在这部美国黑帮档案剧情/动作/传记/犯罪片中,本片改编自真实故事。讲述了前民航客气技术超高的巴里·希尔（丹尼斯·霍珀 Dennis Hopper 饰）被恶人蛊惑，从而堕落成一个唯利是图的毒贩，最后被美国缉毒局逮捕。为了避免牢狱之灾，巴里同意帮助缉毒局，缉拿一个臭名昭著的毒枭。而巴里很快便陷入了极端的危险之中......
Based on a true story, this made-for-cable film tells about Barry Seal, a pilot who was a drug smuggler for the infamous Medellin cartel out of Colombia. He was caught by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and decided to turn over and help the DEA break the cartel. However, he got caught in the middle of the Reagan/Bush administration efforts to topple the Nicaraguan government in the '80s, in which Nicaraguan rebels called "contras" were allowed to smuggle cocaine into the US in exchange for their fighting against the leftist Nicaraguan government. Eventually Seal was murdered by his former Medellin employers, and some critics say it was with the tacit, if not implicit, connivance of the US administration.
