Turmoil erupts in Nigeria following a military ''coup d'etat'', which involves the brutal murders of the President of Nigeria and his family. As foreign nationals are evacuated from the country, Lieutenant A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) and his United States Navy SEALs detachment comprising Zee (Eamonn Walker), Slo (Nick Chinlund), Red (Cole Hauser), Lake (Johnny Messner (actor)), Silk (Charles Ingram), Doc (Paul Francis), and Flea (Chad Smith), aboard the aircraft carrier , are dispatched by Captain (United States O-6)#U.S. Navy Bill Rhodes (Tom Skerritt) to extract a "critical persona", one Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks (Monica Bellucci), a U.S. citizen by marriage and the widowed daughter-in-law of a U.S. Senator. Their secondary mission is to extract the mission priest (Pierrino Mascarino) and two nuns (Fionnula Flanagan and Cornelia Hayes O'Herlihy), should they choose to come.