Plot

A father and his son attempt to bring in an assassin to the authorities, but his dangerous associates have other plans.

Ray Keene (John Cusack), a father who wants to redeem himself in the eyes of his son (Jamie Anderson), is trying to bring Carden (Morgan Freeman), a world-class assassin to justice. All the while, he must protect his son and evade the assassin's team who are methodically hunting them down in the wilderness.—Anonymous

The widower teacher and baseball and basketball coach Ray Keene lost his wife that died of cancer two years ago. When his teenage son Chris Keene is caught by the police smoking pot, Ray invites him to hike and camp in the woods to increase their bonds. Meanwhile, the mercenary assassin Frank Carden is arrested by FBI after a car accident in the middle of a contract to kill an important target. While Frank is traveling on the road escorted by three FBI agents, his men try to rescue him, but his car falls into a river and is carried by the drift. Ray helps the wounded agent and the cuffed Frank to leave the river, and feels responsible to deliver Frank to justice. The former policeman and stubborn Ray does not listen to Frank's proposal to leave him alone and travel through the woods with Chris, trying to find a safe place. But Frank's men and an undercover agent in the team are chasing the group with different lethal intentions.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Attempting to recover from a recent family trauma by escaping into the woods for a peaceful hiking trip, an ex-lawman and his young son stumble across a dangerous contract killer in director Bruce Beresford's forest-bound thriller. Ray Keene (John Cusack) has lost his wife, and now the grieving father is looking to reconnect with his young son (Jamie Anderson) with a much-needed hike into the wilderness. But Ray and his son aren't alone in nature, because high profile assassin Frank Cardin (Morgan Freeman) has ventured into nature with the malevolent intentions of fulfilling a contract to kill an extremely powerful businessman. When Frank's hit goes awry and he ends up in the custody of U.S. Marshalls, the situation quickly spins out of control as a small army of loyal mercenaries draw their guns in a violent attempt to free their notorious compatriot. Later stumbling upon the chaotic situation, Ray does his best to protect his son while ensuring that Frank doesn't escape justice. Though Frank's men aren't willing to let their boss go to prison without a fight, Ray vows to do the right thing as help suddenly comes from the most unlikely of places.

Frank Carden (Morgan Freeman), a professional assassin who has been hired to kill a reclusive billionaire named Lydell Hammond Sr. Carden's team includes a new recruit named Davis, Turner (Jonathan Hyde), Royko (Anthony Warren) and Johnson (Thomas Lockyer). Carden explains that this is a 2-step contract. Carden tells the team to travel separately to get to their destination. Carden and his men kill Hammond's son Hammond Jr. when he was coming out of the apartment of his mistress. Carden calls his handler Miles and reports that step one has been completed.

Turns out Hammond Sr. is not seen publicly, and the killing of his son was a ruse to get him to make a rare public appearance, thus giving the team a chance to assassinate him. Hammond Sr. was very vocal in his support for violence against scientists and engineers engaged in stem cell research.

Carden's plan goes awry when he gets injured in a car accident and ends up in the hospital. When hospital staff see his gun, they call the police. The police are able to peel away his false identity (and run his fingerprints to get his real name and profession) and Federal Marshals are called in to pick him up. Chief Ed Wainwright (Bill Smitrovich) and his Deputy Evans (Ned Bellamy) are the law enforcement in town.

Turns out Miles is an FBI higher up and she gets the news of Carden's arrest. She reports to her boss that the situation is under control and that she is on top of it. Miles contacts Carden's crew and tells them of FBI's plan to transport Carden.

Ray Keene (John Cusack) is a widower, a high school gym teacher, ex-cop, and with good intentions but not very able dad to Chris (Jamie Anderson). Ray belatedly realizes the need to bond with his son when the latter gets caught smoking marijuana and takes him hiking in the wilderness. Chris blames Ray for the death of their mother. Chris says that Ray promised him that everything will be alright, when his mother got sick, and she ended up dying. Chris says that Ray cannot control anything and should pretending that he can.

Carden is being driven through that same wilderness by the Marshals, but his men stage a rescue attempt.

Most of the Marshals end up dead and the car crashes as it falls down the side of a mountain road and into the river below. Carden shoots the last Marshal in the stomach during a struggle, but then helps him get out of the drowning car. The Keenes come across the 2 men floating down the river and rescue Carden and the surviving Marshal from the water. The Marshal hands over his hidden gun to Ray and asks him to take the prisoner to the authorities and then dies of his injuries. Ray and Chris have to get Carden out of the wilderness and hand him over to the authorities.

Carden asks Ray to let him go, else promises that both Ray and Chris would die. Carden says that Ray is out of his depth, and this triggers a challenge within Ray. Ray is now determined to bring Carden to the proper authorities. Carden's men, highly skilled ex-military thugs, track them down to try rescue Carden and kill the Keenes. Ray leads Carden to the nearby highway, where Chris spots a van driver. But then Carden's men get to him and shoot the man down before Ray can reach him. Ray knows that he is trapped in the forest with Carden. Meanwhile, Miles calls Davis and orders him to get rid of Carden.

Chris had hiked the forest several times before and was very aware of the entire area and its trails. He helps keep Ray and Carden one step ahead of the crew that followed them. At night, they take refuge in a cave where Carden describes his job as "exterminating obstacles to progress".

The pursuit brings a couple, Sandra (Megan Dodds) and Lochlan (Ryan McCluskey) into the crossfire, with Lochlan being killed as collateral damage from Carden's men.

In a tense standoff in a cabin in the woods, Carden's friends turn up and Keene agrees to let Carden go. Just at that moment, one of Carden's goon's bursts in and punches Chris, causing Keene to panic and kill both thugs, sustaining critical wounds in the process. Carden escapes, taking Chris as a hostage while Sandra and Keene are rescued by the local police.

Feeling defeated and resting at home, a televised report echoes Hammond Sr as "an obstacle to progress", which resonates with how Carden had described his job earlier and making Keene aware of Carden's intended target.

Keene heads to the funeral of Hammond, Jr. to intercept Carden, and inadvertently saves Carden from an attempted assassination from Carden's recent recruit, Davis (Corey Johnson). Carden gets the upper hand on Davis, killing him with his own sniper rifle. However, the battle forces Carden to miss his own window of opportunity to assassinate Hammond Sr. Carden relents in giving Keene a set of keys to a hotel room where Keene locked up Chris, letting father and son reunite while he disappears.

In Washington, D.C., Carden intercepts his mission handler, Miles (Alice Krige), aware of her role in hiring Davis to kill him. Carden threatens pursue her if any harm were to come to the Keene family.

Two weeks after the incident, Keene enters into a relationship with Sandra and holds a family barbecue, expressing disbelief in hearing a radio news report about Hammond Sr. dying in a boating accident, realizing that Carden finished his contract kill.