Dr Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) is a respected forensic physchiatrist and university lecturer, but yet controversial with his students concerning an old case of a serial killer whose conviction rested on his testimony rather than actual evidence.  Now, 9 years later, the serial killer Jon Forster (Neal McDonough) is about to be executed - but more murders are appearing all over Seattle, each with undisclosed evidence from original cases pointing to a copycat killer ... or the original murderer. Gramm soon receives an anonymous call that he only has 88 minutes to live.

After a load of red-herrings which has you suspecting everyone, even Gramm himself, but mostly the guy from The O.C. (Ben McKenzie as Mike), Gramm receives a call from the blonde university staff member Carol to meet her in his office, and that she is responsible for the murders.
  He is almost arrested by Parks (Forsythe), but convinces him to give him 10 minutes more.

Gramm finds Mike in his office, who has found a kit as used by the serial killer in his desk, and tries to phone the cops. Gramm receives another call telling him to go to a different uni building. He pulls a gun on Mike and tells him to get out the way.

At the new building, Carol is hanging from the ceiling. Gramm races up to a top floor and, stepping out, finds the real copycat killer - his student Lauren Douglas (Leelee Sobieski). She has Carol dangling with a pulley system, and his teaching assistant Kim bound in a chair.  During her visits to Forster in jail, she has fallen for him and done his dirty work it seems.

After some talking, she tells him he has 1 minute left. He says his final words - and then Parks, from the other side of the glass building, shoots Lauren. Gramm dives forward to catch the falling rope, and pulls Carol up to safety.

Lauren's phone rings. Gramm answers and accepts the call.  Forster starts talking and is shocked to hear Gramm's voice. When he finds out that his protege has died, Forster is irate and tells Gramm what he is planning to do to him. Gramm calmly tells his enemy he'll be dead by lethal injection anyway in 12 hours, and then throws away the phone.

In the DVD's alternative ending it just shows the last 5 minutes of the movie again, but with a few additional scenes at the end. We see Jon Forster given a lethal injection, and Gramm return to university. He is stopped in the halls by his teaching assistant and he admits to helping teach the twin-sister of the movie's first murdered victim to put Forster behind bars. He then returns to the lecture theatre.