Pilot-for-hire John Finnegan (Treat Williams) is transporting a group of hijackers to the South China Sea. There they have been commissioned to blow up the luxury liner 'Argonautica' with missiles supplied by its owner, Simon Canton (Anthony Heald), so that he can collect the insurance. However, the ship has already been attacked by a deadly sea monster, and only a handful of survivors, including Canton and jewel thief Trillian (Famke Janssen), remain. The hijackers and Finnegan board the ship to pick them up and obtain some machine parts required to repair their own craft, but soon they too are being picked off one by one.