Sniper Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) is hired by NSA officials William Avery (Denis Arndt) and Richard Addis (William Duffy) to perform a covert operation to eliminate a suspected terrorist kingpin in the People's Republic of Vietnam who was providing support for Jemaah Islamiyah. The kingpin turns out to be a thought-dead friend and war-buddy of Beckett's, Paul Finnegan (John Doman). Because he views the mission as a very personal one, Beckett demands that he conduct the mission alone, without a spotter. The movie's landscape is make in Thai Land not in Ho Chi Minh city, VietNam as we can see the banner along the street, the scouter at airport, the actor doesn't speak fluently Vietnamese language. The real purpose of the mission turns out to be something other than what Beckett was told. Beckett begins to suspect his employers' motives are not what they claimed after he is counter-sniped at after attempting to assassinate Finnegan. Beckett undertakes a mission of his own to get to the bottom of the mystery, involving escaping from capture by Vietnamese police, working with an NSA-recruited Vietnamese police operative Quan (Byron Mann) and using his military training to search for Finnegan. By and large the plot focuses on governmental betrayal and resultant feelings of disillusion.
