Plot

Follows a black-ops interrogator and an F.B.I. agent who try to press a suspect terrorist into divulging the location of three nuclear weapons set to detonate in the U.S.

A convert to Islam sends the U.S. government a tape showing him in three nondescript storage rooms, each of which may contain a nuclear bomb set to detonate in less than a week. Helen Brody, an FBI agent in L.A., is tasked with finding the bombs while a CIA "consultant," known as H, interrogates the suspect who has allowed himself to be caught. The suspect, whose wife and children have left him and disappeared, seems to know exactly what the interrogation will entail. Even as H ratchets up the pressure, using torture over Brody's objection, the suspect doesn't crack. Should H do the unthinkable, and will Brody acquiesce? Is any Constitutional principle worth possible loss of life?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

After suspecting Henry Humphries of being a terrorist, FBI Agent Helen Brody and others from the Counter-Terrorism Unit find out that he is connected with CIA, and they must work together with him to interrogate a suspect, Steven Arthur Younger, who has allegedly placed three nuclear bombs in three U.S. cities that will explode on Friday October 21st. After conventional questioning and torture fail, Henry resorts to unconventional means, much to Helen's chagrin. A battered and bloodied Steven states that he will only reveal the locations of these bombs after the President makes a public announcement that there will be no further financial and military support of puppet regimes and dictators in any Islamic nation; and all U.S. forces must withdraw from all Islamic nations. Will the U.S. be willing to change it's centuries-old 'Foreign Policy' in order to save the lives of millions of its' citizens or will Henry have to do the unthinkable in order to get this suspect to reveal the exact location of these bombs?—rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

An American Muslim man and former Delta Force operator named Steven Younger / Yusuf (Michael Sheen), formerly named Younger, makes a videotape When FBI Special Agent Helen Brody (Carrie-Anne Moss) and her team see news bulletins looking for Yusuf. Helen is working with Agent Phillips (Joshua Harto), and Agent Vincent (Gil Bellows). Helen's boss asks her to drop everything else and put all her resources into finding Yusuf.

Helen is tracking many terrorist suspects including a man named H. H's file was sent to the FBI by the CIA and Helen sent agents to H's home to bring him in. H's wife is a Muslim, who was involved in some objectionable activities, but the files have redacted the portions which specify what they were. H and his family were in witness protection, but the FBI agents to his home to arrest him. H calls Charlie Thompson (Stephen Root), who in turn calls Helen and asks her team of back off from H. Helen sends Vincent to bring H into the FBI offices. Before Helen can interrogate him, Charlie arrives and takes H away.

Helen's team launches an investigation into Yusuf, which is curtailed when they are summoned to a high school, which has been converted into a black site under military command. General Paulson (Holmes Osborne) is in charge of the High School facility. They are shown Yusuf's complete tape, where he threatens to detonate three nuclear bombs in separate U.S. cities if his demands are not met. Yusuf says that the bombs will go off together on a particular day, which is only 4 days away from the time the video is seen.

Yusuf was a specialist in weapons and bomb disposal, and his specialization was in tactical field nuclear weapons. Yusuf served in Iraq to check for nuclear weapons. 3 years ago, he was on a team to check nuclear facilities in Russia. The Russians say that 15-18 pounds of material is missing. The fission material moved from Russia to Iran, after which it went missing.

Helen realizes that the military already had Yusuf under custody and were torturing him using standard techniques. Helen is not in favor of using torture techniques and wants to sit down face to face with Yusuf and talk to him. Helen's boss Saunders asks her to focus on finding the bombs.

A special interrogator (ex-army), "H" (Samuel L. Jackson), is brought in to force Yusuf to reveal the locations of the nuclear bombs. H says that Yusuf is also from the army and has been trained to withstand the standard torture techniques.

H quickly shows his capability and cruelty by chopping off one of Yusuf's fingers with a small hatchet. Horrified, Special Agent Brody attempts to put a stop to the measures. Her boss, Saunders (Martin Donovan), makes it clear that the threat of 10 million deaths necessitates the torture. Helen is adamant that physical torture does not work as anything that Yusuf says will not be reliable.

H escalates his methods (with Brody as the "good cop"). Brody tells Yusuf that his wife and kids tried to leave for Saudi Arabia, but they were denied a visa and hence they are still in the US. Brody realizes that Yusuf anticipated that he would be tortured. Yusuf then makes his demands: he would like the President of the United States to announce a cessation of support for "puppet governments" and dictatorships in Muslim countries and a withdrawal of American troops from all Muslim countries. The group immediately dismisses the possibility of his demands being met, citing the United States' declared policy of not negotiating with terrorists.

When Brody accuses Yusuf of faking the bomb threat in order to make a point about the moral character of the United States government, he breaks down and agrees that it was all a ruse. He gives her an address to prove it. They find a room that matches the scene in the video tape and find evidence on the roof. A soldier removes a picture from a electrical switch which triggers a tremendous C-4 explosion at a nearby shopping mall visible from the roof. The explosion kills 53 people. Angry at the senseless deaths, Brody returns to Yusef and cuts his chest with a scalpel. Yusuf is unafraid and demands she cut him. He justifies the deaths in the shopping mall, stating that the Americans kill that many people every day. Yusuf says he allowed himself to be caught so he could face his oppressors.

H questions whether Yusef will reveal the bombs' location unless Yusuf's wife is found. When she is detained, H brings her in front of her husband and threatens to mutilate her in front of him. Brody and the others begin to take her away from the room in disgust. Out of desperation, H slashes her throat, and she bleeds to death in front of Yusuf. Still without cooperation, H tells the soldiers to bring in Yusuf's two children, a young boy and a girl. Outside of Yusuf's hearing, he assures everyone that he will not harm the children.

Yusef's children are brought in, and H makes it clear that he will torture them if the locations of the bombs are not divulged. Yusuf breaks and gives three addresses (in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas), but H does not stop, forcing the others to intervene. Citing the amount of missing nuclear material Yusuf potentially had at his disposal (some 15-18 pounds were reported missing, with about 4½ pounds. needed per device), H insists that Yusuf has not admitted anything about a hence-unknown fourth bomb. H points out that everything Yusuf has done so far has been planned meticulously. He knew the torture would most likely break him, and he would have been certain to plant a fourth bomb, just in case.

Here it becomes clear that the purpose of the preceding torture was not to break Yusuf, but rather to make it clear to him what would happen to his children if he did not cooperate.

The government official in charge of the operation - who helped attack H moments earlier, now demands that H torture Yusuf's children for the fourth bomb. H demands that Brody bring the children back in, because her decency will give him the moral approval that he needs to do the "unthinkable". Brody says that letting the fourth bomb kill millions is better than torturing two children.

When Brody refuses to retrieve the children for H, he unstraps Yusuf, sarcastically setting him free. The official draws his pistol and aims it at H to coerce him into further interrogation. Yusuf grabs the official's gun. He asks Brody to take care of his children and kills himself.

An FBI bomb disposal team arrives at one of the disclosed locations and resets the timer to prevent the bomb from going off. As the FBI are celebrating however, behind a nearby crate, the originally unconfirmed fourth bomb's timer counts down to zero. The screen immediately cuts to black.