Plot
Congressman Phil Hammersley opposes a proposed counterterrorism bill that would significantly expand surveillance powers for American intelligence agencies, arguing that it poses a threat to civil liberties. In response, National Security Agency (NSA) Assistant Director Thomas Reynolds, who supports the bill and stands to benefit professionally from its passage, orders Hammersley's assassination. His team stages the murder as a fatal car accident brought on by a heart attack.
Meanwhile, labor lawyer Robert Clayton Dean is working on a case involving racketeer Paulie Pintero, leveraging a videotape — obtained through a surveillance contact known only as "Brill" — to ensure Pintero agrees to his terms. At the same time, wildlife biologist Daniel Zavitz discovers footage of Hammersley's murder captured by a remote camera; Reynolds sends his team after him. A panicking Zavitz runs into Dean (an old college acquaintance) and manages to slip the incriminating disc into his shopping bag before getting struck and killed in traffic. Reynolds' team finds Dean's business card on Zavitz's corpse and wrongly assumes that he knows about the tape.
NSA agents impersonating police officers attempt to enter Dean's home without a search warrant. When Dean stops them, the agents later break in and plant surveillance devices in his clothes and personal effects. They also publicize false evidence linking Dean to money laundering and an affair with Rachel Banks, Dean's ex-girlfriend and Brill's courier. Dean loses his job, has his car and bank account seized by the IRS, and gets kicked out of his home by his wife Carla.
Desperate, Dean calls Rachel to get in touch with Brill. The NSA intercept the call and send an impostor, but the real Brill intervenes. Brill — revealed to be Edward Lyle, a former NSA communications expert in hiding — removes the bugs on Dean's clothes and reveals the NSA's involvement. Dean starts a fire in a hotel to distract Reynolds' henchmen and is chased through a tunnel and a sewer to evade them. He then finds that Rachel has been murdered and evidence planted to frame him as the killer. Heartbroken, Dean recovers the original disc and brings it to Lyle, who identifies Reynolds as the mastermind. However, their hideout is raided and blown up, and the disc is destroyed.
Lyle reveals his background: he once worked in Iran during the revolution and escaped after his partner, Rachel's father, was killed. Convinced that someone in his own agency betrayed them, he has since lived off grid. While Lyle urges Dean to disappear, Dean insists on exposing Reynolds and clearing his name. They record Congressman Sam Albert, a supporter of the surveillance bill, in a compromising situation, then manipulate Reynolds into believing he is being blackmailed. They lure him into a meeting under the pretense of trading the tape.
At the meeting, Dean deceives Reynolds by claiming the tape is concealed at Pintero's restaurant, which is under federal surveillance. Reynolds confronts Pintero, who misinterprets the demand as a threat involving separate evidence; unfortunately, a massive shootout ensues between the gangsters and the NSA agents, leaving most of the participants dead. Lyle streams the confrontation to the FBI, prompting a raid that ends the standoff. Reynolds' involvement is exposed, the survivors are apprehended, and Dean is rescued.
In the aftermath, the surveillance bill is canceled by American federal legislators, the NSA covers up Reynolds' rogue operation, and Dean is exonerated of all charges. He reunites with Carla and their son Eric. Lyle, having retreated again, sends Dean a covert farewell message via television, showing himself enjoying life in a tropical hideaway.
