One man will make a mistake. The other will make it a spectacle.

Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta team with award-winning filmmaker Costa-Gavras in a fierce tale of ratings-driven TV news gone mad. Travolta is Sam, a misguided museum guard who loses his job, then tries to get it back at gunpoint. Hoffman is Max, a local TV reporter taken hostage with schoolchildren when Sam locks down the museum. It's a desperate move for Sam, a career move for Max. He's on the inside of a live exclusive. Now he must give Sam's story a heroic spin, keep a cynical network anchor at bay, and above all, keep America watching. And as Max pulls the strings, the stakes grow higher, darker, madder.