Aidan Quinn stars as Annibal Ramirez, an American serviceman who while traveling in Israel is mistakenly arrested as international terrorist Carlos "The Jackal" Sanchez. When Ramirez's identity is verified, a potentially embarrassing mistake becomes an irresistible opportunity for the U.S. and Israeli intelligence communities, who realize their perfect look-alike is a valuable weapon. Ramirez is recruited by American agent Jack Shaw (Donald Sutherland) and his Israeli counterpart, Amos (Ben Kingsley), to impersonate the world's most wanted terrorist in order to draw the real killer out of hiding and into their trap. In order to succeed, Annibal must take on a series of conflicting and frightening new identities-highly trained intelligence agent, ruthless terrorist, seductive lover-and hope that in the process he doesn't tear apart his own identity. As he goes deeper and deeper into his role as Carlos, the line between his real life and the man he is impersonating blurs to the point of danger- threatening his marriage, the safety of his family and ultimately his very sanity.