US war veteran Cooper takes control of an airliner and successfully extorts $200,000 from the airline. He then parachutes over the Rocky Mountains and disappears without a trace. Cooper's army instructor Bill Gruen is then tasked with finding the man. A chase across the USA takes its course...
John Frankenheimer was the original director of this action thriller, but he was replaced by Buzz Kulik after shooting one sequence. Kulik then finished the movie. The producers then asked editor-director Roger Spottiswoode to shoot a big new stunt and cut the movie. Spottiswoode said the movie was "doomed to fail" unless he could shoot new sequences written by Ron Shelton, who would be involved as an "associate producer". In the end, the Spottiswood-Shelton scenes made up 70% of the finished film.