Some time later, the Tracy family are watching a live TV broadcast of an operation to re-locate the Empire State Building to make way for the re-development of Midtown Manhattan. Disaster strikes when a land subsidence causes the skyscraper to break free of its scaffold. Ned and Joe, who are covering the event, fall into a crevice shortly before the Empire State Building collapses above them. Successfully making radio contact with their studio, Ned reports that they are trapped in a cavern that is filling with water. On Tracy Island, Brains (voiced by David Graham) theorises that the subsidence was caused by a subterranean river running underneath Manhattan, and that the cavern is open to the river.