Plot: US President Henry Ashton is in Salamanca, Spain for a summit where an international treaty dealing with the fight against global terrorism will be signed and which was highly promoted by Ashton. Preceding the summit, Ashton is one of the primary speakers at a public event in Plaza Mayor when at approximately 12:20 local time an unknown sniper is able to shoot him. Amid the mass confusion and hysteria following the shooting, a massive bomb goes off in the plaza about three minutes later. The twenty minutes leading up to the shooting, the shooting and the explosion themselves, and the immediate few minutes following are seen through the perspective of a few people at the event that day. First is senior secret service agent Thomas Barnes who is on his first assignment protecting the president after taking a bullet for him less than a year earlier. Many believe Barnes is still emotionally unstable from that incident, but not Kent Taylor, his secret service colleague on this assignment, he who also got Barnes on this assignment. Second is Enrique a plain clothes Salamanca police officer who is assigned to protect Salamanca's mayor, the event moderator. Prior to the shooting, Enrique has an encounter with his girlfriend, Veronica, thoughts of who are on his mind as he spied her with another man. Third is Howard Lewis, an American tourist with a video camera, he who manages to film many of the goings-on. Despite the seriousness of the shooting and the explosion and Lewis' belief he has vital information on his camera of what's going on, he still places much of his focus on a little girl named Anna who has been separated from her mother following the explosion. Fourth is the president himself who has an interesting and surprising vantage point to the proceedings. And fifth is the operational group behind the shooting and explosion, they who show how they were able to shoot Ashton and set off the bomb. Will anyone in authority be able to piece together the information quickly both to figure out what's going on and stop the remainder of the plan in those few minutes following the explosion?
Alternative Plot: Witnesses with different points of view try to unravel an assassination attempt on the U.S. president. Special Agents Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) are assigned to protect President Ashton during a summit in Spain on the war on terror. Moments after the leader's arrival, shots ring out, and Ashton is down. In the resulting chaos, an American tourist (Forest Whitaker) comes forward with his camcorder, which he believes contains an image of the shooter.
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