Synopsis
Two young couples – Sergei and Tanya, along with Kiril and Lena – decide to spend their holiday in the Altai mountains. For them, as city people, any rafting holiday was always going to be 'extreme'. But for the organizer of the trip, Sergei, this is also a means of demonstrating to his girlfriend (Tanya) that he is a real man, and worthy of her love.
Right from the start things go wrong. Our heroes decide to raft independently – without an instructor... and as a result find themselves in fast moving rapids which, since they lack basic rafting skills, quickly become life-threatening.
They soon realize that in this situation their usual 'gadgets' and 'devices' will not help. This extreme situation strips them of their usual mask of well-healed self confidence. All their weaknesses and faults are laid bare and their true selves are revealed. In addition, old conflict situations between our heroes, long hidden, are exposed.
But now the situation becomes even more terrifying. Certain sinister individuals – four stern-looking men - arrive at their campsite. They soon understand that they have been taken hostage by a band of criminals, led by the cruel and merciless Vladimir, who has just organized a break-out from the local prison in order to free his son Alexei. Using our heroes as a smokescreen the criminals intend to raft to the frontier, after which Alexei should be able to escape abroad.
Sergei realizes that his friends and his girlfriend, who has just revealed to him that she is pregnant, are in deep trouble... So begins his unequal struggle with these dangerous criminals.
The film shows a collision between two different worlds. The individualism and egotism of the inhabitants of the capital city – with their 'everyone for himself' mindset – collides with the grim world of people who live according to the rules of the wolf-pack, and who are prepared to commit any crime in order to achieve their goals.
But not everyone in the criminal gang is the same. If the gang leader Vladimir will stop at nothing, and shows complete disregard for other people, then his son Alexei is not capable of committing murder in order to reach freedom. In the end he comes out against his father, insisting that there are certain 'red lines' which humans should not and cannot ever cross.
In the end Alexei dies at the hands of his own father, and Sergei finds reserves of strength in himself to overcome his terror, to fight the criminals – and to win. At the same time he shows Tanya that she can rely on her man in any situation.