Disillusioned Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) assassin Richard Malone opts not to shoot his assigned target and announces he is leaving the agency. He drives into the mountains of eastern Oregon, but his vintage 1969 Ford Mustang automobile breaks down. Malone pushes the car to a gas station in Comstock, Oregon, where he learns the transmission is shot. Mechanic Paul Barlow reports it will take several days to get the needed parts, but Malone says he can wait as he is in no hurry. Since the local motel closed a month ago, Paul offers Malone the spare room of the house he shares with his seventeen-year-old daughter, Jo. Paul explains that millionaire Charles Delaney came to town a year ago and started buying up all the land. The locals hoped he would reopen the old mine, but when that did not happen, more than half the town’s residents moved away. The rest are being pressured to sell to Delaney and move away. Delaney’s henchman, Madrid, approaches Paul, reminding him of Delaney’s offer to buy his gas station for ten times its value, but Paul refuses. Delaney hires two locals, brothers Dan and Calvin Bollard, to act as his goons. The Bollard brothers stage an accident, hitting and killing a local bicyclist with their car, leaving locals worried they will soon meet a similar fate. Although Malone witnessed the accident, he lies to Sheriff Hawkins, claiming he did not see it. At the bicyclist’s funeral, the remaining residents vow not to sell to Delaney. Meanwhile, one of Delaney’s hit men, Patterson, kills a politician in Los Angeles, California. Back in Comstock, Charles Delaney holds a ceremony congratulating the dozen men who have completed the “leadership training” in his paramilitary organization. He orders them to return to their regions and train others so they can help take over the United States, reminding them Thomas Jefferson said that sometimes blood must be shed in the name of patriotism. Delaney makes the “graduates” swear an oath to their sacred covenant which includes a pledge not to reveal the name of any of the other members. When the members urge Delaney to run for the United States Senate, the millionaire says he is not interested. When the Bollard brothers begin harassing Jo Barlow, Malone intervenes and beats Dan Bollard with his fists, breaking his jaw, impairing his hearing, and swelling his testicles to the point that he can no longer father children. Encouraged by Delaney’s henchman, Calvin Bollard goes after Malone with a gun, but Malone shoots him in the chest, killing him. After Sheriff Hawkins arrests Malone, Delaney demands to see him and asks if someone hired Malone to kill him. Malone does not answer, but Delaney says he is in the “survivor business” and that he encourages people to fight for their rights, like their forefathers did. Delaney orders the sheriff to release Malone. Meanwhile officials at CIA headquarters receive a request for information on Malone. The CIA director orders agent Jamie Thompson, a longtime friend of Malone’s, to find Malone and slip a chemical which will kill him in sixty seconds into his drink. Paul Barlow tells Malone he will have to leave his house once his car is repaired because he does not need any more trouble from Delaney. The next day when some of Delaney’s men come to the gas station, they ask Jo Barlow about Malone, wanting to know if he is in the house, beside the gas station. One of the men climbs up the back of the house, trying to shoot Malone in his room, but Jo shouts out, giving Malone just enough time to dodge the bullet. Malone shoots and kills the man, then shoots at the man beside the gas pump. That man fires back, hitting Malone in the stomach, then drives off. However, Malone fires at the car and it explodes. One of the sheriff’s deputies takes Malone to the hospital. However, he drives at high speeds, swerving from side to side with Malone bouncing around in the back seat. Realizing the deputy is trying to kill him, Malone grabs the steering wheel and crashes the car. Charles Delaney is distressed that Malone killed two of his best men. He also receives a report that Malone was in the Army Special Forces in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Jamie Thompson disguises herself as a doctor and helps Malone escape the hospital, where Delaney’s men are waiting to kill him. She takes him to a safe house to recover from his stomach surgery. A few days later when Malone is up and moving, he and Jamie make love, but afterwards, she admits she was sent there to kill him. After Malone leaves, Delaney’s men capture Jamie. Malone gets his car and says goodbye to Jo and Paul Barlow. He returns to the safe house to find Jamie dead, suffocated with a plastic bag over her head. Malone sneaks onto Delaney’s property, cuts the phone wires and hides in the stables. Malone releases grenades that scare the horses into running out, but also bring Delaney’s men to the stables. One by one, Malone knocks them out as they search for him. Delaney discovers his best assassin, Patterson, dead by Malone’s hand. Realizing what an asset Malone could be, Delaney tries to recruit him, bragging that they already have senators in six states on their team and soon will have more. The Comstock Valley is just the beginning of their eventual conquest of the United States. Delaney says he and Malone are really on the same side, but Malone disagrees, and shoots him, dead. He blows up Delaney’s warehouse and walks away.