John Q.

John Q. is a 2002 American thriller drama 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.

Not to be confused with John Q. Public.
John Q.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNick Cassavetes
Produced byMark Burg
Oren Koules
Written byJames Kearns
StarringDenzel Washington
Robert Duvall
James Woods
Anne Heche
Eddie Griffin
Kimberly Elise
Shawn Hatosy
Ray Liotta
Music byAaron Zigman
CinematographyRogier Stoffers
Edited byDede Allen
Production
company
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • February 15, 2002 (2002-02-15)
Running time
116 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$36 million
Box office$102.6 million

The film co-stars Robert Duvall, Kimberly Elise, Anne Heche, James Woods, and Ray Liotta. The film was shot in Toronto,[1] Hamilton, Ontario, and Canmore, Alberta, although the story takes place in Chicago. Shooting took place for 60 days from August 8 to November 3, 2000. The film was released on February 15, 2002.

Plot

A motorist is driving dangerously down a winding road, recklessly passing cars until she comes upon a slow moving Mack truck. As she attempts to pass, her car is clipped by a truck going in the opposite direction, then slammed full-force by a Mack truck, killing her.

Meanwhile, Chicago factory worker John Quincy Archibald and his wife Denise face financial trouble due to cutbacks at John's job, which in turn are the result of an ongoing economic recession. One Sunday afternoon, they witness their young son Michael collapse at his baseball game and rush him to the hospital. After a series of tests, John and Denise are informed by cardiologist Dr. Raymond Turner and hospital director Rebecca Payne that Michael has a now-failing enlarged heart and needs a heart transplant to survive. The procedure is very expensive: a $250,000 minimum, with a 30% down payment of $75,000 required to get Michael's name on the organ recipient list. John tells them that the family has insurance through his job, but after looking through his policy, they inform him that there is a problem with it.

Upon visiting his workplace's insurance office, John is told that because his employer has dropped him from full-time to part-time and switched insurance carriers, his health insurance has been changed and the new policy does not cover the surgery. After failing to get his original policy reinstated and unsuccessfully trying to find alternate aid elsewhere, John and Denise are left to raise the $75,000 themselves. They attempt to raise the money by various methods, but only manage to come up with about a third of the necessary payment. The hospital eventually tires of waiting and decides to send Michael home to die, and Denise, outraged and distraught, urges John to do something.

Deciding that drastic measures need to be taken to save his son, John enters the hospital's ER with a handgun, gathers hostages consisting of both patients and staff, including Dr. Turner, and locks the place down. However, an ambulance dropping off a gunshot victim arrives, and John agrees to let the victim in to receive treatment, but the police, notified by either the paramedics or hospital security, arrive soon afterwards and set up a perimeter. John then sets his demands with hostage negotiator Lt. Frank Grimes: get his son's name on the recipient list as soon as possible and the hostages live. Grimes then stands down to let John cool off.

Meanwhile, John ensures the remaining hospital staff give each of the patients the treatment they came to the emergency room for. As this happens, most of them start to support John as they begin to understand his situation and reflect on the flaws of America's health care system. After a while, John agrees to release some hostages in exchange for having his son's name added to the list within an hour afterward. Upon hearing this, abusive rich punk Mitch deliberately provokes expectant father Steve into a fight, and then attacks and tries to disarm John when he steps in. Instead, however, Mitch finds himself overpowered by John and subdued by his battered girlfriend Julie, who then assaults, humiliates, and dumps him on the spot when he insults her, much to the other hostages' amusement. After securing Mitch to prevent further trouble from him, John releases Steve, his in-labor wife Miriam, immigrant mother Rosa, and Rosa's baby.

Meanwhile, Grimes and Payne meet with Denise and explain the situation to her, and Payne decides to let the hospital do the operation pro bono. Elated, Denise agrees to try and talk John down. However, at the same time, Chicago Chief of Police Gus Monroe gives a SWAT unit permission to insert a sniper into the building via an air shaft, opting to use Denise to set John up to be killed. When Grimes confronts him about this, Monroe tells him that the department and the city can't afford to give in to John's demands due to political reasons and overrides Grimes' command.

The police lure John into position by diverting Denise's call to a specific ER phone. John answers, learning from Denise about Michael's name being on the recipient list and his deteriorating condition, and speaks to Michael, while the SWAT sniper gets into position to take John out. Unknown to anyone, Channel 8 News anchor Tuck Lampley, who is covering the hostage situation, has his team hack the police surveillance feed and broadcasts both John's conversations with his family and the security feed on live national news.

Just as John ends his call, he discovers the hacked news coverage and notices the sniper, who then takes his shot, causing a panicked uproar both inside and outside the hospital. John is hit, but only receives a minor wound to the shoulder, though he fakes being killed to throw the police off-guard. Shortly afterwards, the sniper's leg falls through the ceiling tiles. Outraged, John rises, pulls him out of the air shaft, and beats him. As John's wound is treated, and Monroe fumes over the failed assassination attempt, the police discover the Channel 8 team's actions and forcefully shut down their news feed. Meanwhile, Payne submits Michael's name to the organ recipient list.

John, using the bound SWAT policeman as a human shield, then steps outside to the sight of dozens of officers pointing weapons at him and a large, supportive crowd. John berates the police for attempting to kill him, and demands that his son be brought to the emergency room. The police agree to his request in exchange for the SWAT sniper. Once his son arrives, John reveals to the hostages 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 bear witness to a will stating his last request. John says his last goodbyes to Michael, enters the operating room and loads a bullet into his gun, revealing that it was never loaded and he never intended to kill anyone.

After an initial misfire due to the gun's safety, John prepares to end his life a second time. However, Denise then learns from Payne about a recently-deceased organ donor (the woman killed in the beginning of the film) with Michael's blood-type, and that her heart is about to arrive for his transplant. Denise runs to the emergency room, stops John from shooting himself and tells him the news. Once the heart arrives, John releases the remaining hostages, and hostage Lester disguises himself as him and surrenders to the police in his place. Grimes is the only one who notices this, and later finds John watching Michael's life-saving operation with Denise. He allows John to finish watching his son's operation, and after it ends as a success, takes John into custody. In the aftermath, the entire ordeal becomes subject to a national debate about the quality and accessibility of insurance and healthcare.

At John's trial, all of his former hostages testify on his behalf. Three months later, the jury acquits him of attempted murder and armed criminal action charges, but convicts him on charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment, much to the dismay of everyone, including a now-healthy Michael. John's sentence is never revealed, but his lawyer says that the judge wouldn't sentence him to more than three-to-five years and that she will try to get it reduced to two. The film ends with John being driven away to jail to await sentencing, while Michael thanks his father from a distance for all he did to save his life.

Cast

Production

In Blu-ray DVD commentary on the Deleted Scenes with Cassavetes and writer James Kearns, the main theme of the movie was said to be "about a miracle and John's faith in God creating the miracle". They also mentioned how SWAT team advisors for the film related a similar true incident in Toronto where a man (Henry Masuka) took an ER hostage after it would not provide immediate service to his infant son on New Year's Eve 1999. When he exited the ER he was shot and killed and found to be carrying an unloaded pellet gun.[2][3][4] A character building scene at the beginning of the film was shot in Cambridge, ON at a manufacturing facility owned by Babcock & Wilcox. Washington is shown using a grinder as he stands over a tubesheet destined for a steam generator for a nuclear power generating facility.[5]

Reception

Box office

The film opened in first place at the box office, taking $23,275,194 during its first weekend. It ended up with a total domestic gross of $71,026,631 and $102,244,770 worldwide.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 23% based on the 131 reviews, with the site's consensus reading, "Washington's performance rises above the material, but John Q pounds the audience over the head with its message."[6] Metacritic gives it a score of 30 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[7]

See also

References
  1. "Reel Toronto: John Q". online news. Torontoist.
  2. Audio commentary on the DVD.
  3. Rush, Curtis (10 December 2011). "In tailspin after police shootings, former SWAT team leader lifts veil on post-traumatic stress syndrome". Toronto Star. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  4. "Inquest into fatal hospital shooting begins" CBC News, April 17, 2001.
  5. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-23. Retrieved 2014-06-30.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "John Q".
  7. "John Q".
  8. Hooli, Shekhar H. (15 March 2010). "Sugreeva – Review". oneIndia. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  9. "Tathastu? Or is it John Q?". South Asian Women's Forum. 10 May 2006. Archived from the original on 2 February 2016. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
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