Vantage Point (film) - Plot

Plot

U.S. President Henry Ashton (William Hurt) attends a political summit in Salamanca, Spain to promote an international treaty. Displayed with eight differing viewpoints, an assassination attempt on the president occurs, relayed in a time span of 23 minutes. Each time the events unfold from the beginning, a new vantage point is shown revealing additional details, which ultimately completes the story of what actually took place during the incident.

From the first vantage point, GNN producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver), directs various media personnel from a mobile television studio as the president arrives at the gathering. Mayor De Soto (Jose Carlos Rodriguez) delivers a short speech and then introduces the president, who is shot twice as he greets the crowd from the podium. An explosion outside the plaza soon follows. Moments later, the podium itself is destroyed by a secondary explosion, killing and injuring numerous people. As the smoke clears, GNN reporter Angie Jones (Zoe Saldana) is seen lying dead in the rubble.

The second vantage point follows Secret Service agents Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox). Barnes has just returned to duty after suffering a nervous breakdown a year earlier following a previous assassination attempt, in which Barnes took a bullet for the president. Barnes notices a curtain fluttering in the window of a nearby building that was allegedly vacated. He also observes American tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) filming the audience. After the president is shot, Barnes tackles a man rushing to the podium, named Enrique (Eduardo Noriega). Almost immediately, Taylor pursues a lead to a potential assassin. Following the second explosion, Barnes barges into the GNN production studio and asks to view their footage. He calls Taylor, who reports the direction of the suspected assassin's escape route. Barnes then views an image on one of the camera's live feeds that startles him and prompts him to run out.

In the third vantage point, Enrique, who claims to be a Spanish police officer assigned to protect the mayor of Salamanca, sees his girlfriend Veronica (Ayelet Zurer) being embraced by a stranger and overhears them speaking about meeting under an overpass. When he confronts her, Veronica assures Enrique of her love for him as he hands her a bag. When the president is shot, Enrique rushes onto the stage to protect the mayor, but Barnes tackles him. While being detained, Enrique witnesses Veronica toss the bag he gave her under the podium, causing the second explosion. Enrique escapes, and the agents who previously had him in custody mount a chase while firing shots in his direction, but fail to subdue him. During the chase, he sees Veronica, dressed as a paramedic, aboard a passing ambulance. Having eluded his pursuers, Enrique confronts an unseen individual at the overpass and asks if he is surprised to see him still alive.

The fourth vantage point revolves around Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker), who is chatting with a man called Sam (Saïd Taghmaoui), while a little girl named Anna (Alicia Zapien) bumps into him and drops her ice cream. Later, Lewis notices Barnes looking at the curtain fluttering in the window of a nearby building and captures the footage with his camcorder. Following the second explosion at the podium, Lewis finds Anna standing among the rubble, having become separated from her mother. Leaving her with a female police officer, Lewis chases Enrique and the pursuing Secret Service agents. At the overpass, Lewis views the pair of agents from afar, shooting in the direction of Enrique as he greets an individual in a police uniform under the overpass. Seriously wounded, Enrique falls to the ground. As this happens, Lewis sees Anna trying to cross a busy intersection. An ambulance races down the road about to hit Anna, as Lewis runs out to save her.

The fifth vantage point begins as President Ashton, having been informed of a credible assassination threat, has returned to his hotel room with his aides while his body double proceeds to the gathering in the plaza. After the double is shot, it is shown that the first explosion occurs just outside the hotel. Seconds later, a masked assailant bursts into the president's room, shoots his advisers and guards, and then proceeds to abduct Ashton.

By the sixth vantage point, terrorist Suarez, the head of the operation and previously seen as Sam, shoots Ashton's body double using a remote-controlled automatic rifle placed in an adjacent window next to the one with the fluttering curtain that had drawn Barnes' attention earlier. The rifle is retrieved by Taylor, whom Barnes sees leaving the scene wearing a Spanish policeman's uniform on one GNN's live feeds, even though he tells Barnes that he's in pursuit of the assassin over the phone. Barnes realizes Taylor is actually part of the terror plot. The man Enrique saw embracing Veronica is revealed to be special forces soldier Javier (Edgar Ramirez), whose brother is being held hostage to ensure Javier's cooperation with the terrorists. The first explosion is revealed to be a device detonated by a suicide bomber disguised as a bellhop. Javier kills the guards and aides within the hotel, and kidnaps the president.

Ashton is later placed in an ambulance with Suarez and Veronica disguised as medics. Javier joins Taylor in a police car headed to a planned rendezvous at the overpass. Barnes commandeers a car and chases Taylor and Javier. Barnes, however, collides with a truck, allowing the duo to escape. At the overpass, Enrique, who did not die in the blast at the podium as intended, confronts Javier and Taylor. Enraged, Javier shoots Enrique, mistakenly believing he had knowledge of his kidnapped brother's whereabouts. Barnes arrives at the scene on foot, and a shootout between Barnes and Javier ensues, wounding them both. Taylor then shoots and kills Javier, when Javier demands to be brought to his brother, whom the sixth vantage point had revealed had been executed earlier by Suarez. Enrique dies of his wounds as Barnes fires several rounds at Taylor, who attempts to flee. Barnes manages to wound Taylor, making him lose control of his car and crash into a concrete railing. Barnes then drags critically injured Taylor out of the car and tries to force him to reveal where the president has been taken, but Taylor dies. Meanwhile, Ashton regains consciousness in the ambulance and attacks Veronica, distracting her and Suarez just as Anna runs into their path. Suarez swerves, causing the ambulance to flip over just as Lewis pulls Anna out of its way, causing a multiple crash. Barnes runs to the ambulance, where he sees Veronica lying dead with a gun at her side. Opening the back door, he shoots Suarez dead and rescues the president.