In Non Negotiable, a negotiator struggles to save his wife and the president of the country from a hostage situation. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Alan Bender is a negotiator with the Special Operations Police Unit. He is training a subordinate, Menéndez, to become an expert negotiator like himself.
However, Menéndez is not yet ready to handle hostage situations on his own, leading to Alan intervening whenever a situation arises.
This displeases Alan’s wife, Victoria. When their daughter, Juana, was born, Alan had promised Victoria that he would not take any more field work.
However, Alan broke his promise, believing that he would have time later to quit. He keeps prioritizing his job over his family, ruining his relationship with his wife.
Alan suspects that Victoria is cheating on him with her personal trainer, Nico. They attend couples therapy, but Alan leaves the session upon learning that the country’s president has been taken hostage.
Victoria, a psychiatrist, then goes to help Nico when he tells her that he is having a panic attack, unaware that she is being lured into a trap.
A man named Vicente Zambrano has taken the president and a congresswoman from the opposition party, with whom the president has been having an affair, hostage.
He also takes Victoria and Nico hostage, as he has a score to settle with Alan. He gives himself the codename Lamb and contacts Alan, who reports the crime.
The chief of the Special Operations Police Unit, Carrasco, ensures that the news of the president’s kidnapping does not get out, while the secretary of the interior and other high-ranking ministers deliberate on the situation.
Meanwhile, Vicente tortures the president for being corrupt and not keeping his promises to the people. He demands Alan’s presence, refusing to negotiate with anyone else.
Vicente seeks social justice, so he asks Alan to make the government pay a specified amount to the hospital and school of his choice in exchange for the president’s safety.
Alan eventually recognizes Vicente as a former sniper with the Special Operations Police Unit. Alan and Vicente were trained together.
During a hijacking, Vicente shot the hijacker while Alan was negotiating, believing that Alan was in danger. This resulted in a bomb going off that killed all the hostages.
Vicente lost his job and was sentenced to prison. He blamed Alan for not doing enough to help him, which is why he has dragged Alan and his wife into the hostage situation.
Vicente is furious with the president because after losing his job, he lost his wife to cancer, as the government suspended financial support for chemotherapy.
Vicente has nothing more to lose and is willing to risk his life to expose the president’s corruption. He releases the congresswoman and demands a polygraph.
The politicians refuse to provide a polygraph, so Alan sneaks it to Vicente. Alan regrets not being there for Vicente when he needed him and apologizes.
He also regrets not being a better partner to Victoria and is desperate to save her, regardless of what he has to do.
Ending explained:
Vicente’s coconspirator
It turns out that Nico has been working with Vicente all this time. He helped Vicente execute his plan and take the president hostage.
Vicente and Nico make the president take a polygraph test. They record the president’s confession about his corrupt deals, as well as those of other ministers, including the secretary of the interior.
To get the video out safely, Vicente releases Nico. However, a message from Victoria leads Carrasco and Alan to figure out that Nico was never a hostage.
Alan takes the video from Nico, which was Vicente’s main objective behind taking the president hostage. Alan now has some leverage.
Ensuring Victoria’s safety
Before Alan can use the video to negotiate with Vicente, the secretary of the interior and other ministers decide to end negotiations and send in the rescue forces.
The rescue forces are instructed to secure only the president, which means there is a chance that Victoria might get hurt in the gunfire exchange.
In case the president dies, they plan to fabricate a story about how he died tragically in a helicopter crash to ensure a smooth transition of power to the secretary of the interior.
Alan is unwilling to risk Victoria’s life, so he decides to go to the apartment where the hostages are being held in a last-ditch effort to negotiate with Vicente.
The Special Operations Police Unit secretly helps Alan defy orders. Alan gets to the apartment and tells Vicente that he has the video.
He knows that Vicente went through all this trouble to expose the president’s corruption, so he urges him to let Victoria go and take his help now that the police are going to storm in any second.
Alan manages to convince Vicente to trust him. Vicente releases Victoria, and Alan gives her the video before taking her place inside the apartment.
The end of the hostage situation
Menéndez, who has accidentally eaten packets of cannabis gummy bears, asks the Special Operations Police Unit not to storm in as ordered.
He convinces the unit to trust Alan’s skills instead, giving Alan some more time to negotiate. Menéndez proves that he is ready to take Alan’s place as the negotiator.
Alan has promised Vicente to leak the video, but the president does not know that. Vicente leads the president to believe that the video will never get out by destroying the phone on which it was recorded.
He also assures the president that Vicente will let him go and surrender if the president promises that he will only get a year and a half in prison.
The president agrees, and Vicente surrenders peacefully. Vicente goes to prison, but Alan keeps his promise and leaks the video Vicente recorded.
The video goes viral, and Vicente rises to fame, with Lamb becoming a symbol of social justice, resulting in nationwide protests.
While Vicente becomes a global icon, the president and his cabinet are forced to resign, and the president eventually receives a prison sentence.
Vicente then contacts Alan, who is seen assisting Victoria with her work. Vicente wants to make a difference in the country from the inside.
He plans to become the next president and wants Alan to help him. For now, Alan does not give him a definitive answer, but he does consider the offer.
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