by Romero.
He was eventually rescued by Harold "Brain" Hellman and Maggie, who took him to the top of the World Trade Center, where Plissken had landed his Gullfire. However, the glider was pushed from the roof by a group of prisoners just before Snake reunited with the group.
The Duke ambushed them at the ground floor, but they managed to escape and be picked up by Cabbie, who had traded his hat for the President's tape, which Plissken then kept in his possession.
The group reached the 69th Street bridge, where mines killed Cabbie and Brain, and Maggie was run over by the Duke. Plissken sent Harker over the prison containment wall, and the Duke attacked. As Plissken ascended the wall, Harker briefly stopped him to maniacally shoot the Duke to death.
The President then prepared for his broadcast to the Hartford Summit, offering Plissken anything he desired. Plissken asked only for a moment of his time, wishing to know the President's feelings about Cabbie, Brain, and Maggie's deaths that occurred to rescue him. Harker gave half-hearted condolences, and Plissken walked away.
Harker began his speech and played his tape. However, he immediately learned that Plissken had replaced his tape with one containing "Bandstand Boogie."