In April 2009, Somali pirates board the container ship Maersk Alabama off the coast of Somalia and take Captain Richard Phillips hostage, holding him in an enclosed lifeboat while a US Navy destroyer shadows the vessel offshore. This account uses eyewitness testimony from crew members and previously unreleased Navy footage to reconstruct the hijacking hour by hour, from the moment armed men climb aboard to the standoff that follows once the crew retakes the ship but Phillips remains a prisoner at sea. Interviews describe the crew's improvised resistance, the pirates' demands, and the tense negotiation as naval forces close in. The film also gives time to the pirates' side of the story, tracing the poverty and lack of options along the Somali coast that push young men into hijacking for ransom. It closes with the Navy's rescue operation that ends the standoff, weighing the split-second decisions made by SEAL snipers against the fear on both sides of the lifeboat's thin hull.