Kevin Pollack plays the President in a refreshing departure from his comedic roles. President Emerson is campaigning for reelection. His short stint as the president after the death of his predecessor has yet to teach him a few tricks in the political game and diplomacy. While campaigning in Colorado, the President and his team get stuck in a snowstorm and pull into a small town diner. As they watch the results of the Colorado primary, the news of Udei Hussein’s incursion into Kuwait breaks in. There is evidence of launch pads being prepared to deliver chemical and biological strikes against Israel and other nations. The bulk of USA’s military is deployed in Asia in a conflict with China, and the President appears to have few options to stop the bio-chemical and ground assault. In the dismaying display of egotistical military supremacy, the President threatens and then implements a plan to drop a nuclear bomb on Baghdad unless Iraq’s troops immediately withdraw. Iraq in return threatens with the launch of several dozen nuclear missiles aimed at major cities in the USA and around the world.

In order to get into this film, one must suspend a truckload of disbelief. Amazingly, the entire story plays out in the diner, with President’s Aides played by Timothy Hutton and Sheryl Lee Ralph continuously pointing out the no-win situation of the President’s decision while satellite link ups connect the Commander-in-Chief with Cabinet and Military advisors. Among the events to be taken with a grain of salt is the notion that common citizens in the diner would be allowed to stay while plans are developing. They are there because the citizens add perspective and complications in the drama and they give voice to common, even bigoted opinion and fears.

The President’s insistence on dropping the bomb grows more dangerous by the minute. In fact, in light of the nuclear response from Hussein, the President’s decision lacks every shred of common, political, and military sense. The world at large and in the diner is forced to sit by as one man seems to be sending the planet into annihilation. As the American bomber reaches its target, Hussein launches missiles, and everyone awaits the fall out. In fact, the bomb targeted at NORAD will ostensibly wipe out the President and the people with him. He takes a heroic stand to stay with them rather than to escape to the safety that would accommodate him alone.

The President’s heroism and every hope of defending his actions dissolve completely as we discover a secret that he knows. The secret belies his protestation of the necessity to slay millions in Baghdad. Although the secret is a clever plot twist, it makes the President into a twisted, evil man. Unfortunately, this is all too clever for the film’s own good, and instead of walking away with consuming thoughts, we felt cheated and disappointed.