The Siege

A special agent of the FBI, a case officer of the CIA, and a general in the U.S. Army have all taken the same oath - "to support and defend the Constitution." But when a bus blows up in Brooklyn and a campaign of terror begins to make its bloody mark on the streets of New York City, the men and women who have sworn to protect the country must now reckon with the many implications of their oath. Anthony "Hub" Hubbard (Denzel Washington), the head of the Joint FBI/NYPD Terrorism Task Force, is the man charged with keeping the city safe from an array of threats that seem to grow more terrifying with every headline. As an officer of the court, his job is the apprehension and prosecution of criminals. Elise Kraft (Annette Bening) is a CIA operative, now undercover, with important sources in the Arab-American community and ambiguous ties to the suspects. Her agenda, like that of her government's foreign policy, is more complex than Hub's. And yet these two are forced to work together, forging an uneasy alliance, as the incidents of terror threaten to paralyze the city under siege. As Hub and Elise begin their efforts, the public's clamor for safety and the escalation of terrorist activities force the hand of the President of the United States, whose only recourse is to declare a State of Emergency and ask help from the military. At what point does the protection of the country's citizens conflict with the protections of their rights? Faced with such grave danger, how will the members of a free society measure up? How quickly will the country abrogate the Constitution? How shallowly beneath the surface does the ugly spectre of repression and persecution reside?