Denzel Washington plays rookie patrolman Nick Styles, who becomes an up-and-coming legal star thanks to his apprehension of diabolical hit man Earl Talbot Blake (John Lithgow) in this tense police procedural thriller. The sadistic felon stews in jail for seven years, all the while plotting a methodical campaign of revenge to ruin Styles. When white supremacists help Blake escape, Styles's career, marriage and the lives of kith and kin are at stake.