chunk: Scott Roper (Eddie Murphy) is the best hostage negotiator in San Francisco. His girlfriend Veronica "Ronnie" Tate (Carmen Ejogo) is a newspaper reporter.
  While listening to a horse race on his car stereo, Scott is called downtown where a man named Earl (Donal Logue) is holding 17 hostages in a bank. Scott rescues the hostages by shooting Earl, though Earl's wound is non-fatal.
  Scott is then assigned a partner â sharpshooter Kevin McCall (Michael Rapaport). That night, Scott takes his friend, Lieutenant Sam Baffert (Art Evans), to see a man named Michael Korda (Michael Wincott).