Nick Falzone (John Cusack) is an air traffic control freak. He "pushes tin" at a Radar Control centre. Nick works the Newark radar scopes, the busiest of them all, and he reckons to be the best. Then one day Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton) breezes in - a glamorous wife (Angelina Jolie) in tow. Fuelled by caffeine and machismo, a rivalry ensues The one-upmanship becomes a contest of wits and wills, where stress is the great equalizer and bravado is the lowest common denominator, a game where the winner - not the loser - could lose it all - his job, his marriage, his mind.