Plot

Frank's caught wildlife in the Brazilian jungle incl. a 400 lbs. white jaguar. He ships it on the same ship as an arrested assassin. The assassin breaks free and frees the animals.

A big-game hunter for zoos has booked passage on a Latin American shipping freighter with a fresh haul of exotic and deadly animals from the Amazon, including a rare white Jaguar - along with a political assassin being extradited to the U.S in secret. Two days into the journey, the assassin escapes and releases the captive animals, throwing the ship into chaos.—anonymous

The hunter Frank Walsh captures and steals wild animals from the Floresta Amazônica and smuggles them in a ship. Meanwhile, an American agency brings the skilled agent Richard Loffler, who was trained to be an assassin, together with a security team and a doctor to be transported to the USA in the same vessel. Along the journey, Loffler escapes and releases the animals to bring chaos on board.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Frank Walsh (Nicolas Cage), a big-game hunter for zoos has booked passage on a ship, where a dangerous criminal is also imprisoned.

Frank recently found an extremely rare white jaguar in the rain forests of Brazil while sitting on a wooden platform high above in a tree and using a goat as bait. The jaguar weighs 400 pounds and had stuck the goat with such force that the tranquilizer gun was knocked off Frank's hand and to the ground below. The jaguar discovered Frank on the wooden platform and attacked him by jumping high into the tree. The jaguar strikes Frank on the lower leg and as a result both of them loose balance and fall to the ground. Fortunately, Frank had one tranquilizer cartilage in his pocket and managed to inject it into the jaguar's neck before falling. The jaguar falls unconscious before it can gather its senses and attack Frank again.

The locals believe the white Jaguar to be an evil spirit (and refer to it as the "Ghost Cat") whom they offer human sacrifices to keep their village safe. His assistant Diego (Pablo Tufino) refuses to help him move the animal because of local superstition. Frank expects to sell the jaguar to a zoo for a fortune. Frank books a container ship to deliver the jaguar along with other animals to the U.S. Frank drives the lorry with the caged Jaguar, and the other animals that he captured during his trip, to the port.

US Marshals also need the ship to transport a notorious political assassin and ex-special forces operative, Richard Loffler, who is being extradited in order to be brought to trial.

As Frank preps to transport his Jaguar across the ocean to the US, he finds that criminal Richard Loffler (Kevin Durand) is also being transported on the same ship, escorted by FBI agents. Richard has killed a US Senator and is being arrested for crimes against humanity.

Dr. Ellen Taylor (Famke Janssen) is a neurologist and travels with Richard to monitor his mental health. Richard is ex-Navy himself and went rouge. Ellen tells Frank, at lunch in the ship's cafeteria, that Richard has a brain condition that can kill him if the atmospheric pressure changes. That is why flying him to the US is not an option. Richard is chained to a chair inside a cage in the cargo hold of the ship which also holds all the animals that Frank is transporting to the US in their respective cages. Paul Freed is the FBI attorney on the ship. The ship is headed to Puerto Rico, 1993 nautical miles away. 2 FBI agents are posted outside Richard's cage at all times. Morales (Braulio Castillo Jr.) is the captain of the ship.

The white jaguar is worth a million dollars to Frank. Frank intends to auction it to the highest bidder, but Ellen wants him to turn the cat over the endangered species bureau. Frank and Ellen butt heads as Ellen finds Frank to be arrogant and dishonest and tells him so. Frank believes that tigers and polar bears are the only 2 animals known to eat men. He believes that jaguars cannot be man eaters and rubbishes the local superstition around the white jaguar.

Inevitably, Richard fakes a seizure to lure the guards into the cage. He then kills his guards and escapes captivity. John Ringer (LaMonica Garrett) is in charge of the FBI team and launches his remaining team to find Richard. Richard has let loose some of the vicious monkeys from Frank's hold, who end up killing some of the ship's crew. Richard has a radio & uses that to communicate with Frank. Frank tells him that he was military himself and served as a mechanic for 4 years. Richard says he did not like when the military trained him to be an assassin for life and then one day told to leave everything and come home.

Frank finds that Richard has let loose most of his animals, including 2 venomous snakes. Richard has also stopped the water pumps on the ship. The Jaguar & the snake end up killing more men on the ship. One group of crew members escape in a lifeboat, leaving Frank, Ellen, and several others behind on the ship.

Richard takes control of the command section of the ship, keys in coordinates and then destroys all controls. Finally, Richard attacks and kills John Ringer and most of his team. Frank still doesn't want to abandon ship as he believes a white jaguar is a once in a lifetime catch and plus this is his only chance since he didn't have permits to transport any of them.

Turns out FBI man Paul Freed (Michael Imperioli) is working from the inside for Richard and helps him stay ahead in the game by feeding him vital intel on FBI tactics and next steps. The remaining engineers on the ship shut down the engines in order to stop Richard from escaping to the Caribbean Islands, as this was the new course he had set into the ship's computers.

Richard uses the radio to impersonate John Ringer and call in the coast guard to mount a rescue. Frank finds Richard, who now has Ellen in his custody. Richard takes Ellen and a young crewman named Rafael (Jeremy Nazario) hostage. Richard is eventually subdued by Walsh who uses his expert skills to capture him.

Frank is about to kill Richard, when Paul intervenes. Richard tells Frank that Paul is NSA who hired Richard to kill NSA targets in South America. He now has enough intel to tie the drug cartels directly to NSA officials, which is why Paul wants him alive, so he can profit from that information. Richard kills Paul, but both Frank and Richard are injured.

Frank stuns Richard with a Neurotoxin dart and captures him in a noose and lets loose the white jaguar to eat him alive. Frank rescues Ellen and Rafael from a venomous viper.

As the coast guard reaches the ship, the captain asks Frank about the paperwork on his animals. Ellen lies that Richard destroyed Frank's paperwork and she saw that everything was in order.