| Director | Ernest Day |
|---|---|
| Genre | adventure film |
| Runtime | 116 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $14 million |
| Box office | $4 million |
While drifting through Mexico, American engineer Joe Wiley meets well-heeled woman Liliana Holbrook, who sets him up with a room in an expensive hotel. Wiley finds emeralds in his room and takes a mysterious phone call arranging a meeting the next morning. He travels to the meeting at a secluded beach, but is shot at and has to escape into the sea, where he is picked up by Holbrook in a speedboat. Later, at her home, Holbrook explains that her sister Carrie has disappeared while travelling in Colombia. They are visited by Argenti, who controls the emerald trade in Colombia and, Holbrook believes, will help find her sister. Argenti is a former diamond trader who was exiled for dealing in stolen diamonds. He wants to marry Holbrook, whose father is a wealthy diamond merchant, as a way to return to favour with his former organisation.
In Colombia Argenti shows Wiley his operation, including a voice activated vault in which he stores emeralds. Holbrook and Wiley set off into the interior to look for Carrie. They discover that she was killed by the army while helping rebels. They meet the rebels whose leader, Miguel, shows them that they are smuggling emeralds via a coffee plantation to raise funds for their cause. Holbrook agrees to help and they set off to return with a shipment of emeralds but are stopped by the same army patrol that killed her sister. When the patrol leader discovers Holbrook's identity he tries to shoot her, but she shoots first and kills him. The rebels kill the other soldiers. They travel further but are captured again and detained overnight, and it is implied that Holbrook is molested by the soldiers. The two are freed the following morning.
They meet with Miguel again and determine to rob the vault in the Argenti's skyscraper headquarters. With the help of Wiley's old friend Claude, he and Miguel use cloudhopper one-man hot air balloons to land on the roof of the skyscraper undetected. Wiley and Miguel enter the vault and use a covertly obtained recording of Argenti to open the vault and steal the contents. Wiley then descends to the street and the waiting rebels, but Miguel gets stuck part way down. Argenti's men realise a robbery is in progress and raise the alarm. Wiley escapes but, rather than be captured, Miguel releases himself from his harness and falls to his death.
Wiley and Holbrook make it to a rendezvous and escape on a boat, but run into a Colombian naval patrol and are boarded. The navy commander does not find the emeralds, but inadvertently releases them into the sea while destroying illegal fishing bait. Argenti and his men track Wiley and Holbrook to a secluded holiday home near Miami, where a violent confrontation ensues. Holbrook is wounded, and Wiley is cornered by Argenti, who is then killed by his associate Jaap, who is working for the diamond organisation that Argenti had previously been expelled from. Holbook recovers and Wiley then takes delivery of a shipment of coffee from Colombia, inside which is concealed a package of emeralds from the rebels' plantation.