The film's ensemble cast includes Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, Evangeline Lilly, Greg Kinnear, Michelle Rodriguez, Luke Evans, Lily-Rose Depp, Kid Cudi (Scott Mescudi) and Martin Donovan.

Teenage drug runner Cedric Beauville is captured and arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the Canada–United States border in possession of large quantities of illegal fentanyl pills.

Everett University research scientist Dr. Tyrone Brower is contracted by Northlight Pharmaceuticals to carry out a study in support of their newest product, Klaralon.

With Northlight being one of the university's main donors, Brower finds himself under pressure from department head Greg Talbot to approve the study, but again is reluctant.

Detroit based DEA agent Jake Kelly has managed to infiltrate two large scale drug cartels running fentanyl.

The other is based in Montreal, Quebec controlled by drug kingpin Claude 'Mother' Veroche, who operates out of a nondescript restaurant called La Marina.

Architect and recovering Oxycodone addict Claire Reimann becomes concerned when her 16-year-old son David does not return home from hockey practice.

Although the Detroit Police Department treats it as an accidental death, she hires a private investigator who determines David was forced to take the fentanyl and was murdered.

Through her son's social media accounts, she tracks down one of his friends, who confesses several teenagers from the hockey team (from both Detroit and Montreal) work for Mother as drug runners, although David had only done it once.

However, an RCMP surveillance officer accidentally gives away his position, resulting in a shootout that kills Kelly's partner, Special Agent Stanley Foster.

Outraged, Kelly goes against orders and travels to La Marina, where he threatens an employee who tells him Mother is still in Canada but is planning to escape via seaplane that evening from the Port of Montreal.

A last-ditch effort by Northlight, CEO Dr. Meg Holmes also fails to convince Brower to come on board, and the company is subjected to an FDA hearing.

To Brower's shock, the agency does not revoke Northlight's permissions for Klaralon's release, noting that the potential benefits to the public outweigh the dangers highlighted by his study.

In February 2019, it was announced that Armie Hammer, Gary Oldman, Evangeline Lilly and Veronica Ferres had joined the cast of the film, then titled Dreamland, with Nicholas Jarecki directing from a screenplay he wrote.

[5] In April 2019, Sam Worthington, Indira Varma, Kid Cudi, Luke Evans, Mia Kirshner, Michael Aronov and Martin Donovan joined the cast of the film.

The website's consensus reads: "With its serious-minded story, Crisis aims higher than many crime thrillers -- but uneven acting and a spotty script mean the end result falls short of its goals.

Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, and Evangeline Lilly deliver urgent, powerful turns in this finely crafted film that is impressively up-to-the-minute."