Tom Popper grew up having very little interaction with his father who was off exploring the world. When he grows up he spends most of time on his work and ignores his children. One day his father sends him an unusual gift: six penguins. Popper can't help but wonder why his father would send him penguins. He tries to get rid of them. But when his children and ex-wife show up to celebrate his son's birthday, the kids are taken with the penguins. And Popper finally gets to connect with his kids and his work suffers.

Stanley Goodspeed, who lives in Washington D.C., is a biochemist who works for the FBI. Soon after his fiancee Carla Pestalozzi announces that she is pregnant, Stanley gets a call from FBI director James Womack. Womack tells Stanley that San Francisco's Alcatraz Island has been taken hostage, along with 81 tourists, by marine General Francis Xavier Hummel who, for years, has been protesting the government's refusal to pay benefits to families of war veterans who died during covert military operations. The death of his wife Barbara Hummel on March 9, 1995 drove General Hummel over the edge, and now he's holding hostages in order to get his point across. Stanley is needed because General Hummel has stolen some VX gas warheads and has announced that he will launch them onto San Francisco unless his demands are met. Stanley knows how to disarm the bombs, but Stanley needs someone who knows Alcatraz well enough to get him inside...