Michael Jennings is the head of Aegis Oil and the main villain of the film On Deadly Ground. After stopping a preventer from destroying the ocean, Jennings explains to Forrest Taft that the fault was Hugh Palmer's.
Meanwhile, back at Aegis, Jennings is making a self-indulgent commercial to convince people he is an environmentalist when he is in fact quite the opposite, saying that animals "stink" after petting one. He then makes it very clear that if Aegis 1 isn't running in 13 days, he'll lose the oil rights to the Eskimos, costing him countless billions in revenue. He is told that Hugh is planning to reveal the faulty preventers to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. He immediately orders Hugh dealt with by his henchmen MacGruder (John C. McGinley) and Otto (Sven-Ole Thorsen).
At Aegis 1, Taft discovers the truth about the preventers and the fact that the shipment of new ones has been delayed at least 90 days. Jennings is alerted to Taft's accessing information by MacGruder, who volunteers to "deal with that problem" as well. Jennings tells MacGruder to deal with Hugh Palmer first.
After Hugh Palmer is murdered for not giving out secrets, Jennings' assistant Liles (Shari Shattuck) downplays the environmental impact of the spill saying everything will be fine in a few months. No one believes her and the tribal chief, Ittok, presses Jennings to discuss existing problems caused by his company, to no avail. An eskimo woman, Masu (Joan Chen), pours oil on Jennings saying "the blood of their people is upon him." Jennings is angered by the damage to his suit calling the Eskimos "animals." Taft tells Jennings about his trip to Aegis 1 and expresses his disgust for what Jennings is doing. Jennings goes away to change, then informs Taft of another "accident" and asks for his help.
Taft goes along, but realizes too late that it's a trap set up for him in a bomb-rigged building after discovering Hugh's corpse. Although he is badly wounded in the explosion, Taft survives and is rescued by Masu.
At another press conference, Jennings states that both the previous oil spill and the latest accident were acts of sabotage carried out by Taft and Palmer. He goes on to say that dead, this should end these "wanton acts of destruction" as well as Ittok's "crass attempts" to sabotage the completion of his refinery on time.
When MacGruder and Otto are unable to locate Taft's body, Jennings assumes he is alive and angrily orders them to keep looking.
Jennings berates MacGruder for killing Silook the father of Masu, mostly because of all the witnesses and orders him to increase security for Aegis 1.
When Jennings tells MacGruder just how dangerous Taft is, he suggests hiring a group of New Orleans based mercenaries led by Stone (R. Lee Ermey) to finish off Taft once and for all before he can do anything to stop Aegis One from going on-line.
At Aegis 1, Jennings has acquired the help of an FBI Anti-Terrorist Unit, who prove to be quite useless as they bail right after the first few explosions. Forrest goes through everyone who tries to stop him with minimal effort. MacGruder and Liles realize they shouldn't be there and flee. Taft kills MacGruder by throwing him into the escape helicopter's tail propellers where he was slashed to bits while Liles crashes her truck into a gasoline tank and explodes, incinerating her in the process. Jennings, still determined to succeed, decides to get one pump on-line, which will keep his leases no matter what happens. As this is happening, all of Jennings' workers are fleeing, with Jennings insulting them as "gutless pricks". Taft manages to set some charges in a configuration that will result in an implosion in order to prevent an oil spill. Stone confronts Taft, but Taft manages to kill him with his own weapon.
After a few more mercenaries are killed, Taft and Masu confront the defeated Jennings who immediately derides Masu, saying that he and Taft "bought better hookers for $5 in Bangkok". Taft realizes that no environmental preaching will have any effect on Jennings. So when Jennings tries to calmly walk away and escape, Taft lassos him and leaves him to dangle over a pool of oil. Jennings angrily dares Taft to shoot him, calling him a coward and saying that he has no guts. Taft refuses to "dirty his bullets", but after Masu asks him to dirty one, Taft shoots the rope, causing Jennings to fall into the oil, effectively drowning him in his own wealth as his body disappears in the black liquid.