This is a high-powered, adrenalin-pumping crime story. Veteran FBI agent Warren Stantin (Sidney Poitier) is pursuing a diamond thief who has shot a hostage and fled San Francisco to the rugged mountain region of the Pacific Northwest where he has joined a group of fisherman. When Jonathan Knox (Tom Berenger), a woodsman, learns of these events, he realizes that his girlfriend (Kristie Alley), the group's guide, could become the next victim. The wilderness tracker and the city slicker form an uneasy alliance and head off into the mountains to stop the killer before he reaches the Canadian border.
Director Roger Spottiswoode (Under Fire) squeezes every bit of tension out of the chase sequences, and the stunts (especially one over a gorge) are nothing short of sensational. Michael Chapman's cinematography is an amphibian triumph in both city and wilderness locales. The clash of lifestyles between the FBI agent and the woodsman draws out the idiosyncrasies of each character and makes them both likable. Shoot to Kill is a rip-roaring movie from start to finish and deserves to be a box-office smash.