| Director | Richard Franklin, Richard Franklin |
|---|---|
| Box office | $9.7 million |
Eleven-year-old Davey Osborne lives in San Antonio, Texas. His father, Hal, is a military air traffic controller who has problems relating to Davey, especially in the wake of the death of Davey's mother/Hal's wife. Davey befriends Kim Gardener, a girl living nearby. Davey reveres Jack Flack, who is the main character of Cloak & Dagger, an espionage role-playing video game. Davey imagines Jack as a more dashing version of Hal. He wants to live an action-packed life like Jack, carrying around a water pistol as his "gun" and a softball as his "grenade". Davey spends much time playing the game and spending time with Jack as an imaginary friend.
One day, Davey's friend, Morris, who owns a game shop, sends Davey and Kim on an errand, where Davey witnesses a murder. Before dying, the victim gives Davey a Cloak & Dagger video game cartridge containing important military secrets that must be given to the FBI. Davey seeks help from the authorities, who do not believe him.
Spies murder Morris and then chase Davey across the city. Along the way, Jack helps Davey evade the pursuers. However, Davey's sense of morality and concern for Kim (whom the spies have kidnapped to try and blackmail Davey into handing over the cartridge) collide with Jack's harsh methods. While cornered by the spies along the River Walk, Jack urges Davey to lure two spies into the "Crossfire Gambit," causing one to kill the other. Jack convinces Davey to pick up the gun of a dead spy, but rather than shoot Dr. Rice, the spies' leader, Davey panics and runs away down a dead-end path. Rice corners Davey, taunting him. When Davey proves unwilling to shoot first, Jack tries to get Rice's attention. Standing in front of a blank wall (and holding his Agent-X bulletproof beret for protection), Jack dares Rice to shoot him. Davey looks to Jack, warning him not to do anything, and Rice turns and fires at the wall, thinking "Jack" is a hidden ally. Enraged, Davey fires his pistol, killing Rice.
Realizing that Jack had tricked him into shooting the spy, Davey discards the pistol, pulls the miniature of Jack out of his pocket and breaks it on the concrete. Blood begins to pour from the bullet holes that now riddle Jack's body, and he collapses. While regretting the rule, "...leaving when they stop believing", Jack confesses Davey was always his favorite playmate. Distracting Davey by asking for a smoke, Jack fades and vanishes. When Davey calls to Jack, saying he cannot do it alone, Jack's voice reassures him that he always could and tells him to save Kim.
Earlier, Davey had been befriended by an elderly couple who turn out to be enforcers allied with the spies. Davey escapes them, but without the cartridge, and chases the couple to the airport where they attempt to flee the country. At the airport, Davey pretends that they are his parents who are abandoning him. When security intervenes, Davey tells the guard the proof is the cartridge he knows they have. Cornered, the couple kidnap Davey and commandeer a plane, unaware that Davey has brought the bomb which the spies had planned to use to kill Kim. The spies request a pilot, and Hal, who has arrived at the airport with Kim's mother, volunteers to be the pilot. As the plane moves to the runway, Davey tries to summon Jack for help; his father hears him and identifies himself as "Jack Flack" and calls Davey to the cockpit. While preparing to escort him, the female enforcer discovers the bomb and panics, calling for her husband. Hal gets Davey out of the plane through the cockpit window. Davey runs after the plane down the runway, calling for his father, until the plane explodes, destroying the cartridge and the enforcers in the process. Then a figure appears and approaches him, looking like the silhouette of Jack Flack before revealing that it is his father. As the two embrace, Davey asks how he managed to escape. Hal replies, "Jack Flack always escapes".
Davey, joyful that his father is alive, realizes that his father is his true hero and has moved on from Jack. He declares, "I don't need him anymore. I got you, Dad".