吉瑞德（汤米·李·琼斯 Tommy Lee Jones 饰）是一位个性火爆经验丰富的警察，最近，他接到了一个重要的任务，那就是押送包括马克（韦斯利·斯奈普斯 Wesley Snipes 饰）在内的两名重刑犯前往位于密苏里州的看守所。 这一路漫长而又艰险，同时，一场人为的事故让飞机于半途坠毁在了丛林之中，马克救出了吉瑞德，但紧接着就展开了逃逸行动。政府命令吉瑞德一定要将马克捉拿归案，在追捕的过程中，吉瑞德渐渐开始对政府的真实意图产生了怀疑。马克真的是如此穷凶极恶之徒吗？政府如此重视他，真正的原意又是为何呢？一切的答案，只有目前行踪不明的马克知道。
The film opens with closed-circuit television footage of an exchange between two men taking place in a parking garage, which appears to be foiled by agents of the U.S. State Department's Diplomatic Security Service (DSS). The two agents appear to be shot and killed by one of the two men making the meeting.
The scene cuts to Chicago, where a tow truck driver named Mark Warren (Wesley Snipes) is driving down a highway while he returns a car to an impound lot. He suddenly has to swerve to avoid a distracted driver, and loses control of his truck. The truck crashes through several construction barriers, then is launched into the air and turned over its side as it skids into an intersection. Warren survives, although his left arm is broken in the accident. Within minutes, the police and the fire department arrive to extricate Warren from the truck. While Warren is being carted away in an ambulance, a firefighter makes an unusual discovery: a gun stashed inside the truck, velcroed underneath the dashboard.
We cut to a South Side neighborhood, where a group of US Marshals led by Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) along with his team, comprised of Cosmo Renfro (Joe Pantoliano), Bobby Biggs (Daniel Roebuck), Noah Newman (Tom Wood), and Savannah Cooper (LaTanya Richardson), are staking out an apartment building where they believe two fugitive brothers, Michael and Greg Conroy, who escaped from a Tennessee state prison are hiding with their girlfriends. Gerard is stationed on a street corner, disguised as a chicken mascot offering free samples to passerby while advertising his food truck parked on the corner. Biggs is stationed nearby, disguised as a construction worker, as is Renfro. Newman and Cooper are stationed behind the building.
While acting his part, Gerard sees a stationwagon pulls up and park outside the building. He watches as the fugitive brothers and their girlfriends climb out of the car and head inside with groceries. Once they're inside, he starts walking towards the building, removing his chicken feet and head and producing his pistol, and is joined by Biggs and Renfro. They advance up to the front door of the suspected hideout. On Gerard's signal, Biggs smashes the door open with a sledgehammer. Biggs and Renfro immediately draw their guns on Michael, who immediately fights back as they try to secure handcuffs on him. Gerard gets attacked by the girlfriends when they try to intervene, but he manages to overpower both of them. Greg Conroy attempts to flee out the back door, only for Newman and Cooper to burst in and pin him to the wall. His infant son starts crying and he immediately makes a move for the baby's crib, ostensibly to comfort it. However, Newman shoots him in the shoulder as he tries to draw a shotgun. Gerard picks up the shotgun and manages to use it to briefly hold Michael, who's been trying to fight off Renfro and Biggs this whole time, at bay. Renfro starts to secure the handcuffs on Michael, who suddenly yells in pain and bites Biggs's left shoulder, forcing Gerard to crack him over the head with the butt of the shotgun.
Gerard and his men later celebrate the arrest of the Conroy brothers at a bar, as they watch a newscast of the brothers being led to the courthouse in handcuffs. Both brothers have made excessive force complaints against Gerard, with Michael having required 27 stitches after Gerard struck him with the shotgun.
Meanwhile, Mark Warren is taken to Chicago Memorial Hospital, where his left arm is put in a cast and he is given a neck brace as support. His girlfriend Marie Bineaux (Irène Jacob) is there waiting to pick him up when he's released, as she pays for Warren's bill in cash. One of the police officers from the scene of the accident is also there, ready to pick up Warren on an illegal gun possession charge due to the gun found in the truck (thanks to Chicago's strict gun laws). The moment Warren is released from the hospital, the Chicago Police immediately arrest Warren and take him into custody.
