John Q

John Q. is a 2002 American crime film starring Denzel Washington and directed by Nick Cassavetes. The film tells the story of John Quincy Archibald Denzel Washington, a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and finds out he is unable to receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it, before he decides to hold up the hospital and force them to do it.

The beginning scene starts off with a woman driving dangerously down a winding road. She recklessly passes cars until she comes upon a slow moving Mack truck. As she goes to pass, her car is clipped by a truck going in the opposite direction, then slammed fullforce by the Mack, and killing her. Meanwhile, John Quincy Archibald and his wife Denise witness their young son Michael collapse at his baseball game and take Michael to the hospital. After a series of tests at the hospital, before John is informed by Dr. Raymond Turner and Rebecca Payne, a hospital administrator to tell John and Denise that their son Michael has an enlarged heart and will need a transplant which will cost 250,000. Because the company he works for dropped John from fulltime to parttime, his health insurance has been changed, and the new policy does not cover the surgery, leaving them to raise 75,000 to get their sons name on the donor list. The family tries to raise the money but only able to come up with a third of the necessary payment. The hospital tires of waiting and releases Michael Denise urges John to do something. Unwilling to let his child die, John walks into the hospital ER with a handgun, gathers hostages, and sets demands his sons name on the recipient list as soon as possible. The hostage negotiator, Lt. Frank Grimes, stands down to let John cool off.Meanwhile, John and the eleven hostages learn more about each other. They begin to understand Johns situation and support him a little as he ensures each of them receive the treatment they came to the emergency room for. One of them, Miriam, is pregnant, and her husband Steve is hoping that their first child is healthy. A young hostage, Julie, has a broken arm, and she and her boyfriend Mitch claim that a car crash caused it. Due to holes in their story, John and another hostage, Lester, conclude the two are lying and that Mitch beat up Julie. After a while, John agrees to release some hostages to have his sons name added to the li

Source: Wikipedia