 A SWAT team goes into the house of a Senator. Someone is holding the Senator hostage. The bomb squad arrives in a helicopter and they rappel down into the house. Frank Glass is in charge of the bomb squad. Glass finds a bomb in the basement and works to disarm it while the SWAT team is in a shoot-out with some of the hostage takers. Glass gets the bomb disarmed, but he thinks it was too easy. Everyone is ordered out of the house. The elaborate bomb explodes. A year later, in San Francisco, two cops named Ray Nettles and Art "Fuzzy" Rice, are driving around talking. Nettles has had some problems on the job before. He and Fuzzy are vice cops and partners. Nettles is on the edge. His wife and son were killed by a bomb. Ever since then, he has lost his enthusiasm for his job, hygiene, and life in general. Fuzzy has been trying to cheer Nettles up, and talk out his demons. They stumble upon something suspicious and decide to investigate, and they end up in an apartment building busting some guy, then they end up at a warehouse. Nettles runs into a scientist named Claire Manning, and Fuzzy gets killed by Swann, the IRA-connected terrorist who bombed the Senator s house. Nettles arrests Claire. She refuses to say anything about Swann. She was wearing a bracelet made up of some wires. Nettles takes it to the bomb squad, and Glass looks it over. The bracelet contained a very powerful explosive. Swann wants Claire back, more than anything. The police decide to hold Claire in an effort to find out what Swann is up to, which angers Swann. Swann makes a powerful bomb and calls in a threat to the police station. If Claire isn t released within an hour, a bomb will go off somewhere in the city. Swann intends to continue setting off bombs until Claire is released. Swann and the men who are working with him are in the city for a big job. Nettles becomes obsessed with nailing Swann. Glass and the bomb squad are working on the case because bombs are involved. Nettles ends up working with Glass and the bomb squad. Together, they attempt to stop Swann, and they try figure out the motive for the big job that Swann is in town for, and how Claire is involved in it. It turns out that Claire is out for revenge -- her husband was murdered after discovering plans to build an elementary school on a toxic waste dumping area. Claire blames the San Francisco city government for her husband s murder, so she has enlisted Swann s help to get revenge by blowing up city hall. That s the big job that Swann is in town for. With the help of Glass, Nettles sets out to find and stop Swann.