Reporter Luke Stockwell gets word that his photojournalist brother, Matt is missing on a special assignment. When he picks up a videocassette from Matt at the Newort post office, he learns an FBI agent tried to intercept it that morning. Luke enlists Alison Huntley, a digital photo whiz, to convert the cassette to a CD. The tape shows rogue agent Frank Drake hiring an assassin to kill Israeli Prime Minister Sharon.

Drake kills the postal clerk and tries to kill Alison, but wounds her roommate by mistake. Luke invites Alison to spend the night on his yacht, the Shutterbug. Drake sneaks aboard and is wounded in the ensuing shootout and his escape.

After Drake kills a policeman, a door-to-door manhunt forces him to hide in a vacant house. In disguise, he escapes to the Shutterbug and forces Luke and Alison to head for Mexico. Luke runs the boat into the surf and fights Drake on the beach, where he kills Drake.

Meanwhile, the Shutterbug is about to crash onto a rocky reef when Luke rescues Alison from a Coast Guard helicopter.

To prevent an international embarrassment, Washington spikes Luke's shot at a Pulitzer Prize.