''The Sentinel'' is a 2006 American

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

action thriller film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed by Clark Johnson about a veteran

United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security tasked with conducting criminal investigations and providing protection to American political leaders, thei ...

special agent who is suspected of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...

after an attempted assassination of the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

reveals that someone within the Service is supplying information to the assassins. The film stars

Michael Douglas Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the ...

as the veteran agent,

Kiefer Sutherland Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland (born 21 December 1966) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox drama series ''24 (TV series), 24'' (2001–2010, 20 ...

as his

protégé Mentorship is the patronage, influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the perso ...

Eva Longoria Eva Jacqueline Longoria Bastón ( Longoria; born March 15, 1975) is an American actress, producer, director, and businesswoman. After several guest roles on television, she became recognized for her portrayal of Isabella Braña on the CBS day ...

as a rookie Secret Service agent, and

Kim Basinger Kimila Ann Basinger ( ; born December 8, 1953) is an American actress. She has garnered acclaim for her work in film, for which she has received various accolades including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a ...

in the role of the First Lady. It is based on the 2003 novel of the same name by former Secret Service Agent Gerald Petievich. It was filmed in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and in the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

cities of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and Kleinburg,

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Plot

Pete Garrison is a

Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...

agent and one of the personal bodyguards for the

First Lady of the United States First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) is a title typically held by the wife of the president of the United States, concurrent with the president's term in office. Although the first lady's role has never been Code of law, codified or offici ...

Sarah Ballentine, with whom he is having an affair. He is one of the oldest and most experienced agents, having been involved in saving Ronald Reagan's life. Garrison's close friend and fellow agent Charlie Merriweather is murdered. Garrison discovers from a reliable

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a "snitch", "rat", "canary", "stool pigeon", "stoolie", "tout" or "grass", among other terms) is a person who provides privileged information, or (usually damaging) information inten ...

that the killing is linked to an assassination plot against the President. The intelligence reveals the existence of a mole with access to the President's security detail. The Secret Service Protective Intelligence Division, led by Garrison's estranged friend and former

, David Breckinridge, with

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience, a rookie is typically considered needing more tra ...

partner Jill Marin, is investigating the plot. Breckinridge orders every agent to be subjected to a

polygraph A polygraph, often incorrectly referred to as a lie detector test, is a pseudoscientific device or procedure that measures and records several physiological indicators such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while a ...

test. Meanwhile, the mole discovers Garrison's discussion with the informant and his affair with the First Lady. He attempts to blackmail Garrison by luring him to a coffee shop, a known meeting point for a Colombian cartel. After delaying for some time, Garrison is subjected to the polygraph. The agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division, William Montrose, randomly selects the president's means of transport with a coin toss. As the President and first lady visit

Camp David Camp David is a country retreat for the president of the United States. It lies in the wooded hills of Catoctin Mountain Park, in Frederick County, Maryland, near the towns of Thurmont, Maryland, Thurmont and Emmitsburg, Maryland, Emmitsburg, a ...

, Garrison's informant calls, demanding his payment be made at a shopping mall food court. Garrison goes to meet him, but disappears in the crowd, and an assassin tries to kill Garrison. Agents pursue the assassin, but he escapes. Simultaneously, the presidential helicopter is shot down by a surface-to-air missile outside of Camp David, though neither the POTUS nor his wife was aboard (owing to Montrose's coin "deciding" to use the

motorcade A motorcade, or autocade, is a procession of motor vehicles. Uses can include ceremonial processions for funerals or demonstrations, but can also be used to provide security while transporting a very important person. The American presidenti ...

instead). Garrison failed the polygraph test owing to concealing his affair with the First Lady. Breckinridge confronts and interrogates him at home, pinning him as the prime suspect. The source of rancor between them surfaces: Breckinridge believes Garrison had an affair with his wife, causing the breakup of their marriage, which Garrison denies. Garrison escapes capture and conducts his own investigation of the assassination plot. Trying to contact the informant who gave him the tip, he finds he has been killed. In pursuit, Breckinridge gets the drop on Garrison but is unable to kill him, despite having given other agents "shoot to kill" orders. Using his contacts with sympathetic agents and family members, Garrison tracks down one of the assassins, whom he kills in a firefight. He searches his apartment, finding evidence showing the perpetrators are headed to

to attack the president at a G8 summit. He leaves it in the apartment, telling Marin about it, but the evidence, including the assassin's body, were removed before the Secret Service arrived. The first lady discloses her affair with Garrison to Breckinridge, revealing why Garrison failed his polygraph test. Together in Toronto, Garrison and Breckinridge learn that the assassins are former

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

operatives hired to kill the president by a Colombian

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...

. William Montrose, who was never polygraphed, is the mole and in charge of security at the summit. The leader of the assassins blackmails Montrose into helping them, threatening his family. Emotionally torn, Montrose is instructed to jam Secret Service's radios and leave the summit with the President via a specific route; the assassins will handle the rest. On the night of the President's speech, Breckinridge and Garrison race to the summit. The assassins, posing as

RCMP The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

Emergency Response Team officers, kill several agents and corner Montrose and the President in a stairwell. Montrose reveals his treason to the President and purposely steps in front of one of the assassins, who kills him. Garrison, Breckinridge, and Marin arrive, rescuing the President and the First Lady by killing the assassins. As they reach the ground level, Montrose's handler comes forward dressed as an RCMP officer to perform the killings personally. He takes Sarah hostage and aims his pistol at the President, but Garrison shoots him dead. In spite of these events, Garrison is forced to take early retirement owing to the disclosure of his affair with the first lady, who looks on sadly from her window as he leaves the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

. He does, however, make peace with Breckinridge, who finally realizes that Garrison did not sleep with his wife and has a date with her that evening.

Cast

Critical reception

''The Sentinel'' received generally poor reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has a score of 34% based on 131 reviews, with an average rating of 5 out of 10. The site's consensus reads, "''The Sentinel'' starts off well enough but quickly wears thin with too many plot holes and conventional action sequences." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a score of 49 out of 100 based on 32 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

review described it as being "as compelling as watching the ink dry on a superfluous UN treaty".The Sentinel: Review
from ''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'', 29 August 2006, retrieved 22 May 2015 Some other reviewers, such as

Kenneth Turan Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...

of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', enjoyed the film.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film 3 out of 4 stars.

DVD and Blu-ray release

References

External links

* *
''White House Museum'' - How well did the moviemakers recreate the White House? ''(Review)''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sentinel, The 2000s American films 2000s English-language films 2006 action thriller films 2006 crime thriller films 2006 films 20th Century Fox films American action thriller films American crime thriller films American political thriller films Films about fictional presidents of the United States Films about the United States Secret Service Films based on American novels Films directed by Clark Johnson Films produced by Arnon Milchan Films produced by Michael Douglas Films scored by Christophe Beck Films set in the White House Films set in Toronto Films set in Washington, D.C. Films shot in Toronto Films with screenplays by George Nolfi Regency Enterprises films English-language crime thriller films English-language action thriller films