The peace and quiet of a tiny tropical atoll in the South Pacific is shattered when a covert scientific-military research operation, code name “Elvis,” goes terribly wrong. Eighteen servicemen are killed, leaving alive only the scientist behind the formula and the now disgraced officer-in-charge — the former out to protect the world from his creation and the latter, out for revenge. Ten years later, on a hot summer day in the tiny town in Montana, two young men are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tim Mason (Skeet Ulrich), a young man with a questionable past and heading nowhere fast, works the night shift at the town diner. Arlo (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is an ice cream deliveryman with some secrets of his own.

When Mason’s mentor and fishing buddy, scientist Dr. Richard Long (David Paymer), is fatally wounded by Major Andrew Brynner (Peter Firth), he entrusts the stunned young man with “Elvis.” The highly volatile and frozen chemical substance could kill every living thing within hundreds of miles if it melts and activates. With his dying breath, Dr. Long begs Mason to keep the deadly chemical on ice and safely deliver it to Fort Magruder, 90 miles away – transporting it in Arlo’s refrigerated ice cream truck. Unfortunately, Major Brynner and his tactical team are bent upon retrieving Dr. Long’s creation. He has waited patiently for 10 years for retribution and isn’t about to let a couple of amateurs stop him.