| Director | Geoffrey Sax |
|---|---|
| Budget | $40 million |
| Box office | $20.7 million |
Alex Rider is a 14-year-old orphan who lives with his uncle Ian and their American housekeeper Jack Starbright. Ian is supposedly a bank manager and is, much to Alex's regret, often away from home. One day, Alex is told that Ian has died in a car crash, but quickly discovers that his uncle was actually a spy working for MI6 and was murdered.
He is then recruited by Ian’s former employers, Alan Blunt and Mrs. Jones of the Special Operations Division of MI6, who explains to Alex that Ian has been training him as a spy. Alex initially refuses to cooperate but agrees when they threaten to block renewal of Jack's visa and have her deported. Alex is then sent to a military training camp in the Brecon Beacons, the home of the British Special Air Service. At first, his fellow trainees look down on him because of his age, but he soon gains their respect with skills learned from his unwitting training.
He sets off on his first mission, aided by gadgets from Smithers. Billionaire Darrius Sayle is donating free high-powered computer systems code named Stormbreaker to every school in England. MI6 is suspicious of his seemingly generous plans and sends Alex undercover as a competition winner to investigate. There, he meets Sayle himself and his two accomplices, Mr. Grin and Nadia Vole, and is shown the Stormbreaker computer in action. Later, while Alex is having dinner with Sayle, Vole steals his phone and tracks the SIM card to his home in Chelsea. She goes there and finds Alex's true identity; while there, she is disturbed by and consequently fights Jack. Despite being outclassed, Jack wins with the help of a blowfish, leaving Nadia to flee the scene. That night, Alex sneaks out of his bedroom window to observe a midnight delivery of mysterious containers to Sayle's lair.
The next day, Alex finds himself in trouble when his cover is blown. After attempting to escape from the facility, he is captured, and Sayle explains his true reasons behind Stormbreaker – each system contains a modified strain of the smallpox virus which, upon activation in the Stormbreaker release, will kill all of the country's schoolchildren. Sayle leaves Alex tied up and departs for the London Science Museum. Nadia drops Alex into a water tank to be killed by a giant Portuguese man o' war, but he escapes using the metal-disintegrating spot cream supplied by Smithers. Nadia is subdued when she is hit by the jellyfish, rupturing the tank in the process. Alex then hitches a ride on a Mil Mi-8 helicopter piloted by Mr. Grin, using a sodium pentothal arrow to gain Mr. Grin's obedience. Alex parachutes out of the helicopter and lands just as the Prime Minister is about to press the button which will activate the computers. Alex uses a rifle to shoot the podium, which destroys the button, and ruins Sayle's plan.
Furious, Sayle leaves to carry out his backup plan, and Alex, with the help of school friend Sabina Pleasure, pursues Sayle through the streets of London on horseback. Fifty floors up on one of Sayle's skyscrapers, Alex reaches him and unplugs his backup transmitter. Sayle chases him out onto the roof and pushes both Alex and Sabina off the roof, leaving them hanging by a dislodged cable. Unexpectedly, Yassen arrives in a helicopter and shoots Sayle (in the same manner he did Ian) before rescuing Alex. Yassen then tells Alex that Sayle had become an embarrassment to his employers, and that Alex should forget about him, but Alex refuses saying that the killing of his uncle means they are still enemies.
Alex returns to school; he and Sabina are talking about what happened and he says that it will never happen again. The film ends with someone observing Alex from a distance. He notices it and realizes that it's not the end.