In Islamabad, Pakistan, low-level State Department bureaucrat Alex Talbot (Jack Black) asks his driver Rafiq (Aasif Mandvi) to take him to a bazaar to score some weed. Encountering a mass protest that turns violent, they flee their car and take refuge in the house Rafiq shares with his parents and sister. In Washington, D.C., Secretary of State Walter Larson (Tim Robbins) is fetched from a hotel tryst by his seen-it-all aide, Kendra Peterson (Maribeth Monroe), to attend an emergency White House meeting on the growing unrest in Pakistan. After learning that paranoid General Umair Zaman (Iqbal Theba) is threatening the region with destruction, President Navarro (Esai Morales) and ultra-hawkish Secretary of Defense Grey (Geoff Pierson) put a plan in motion to remove Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, against Larson’s advice that such an operation is risky and reckless.

The group soon discovers that Alex is their only source of hard information on the ground in Pakistan. Meanwhile, onboard an aircraft carrier in the region, ace pilot Zeke “Z-Pak” Tilson (Pablo Schreiber) calls his ex-wife, Ashley (Mary Faber), in Florida, urging her to send more “product” for his lucrative side business selling drugs. Later, Zeke’s mounting troubles are put on hold when he and his co-pilot, Glenn (Eric Ladin), are ordered to take off on a mission he knows could lead to catastrophe.

Written by Roberto Benabib & Kim Benabib; directed by Jay Roach.