After a series of small tremors in Los Angeles, Dr. Clare Winslow, a local seismologist, pinpoints the exact location and time of when the long awaited earthquake--"The Big One"--will strike southern California. With this information, she must battle city officials to release this information to the general public. Also, she hopes that her family is out of harms way when the quake strikes. Subplots show how other families and people cope with the the tremors that strike before the impending "Big One."

An ex-Green Beret visits one of his army buddies, and finds himself involved in his friend's scheme to smuggle arms into a turbulent South American country.

The flamethrower-wielding vigilante John Eastland returns to rid New York of a drug lord and his gang.

While working in a diamond mine located in the desert, Bo and Ingrid, two siblings who survived a massacre as children, make a surprising discovery.

The luxurious villa of Mark and Jessie Bannister, a yuppie couple, is overrun by loads of uninvited guests who turn the house up side down.