The Negotiator (1998)
Shat the Movies: 80's & 90's Best Film Review
Shat on Entertainment
4.5 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2026
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Shat The Movies heads to Chicago for The Negotiator, the 1998 hostage thriller that asks a simple question: What happens when the best hostage negotiator in the city takes hostages of his own?
Starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey in a battle of wits, the film turns a police corruption investigation into a tense, talk-heavy showdown filled with double-crosses, suspicious cops, and enough flashbangs to outfit a small army.
Gene and Big D revisit a late-'90s thriller that feels like a mashup of Die Hard, The Fugitive, and a Chicago tourism commercial gone horribly wrong. The guys debate whether Danny Roman's plan is brilliant or completely insane, marvel at the film's stacked supporting cast, and discuss why every Chicago movie seems to feature cops making catastrophically bad decisions.
Along the way, they break down David Morse's hard-nosed performance, the film's escalating paranoia, and the rare action movie that wins battles with conversation instead of gunfire.
Is The Negotiator an underrated thriller from the golden age of adult action movies, or a wildly implausible conspiracy held together by charisma, shouting, and Samuel L. Jackson's ability to dominate every room he's in?
Full movie info below
When a respected Chicago police hostage negotiator is framed for corruption and murder, he seizes a government office and takes hostages in a desperate attempt to uncover the real conspiracy. With the city closing in, he turns to another elite negotiator to help expose the truth before time runs out.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | What? |
| 0:00.9 | The door. |
| 0:01.5 | The front door is not. |
| 0:02.2 | Are you serious? |
| 0:02.9 | Go to sleep. |
| 0:03.5 | I'll lock it. |
| 0:04.4 | No, it's not locking either. |
| 0:06.0 | Good night. |
| 0:07.4 | Be nice. |
| 0:08.8 | You jerk? |
| 0:09.3 | I am. |
| 0:10.1 | She shouldn't be awake. |
| 0:11.8 | Remember when we first met John McLean? |
| 0:14.8 | Our God picked him up from the plane and took him down the Nakatomi tower at the Christmas party and the terrorists were |
| 0:23.5 | overzealous but it was sweet when they killed Alice and with a little help from Allen, |
| 0:30.2 | John McClain came down. |
| 0:32.2 | Welcome back to Shat the Movies, the podcast where we answer the question were the movies we loved |
| 0:36.4 | when we were growing up really that good. Have you ever caught yourself thinking, why don't they movies like they used to? Can you still remember spending your Friday night searching for the perfect movie rental blockbuster video? Do you know what blockbuster video is? If you answered yes, then this is the podcast for you. I am one of your hosts, Gene Lyons, and alongside is my co-host, Big D. Dick Ebert. Good evening. And each week we take a look back in time, decided if our favorite films still hold up. The movies we cover are chosen by you, the listeners, who generously commission the films you love. If you like to see all the movies we have covered, we'll cover, want to choose one for yourself. Please visit chatpod.com and have a look at the Enreached podcast. We'll provide you the audience, the number of wipes each movie takes get off your respective butts. So thank you so much for listening. If you have not already, hit that subscribe button and share with a friend. It's how we help the podcast grow. Additionally, subscribe to our sister podcast, chat on TV. Review TV series such as Westworld, taboo, American gods, |
| 1:27.8 | Game of Thrones, |
| 1:28.3 | true detective, |
| 1:29.0 | love for our country, |
| 1:29.5 | and watchmen, |
... |
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