On a clear day in 1971, the hijacker identified as D.B. Cooper jumps from an airliner by using the rear exit, parachuting into a forest in Washington State. The man is later identified as Jim Meade, a military veteran with big dreams. Meade escapes the manhunt using a
Jeep that he had previously hidden in the forest and concealing the money that he has stolen in the carcass of a deer. He meets his estranged wife Hannah, who operates a river rafting company. Meade is being hunted by Bill Gruen, an insurance investigator who was Meade's army sergeant, and Meade's army buddy Remson, who remembered Meade talking about hijacking an aircraft. Gruen confronts the Meades at the rafting company, but they escape down the river. The Meades lead Gruen and Remson on a cross-country chase involving various stolen cars. Gruen is fired by his employer but continues the chase to claim the money for himself. At the
aircraft boneyard near
Tucson, Arizona, the Meades acquire a
hot-air balloon, but Gruen steals the money from Hannah. Meade chases him with a barely functional
Boeing-Stearman PT-17 cropduster biplane. Meade runs Gruen off the road but crashes his aircraft. Recovering from the wrecks, Meade has Gruen's gun and for a few minutes, they discuss how Gruen knew that Meade was D. B. Cooper. Along with clues that he had left, the previous encounters between the two men in the army had convinced Gruen that only Meade could have managed the audacious hijacking. Meade leaves Gruen with a few bundles of the cash and walks away with the rest, to be picked up by Hannah. With Gruen abandoning the pursuit, Remson must try to recover the stolen money. When he reaches a crossroads that the Meades have just passed, Remson sees what he thinks is their truck parked nearby and continues the chase, but the truck turns out to have just been a look-alike; as the credits roll, Meade and Hannah are seen to be still traveling down the road in the far distance. ==Cast==