One night, United States air force pilots Major Vic Deakins (John Travolta) and Captain Riley Hale (Christian Slater) take off aboard a stealth bomber plane on a routine test flight. However, during the flight Deakins attempts to shoot Hale with a pistol and tries to release two nuclear bombs that have been loaded aboard the stealth bomber plane. Both Deakins and Hale eject and the stealth bomb plane crashes in the Utah desert. The next morning, Hale is found and held at gunpoint by park ranger Terry Carmichael (Samantha Mathis) who attempts to arrest Hale, but Hale resists arrest. After a brief confrontation, Hale tells Terry about what has occurred and asks for Terry's help. However, Hale and Terry are soon hunted by a group of mercenaries working for Deakins. Hale and Terry soon learn that Deakins deliberately released the nuclear bombs and crashed the stealth bomber plane and has gone rogue and he plots to use the nuclear bombs to hold the American government hostage and threatens to detonate one of the nuclear bombs in a populated area if the American government refuses to pay him his ransom in American dollars. Realizing what is at stake, Hale and Terry set out to go after Deakins and to recover the nuclear bombs and stop Deakins from detonating one of the nuclear bombs and wiping out innocent civilians.