Kit Lee (Jet Li) is a police officer who is called to the school where his child attends and his wife is a teacher. It seems that a terrorist named "The Doctor" has placed all of the children and staff on a school bus that is rigged with explosives and is just sitting in front of the school and plans to extort some money out of the rich parents of some of the students. Lee tries to defuse the bomb (is it the red wire or the blue wire?), but in a rush calls for the wrong wire to be cut and causes the entire bus full of children to be blown up.

Two years later, Lee is still plagued with nightmares of the incident, but has quit his job as a police officer and has become a stuntman and personal bodyguard of action star Frankie Lone (Jacky Cheung). Lone is the biggest box office draw in Hong Kong and supposedly does all of his own dangerous stunt work, but in reality he is just a drunk whose martial arts skills are rapidly fading. When Frankie is invited to the unveiling of some rare jewels from the reign of Czar Nicholas II that is taking place in the penthouse of a swanky hotel, The Doctor shows up with plans to steal the jewels so he and his syndicate of criminals can retire. Recognizing The Doctor's voice from the day his wife and child were killed, Lee infiltrates the hotel in an attempt to bring the terrorists down and avenge his family.