The date: 50 Million B.C., a steamy jungle. The place: The Antarctic, somewhere near the South Pole. On the jungle floor, a snake crawls across the ground. It senses danger. From another part of the jungle: the sound of movement. Something moves quickly between the trees, heading towards the snake. The snake hisses and then suddenly is plucked from the jungle floor; a massive two-legged lizard quickly moves away. Panning back up to the sky, the sound of a cold wind begins as storm clouds move in.
Present Day. A Lear Jet crosses the South Pacific accompanied by two MiG fighters. On board the jet, Yuri Breshcov, a renegade leader from the break away Republic of Chechen. Yuri is brilliant, well funded and ruthless: he is also in possession of nuclear weapons, weapons he has used in threats to his neighboring countries. Closing in on the air armada, a squadron of F-18 fighters attacks and downs the two MiG's. The Lear, now under fire, attempts to evade the F-18. Onboard, Yuri uses a specially constructed ejection pod to escape as the Lear explodes in mid air. On the ocean below, a waiting destroyer captures Yuri as he parachutes into the sea. Yuri Breschov is quickly loaded aboard a helicopter that heads due south towards the South Pole.
One year later. Yuri is now part of a small contingent of prisoners who are incarcerated in the highest security prison in the world: a facility considered escape proof, a facility where the world's deadliest criminals have been placed. These are men and women deemed far too dangerous to be imprisoned in any country, thus the creation of an international prison designated only by the name "Facility Number 1," but commonly known by the few who know of its existence as "New Alcatraz."
In the bowels of the prison, a prison construction team, headed by Yuri Breschov, has dug up the remains of an ancient creature never before seen. Known a Raptor Para Arian, it roamed the Antarctic over 50 million years ago when the ice cap was a Jungle. Thought to be extremely violent, its existence has only been theorized until now. Formally an archeologist turned political criminal, Yuri tells the warden that the discovery of this creature is probably one of the most significant archeological finds ever.
Realizing the significance of this find, the warden breaks security. World-renowned archeologist Robert Trenton, a former friend and co-worker of Yuri's, is flown to the prison. Yet shortly before Trenton's arrival, the Raptor, thought to be long dead, seems to have awakened from its hibernation. The creature's frozen tomb is empty; soon bodies of guards and prisoners are found, torn apart by what appears to be a very violent and fully alive Raptor Para Arian.
The plane carrying Robert Trenton barely makes it in as it lands in the midst of a deadly storm covering the ice cap. In the prison, Robert learns that nearly half the prisoners and guards have been ruthlessly slaughtered. The warden, a number of guards, Trenton, his crew and Yuri form a team to try and hunt down the creature. Within a few hours most of the team has been killed.
Now as the survivors realize escape is their only salvation, Robert Trenton begins to suspect that there is more to this situation than meets the eye.
In Trenton's plane now barely able to fly in the raging Antarctic storm, the truth is revealed and a final conflict between two men who were once friends is about to begin.