 When Cameron Poe, of the US Army, is found guilty of manslaughter after killing a drunk man while protecting his wife outside a bar, he is sent to jail for eight years. During that time his daughter is born, but he waits patiently in his cell until his release date. He is flown home on board the Jailbird, which also transports some very dangerous convicts to a maximum-security prison in Louisiana. The convicts manage to escape directed by Cyrus "The Virus", who also leads the plane s take-over and re-routes it to an abandoned airfield to catch another plane which will take them to a foreign country. With Poe s help, the authorities learn where the convicts are headed for and manage to get there before they take off again. After the police and army are killed in an ambush at the airfield, the convicts take off again toward Las Vegas, but a US Marshal, Vince Larkin, with the help of Poe on board gets there again in time to finally stop the convicts.