Daylight (1996)

The story begins after a waste management firm in upstate NY tries to illegally dispose of toxic waste. They load the chemicals on three trucks bound for New Jersey. That same night, a crew of diamond thieves steal a shipment of stones, and a black Cadillac. They are pursued by NYPD, but they elude the cops by heading to the 'Tunnel to New Jersey'. At the same time, the trucks loaded with toxic waste are making their way into the tunnel. The thieves push their way past the traffic entering the tunnel, causing mass vehicular chaos as they make their way through the north tube. As they shove their way past taxicabs, pickups, and other trucks, one of the thieves drops the diamonds all over the car. She reaches down to get the diamonds, but puts the gas pedal to the floor. The Cadillac accelerates wildly, and the driver loses control. The car hits the tunnel wall, and goes airborne. It smashes a booth which houses the Port Authority police officers patrolling the tunnel, and smashes into one of the trucks carrying toxic waste. The results are horrifying: The truck explodes, setting off a chain reaction explosion that destroys the other two trucks. The destruction of the trucks and its cargo creates a devastating explosion that causes the roof of the tunnel to cave in. Cars on the New Jersey end are flattened. Then another explosion takes place, and the fire, fueled by the remaining oxygen in the tube, morphs into a fireball, and begins rushing through the tunnel at hellish speeds. The fireball devours everything in its path. Cars spinout, trying to avoid the fire, as it torches everything in sight. On the Manhattan end, emergency expert Kit Latura is preparing to drive into the tunnel, when the entrance suddenly explodes. The entrance then caves in, blocking the tunnel. He then races into action, trying to help whoever he can. He runs into an old EMS colleague, who tells him that the tunnel is severely damaged. Quote: "The Jersey side is sealed up tight. It's a wipeout clear up to the tollbooths". Latura then checks with the tunnel administrators, and finds that the hidden passages have all been sealed off. Even worse, the only escape route, the Mid River Passage, a service tunnel running between the north and south tubes, has been so severely damaged in the blast that it is virtually impossible to use as an escape route. In quote: "The mid river is literally hanging like pickup sticks." And, with the weakened tube, the structure could come down if any wrong moves are made. He also discovers that the ventilation systems have been knocked out, and if there are any survivors down there, they don't have much time. With the toxic fire burning at the Jersey end, and the monoxide level rapidly rising, the remaining air supply will only last three more hours. The only way is to send someone down there with a solution: To blow the roof of the tunnel in to seal off the remaining survivors from the fumes, and to wait it out until rescue crews arrive. Latura is then given clearance, and descends through the ventilation system to the tubes under the river. With the Mid river deemed impassable, and the icy waters of the river above slowly coming, only one question remains: Will Latura reach the remaining survivors before the air supply runs out, or before the Hudson river runs in?