A deranged man calling himself James Pettis (Val Kilmer) approaches ''The Grand Rapids Press'' demanding that it publish his predictions about the upcoming demise of civilization due to the conditions of global warming, warning that he has trapped a group of six people in a Turkish-style steamroom to demonstrate the effects of this environment on humans.<ref name=steam></ref> A local police detective Mancini (Armand Assante) tries to get Pettis to reveal information that will help him confirm the truth of his threat and to rescue the hostages, but over the course of the interrogation begins to suspect that either Pettis' story is a delusional hoax, or that the steamroom killing has already taken place.