Plot

A Delta Force team fights for survival as an Air Force drone pilot becomes its eyes in the sky.

The Sulu Sea is home to some of the most violent extremist groups in Southeast Asia. Intelligence agencies are at war against these groups with covert operations being carried out frequently by Governments.

One such operations is underway from the Palawan Air Base in the Philippines. Captain Eddie "Reaper" Grimm (Russell Crowe), a US Air Force drone pilot, supported by Staff Sergeant Nia Branson (Chika Ikogwe), provides air support from a Reaper to a US Army Delta Force team sent to rescue a CIA spy in the southern Philippines. The CIA agent was gathering intelligence on Alexander Petrov, a Russian arms dealer and former KGB agent.

The crew includes Master Sergeant John "Sugar" Sweet, Sergeant JJ Kinney (He is the JTAC and his job is to guide the drone to its targets on the ground), Sergeant Bishop and Sergeant Abell (Luke Hemsworth). Nia is getting married and wants Eddie to walk her down the aisle, which she is unable to do as she keeps getting interrupted. Eddie is also getting calls from his pregnant wife Lucy. Eddie wants Lucy's sister to take her to the hospital in case she goes into labor, as he is on a mission. He leaves his phone in the common area (as he is not allowed to take it in the mission room), and asks the other guys including CO Colonel Duz Packett (Daniel MacPherson) to come and get him in case his wife calls him on his mobile phone. The base is busy watching a basketball game on TV.

The team lands on a beach and treks 8 Kms to their target area. As the team gets close to their target, there is a systems malfunction and the drone's visual data connection to the control room is disrupted. As Such Eddie and Kinney are blind as they cannot see enemy locations on the ground. Eddie pulls the reaper drone back to the Palawan base for repairs and there are no other UAVs in the air to provide cover. The team reaches the HQ compound of Abu Sayyaf and positively identify Alexander Petrov as well as Saeed Hashimi, the head of Abu Sayyaf. Hashimi is buying his guns from Petrov. After fixes, the reaper drone reaches back on station. The team watches as Hashimi turns on Petrov and beheads his wife. The team orders the reaper to drop a bomb when Hashimi moves to behead Petrov's son. Hashimi is also shot in the leg by the US team.

Aby Sayyaf responds with RPG attacks, which strikes the team, before Kinney can ask Eddie for a missile strike against the terrorists.

After a firefight breaks out against the Abu Sayyaf, Sergeant JJ Kinney (Liam Hemsworth) - a young Air Force TACP (callsign "Playboy") attached to the Delta Force team as its JTAC - is seemingly the only survivor and is directed to an extraction point, relying only on the Reaper's remote air support. Eddie constantly talks to Kinney on the satellite phone and keeps him moving, while helping him avoid hostile forces in his path.

Once Kinney arrives, he is intercepted by the Abu Sayyaf, depleting the ammunition of Grimm's drone (consisting of AGM-114 Hellfire and BLU-118 munitions) and forcing the endangered extraction helicopter to leave. A Hornet fighter aircraft arrives on station to provide cover fire from the air, but the terrorists have surrounded Kinney from all sides. The Hornet drops its ammunition close to Kinney to kill the attackers and flies away. Trying to reach another extraction point (which is on the other side of a tall hill), Kinney falls down a hill and loses his rifle, runs out of ammunition for his pistol, and then gets captured.

One of his squad mates, Master Sergeant John "Sugar" Sweet (Milo Ventimiglia), turns out to be alive and rescues Kinney, while telling him Sergeant Bishop (Ricky Whittle) was taken prisoner in Abu Sayyaf's base in a series of caves, at their initial mission location. Using Sweet's radio, Kinney contacts Grimm, who schedules three bombings to hit the base (the first 2 bombings will be diversionary and the 3rd one will destroy the entire network of caves), each 15 minutes apart, before Grimm and Branson are forced by their superiors to take a leave for having exceeded their duty day. Kinney and Sweet raid one of Sayyaf's facilities before being captured and taken to their prison.

Sweet is executed right as the first superficial bombing hits, and Kinney is taken to be tortured, where the rebel leader Saeed Hashimi (Robert Rabiah) does not believe his warning about the upcoming bombings. When the bombs hit, Kinney survives due to having been dunked in a water tub, while his captors are caught in the flames. Kinney grabs a machete and kills the surviving leader, taking his satellite phone and calling Nellis Air Force Base for Grimm to call off the third bombing, before the battery runs out.

The base crew, distracted by a March Madness game, dismisses Kinney's call and redirects him to Grimm's private phone. Grimm does not answer, being in a call with his very pregnant wife while grocery shopping, so Kinney leaves a voice mail, and leaves seeking the other prisoners. Returning to Bishop and searching for a way out, they also find the CIA operative, whom Grimm and Branson had been lied to that he was found elsewhere by another agency's operation.

At the grocery store checkout, Grimm hears Kinney's voicemail and immediately leaves, trying to call Nellis while driving to the base. As no one answers, Grimm is forced to rush to the control room and order the B-1 Lancer pilot to abort the bombing, right as it flies in front of Kinney, Bishop, and the CIA agent reaching the cave's entrance.

As the soldiers are finally extracted in the Philippines, Grimm complains to the rest of the base crew and his superiors that three men nearly died because they were too distracted to hear their calls, despite being repeatedly asked to pay attention to the phone because of his pregnant wife, and he smashes the break room's main television in anger. Afterwards he convenes with Branson in a hangar, where she asks him to walk her down the aisle in her wedding, and he agrees and leads her in a dance.