John Q

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John Q
John Q promotional poster
Directed by	Nick Cassavetes
Produced by	Mark Burg Oren Koules
Written by	James Kearns
Starring	Denzel Washington Robert Duvall James Woods Anne Heche Kimberly Elise Ray Liotta
Music by	Aaron Zigman
Cinematography	Rogier Stoffers
Editing by	Dede Allen
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date(s)	February 15, 2002 (USA)
Running time	118 min.
Language	English
Budget	$36,000,000
IMDb profile

John Q is a 2002 movie starring Denzel Washington as John Quincy Archibald, a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because insurance won't cover it. The title is a reference to the term John Q. Public, indicating that the struggles in the story could be experienced by any average American. The movie was directed by Nick Cassavetes.

A protest against the policies and hidden procedures of many of today's insurance companies, John Q also stars Anne Heche, Ray Liotta, and Robert Duvall, among others.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

As the film opens, a young woman is driving a sedan down a rural-looking highway. Her progress impeded by a slow-moving truck, she attempts to pass it by moving into the oncoming lane of traffic. Suddenly, a second truck looms in the oncoming lane, and the woman's rear fender is clipped by the second truck. The woman fishtails and comes to a stop in front of the first truck, which collides with her car, killing the woman.

John is a factory worker in a mining town in Illinois. His wife, Denise (Kimberly Elise), works as a grocery store clerk. On a Sunday afternoon, John's son Michael (Daniel E. Smith) is playing baseball with the local Little League. As he is running the bases, he suddenly collapses on the field. He is taken to (the fictional) Hope Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. It is discovered that he has fallen into heart failure; his blood pressure is 68/34. Dr. Raymond Turner (James Woods), is assigned as Michael's doctor. Dr. Turner explains to John and Denise that Michael's heart is useless; he will need a transplant, or else he will die in months or weeks, if not days.

A transplant costs $250,000. Naturally, John and Denise cannot afford it. John's insurance plan has recently changed to an HMO. The representative from his union tells John that an HMO is a less expensive policy, but there are some restrictions, one being that there is a maximum catastrophic coverage payout limit of $20,000. Denise does not have any benefits from her job.

John and Denise make every effort to raise the money. They must make a down payment of $75,000 in order to put Michael's name on the donor's list to receive a new heart. They liquidate everything they own, and hold fund raisers in their church. They contact Children's State Services and Medicaid to no avail. Denise is told that the hospital is going to release Michael, and his family will simply have to take him home and watch him die. John is livid. After Denise calls him from the hospital to tell him that his son will be discharged without the transplant and begs him to do something, he takes the situation into his own hands.

On the morning of Saturday, September 29, 2001, John enters the hospital with a pistol hidden under his jacket. As he walks in, Dr. Turner is in the hallway, having a casual conversation with an ex-patient of his, a rich man who has just received a heart transplant. The family is overjoyed and jokes with Dr. Turner about the success of the operation, which drives John into a frenzy.

John asks Dr. Turner to enter the next room, where he first begs the doctor to help him and promises to find a way to repay him, and then points the gun at the physician's head and orders him to give his son a new heart. They enter the emergency room, and he holds the hospital at gunpoint, threatening to kill the hostages if his son does not get the operation.

An ambulance arrives at the hospital with a gunshot victim, who John reluctantly allows into the hospital to be operated on by Dr. Turner, saving the man's life. The paramedics become aware of the hostage situation and notify police. A prolonged standoff ensues, in which John threatens to begin killing hostages if his son is not put on the heart transplant waiting list.

Meanwhile, John and the 11 hostages communicate and learn more about each other. One of them, Miriam, is pregnant and her husband Steve is hoping that their first kid is healthy. A young hostage, Julie, has a broken arm, and she and her boyfriend Mitch claim that a car crash caused it, but John and another hostage, Lester, know that Mitch beat her up. After a while, John says that he will release some hostages, but only if his son's name is on the list an hour afterward. Steve and Mitch have an argument about who will walk out, and during the argument, Mitch says a racial slur to Steve, which infuriates him. But, when John tries to break them up, Mitch sprays him with pepper spray and stabs him with a scalpel. They fall to the ground and wrestle, and the gun is knocked away. Mitch tells Julie to get the gun, but instead, she picks up the pepper spray and sprays Mitch at close range. He calls her a bitch and she kicks him 3 times; 1st time: for beating her up, 2nd time: for him being an asshole, and the third time: for calling her a bitch; the third time she kicks him in the testicles (which makes some of the other hostages laugh). She then pulls off a blonde wig, throws it on him, and tells him she's not going to be his "Barbie" anymore. John then takes some handcuffs from the security guard, Max, takes Mitch, throws the wig on him, pulls him over to the radiator and cuffs him to it. Then he releases Steve, Miriam, and a hostage named Rosa with her baby.

The Chicago chief of police overrides the efforts of the police negotiator and gives a SWAT unit permission to insert a sniper into the building via an air shaft. Meanwhile, John speaks with his wife and then his son, telling them that the situation will be all right, unaware that a hidden camera in the hospital has been hacked by a news crew, and that his emotional conversation is being broadcast live on national television. The sniper shoots John, but the shot causes only a minor wound.

After taking the shot, the sniper's leg falls through the ceiling tiles and the outraged John gets up and pulls him out of the air shaft and beats him. John's gunshot wound is treated by the emergency room staff, and using the bound SWAT policeman as a human shield, steps outside to the sight of dozens of policemen pointing weapons at him, as well as a large crowd gathered to support his cause. He argues with the negotiator, who tries to convince him that despite placing Michael on a top-priority organ recipient list, John can do nothing more for his son, and that whatever course he takes will result in his imprisonment or his death. John nevertheless demands that his son be brought to the emergency room, where he claims that the surgeons inside are ready to perform a procedure to save his life. The police give into his demand in exchange for the SWAT sniper.

Once his son arrives, John reveals his intention to commit suicide so his heart can be used to save his son. He persuades Dr. Turner to perform the operation, and two of his hostages to bear witness to a will stating his last request. John goes to say his last goodbyes to Michael, telling him to obey his mother and live honestly and responsibly. He tearfully leaves his barely-conscious son and goes to the operating room, where he reveals to the doctor and emergency room personnel that his gun was unloaded the entire time he held them hostage. John loads a single bullet into the gun and pulls the trigger, only to learn that the safety was on. As he holds the gun to his own head a second time and prepares to end his life, his wife is told about a woman killed in a car accident miles away, who happens to have the same blood type as Michael, and has been flown to the hospital for organ recovery. She runs to the ER and stops her husband from shooting himself, and John allows the hostages to go free. Michael is given the life-saving operation, and after watching the procedure with Denise, John is taken into police custody. He is later cleared of charges for attempted murder and armed criminal action, but is found guilty of kidnapping and expects to serve three to five years in prison for his actions.