On a dark freeway, a van swerves close to the driver and the door slides open. From inside, masked gunmen threaten to fire unless the driver stops and surrenders his passenger, a seemingly harmless man they accuse of smuggling diamonds. It's a simple choice: do or die.

The driver meets a ship carrying an eight-year-old Tibetan boy at a dark, deserted New York shipyard. But he's not the only one waiting.

The driver is hired by a nervous movie agent to spy on a paranoid actor's wife. During his tailing of the wife, the driver describes the right way to tail someone. As he follows her, he begins to fear what he might learn of her apparently tragic life. He discovers the wife is fleeing the country and returning to her mother's, and that she's been given a black eye, likely by her husband. He returns the money for the job, refusing to tell where the wife is, and drives off telling the agent never to call him again.

The driver faces perhaps his most perplexing challenge: Coming face-to-face with a hugely talented and successful rock star. But beneath her beauty lies a problem: she always gets what she wants.

Soldiers patrol fields and rural villages. Their mission: find a photojournalist who has snapped a picture certain to unite the world against their leader. Alejandro González Iñárritu directs Clive Owen as the photographer's driver and sole hope of getting him and his film beyond the strongly guarded border.