United States President Henry Ashton (William Hurt) is in Salamanca, Spain to attend an anti-terrorism summit. An American cable news channel is tracking the event, and Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver) is directing traffic from the OB van, when she notices Secret Service agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), back on detail so soon after taking a bullet for Ashton earlier on in the year. She watches on her monitors as Ashton is introduced by the Spanish mayor, and is about to deliver his speech. Without warning, Ashton is shot twice in the chest, and utter chaos ensues. She watches as Secret Service agents surround the president and usher him into an ambulance, and amid the confusion, a massive explosion goes off in the plaza, completely destroying the podium and killing several people. At this point, the camera rewinds to the point in time where we initially joined Brooks, but the perspective changes.
The tagline for Vantage Point is “8 Strangers. 8 Points of View. 1 Truth”, and over the same 23-minute period that is looped over and over, the assassination of the U.S. President unfolds through the eyes of different people. With each perspective and subsequent rewind, a valuable new piece of the puzzle is revealed.
How complex does the puzzle get? Read on and find out.
