Some movies make me deeply emotional, especially when a character is trying to prove their innocence after being wrongly accused. The most heartbreaking part is when their closest friends doubt them, which forces them to go on the run to find the real criminal while desperately trying to clear their name. They face overwhelming challenges especially when their families are involved and threatened if they don't surrender. This leaves them with no choice but to fight for their lives and make sure their efforts aren't in vain. But in the end, they triumph and are finally recognised and their names cleared.
Whenever I watch movies like this, it keeps me feeling pity for the victim and you'd find me praying so hard as if I'm in the movie too. It just pains me to see such happening to innocent people like them and they'd fight hard to win. But what if proving their innocence wasn't enough? For most of them, the damage to their reputation had already been done despite their efforts.
This is exactly the situation of Pete Garrison in the movie, titled "The Sentinel." This movie made me realise how trust can be fragile and that even the best agents can find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
The movie was produced in the year 2006 and was directed by Clark Johnson, starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria and Kim Basinger. It's a thrilling and action-packed movie that is so engaging.
It's all about a secret service agent, Pete Garrison, who was played by Michael Douglas. He became a prime suspect in an assassination attempt, and he had to outsmart the Secret Service just to find out the real traitor and clear his name. Pete must clear his name even when his pregnant wife was kidnapped and threatened to be killed, and also, he must prevent another assassination attempt on the President.
Pete Garrison has had a long and distinguished career in helping to protect the President of the United States, Ballentin acted by David Rasche. David Breckinridge (Kiefer Sutherland) is a close friend of Pete and a fellow secret service agent who respects him so much, but when all clues are pointed at Pete for wanting to kill the President, he doubts him and doesn't trust him.
The reason why David didn't trust Pete was because of what transpired between them a long time ago when Pete had an affair with his wife, and that broke the friendship bond. Intelligence data suggested that there is a mole within the Secret Service who is part of the plot to assassinate the President. A polygraph was conducted to know who the mole is but all the while, there was one person who outsmarted the system and didn't take the polygraph.
Pete had an informant who already told him about the plot to kill the President and that there was someone in the Secret Service who was going to help in achieving that. Earlier that day, a fellow agent and another close friend of Pete, Charlie Merriweather (Clark Johnson), had wanted to share information with Pete as regards who the mole was but was unable to do that as he was also assassinated in front of his home.
Pete later knew from his trusted informant that the killing of Charlie was related to an assassination plot against the President. It was later David realized Pete was innocent and was framed, and the reason he failed the polygraph test was to keep his affair with the First Lady Secret. Together, they both teamed up to find who the mole is.
Were they able to identify the mole? Did Pete clear his name? What happened to his wife afterwards? Was he able to stop the second assassination attempt?
Seriously, this movie left me in suspense. At first, I wasn't enjoying it, especially as things were played out in the first few scenes, which had me dozing off, but I had to sit tight back when the heat was getting intense. I eventually loved the movie because I was glued to the end. The tense cat and mouse chases were fascinating. I would rate the movie 7/10 because it delivers solid performances, especially from Douglas and Sutherland.
All images are screenshots from Imdb