The Cold Light of Dayis an action thriller film directed by Mabrouk El Mechri starring Bruce Willis , Sigourney Weaver and Henry Cavill .

A young American (Cavill) uncovers a conspiracy during his attempt to save his family, who were kidnapped while on vacation in Spain.

Will Shaw arrives in Spain from San Francisco for a holiday he really doesn't want. He is met at the airport by his father Martin(Bruce Willis). There is a bit of tension between the two. His father works in various different countries for the government and currently works in Spain. They join the rest of his family on their boat and in the evening, dinner is interrupted by constant phone calls Will has to take. He finds out the company he works for is now bankrupt. It puts him in a foul mood and his father does make an attempt to sympathise. The next day they go out to sea. Will is still preoccupied with his work phone, resulting in an accident which causes his brother's girlfriend being hit on the side of her head by the sail. His father in a fit of anger throws Will's phone into the sea. Will gets mad but decides to swim into town to calm down.

When he decides to swim back, the ship has gone and only finds it much later, abandoned and ransacked. He runs to the local police station where the officer in charge finds out his name and makes a phone call, before asking Will to take him to the ship. They are met there by a man who knows who Will is. He invites him to show him the way but is then spooked by the man's handgun tucked into his trousers. Will escapes in the police car but doesn't get far. He crashes into a tree and is beaten by the police. However, his dad shows up and escapes with him. He reveals he is a CIA agent and that the people who have taken their family are after a briefcase he took during one of his operations. He calls his colleague who agrees to meet him in Madrid. After getting freshened up, they go to the rendezvous and Will stays in the car while Martin talks to his partner Jean(Sigourney Weaver). She says the briefcase has gone higher up in the chain and she doesn't have it anymore. He doesn't believe her and thinks something isn't right which she denies. As he returns to the car, he is taken out by a hitman. Will barely escapes but the hitman is in pursuit through the streets of Madrid. Policemen are also killed during the gunfight but Will escapes through a park. He has no money and decides to hide his dad's gun in the trash.

Going to the American Embassy, they tell him he is wanted for killing a police officer. He denies this but they are not interested in finding his family. The Embassy then tell him someone wants to meet him. Jean waits for him outside and says she wants to help find his family. He doesn't trust her and fakes illness to escape. Looking through his father's phone, he sees a name Diego that comes up several times and calls it. He gets the address from the conversation. He also gets a call from the kidnappers who want to speak to Tom and says they want the briefcase in exchange for the family. He gives Will a deadline and meeting point. During this call Will speaks to his mum and tells her Martin was killed.

He arrives at Diego's office and speaks to the girl Lucia whom he spoke to on the phone. Suddenly, Jean's chauffeur comes through from the side and they fight. The chauffeur falls on a letter opener and dies. Lucia and Will go to her uncle Diego's apartment but find it broken into, and her uncle dead. Will finds and confronts Jean and her hitman Gorman in the kitchen. She again wants him to follow her but is interrupted by Lucia coming in guns blazing. They escape through the rooftops and Will is grazed by a bullet. She takes him a nightclub where her friend has medical experience without going to a hospital. The club owner is angry a shot man is in his club, but then helps. Will finds out the Tom is Martin's alias in Spain, and that Lucia is his half sister.

Will recovers and goes to a meeting with the kidnapper on the phone. The man on the phone was the man on the cliff. His name is Zahir and initially beats up Will for information. He is angry when Will calls him a terrorist. Once he realises Will really is ignorant of what is happening, he tells him the truth. The briefcase was stolen from a Mossad agent by Martin. Zahir is an Israeli agent determined to recover the case. He realises that Jean is the corrupt agent, not Martin and she wants to sell the contents of the case. He decides to use Will to lure out Jean and the buyers of the briefcase. Zahir then opens a door to reveal Will's family saying he must do as he says, and this must succeed or the family will be released and Jean will kill them.

Will has a plan to lure out Jean by using Lucia's credit card at the club. This lures out Gorman who is subdued by the bouncers at the club and tortured for information. Gorman gives nothing away and Will's next plan is to make him think he has escaped so they can follow him. This works and they follow him to Jean, who then lead them to an underground car park. The Israeli agents follow but a noise spooks Jean who kills the buyers and tries to escape. Gorman is killed trying to escape in his car and Will and Lucia then pursue Jean. After a pursuit through Madrid, the roles are reversed and Jean chases them due to her frustration in their interference. The cars then collide and Will's car is worse off. Just as Jean is about to deliver the final blow, she is taken out by Zahir, who retrieves the briefcase.

As Lucia recovers in hospital, she also meets her new half family, and Will is offered a job in the CIA. He appears to be thinking it over.