A prison bus flips on the road when it's cut off by another car. In the chaos, a man named Billy (Anthony Starke) frees a man named Sam Gillen (Jean-Claude Van Damme) by taking a guard hostage. Sam and Billy escape in the car but Billy is fatally shot by a guard who takes an accurate shot from a distance. Sam buries Billy at an isolated spot near the highway.Sam buys some food from a roadside store and camps near a pond. He finds the money from their heist (which Sam had helped conduct before being arrested and being transported to prison) and listens to a tape recording left by Billy before pushing the car into the pond. That night, Sam sneaks up to a nearby house and sees a woman (he sees the women naked as she gets into her bathtub) and her two children inside. He breaks in but is nearly discovered by one of the kids; he takes a saltshaker and leaves. The next night he breaks in again (to put the saltshaker back); the following morning, the boy (named Mookie (Kieran Culkin)) finds Sam's campsite.Nearby demolition from real estate development disturbs Clydie Anderson (Rosanna Arquette), the owner of the home. Corrupt developer Franklin Hale (Joss Ackland) seeks to drive her off the land with the help of his lackey, Mr. Dunston (Ted Levine), and the local sheriff, Lonnie Poole (Edward Blatchford), who is dating Clydie. Lonnie tries to convince Clydie to vacate her property, but she flat refuses. Sam keeps on eye on the house.One night, some goons attack Clydie and her children, but Sam arrives and fights them off. He claims he is a lawyer from Quebec & is camping and hunting on her land, and Clydie insinuates that he is not welcome, but offers him shelter in her barn out of gratitude. Lonnie comes by to the house when Clydie was away at work and holds Sam at gunpoint, but Clydie comes back and says that Sam is her cousin.Sam also purchases her dead husband's old Triumph Bonneville motorcycle and repairs it with Mookie's help. Hale comes by the property and makes a greedy offer to Clydie, who refuses. Hale threatens foreclosure by the bank as Clydie has been struggling with payments. Sam intervenes and advises Clydie to hire a lawyer and go to trial against Hale.Later Sam thwarts an attempt by Hale to ruin Clydie's farmland by coating it with oil. Hale is desperate as he only has 1 week to convince Clydie to sell her land. If she doesn't, Hale will lose his permit, his project and his business all in one stroke.A town council meeting gets heated when another resident, Tom, refuses to sell his land to Hale. That night, his goons burn down Tom's barn. Mookie (who discovers the fire) awakens Sam; Sam saves Tom and puts out the fire (by toppling a water tower and preventing the propane gas tanks from blowing), further angering Hale.Clydie and Sam get close to each other and spend a lot of time alone in each other's company. Clydie is lonely after her husband's death. Noticing that Clydie is taking a liking to Sam, Lonnie beats him and demands he leave. While tending his wounds, Clydie and Sam have sex. Lonnie continues to grow suspicious of Sam and Clydie's relationship; he finds out Sam is a fugitive and informs Clydie, who tells him to leave.Sam returns to his camp site, but Hale enlists the sheriff's department to hunt him down. Sam leads them on a motorcycle chase and ultimately escapes but decides to return to Clydie. Running out of time and growing desperate, Hale and Dunston go to Clydie's house with guns and force her to sign over the land. Lonnie comes by to check on Clydie and is attacked by Dunston and is put out of action. Sam arrives just in time to stop them from burning down the house and kills Dunston. The police arrive and arrest Hale (who is holding Clydie at gun point); Sam allows Lonnie to arrest him, having decided to stop running but promises to return to Clydie and the kids, whom he loves.