This glossy conspiracy thriller resolutely fails to rise above the ordinary, despite a substantial budget and some star names in the cast. The daft and hackneyed plot has Wesley Snipes as a United Nations "dirty tricks" operative who finds himself framed for the assassination of the Chinese ambassador during some critical trade negotiations. Snipes, whose career has plateaued since showing early promise, only gets really animated in some so-so martial arts sequences. But that's an improvement on Donald Sutherland and Anne Archer, who have rarely looked as bored and listless as they do here, playing, respectively, the UN Secretary-General and his head of covert operations. The film earns a second star for slickness, but even Snipes fans will be dissatisfied with this insubstantial fare.

Neil Shaw is both agent and weapon - a critical line of defense for the Secretary General of the United Nations. He does not even officially exist. As an international security expert, he must uncover an international plot in which ruthless terrorists threatened to bring down the United Nations on the eve of an historic summit with China. A mysterious chain of events leads to the murder of the Chinese U.N. Ambassador, and the terrorists frame Neil Shaw, the one man they believe can stop them. Accused of the crime, Shaw goes underground — in effect, vanishing from his own life — as he tries to stop what could become World War III.