TV reporter Tiel McCoy is driving through New Mexico when she hears over the radio that Sabra Dendy, the pregnant 17-year-old daughter of multimillionaire Russell Dendy, has been kidnapped. When Tiel stops at a gas station, an armed couple robs the cashier and the female burglar goes into labor.

Former LAPD hostage negotiator Jeff Talley takes a job as chief of police in a small town far from the city, but his peaceful life is overturned when three young men, fleeing a robbery, invade a local home and take a family hostage.

Sneaking an underwater look at a notorious Russian black marketeer's fancy yacht, Doc Ford emerges to discover that the marketeer's private island has been taken over by environmental extremists who threaten to kill a hostage every hour until their demands are met.

"Twas the night before Christmas, and dozens of rich, influential hostages are trapped inside a sprawling lakefront mansion in New Orleans. The perp? Detective Reed Ware, model cop turned outlaw. After receiving a panicked call from Hollis "Holly" Bayard, a teenage street tough with a penchant for amateur sleuthing who stumbles upon the scene of a drug-deal-turned- murder, Ware finds his and his friend's lives in dire danger. The crime Holly witnessed...

Taken hostage by a failed bank robber while attending an open house, eight anxiety-prone strangers--including a redemption-seeking bank director, two couples who would fix their marriages, and a plucky octogenarian--discover their unexpected common traits. Viewing an apartment normally doesn't turn into a life-or-death situation, but this particular open house becomes just that: a failed bank robber bursts in and takes everyone in the apartment hostage....