Hong Kong treasure Hunter Jackie, a.k.a. "Asian Condor" (Jackie Chan), is summoned by Baron Bannon (Bozidar Smiljanic) at his mansion in Madrid, Spain, where he is told of a story of a Nazi commander named Hans von Katterling and his regiment burying 240 tons of gold at a secret base deep in the Sahara Desert in Africa before the end of World War II. The 18 soldiers involved in the operation disappeared under mysterious circumstances. By request from the United Nations, Bannon gives Jackie an unofficial mission to locate the base and recover the gold. Aside from acquiring the key to the base, he is partnered with Ada (Carol Cheng), an expert in African geography. Upon discovery of the gold, Jackie is promised one percent of the treasure, or roughly 2.5 tons of gold. One night, while snooping around the home of one of the base's caretakers, Jackie meets Elsa (Eva Cobo de Garcia), the caretaker's granddaughter, after saving her from a couple of Arab men - Amon (Daniel Mintz) and Tasza (Jonathan Isgar) - who are also searching for the gold. The next day, he goes to a renowned locksmith and learns that the key is intricately designed with a secret code; thus the need to find the last person who used it. After evading an army of black cars across town, Jackie is asked by Elsa to join him and Ada on their expedition, as she is in search of her lost grandfather. Upon their arrival in the Sahara Desert, the expedition team picks up Momoko (Shoko Ikeda), a Japanese woman who is searching for the meaning of death. However, their camp is attacked by black-veiled bandits who kidnap Ada and Elsa. Jackie and Momoko follow the bandits' trail to a slave market, where they save Ada and Elsa from being auctioned off as sex slaves. Meanwhile, the rest of the expedition team are executed by a group of mercenaries led by a wheelchair-bound man. The quartet return to their camp to discover their comrades slain, but Momoko recognizes a statue in one of Elsa's grandfather's pictures and leads them to an ancient temple. After bidding Momoko farewell, the trio enter the ruins, where they encounter a band of vicious tribesmen. While running for their lives, they fall through a loose floor of sand into an underground cavern, leading them to the secret Nazi base. They discover the mummified remains of Elsa's grandfather and look through his log book, revealing that the 18 soldiers under von Katterling ingested cyanide pills and died inside the base upon completion of their mission. However, the trio only counts 17 bodies with one soldier missing. The wheelchair-bound man - arriving with his mercenaries and holding Momoko hostage - reveals himself as Adolf (Aldo Sambrell), the 18th soldier who murdered Elsa's grandfather after the latter crippled him. Upon arriving at the vault, Jackie uses the key and a secret code from Elsa's grandfather's dog tag and opens it, revealing the elevator leading to the gold. Upon their discovery of the gold, the mercenaries turn their backs on Adolf with the intent of keeping the treasure to themselves. Adolf locks all of the mercenaries except for two who chase Jackie to an underground wind tunnel. While Jackie battles the two mercenaries, Ada and Elsa flip random switches in the control room, activating the tunnel's turbine fan. As the three men hang on for their lives, Ada and Elsa attempt to switch off the fan, but they accidentally trigger the base's self-destruct sequence. Adolf tells the quartet that they can escape by having the turbine blow them through the ventilation duct, but he decides to stay to atone for his sins. The quartet gather as much gold as they can, but the wind force only sends their bodies upward to the desert surface above before the base completely caves in. As the quartet walk across the desert, they once again encounter Amon and Tasza, who demand water from them. Jackie throws them his empty canteen before they all realize they are completely lost in the Sahara.
