In 1898, Sir Robert Beaumont (Tom Wilkinson), the primary financier of a railroad project in Tsavo, Kenya, is furious because the project is running behind schedule.

He seeks out the expertise of John Henry Patterson (Val Kilmer), a military engineer, to get the project back on track.

Patterson travels by train to Tsavo, where he meets supervisors Angus Starling (Brian McCardie) and Samuel (John Kani), a native African (and the film’s narrator), and the doctor, David Hawthorne (Bernard Hill). Hawthorne tells Patterson of a recent lion attack. That night, Patterson kills an approaching lion with one shot, earning the respect of the workmen…