- Ex-MI6 agent Russ Taylor recruits former Phoenix Foundation members Mac, Riley, Bozer, Matty and Desi to hunt down a bio-weapon that's planned to be used by a mysterious organization for a devastating attack on a major U.S. city.
- Mac drives his truck onto the top floor of a parking garage and gets out, then runs through a university campus and into his lecture school. He gets the attention of the distracted students by exploding some potassium, and they quickly leave at the end of the lecture. A man follows Mac as he leaves the building and walks across the campus, and Mac spots him and picks up his pace. When he's briefly out of site of the man, Mac "disguises" himself as a student and ducks into a building, losing his pursuer.
Once he's apparently clear, Mac starts to leave. The pursuer, Russ Taylor, puts a hand on his shoulder and Mac grabs him and demands to know who he is. Russ introduces himself and Mac recognizes him as the leader of Spearhead Operations. He notes that Russ has run black ops and destabilized governments for profit, and wants nothing to do with him. Russ follows him and says that he's in a new line of work: saving the world.
Mac tells Russ that isn't his line of work anymore, and Russ reveals that he knows how Phoenix was defunded and subsequently shut down by the government. He says that he['s looking for talent and the Mac is the best there is at what he does, but Mac isn't interested in either getting back in the game or doing so with Russ. As Mac walks off, Russ tells him that thousands of innocent lives are at stake. Mac stops to listen.
That night, Mac arrives home with Russ, erases the formulas on Mac's whiteboard, and sets up a video player. He explains that he recognizes patterns in the world and Mac says that it's a disorder. Russ explains that he sees patterns on a global scale and brings up a global map of shipping lanes and flight patterns. Recently there's a new signal that indicates someone big is planning something. Russ suggests that whoever is behind it has connections in every major intelligence operation, and he doesn't know who he can trust. Mac isn't impressed but Russ insists there's going to be a bio-weapon attack and one gram of the toxin sold on the black market can kill thousands. None of the intelligence agencies are looking into it, and it'll look like part of something bigger but will look like domestic terrorism. Russ figures that they have 72 hours at best and asks Mac if he'll help him stop it. Mac agrees as long as it's his team, and warns that it will take some convincing.
Riley is working in a tech store fixing computer hard drives. She notes that she's saved the customer's porn on a thumb drive and hands it to him, and he leaves with his laptop. After the man leaves, Mac comes in and notes that they did a lousy job of keeping in touch. Riley admits that she's not good in her current position, but it's the best she could do after Phoenix was shut down. Mac explains that he has a job but it's not Phoenix, and as soon as he says that it's dangerous, Riley quits and goes with Mac.
Boze is doing an interview for his new film and sees Mac come in as he flirts with the interview, Mandy. Mac motions Boze to come with him, and Boze motions that he isn't. He finally goes over and says that it isn't a good time, and Mac tells him that it's life-and-death urgent. Boze refuses to get involved with the government, and Mac assures him that it's just him and appeals to him with a "Star Wars" quote. As they go, Mac tells Boze that Russ already approached Matty but she said "no". He plans to go after Desi next and assures Boze that he's fine working with his ex. Boze doesn't believe it and Mac figures that Desi will be adult about it and join up.
That night, Mac approaches Desi at a club. She refuses to team up with him, saying that it's a terrible idea after all they know and did to each other. Mac figures that she can hold it together for one mission, and they start arguing. He finally points out that lives are at stake. A drunk picks a fight and Desi--the club's bouncer--goes over to break it up. When the drunk shoves her, Desi quickly takes him down and tosses him out on the sidewalk. Mac comes out and says that it's a chance for them to do something good again, and figures she misses the action.
The team meets at Mac's house the next morning, and Boze asks why they're there when Russ is rich. Russ explains that all of his facilities have been compromised and he came to the team because they're the best but also out of the spy game so he knows they're clean. He shows them video of Laszlo Carver, a black market arms dealer, and explains that he now deals in mass-scale deadly weapons. Hades X-1 is an experimental bioweapon, and Carver sold it a week ago. They don't know the buyer but need to figure it out fast because Hades has a short shelf-life. Whoever bought it will need to use it in the next 36 hours. Carver is holding an auction of recent acquisitions that night at his compound in Mexico City, and he has a digital ledger where he keeps records of all his transactions.
Russ, Mac, and Desi go in posing as criminals, intending to copy the ledger because they can't steal it without spooking Carver. Riley plants a short-range wireless outside, and Boze runs the operation from Mac's house because they don't have Matty. Russ warns that if Carver realizes something is wrong, he'll lock down the compound, and a guard eyes Desi. Mac flatters Desi, and she notes he was always good with flattery until he wasn't.
Carver begins the auction and says the items on sale are being prepared for display. A guard accompanies him holding the case with the digital ledger, and Mac and Desi both spot it. Mac follows the guard down into the basement, and the guard sets it down in the auction room and leaves. Once the guard leaves, Mac tells everyone to keep the bidders in the reception room for a few more minutes.\
Riley can't hack the power because it's hardwired, and Desi approaches the guard and picks a fight with him. Russ comes over and claims Desi is his mistress, and the guard hits him. Desi and the guard fight, while Mac picks the lock on the case and opens it. However, there's a notebook with coded writing rather than an electronic ledger, and Riley can't upload it. Mac doesn't have a camera to take pictures, and Riley tells him to bring the ledger to her so she can decypt it.
Russ overhears them on the earbuds and warns that if Mac takes the ledger, Carver will realize it and go underground. Mac improves a transfer to a heated plate, while Riley hacks the electronic system on one of the guest's cars. She drives the car around and smashes it into a wall, and guards go down to check the ledger. Mac hides the plate beneath a curtain, and the header plate sets the cloth on fire as he leaves with the copied pages.
The fire alarms go off, and Russ and Desi quickly leave and join Mac as he comes back upstairs. The trio leave with the other guests and Mac shows his teammates the copied pages and brings out the copied writing with lemon juice from the buffet table.
The next day, Russ takes Mac, Riley, and Desi to his nearby safehouse. Riley goes to work decrypting the ledger, and discovers that the buyer's name is Martin Bishop. Carver used a patent number to identify Hades, and the patent also corresponds to one owned by Spearhead Operations. The team realizes that Russ has been playing them.
Mac grabs Russ and confronts him with the information. He says that it was a contract he should never have taken, and it was meant to "neutralize" populations without destroying property. Russ says that he just wanted to do something important, and he made difficult decisions when going from MI-6 to private contracting. He convinced himself he was doing it for the greater good, but it isn't the legacy he wants to leave behind.
Riley cross-references Bishop's name with an inter-agency data search and gets a hit. His file is classified codename "Canopy", and Riley and Boze have never heard of it. They check with Matty, who is giving a motivational lecture on Attila the Hun. Boze cuts in on her display screen and tells Matty that Mac and his team are in trouble. The audience laughs, and soon Matty meets with the others at Mac's house. Russ explains that Matty has been out of the game so he's running her former team, and she points out that they let a bioweapon slip through their fingers.
Russ tells the others that Matty wouldn't take his call, and Mac tells Matty that they really need her help. Matty says that she pulled her remaining strings with U.S. government intel to get them Bishop's dossier. Canopy is the top-secret designation for DXS, the previous Phoenix. Bishop was a brilliant mind using science to save the world, and he's listed as KIA in 2006 in Budapest. No body was ever recovered, so they figure Bishop faked his death. Mac figures they should look for what Bishop is trying to make, not Bishop himself. Hades needs a delivery system, and Bishop is an engineer. Mac figures the delivery system would be a homemade rocket using liquid oxygen and kerosene. Riley tracks down a shipment of kerosene to a LA property three weeks ago under one of Bishop's aliases. Matty calls the Air Force to have them prepare counter-measures against a rocket launch and takes Boze with her, and Russ and Matty both orders the others to the property. Russ gives in and tells everyone to do what Matty says.
Mac, Desi, Russ, and Riley go to the property and find an off-the-grid storage compound. They spot one heat source and go in to investigate, and find a workshop. Bishop is working and complains it took them long enough, and Russ pistol-whips him. Desi and Russ tie Bishop to a chair, and Matty spots a structure 30 yards behind the compound. Desi and Riley go to check it out, and Russ boasts about training in psyops at MI-6.
Mac rigs some canister to combine ammonium nitrate with oxygen to make nitrous oxide, and uses it to get Bishop to talk. Bishop says that he and Mac aren't so different, and insists that they're saving people. He tells Mac and Russ that he works for everyone, and the people do nothing while the "normal" citizens starve and burn. DXS failed to save the world with science so Bishop left, and there are others like him all over the world who think the same.
Desi and Riley check the structure but find it empty. Bishop hears them over the radio and says that it's almost time, and they're going to burn society to the ground. He echoes Mac's words form his lecture, saying that they must do rather than just be willing. He asks Mac what he will do, then dies as he takes cyanide hidden in his watch.
A rocket goes off and the ground shakes. Boze confirms that they're over an aqueduct and Matty directs them to an access point. The team all go there and find a section of pipe removed. Mac realizes that Bishop launched a torpedo, not a rocket, and it's heading toward the center of LA. If it explodes, millions will die.
The team tell Matty and Boze what is going on, and try to track the torpedo. They only have minutes to find it among all the water pipes, and Mac figures it has to hit an above-ground water storage facility. There are 421 distribution stations in LA, and Mac has Riley and Boze locate the size of the torpedo and how big the pipes have to be, and pinpoint the station with pipes big enough. There are 12 stations with pipes wide enough, and only one is centralized enough to ensure maximum dispersal.
Mac has Riley locate the closest diaper factory, and once Mac and Russ stop off to get diapers the team goes to the station. The torpedo is 11 minutes out, and Riley and Desi meet them at the station. They got a chemical from the factory which is also used to strengthen concrete, and they dump the super-absorbent chemical into the water pipe and stops the water. The chemical creates a gel strong enough to stop the torpedo but soft enough not to cause detonation. The gel doesn't form because the chemical clumps before the water reaches all of it, and he tells the others that they have to mix it. Mac jumps in and breaks apart the chemical, and the gel forms.
There's five minutes until impact, and Mac can't get out because the gel has formed around him. Russ leads Desi off to get something to free Mac, and Riley refuses to abandon her friend. Russ and Desi fly up in a helicopter and Desi drops a line to Riley, who lowers it to Mac. Russ raises the helicopter, but Mac can't hold on to the rope against the pressure. With 30 seconds until impact, Mac has Russ lower the helicopter and makes a harness out of Riley's backpack. Once Mac has the improvised harness on, Russ raises the helicopter and raises Mac out of the gel just in time.
Later, construction teams lift the torpedo out of the gel while EMTs tend to Mac. Desi hugs Mac, and Mac shakes Russ' hand. Mac says that they have papers to grade, but Russ reminds them that there's a global conspiracy to wipe out the human population. He figures that Bishop's "others" won't stop, and says that there's one other thing he forgot to mention.
The team goes to the abandoned Phoenix HQ and turn the lights on. Russ says that it's just like they left it except with some technical upgrades. He tells the team that he bought Phoenix and they go to Matty's old office. Russ admits that he had to see that they could all work together, and explains that it will work the same as before except they'll be privately funded and government-sanctioned once he pulls a few strings. He says that they can take missions of his choosing, and quickly corrects himself to "their choosing". They all agree to sign on, Mac saying that it's home.
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