In 1968, during the Vietnam War, a Green Beret platoon nicknamed the Lizard Smokers, led by John Hunter, is blindsided by a ninja ambush that throws a brutal arc of violence across the jungle. The clash leaves Leeroy Hopkins without his right arm and knocks Oskar Kowalsky into a perilous encounter with velociraptors, while Hunter himself is taken captive by the Viet Cong. While imprisoned, he learns ninjutsu from the enigmatic Senseï Yin, and as the lessons sink in, Yin eventually frees him with a stern warning about a red ninja who betrayed his teachings. Yin’s peace is short-lived, ending when his compound is bombed by American forces, leaving a shadow over Hunter’s emerging skills and loyalties.
Fast forward to 1986 in Canada, a shaken Hunter is visited by Leeroy Hopkins, who delivers devastating news: his ex-wife Lori Hunter has been murdered and their daughter Jenny Hunter has been kidnapped by ninjas working for an illegal arms dealer. The two men pursue a high-stakes rescue that spills into Los Angeles, where a joint operation between the FBI and the U.S. Air Force aims to seize the arms dealer. The mission spirals when Hunter recognizes the dealer as former Soviet Army Colonel [Oleg Kinsky], a figure connected to the ambush from years ago. The confrontation costs Hopkins his life at the hands of a red ninja, and Kinsky slips away into the shadows, beginning a larger, more perilous game.
Hunter’s search for Jenny leads him beyond the Americas to the Central American country of Val Verde, where the pursuit intensifies. There he uncovers a startling twist: Kowalsky has been converted into a cyborg, a terrifying reinforcement in Kinsky’s growing plan. In a desperate bid to stop the tyrant, Jenny—who proves resourceful and fiercely capable— assassinations are averted by her own cunning as she secretly places a grenade in Kinsky’s pants, killing him in a shocking moment. Kowalsky, however, disappears with Jenny, leaving Hunter to process what just happened and to confront a deeper revelation: Lori Hunter’s mask had concealed more than grief—an alternate future version of Lori had been murdered by the ninjas, and Kinsky had supplied them with time-travel technology since the Vietnam War. With this knowledge, it becomes clear that Jenny has been sent forward to 1998, where Kinsky is training an army to establish a new world order. Heartbroken but resolute, Hunter decapitates Lori to harvest what remains of her energy and uses the last of her power to propel himself toward a bleak, time-warped future.
Arriving in 1998, Hunter is reunited with Jenny, now an adult who has learned to survive in a world on the edge of collapse. She reveals that she has reprogrammed Kowalsky to fight on their side, turning the cyborg from a threat into an ally. Hunter also learns that Hopkins is alive and well, cruising in a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am that doubles as a time machine, a symbol of the strange road they’ve all traveled and may still traverse.
In a mid-credits sequence, the quartet attempts to travel back to 1986, only to find themselves trapped inside a video game crafted by Kinsky. They must navigate the boundaries of this digital world, find a route to escape, and thwart Kinsky’s plan to conquer the world with his time-bending technology. The journey through time—shirt-sleeve, grit, and relentless perseverance—foregrounds a story about duty, family, and the unexpected consequences of power across eras.
