The Kingdom (film) - Plot

Plot

The opening scene of the film explains, through a timeline sequence, the origins of U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations and how the discovery of energy resources has transformed the Middle East. It portrays the conflicts that have arisen since the late 1940s for the rightful ownership of the oil industry, including the Persian Gulf War in Iraq and al-Qaeda's growing network of terrorism. Eventually, it explains the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the fact that the majority of the hijackers were Saudis. This raises serious questions about the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States. The plot begins with the current struggle of Saudi Arabia and the kingdom's efforts to retain control of their country against terrorist extremists.

During a softball game at an American oil company housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, al-Qaeda terrorists set off a bomb, killing many Americans and Saudis in the process. The terrorists impersonate members of the Saudi State Police. While one team hijacks a car and shoots at the residents of the area, another runs out onto the softball diamond, pretending to aid the Americans, but then reveals he is a suicide bomber and blows himself up, killing everyone near him. Sergeant Haytham (Ali Suliman), of the Saudi State Police, disables the stolen Saudi Police vehicle and kills the terrorists. A short time later, the FBI Legal Attaché in Saudi Arabia, Special Agent Fran Manner (Kyle Chandler), calls up his colleague, Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx), to tell him about the attack. Shortly afterward, a second bomb explodes in the compound killing Manner and more people.

At FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., Fleury briefs his rapid deployment team on the attack and casualties. During the briefing, Special Agent Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), a forensic examiner, breaks down in tears upon hearing of Manner's death. Fleury whispers something into her ear which causes her to control her emotions. While the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. State Department hinder FBI efforts to investigate the attack, Fleury blackmails the Saudi ambassador into allowing an FBI investigative team into Saudi Arabia. Departing from Andrews Air Force Base, Fleury and his team of Mayes, Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman), an intelligence analyst and Special Agent Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), a bomb technician, go to Saudi Arabia. Arriving at Prince Sultan Air Base, they are met by Colonel Faris al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), the commander of the Saudi State Police Force providing security at the compound. Fleury soon realizes Colonel al-Ghazi is not in charge of running the investigation. In actuality, the investigation is being run by General Al Abdulmalik (Mahmoud Said) of the Saudi National Guard, who does not give Fleury and his team permission to investigate. Rather, they are to observe the Saudi investigation.

When the FBI team is invited to the palace of Saudi Prince Ahmed bin Khaled (Omar Berdouni) for a dinner, Mayes is excluded because of her gender. While at the palace, Fleury persuades the Prince that Colonel al-Ghazi is a natural detective and should be allowed to lead the investigation. With this new change in leadership, the Americans are allowed a more hands-on approach to the crime scene. While searching for evidence, Sergeant Haytham and Sykes discover the second bomb was detonated in an ambulance, using marbles as projectiles. Fleury learns the brother of one of the dead terrorists had access to ambulances and police uniforms. Colonel al-Ghazi orders a SWAT team to raid the house, managing to kill a few heavily armed terrorists. Following the raid, the team discovers valuable intelligence, including multiple photos of the U.S. and other Western embassies in Riyadh. Soon afterward, the U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Damon Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) notifies Fleury and his team that they have been ordered to return to the United States. However, Fleury and al-Ghazi both believed the men that they had just killed were just amateur fighters and not the real planners behind the attacks.

On their way to King Khalid International Airport, Fleury notices a youth watching their convoy from an overpass, and then looks behind him and notices the last of four black Chevy SUVs in their convoy has slowed down, falling far behind. He then notices a speeding car coming toward them and grabs the wheel from Sergeant Haytham, which allows them to partially evade the collision of the speeding car into the first SUV in their convoy, setting off a trunk full of explosives. Their SUV, the third in their convoy, hits the first SUV, killing the men inside. The fourth SUV finally drives up and the men inside pull out Leavitt, throwing him into the back and driving away while a second car drives by to shoot the surviving Americans. Fleury manages to wound one attacker, and al-Ghazi commandeers a civilian vehicle to chase the fourth SUV and the other car into the dangerous Al-Suwaidi neighborhood of Riyadh. As they pull up, a gunman launches rocket-propelled grenades at them and a fierce firefight starts. Inside the complex, Leavitt is tied up and gagged while his attackers prepare to film a tape of their executing him by beheading.

After killing their attackers, al-Ghazi decides that three of them must enter and find Leavitt, and two must stay behind and cover the entrance. While Sykes and Haytham watch the entrance, al-Ghazi, Fleury, and Mayes enter the building, following a blood trail, and manage to finish off many other gunmen inside. Mayes, separate from the other two, scares a little girl in an apartment, and she enters to find a family with little children, their mother, and grandfather. She yells at them to stay put and goes across the hall to another apartment, where she finds Leavitt and his attackers. She kills the remaining insurgents, and al-Ghazi and the team start to leave. However, Mayes feels unsettled about the little girl, and walks in to give the girl a lollipop. In return, the girl gives her a marble, matching the ones pieced together earlier from the bomb scene. Fleury then realizes there is a trail of blood leading to the back of the apartment, and al-Ghazi sees the grandfather, suspects something, and asks to help him up in order to inspect his hand. When the old man gives him his hand, al-Ghazi sees that the man is missing the fingers that Abu Hamza al-Masri is missing in the terrorist group's many videos and confirms his suspicion that the grandfather is the terrorist leader. Abu Hamza's teenage grandson walks out of the bedroom and manages to shoot al-Ghazi in the neck twice with a pistol before it jams, then he begins to point his gun at Mayes, prompting Fleury to kill him. Abu Hamza then feebly pulls out an assault rifle and Haytham puts three shots in his chest. As Abu Hamza dies, another grandson hugs him and Abu Hamza whispers something into his ear to calm the child down. Al-Ghazi dies in Fleury's arms.

At Al-Ghazi's house, Fleury and Haytham meet his family. Fleury tells his son that al-Ghazi was his good friend, mirroring a similar scene earlier in the movie wherein he comforted Special Agent Manner's son. Fleury and his team return to the U.S., where they are commended by FBI Director James Grace (Richard Jenkins) for their outstanding work. Afterwards, Leavitt asks Fleury what he had whispered to Mayes (earlier in the film) to calm her down. The scene cuts to Abu Hamza's daughter asking her own son what his grandfather whispered to him as he was dying. Fleury recalls saying, "We're gonna kill them all", while the grandson tells her mother, "Don't fear them, my child. We are going to kill them all", implying the war triggered a never-ending, vicious cycle.