Texan engineer Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson) moves with his wife (Lake Bell) and two young daughters to an unnamed Asian country (ahum… Thailand) to start an expat job at a water plant to help improve water quality in the region. They are clearly inexperienced travellers but luckily they meet a jovial businessman (Pierce Brosnan) on the plane who helps them on their way. When Jack strolls around town the next day looking for a newspaper, he all of a sudden finds himself in the middle of a rebellion. He manages to find his way back to the hotel which turns out to also be under attack by the same rebels. He transforms from clueless expat to man-on-a-mission to keep his family safe in a world spiralling rapidly out of control…