In the near future, as war rages in the Middle East and U.S. gas prices top six dollars a gallon, ambitious investment banker Tom Hanson (Christian Slater) finds himself at the center of a $20 billion takeover bid for a Russian oil company. It's a deal some people would kill for - literally, as it turns out. As Tom and an idealistic young associate (Selma Blair) each separately uncover the truth about the transaction, they soon realize that there's far more at stake than money and fossil fuel.

The Deal is a contemporary tale of greed and conscience set in the all-too-real world of corporate corruption, political dirty tricks and multinational crime syndicates. While the action takes place mostly in the executive suites and glittering nightspots of lower Manhattan, the story's tentacles reach around the globe and into the seats of wealth and power from Washington to Moscow to the oil fields of the Persian Gulf.