The story opens during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Egyptian and Syrian forces are on the verge of defeating Israel. As a last-ditch precautionary measure, a nuclear-armed A-4 Skyhawk is launched to ensure that Israeli ground forces are not completely overrun. The fighter jet is engaged by a Syrian surface-to-air missile battery and shot down. Among the widely scattered wreckage littering the barren desert below is an intact nuke, burrowed deep into the crater left by the crashing debris.

Fast-forward 29 years to 2002. US President J. Robert Fowler (James Cromwell) and his national security team are at Mt. Weather, Virginia participating in a nuclear war drill. After the drill, the President dispatches CIA Director William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) on an inspection tour of Russian nuclear sites according to the terms of the START arms treaty.

At CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, young analyst Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) is part of a group watching current video of Russian President Zorkin and sarcastically commenting on his recent weight gain. Simultaneously, a shadowy Neo-Nazi group is meeting in Vienna. Their leader, Richard Dressler (Alan Bates) laments the impotence of modern Europe in the face of global dominance by the United States and Russia. On the Golan Heights, an Arab scrap metal dealer is excavating the Israeli plane crash site from 1973. He strikes a hard object a few feet below the ground and realizes it is some type of bomb. Thinking it valuable, he and his helper carefully finish uncovering the weapon and use a hoist to lift it onto their truck.

Source of the Uranium is Israel.