Tobacco industry lobbyist Nick Naylor has a seemingly impossible task: promoting cigarette smoking in a time when the health hazards of the activity have become too plain to ignore. Nick, however, revels in his job, using argument and twisted logic to place, as often as not, his clients in the positions of either altruistic do-gooders or victims. Nick’s son Joey needs to understand and respect his dad’s philosophy, and Nick works hard to respond to that need without compromising his lack of values. When a beautiful news reporter betrays Nick’s sexually-achieved trust, his world seems in danger of collapsing. But there’s always one more coffin nail in Nick’s pack.

Gene Watson (Johnny Depp) is an ordinary public accountant returning home from his ex-wife’s funeral and is met by Mr Smith (Christopher Walken) and Ms. Jones (Roma Maffia) who kidnap his daughter (Courtney Chase) and give him a gun, six bullets, a name-tag that will give him access to anywhere in a specific hotel, and the itinerary of Governor Grant (Marsha Mason) and is informed that he must kill the Governor in 1 hour and 15 minutes or his daughter will die. The rest of the movie follows Mr. Watson as he desperately attempts to warn the Governor without the knowledge of the two and finds out that the conspiracy against her reaches all the way to those she trusts most.