A state department functionary with dreams of becoming a superspy who is named James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) becomes involved with a thuggish and violent spy named Charlie Wax (John Travolta). Working out of the office of Ambassador Bennington (Richard Durden) in Paris, Reece has a propensity for prejudice against terrorists and anyone who looks like one, usually appalling Reece with his snide put-downs of Chinese, Arabs, and Iranians. As a protégé to a man with a license to kill, Reece learns all too quickly how to dispatch any suspicious figure lurking around Paris for a terror cell that wants to attack a humanitarian group eager to feed hungry Africans.