History Film / TheNegotiator

* GenreSavvy: An experienced, highly skilled police negotiator creates a hostage situation. The police are painfully aware that he falls under this trope. Especially when he starts ''lecturing them'' about how to do their jobs better.

* RedHerring: SWAT Commander Beck seems like an easy pick for the person who is setting up Danny; he is a hardass, no-bull character who wants to immediately take out Roman with a tactical squad, and is played by David Morse, who has made a living playing villainous roles. [[spoiler: But he's not. He's only trying to take down Roman because he believes he's the culprit, and he not only arrests the true villain, but also keeps him from committing suicide to escape his fate.]]

* HollywoodTactics: At the end, when [[spoiler: Frost]] comes out of Niebaum's house, he is surrounded by other cops on every side. [[TooDumbToLive Who then point guns at him]]. When [[spoiler: Beck]] shoots him, [[spoiler: Danny and Sabian]] are clearly directly behind him. ''Nobody'' has a clear shot without a friendly behind him.

* HollywoodLaw: Averted. Danny takes action before things get that far.

* CurbStompBattle: Well, verbal battle at least, between Danny and Farley. It's not even a fair fight, since Farley is a last minute substitute since their best negotiator is the one taking hostages. Danny reacts with disbelief when Farley calls him up on the phone and he starts on the standard negotiation lines, decides to give Farley a chance to talk him down, and what follows is an emasculating verbal dissection.

** Beck, the squad leader, who makes no secret of his dislike for Danny even before the set-up, can't help but chuckle silently during the "never say no" scene; a sentiment shared by one of the FBI agents.
** Sabian's wife is upset after their daughter said her ski clothes made her look "wide". While she's locked up in their bedroom, Chris makes a big show of trying to lecture their daughter (who's also on the phone and ignoring him) to placate his spouse, but keeps laughing despite himself.

* CowboyCop: Danny, much to Beck's annoyance, though Beck himself has this mentality himself with his gung-ho attitude to just go in and kill Danny first and then ask questions second.

* EmptyCopThreat: [[spoiler: After the hostages have been released Maggie initially gives Chief Travis the silent treatment when he asks where Danny has gone, but relents when he threatens to charge her with obstruction of justice.]]

* HeroInsurance: Roman takes several innocent people hostage during the incident as he fights to clear his name. The movie does not imply that he will ever face consequences for doing so. Even if you have been framed for theft and murder, taking innocent people hostage is still a crime. It's strongly implied that the hostages would speak on Danny's behalf, and given the misconduct of the [[spoiler: corrupt cops]], it's likely he would come out of it in decent shape.

* DeathGlare: All the cops who arrive to Niebaum's house give one to [[spoiler: Frost]] when they realize that he was the one who masterminded the embezzelment scheme and killed Nathan Roenick.

* InternalAffairs: Internal Affairs cop Niebaum is a sinister {{Jerkass}} who is quick to accuse the main character of embezzling from the police disability fund and murdering his partner, even though Danny's DeadPartner questioned Niebaum's trustworthiness before dying. Danny ends up taking Niebaum hostage to try and get some answers, with Niebaum remaining oddly silent throughout most of the ordeal. [[spoiler:Eventually, it's confirmed that after being given the evidence needed to arrest the embezzlers, he instead took a bribe to cover up their misdeeds and told them who had ratted them out.]]

-->'''Sabian:''' There are many ways to prove your innocence, [[NotHelpingYourCase this is hardly one of them]]. And now you've taken hostages. You hurt one of them, you burn up any currency you have with me. They're all I care about; your leaving here 'walking', is a distant second.

-->'''Sabian:''' There are many ways to prove your innocence, [[NotHelpingYourCase this is hardly one of them]]. And now you've taken hostages. You hurt one of them, you burn up any currency you have with me. They're all I care about; your leaving here walking, is a distant second.

-->'''Sabian:''' There are many ways to prove your innocence, [[NotHelpingYourCase this is hardly one of them]]. And now you've taken hostages. You hurt one of them, you burn up any currency you have with me. They're all I care about. Getting you out of here alive... a distant second.

** The federal negotiators, asked to stand aside so the local cops can bring in Danny on their own, are seen chuckling at Danny asking a flop-sweating Farley if he's ever dressed up as a schoolgirl.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Palermo has a clear shot at Danny during a breach and is ordered to shoot, but Palermo believes Danny's innocence and refuses to fire, and is relived from duty as a result.

* BluffingTheMurderer: [[spoiler: Sabian gets Frost to confess by blackmailing him with the nonexistent evidence.]]

* Foreshadowing: When attempting to force out Niebaum's information by putting him in the killbox room, [[spoiler: Danny tells Niebaum that if the dirty cops killed Nate, they'd kill Niebaum too. Sure enough, as soon as Niebaum spills out what he knows, the dirty cops breach and murder Niebaum.]]

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: When the crooked cops shoot [[spoiler:Niebaum]] they engage in a drawn out firefight with Danny to make it look like the guy just got caught in the crossfire. Danny points out to Sabian that he has "three shots to center mass", obviously indicating murder; in a nice touch, the shots passed through the target and went into a filing cabinet, showing that they came from high up and making it almost impossible that Danny was responsible[[note]]Since Sabian didn't directly witness the firefight, he needs the proof, while the audience saw the whole thing and have no such doubts[[/note]].

-->'''Danny (to Karen Roman)''': The bluff wasn't just for Danny.

* BatmanGambit: Done multiple times by Roman, since he knows through experience how police and SWAT will react to every move he makes; [[spoiler: Roman and Sabian use one together to get the real conspirator to make an engineered confession.]]

* PutDownYourGunAndStepAway: Danny, to a whole room full of cops. The result is a desk covered in guns and handcuffs. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that Danny is a crack shot (which he demonstrates by intentionally missing - by about four inches - a cop who was trying to line up a shot from a high walkway) and is standing in a doorway, preventing anybody from flanking him.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Beck, the squad leader, who makes no secret of his dislike for Danny even before the set-up, can't help but chuckle silently during the "never say no" scene; a sentiment shared by one of the FBI agents.

[[caption-width-right:300:He frees hostages for a living. Now he's [[MoralDissonance taking hostages to survive.]]]]

''The Negotiator'' is a 1998 film starring Creator/SamuelLJackson as Danny Roman, a UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} Police Department hostage negotiator framed for the murder of his partner, Nate Roenick. Nate was murdered when he uncovered serious corruption within their unit. Not knowing who he can trust, Danny turns to taking hostages to find the truth about Nate's murder. Unable to trust his friends, he calls upon a stranger, and fellow negotiator, Chris Sabian (Creator/KevinSpacey), to prove his innocence.

** [[spoiler: At the end, after Beck shoots Frost to prevent him from killing himself, Danny picks up Frost's gun and is about to give him a CoupDeGrace. He looks around and, seeing his wife and all of his friends, hands the gun off to another officer.]]

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Niebaum isn't the mastermind Roman thought he was, but he's still a cowardly, corrupt SmugSnake, so it isn't a tragedy to see him go.]]