new here and need help

[Zorm]

My son's friend's 97 900 S is having startinig problems, its an automatic. Problem; he said it was driving fine about a week ago, when he pulled into the driveway and put it in park, the shifter felt real "loose". now the car will not start. He says the shifter moves and he can put it in N to move the car but the shifter still feels loose. I jacked up the car to maybe check the shifter linkage and saw that its a cable? (am I looking at the right thing?) Bad thing is I could not get into the car or pop the hood, he had the keys and the alarm was on.
so could he have a broken cable, loose cable, someting else? how can I get to it to check it.

thanks for any thoughts.

[Roto]

Most likely it won't start because the neutral safety switch is not activated due to the loose shifter. That's about all I can say right now since I never dealt with automatic transmissions extensively.