A mentally deranged man takes his former psychiatrist and her two children hostage in revenge for the torment he feels he suffered while being incarcerated at a hospital. Computer program developing detective, Lucas Davenport, is on the case.

A daring prison break from an airliner at 30,000 feet leaves U.S. Marshal Pete Nessip mourning a brother and gunning for revenge. After being ordered to turn in his badge, he seeks out Jessie Crossman, a noted skydiver, and offers to sponsor her crew for the annual Independence Day parachuting show in Washington, D.C., if she trains him. Meanwhile, the mastermind behind the mid-air jailbreak is planning a daring computer theft on Independence Day.

An ordinary man is suddenly forced into a plot to kill a politician in exchange for his kidnapped daughter's freedom.