Zach, Noah, Warren and Bryce are four bright young friends, who decide to take an educated risk and invest borrowed money in a company guaranteed to return their venture capital tenfold or more. It does not seem to trouble them that the privileged information on which they are acting was derived from insider trading. Two little things go wrong. The company suddenly folds under the pressure of federal scrutiny and their financial benefactor turns out to be a high-powered mobster.
The mobster named Eddie (John Travolta) offers them a way out of their awkward situation. They are to kidnap and hold a man for 24 hours before turning him over to Eddie and his two-man wrecking crew. This action will clear their massive debt with him, and everyone will cheerfully go their separate ways. But a couple more annoying little inconveniences crop up. One of them is that the kidnap victim is related to an underworld kingpin who offers a two million dollar reward to the first one to recover his nephew. Another is that the four kidnappers are now required to collectively murder their victim before being allowed to leave the building alive.
Adding to these contingencies is the fact that things are not at all what they seem. Perceived motivations may turn out to be vastly different from actual motivations. What at first seemed patently predictable is anything but. What surprises and challenges will the future hold in store for the four friends?