The Negotiator

Lieutenant Danny Roman, a top hostage negotiator for the Chicago Police Department's east precinct, is told by his partner, Nate Roenick, that according to an informant whom he refuses to name, members of their own unit are embezzling large amounts of money from the department's disability fund, of which the former is a board member. Nate tells Danny that his informant hasn't told Internal Affairs because he thinks they might be involved as well. Later on, Danny goes to meet Nate but finds him dead, shot in the head. A squad car arrives on the scene within seconds, considering Danny a prime suspect.

Matters become worse for Danny when IAD inspector Terence Niebaum, whom Nate's informant suspected of involvement in the embezzlement, is assigned to investigate the murder. After the gun that killed Nate, which is found in the lake next to his car, is linked to a case Danny had worked on, Niebaum and other investigators search the Roman house and discover papers for an offshore bank account with a deposit equal to one of the amounts of money embezzled. Danny is forced to surrender his gun and badge, and his colleagues are skeptical of his protestations of innocence. With embezzlement and homicide charges pending, Danny storms into Niebaum's office to confront him. When the inspector refuses to cooperate, Danny takes Niebaum, his administrative assistant Maggie, Danny's commander and friend Grant Frost and con man Rudy Timmons as hostages.

With the building is evacuated and placed under siege by his own CPD unit and the FBI, Danny issues his conditions: he wants his badge back, the locating of Nate's informant and killer, a department funeral if he dies and the summoning of Lieutenant Chris Sabian, the city's other top negotiator. Danny believes he can trust the methodical Chris, because he talks for as long as possible, sees tactical action as a last resort, and being from the CPD's west precinct eliminates him as a suspect in the disability fund scheme. Chris clashes with Danny's precinct, particularly commander Adam Beck, but is given temporary command of the unit after they hastily attempt a breach that backfires, resulting in SWAT officers Scott and Markus becoming hostages with Scott apparently getting killed.

Danny trades Frost to Chris in exchange for restoring the building's electricity, which had been turned off after the hostage execution. With help from Rudy and Maggie, Danny accesses Niebaum's computer and discovers the scheme: corrupt officers submitted false disability claims that were processed by an unknown insider on the disability fund's board. He also discovers recordings of wiretaps, including a conversation between the Roenicks that suggests Nate was going to meet his informant before he was killed. Chris, using the information Danny claims to have located Nate's informant in a bid to get Danny to release the hostages. Danny realizes Chris is bluffing when Niebaum's files reveal that Nate himself was the IAD informant.

When Danny threatens to expose Niebaum in his office's open window, leaving him vulnerable to sniper fire, Niebaum admits that Nate gave him wiretaps, implicating three of their squad mates in the embezzlement scheme: Allen, Hellman and Argento. When Niebaum had confronted the guilty officers, he received a bribe from them to cover up their crimes. The guilty officers attempted to bribe Nate, but he refused to take the money, resulting in his murder. Niebaum says he doesn't know who the ringleader is, but that he has safely hidden the taps corroborating the three officers' guilt. The same corrupt officers have secretly entered the room via the air vents, under the pretext of being part of a team to take Danny out in case he starts killing the hostages. Upon hearing Niebaum's confession, they open fire and murder him before he can reveal where he has hidden the wiretaps. Danny single-handedly fends them and the rest of his squad off, using the flashbangs he seized from Markus and Scott in the previous failed breach.

Believing that Chris and the police can't resolve the situation, the FBI assumes jurisdiction over the operation, cease negotiations, relieve the lieutenant of his command, and order a full breach. As Danny prepares for his eventual arrest, Maggie tells him that Niebaum also worked from his house and could have kept Nate's wiretaps there. Chris confronts Danny to warn him about the breach, and the latter reveals that Scott is still alive and gagged with duct tape. Chris begins to believe in Danny's innocence and gives him a chance to prove his case. While the FBI and HBT teams raid the building and rescue the hostages, Danny disguises himself as a HBT member and escapes through the vents.

The two negotiators proceed to Niebaum's house, but they are unable find the wiretaps. The police arrive and the corrupt officers enter the house, but they back off as Frost enters and tries to talk Danny down. Chris observes Frost discreetly locking the front door and taking one of the loaded guns and realizes that he is the ringleader of the conspiracy, the insider on the disability fund's board and Nate's killer. In front of Frost, Chris seemingly kills Danny and offers to destroy the evidence on floppy disks they have uncovered in return for a cut of Frost's take. Frost agrees and effectively makes a full admission to his and the other three officers' crimes before crushing the floppy disks and shooting Niebaum's computer. When Frost exits the house, he discovers that Chris only wounded Danny, who used a police radio microphone to broadcast his entire confession to the police surrounding the area. Humiliated, Frost attempts to commit suicide, but is shot in the shoulder by Beck and arrested along with the other corrupt officers. As Danny is loaded into an ambulance with his wife, Chris gives his badge to him and departs.

Tom Bower also appears uncredited as Omar, an unhinged man whom Danny negotiates with at the beginning of the film.

The film is dedicated to J. T. Walsh, who died several months before the film's release.

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