When a top hostage negotiator (Samuel L Jackson) is set up by crooked cops (inevitably led by JT Walsh at his slimiest), he breaks into Walsh's office and takes hostages himself. Uncertain whom to trust, he requests an equally famous negotiator (Kevin Spacey) from outside the city to talk turkey. Though you may think it takes them rather a long time to get on the same side, the suspenseful story takes in plenty of gun-blasting action along the way, as orders are disobeyed, the bent cops take the law into their own hands and various attempts are made to take Jackson out. The stars do good work in a story that, frighteningly, is based on fact.

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