Ron Howard directs this drama starring Kurt Russell and William Baldwin as brothers Stephen and Brian McCaffrey. Although traumatised by a childhood incident, both brothers decide to follow in their father's footsteps by becoming firefighters. Brian, the more wary of the two, teams up with dogged arson investigator Donald Rimgale (Robert De Niro) after a series of blazes and finds himself at loggerheads with the more gung-ho Stephen when he is led to suspect someone in his former unit.