- Shadowy elements in the NSA target a nine-year old autistic savant for death when he is able to decipher a top secret code.
- Bruce Willis is an outcast FBI agent who protects a 9 year old autistic boy who is the target for assassins after cracking a top secret government code.—ShowBob <showbob@geocities.com>
- The NSA has developed what they believe is an unbreakable code which they call MERCURY. Now they ran a test to see if anyone can decipher the code by putting it in a puzzle magazine. Now Simon Lynch, an autistic boy who has an affinity for puzzles sees it and deciphers it and calls the NSA. Concerned the men in charge call their boss Kudrow and inform of what happened. Kudrow worried what might happen if this gets out orders that Simon be terminated. The man he sends kills his parents but is unable to find Simon and leaves when the police arrive. The police call the FBI to send someone to take a report of Simon who is missing and the man they send Art Jeffries is not exactly in good standing with the FBI because of an incident that occurred recently and is also not exactly OK because of the incident. Art finds Simon, who was hiding and takes him to the hospital. While there, the assassin takes another try but Art saves Simon and they go on the run.—rcs0411@yahoo.com
- The United States government is about to launch its brand new super code. Impossible to break, or so they thought until it was broken by a nine year old autistic boy. Now the bodies are piling up to keep it secret and the mercury is rising.—Lyle Jordan <lylejorda@aol.com>
- The film opens with a hostage situation in South Dakota where FBI Agent Art Jeffries (Bruce Willis), who, as the inside man, protects a 5 year old kid named James while trying to talk a bank robber named Edgar Halstrom (Richard Riehle) into surrendering. However, the FBI task force kills the robbers and James. Jeffries confronts his superior, who tells him he'd report to Washington.
A Cryptographic code called "Mercury" was created by the National Security Agency and allegedly so complex that its creators believe no computer on Earth can decipher it. Originally it was created during the Reagan Administration as a test to keep the United States' highest priority secrets under wraps. One day, the NSA receives a message from a nine year-old autistic savant named Simon Lynch (Miko Hughes) who calls a telephone number written in the code which was secretly published in a puzzle magazine by two of the creators, Dean Crandell (Robert Stanton) and Leo Pedranski (Bodhi Elfman), to see if anyone could break it. Lt. Colonel Nicholas Kudrow (Alec Baldwin), who is the program chief, sees the boy's ability to decipher the code as a liability and rather than rectify the problem adequately, instead plans to silence Simon, sending a hit man, Peter Burrell (Lindsey Lee Ginter) and his partner Shayes (Peter Stormare) to murder the boy and parents.
After killing the parents, Burrell searches the house, fails to find Simon, and leaves at the sound of approaching sirens. Jeffries, who has been demoted following a diagnosis of delusional paranoia, is sent to investigate what is initially thought to be a murder-suicide of Simon's parents. While investigating the scene, Jeffries finds Simon hiding in a cache of his bedroom closet and takes the boy under his wing. Jeffries begins to realize the difficulty of protecting, let alone questioning Simon, because of his impaired social abilities as a result of his autism, but the Chicago PD agreed to assign a protection detail to Simon. Then the assassins tried to kill Simon again and Jeffries killed Shayes at the Chicago 'L' train. The situation is further complicated by the fact that nobody at the FBI believes Simon is in any danger, and Jeffries is soon framed by the NSA as a kidnapper, with only his best friend and fellow agent Thomas Jordan (Chi McBride) aware that he did not commit the crime, since Jordan had been in contact with Jeffries when the incident began. Art takes Jordan's car and takes Simon to Simon's house where his parents were murdered the previous morning. Simon again calls the telephone number written in the code, and, after realizing that Simon is talking to Crandell and Pedranski, arrangements are made for a meeting at the Wrigley Building. The next morning, he meets a woman named Stacey Siebring (Kim Dickens) in a coffee shop and asks her to watch Simon for him while he goes to meet Crandell.
Art meets Crandell and they talk as they walk on a busy sidewalk. As Crandell tells Art about the code and Kudrow, Burrell shoots him from behind and casually walks away. After the shooting, Art goes back to the coffee shop, but Simon and Stacey are gone. He goes outside and spots them coming across the street. Stacey says she and Simon have become friends and Simon agrees. Art and Simon then abruptly leave Stacy. Later in the middle of the night, Art and Simon go to Stacey's place and Art asks for a place to stay. Stacey reluctantly agrees and tells Art that she was going on a business trip to Des Moines to make the rent the next morning.
Meanwhile, Leo Pedranski turns to him for help, but shortly after he is murdered too. However, he has managed to leave a letter detailing Kudrow's crimes, which his girlfriend, NSA analyst Emily Lang (Carrie Preston) takes to the FBI and Jordan discreetly arranges for her to meet with Jeffries to show them both the carbon paper used to type the letter, which, being covered in Pedranski's fingerprints is crucial evidence in its own right. After the meeting with Emily, Art tells Stacey to call anybody for an emergency except the police, who were called off at the last minute, and gives her Jordan's number to contact if there was an emergency.
While Jeffries introduces himself to Kudrow at his birthday party, and demands that Kudrow lay off Simon Lynch, Jordan under Jeffries' suggestion arranges for Simon to go into Witness Protection. After the meeting Jeffries contacts Jordan and Jordan explains how the Witness Protection meeting is going to happen, though they are unaware that their conversation over the phone is being monitored by Kudrow. When Jeffries returns and finds Stacey and Simon gone, he learns from Jordan that they are fine and will meet them there, just as Jordan is given an order to head to the FBI director's office.
Kudrow tries to have FBI SAC (Special Agent in Charge) Lomax (Kevin Conway) help him stop Jeffries by using his authority and the fact that Jordan arranged the Witness Protection under false pretenses. He plans to have the NSA take over the protection for the meeting spot. After Kudrow leaves, Jordan shows the evidence to Lomax and despite his initial doubts, Jordan confirms that the fingerprint markings on it were Pedranski's, now fully validating the evidence against Kudrow. Jeffries, with Jordan and a small FBI task force's help, set a trap at the meeting spot, in which Jordan protects Stacey, while the FBI team kills Burrell and Jefferies shoots Kudrow with Kudrow's own weapon just as Kudrow grabs the screaming Simon in a last-ditched effort to get him back and falls to his death.
The film ends with Jeffries visiting Simon, now living with foster parents, at his school, who embraces Jeffries as a welcome friend, having finally accepted him as a person of his trust.
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