FBI agent John Potter (James Garner) as he negotiates with three escaped convicts who take a busload of deaf students and their teacher, Melanie (Marlee Matlin), hostage in an abandoned slaughterhouse, forcing a tense standoff where Melanie uses sign language to communicate crucial details to the outside, culminating in a daring escape plan involving a river tunnel and a twist involving the convicts' true motive and a potentially deadlier figure pulling strings
