Plot

Detroit PD borrows an LA SWAT leader as instructor for 2 weeks training of their SWAT team. After a real SWAT action, a madman with special skills, obsessed with revenge, is released on bail.

Expert S.W.A.T. leader Paul Cutler goes to Detroit on a special assignment to train and certify the city's S.W.A.T. team. After a hostage is killed during an assignment, the victim's boyfriend, a highly specialized government agent, decides to take revenge on Cutler and his team.—page8701

Sgt. Paul Cutler (Gabriel Macht) is an ex-military Los Angeles Police Department S.W.A.T. officer and considered to be one of the best, even holding a record of having no civilian casualties for ten years straight. After successfully rescuing hostages with no casualties, Cutler is requested to train the Detroit S.W.A.T. with an updated training curriculum from the F.B.I.'s Hostage Rescue Team training program. Shortly after arriving in Detroit, Cutler immediately imposes his authority (by calling in a fake 911 call about a bomb at a bus station, to test the response time of the unit) and has a rough time with the Captain Hollander (Giancarlo Esposito) of the department. Cutler wants command of the team and test them himself in the field, before he can certify them. Hollander is not ready to give him the command of the Detroit SWAT team, so he issues a provisional command. Cutler also has issues with one of the senior S.W.A.T. commanders Justin Kellogg (Nicholas Gonzalez). Justin doesn't like when Cutler asks the entire team to report at 0500 daily for certification drills. Other members include Danny Stockton (Matt Bushell), Richard Mundy (Micah Hauptman), Kyle Watters (Kevin Phillips) and Wayne Walport (Gino Pesi).

During the middle of a training exercise, the team responds to an emergency call wherein ex-government agent Walter Hatch (Robert Patrick) is holding his girlfriend Rose Walker (Kristanna Loken) hostage. Cutler makes a decision to not send Kellogg as a sniper and have him do the run-around stuff instead. Although the girl is saved unharmed (even though the sniper misses his shot at Hatch), she hijacks Hatch's handgun and pleads with Cutler to move so she can shoot Hatch. When Cutler refuses to and tries to calm her down, she puts the gun to her head and commits suicide. Cutler's 10-year record with no hostages lost is broken and it takes its toll on him. Meanwhile Hatch is livid and promises to kill each and every one of the SWAT team guys. Hatch posts bail, after the investigation confirms that Rose had the gun (it was registered to her), while Hatch was the hostage. Hatch calls Cutler and threatens him of consequences for Rose's death.

The rift between Cutler and Kellogg escalates at a local bar. Kellogg says had he been the sniper, Hatch would be dead and Rose would be alive. Cutler makes a bet for Kellogg to beat him in a higher score with an arcade machine in exchange for Cutler leaving the city. Kellogg loses the bet, and is instead reassigned to "Charlie Company" (downgraded from Alpha company).

Due to low manpower (Cutler is one man short on his alpha team), Cutler enlists military squad-mate Lori Barton (Shannon Kane) to assist his training. As the training goes on, Hatch steals a binder which contains details of tactics and information on the members. Meanwhile, Cutler starts a passionate relationship with Kim Byers (Carly Pope), the Detroit PD's Psychiatrist. The phone calls from Hatch now increase. He plants a bomb under Cutler's car, he intercepts a hostage negotiation call between Cutler and an attacker at a grocery store. The attacker was about to surrender, but Hatch cut off communications and made Cutler shoot the attacker via Lori. The Captain orders Cutler to return to Los Angeles, where Hatch would not be able to target him. Cutler refuses to leave without completing the certification process for the team.

State department reaches out to Cutler and says that Hatch runs black ops for them and is an important asset. Hatch was romantically involved with Rose, but he began stalking her. Rose came back to Detroit to escape Hatch. Hatch is apprehended by the State Department agents and Hatch ends up shooting them when he learns that the agents were the ones harassing Rose and making it look like Hatch was stalking her. Kim is kidnapped by Hatch. Cutler is suspended by Hollander and ordered to return to LA.

The team is then called (on an anonymous call) to a derelict warehouse where things do not appear to be right as no officers are on the scene. In the van, communication from the station shows that the call was a hoax. One S.W.A.T. officer is killed by a bomb while Barton and Watters are kidnapped. Hatch calls Cutler and gives him 30 mins to rescue Kim or else he starts shooting his team members. Aware of the full situation, Kellogg gives Cutler access to the armory and a squad car to save the hostages at one of the training grounds.

Cutler briefly rescues Watters, but Watters perishes due to gunshot wounds to the chest from one of Hatch's henchmen. Cutler kills the henchman and gets a location device that gives the locations of Barton and Kim. Cutler manages to save Barton and pursues Hatch. Cutler engages Hatch in a hand-to-hand fight while Kim tries to cut free from a bomb vest. Hatch has a dead man's switch to the bomb vest on Kim. She manages to escape it after Lori breaks the chain holding her with a shot from her sniper rifle, and throws it towards Hatch just as Cutler kicks him back into the wall.

Cutler fires a shot, hitting the vest and detonating it, while Hatch falls down from a window as the blast engulfs him. The rest of the S.W.A.T. team arrives, with Cutler graduating the surviving members. Cutler asks Kim if she wants to go back to Los Angeles with him and she silently nods as they hold each other.