| Director | Luis Llosa |
|---|---|
| Budget | $5.3 million |
| Box office | $19 million |
Master Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Beckett, Force Reconnaissance Marine, an experienced sniper, and his spotter, Corporal Papich, are on a mission to assassinate a Panamanian rebel leader in the jungle. Upon successful completion of their mission, Beckett and Papich covertly withdraw from the area to await extraction. Because they are erroneously extracted in daylight instead of at night, Papich is killed by a sniper.
Later, Beckett is paired with an inexperienced civilian, Richard Miller, to eliminate rebel General Miguel Alvarez funded by a Colombian drug lord, Raoul Ochoa. Miller is an Olympic medalist and SWAT team sharpshooter, but he has no combat experience and no confirmed kills to his name. Miller is also ordered by his superiors to kill Beckett if he becomes a liability. While proceeding to the staging area, Miller's UH-1 helicopter is fired upon by a guerrilla. Several of the helicopter's crew and passengers are killed. Miller is unable to shoot him; instead, the helicopter's fatally-wounded door-gunner makes the kill, but the aircraft's surviving aviator believes Miller made the crucial shot, earning Miller a false reputation.
On the mission, Beckett insists on deviating from the plan that Miller was given. Early on, they encounter a group of Indians, who agree to lead them past the rebel guerrillas, in return for a favor: they must agree to eliminate , an ex-CIA agent and expert in torture who has been aiding the rebels. Beckett agrees to do so.
Uncertain of Miller's reliability and skeptical about his "kill" while recently aboard the helicopter, he tells Miller to kill El Cirujano in order to prove himself. However, when the time comes, Miller fails again by first firing a "warning shot," followed by a shot at Cirujano's head, which misses. In the ensuing firefight with the alarmed guerrillas, one of the Indians is killed; the rest withdraw further help.
En route to the target, they realize they are being followed by another sniper. They head to a village to contact their informant, a priest, only to find that he has been murdered well before they arrived. Beckett speculates out loud that it is the work of El Cirujano, calling into question Miller's credibility. That night, Beckett baits the sniper following them into a trap to take him out.
The two men finally reach the General's hacienda. While waiting for their targets to emerge, they find Cirujano to be alive after all. Miller isn't hidden very well, and is spotted by one of the guards trying to sneak up on him. Beckett kills Miller's attacker while Miller takes out the drug lord. Being forced to save Miller's life instead of killing the General, Beckett insists on going back to take out the General. Miller's refusal to complete the mission leads to an exchange of fire between Beckett and Miller. Miller ceases after running out of ammunition.
As rebels close in on the two, Beckett attempts to provide cover fire for Miller. Seeing himself outnumbered, he surrenders to the rebels and, knowing Miller is watching, drops a bullet on the ground. Miller picks it up after Beckett is taken away.
With nighttime approaching, Miller goes to the extraction site, but instead of boarding the helicopter, he heads to the base camp, where he kills the general with his knife. He finds Beckett being tortured by El Cirujano, who has cut off the trigger finger of Beckett's right hand. Beckett spots Miller and uses a ploy to both distract Cirujano and mouth Miller instruction to kill both of them with one shot. Instead, Miller sticks to "one shot, one kill" and shoots Cirujano in the head. The two run to the helicopter for extraction, and Beckett once again saves Miller's life. Using his left hand, he uses Cirujano's pistol to shoot an ambushing sniper. Finally Beckett and Miller return home aboard the helicopter.