Charles Piper (Laurence Fishburne) and Luke Dodge (Stephen Baldwin) are two convicts who end up shackled together due to fighting while on work detail. Another prisoner, Mill, who incited the fight, steals a gun from an officer and wipes out half of the officers. Piper and Dodge escape and soon the Attorney General's office has U.S. Marshal Pat Schiller (Robert John Burke) on the case.