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The Siege
The secret US abduction of a suspected terrorist from his Middle East homeland leads to a wave of terrorist attacks in New York. An FBI senior agent and his team attempt to locate and decommission the enemy cells, but must also deal with an Army General gone rogue and a female CIA agent of uncertain loyalties.
1998 · Directed by Edward Zwick · 116 min · Drama · Action · Thriller · Crime · Screenplay in the scene database · 9 frames
Tagline
An enemy they can't see. A nation under siege. A crisis they can't control.
Plot
FBI Special Agent Anthony Hubbard and his Lebanese-American partner Frank Haddad intervene at the hijacking of a bus fully loaded with passengers, which contains an explosive device. The bomb turns out to be a paint bomb and the terrorists escape. The FBI receives demands to release Sheikh Ahmed Bin Talal, a suspect in an earlier bombing. Hubbard is confronted by Central Intelligence Agency operative Elise Kraft while taking a different suspect into custody and arrests her. Later, another terrorist threat is made and a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus is suicide bombed, killing 25 people. The FBI captures Samir Nazhde, a man who admits to signing the visa application of one of the suicide bombers in the course of signing many applications for student visas in his job as a lecturer. Kraft insists that Samir, with whom she has a sexual relationship, is not a terrorist and that his continued freedom is vital to the investigation. Hubbard and his team track down and eliminate the terrorist cell and believe that the threat is over.
However, the terrorist incidents escalate with the bombing of a crowded theater and a hostage situation at an elementary school, and culminate in the destruction of One Federal Plaza, the location of the FBI's New York City field office, causing more than 600 casualties. Over the objections of some of his advisors, the President of the United States declares martial law and the Army's 101st Airborne Division, under Major General William Devereaux, occupies and seals off Brooklyn to locate the remaining terrorist cells. All young men of Arab descent, including Haddad's son Frank Jr., are rounded up and detained in Downing Stadium. Haddad resigns in outrage while New Yorkers stage violent demonstrations against the Army’s occupation and the profiling of the Arabs.
Hubbard and Kraft, now revealed to be intelligence operative Sharon Bridger, continue their investigation and capture a suspect, Tariq Husseini. Devereaux, who was surveilling Hubbard, tortures and kills Husseini in the course of the interrogation. Husseini reveals nothing of value because of the principle of compartmentalized information. Sickened, Bridger concedes that she provided training and support to militants opposed to Saddam Hussein's regime, working with Samir to recruit and train the followers of the Sheikh. After the cut of their funding and the group was left to be exposed, she took pity on the few of the victims who had not yet been slaughtered by Hussein's forces, and arranged for them to escape to the United States, ultimately leading to the present situation as they direct their bomb making and covert skills on the country that now holds their leader. The Sheikh was also apprehended by Devereaux without any consent from the U.S. government. She and Hubbard compel Samir to arrange a meeting with the final terrorist cell. Hubbard convinces Haddad to return to the FBI.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Lawrence Wright, Menno Meyjes, Edward Zwick
- Cinematography: Roger Deakins
- Edited by: Steven Rosenblum
- Music: Graeme Revell
- Production design: Lilly Kilvert
- Produced by: Edward Zwick, Lynda Obst
Cast
- Denzel Washington as Anthony 'Hub' Hubbard
- Annette Bening as Elise Kraft / Sharon Bridger
- Bruce Willis as Major-General William Devereaux
- Tony Shalhoub as Agent Frank Haddad
- Sami Bouajila as Samir Nazhde
- Aasif Mandvi as Khalil Saleh
- Mark Valley as FBI Agent Mike Johanssen
- Jack Gwaltney as Fred Darius
- David Proval as Danny Sussman
- Lance Reddick as FBI Agent Floyd Rose
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: Spanish, English, Arabic
- Studios: Lynda Obst Productions, 20th Century Fox, Bedford Falls Productions
- Budget: $70,000,000
- Box office: $116,700,000
- Themes: new york city, muslim, undercover agent, fbi, islam, martial law, car bomb, terrorism, political thriller
More by Edward Zwick
On this film
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