Man on a Ledge

In New York City, Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) checks into the Roosevelt Hotel under the false name of Walker, goes to his hotel room on the 21st floor, and climbs on the ledge, ready to commit suicide. The crowd below calls the police, with Dante Marcus (Titus Welliver) controlling the crowd, while Jack Dougherty (Edward Burns) tries to talk with Nick. However, Nick will only speak to negotiator Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks), who is on a leave of absence, after failing to save a suicidal policeman on the Brooklyn Bridge. Lydia arrives at the hotel room and manages to acquire Nick's fingerprints from a cigarette they share, after his initial resistance to revealing his true identity, going as far as to wipe any surface he touched in the main room to remove fingerprints. Dougherty has them analyzed and discovers that Nick is an ex-policeman, arrested for stealing the $40 million Monarch diamond from businessman David Englander (Ed Harris). Nick was given a 25-year sentence but escaped from the Sing Sing Correctional Facility one month before the main events of the film, after being allowed to attend his father's funeral. Nick, however, maintains his innocence and accuses Englander of framing him for the theft of the diamond, as Englander lost his fortune and was too proud to sell the diamond.

Unknown to the police, Nick is merely distracting them while his brother, Joey (Jamie Bell), and Joey's girlfriend, Angie (Genesis Rodriguez), break into Englander's vault across the street, using the cover of Nick's theatrics to detonate explosives on the roof to gain entry, in order to steal the diamond and ultimately prove Nick's innocence. Cassidy must make use of double entendres in order to provide instructions to Joey and Angie through an earpiece whilst not revealing their plan to the police. Meanwhile, Dougherty informs Marcus of Nick's identity, and Marcus orders the jewelry store's security to check the vault. Joey and Angie are able to evade them by hiding in a ceiling vent, but do not find the diamond. They deliberately set off the heat-sensing alarms, tricking Englander into retrieving the diamond and ambush him in his office, stealing the diamond at gunpoint and forcing him to handcuff himself to his safe. Meanwhile, Nick's ex-partner, Mike Ackerman (Anthony Mackie), arrives at the hotel with evidence that Nick is planning something and demands to be allowed into the hotel room. Lydia does not trust him, and Dougherty backs her up. Ackerman claims he has found bomb schematics in a storage unit Nick rented and is convinced that he will detonate an explosive somewhere. While the crowd is evacuated by the bomb squad, Lydia, believing in Nick's innocence, calls Internal Affairs and discovers that three of the cops employed by Englander were suspected of being corrupt: Ackerman, Marcus, and a deceased officer called Walker, whose name Cassidy uses when checking into the hotel.

Joey and Angie enter the hotel and hand the bag containing the diamond to the hotel concierge (William Sadler). The concierge pockets the diamond while placing the bag onto the rack. Englander calls Marcus, one of the corrupt cops who helped him frame Nick, and has him capture Joey and Angie as they reach the street. Nick begins to make his escape through the hotel, with a tactical team in hot pursuit, at one point being aided by the concierge who tells him "everyone is rooting for you, kid," while handing him a disguise, with the diamond hidden in one of the pockets. Marcus chases Nick to the roof, where he has Lydia arrested for obstruction, removing her from the rooftop to allow him to deal with Nick alone. Englander brings Joey and Angie, threatening to throw Joey off the roof if Nick does not give him the diamond. Nick turns it over, under protests from Joey, and Englander leaves. Meanwhile, Lydia escapes custody whilst in an elevator and rushes back to the roof. Marcus attempts to force Nick to jump off the roof, but Ackerman arrives and shoots Marcus, who wounds Ackerman. Nick rushes to Ackerman's side, who apologizes and reveals that he had no idea that Englander would frame Nick for stealing the diamond. Marcus survives, as he is wearing a bulletproof vest, and is preparing to kill Nick, when Lydia shoots him, but does not kill him. Seeing Englander leaving the area, mocking him with a wave, Nick jumps from the roof onto an airbag set up earlier by the police, catches up to Englander, beats him with the assistance of a crowd member, and pulls the diamond he had only just recently given him from his jacket, proving Nick's innocence in front of both the police and public, resulting in Englander being arrested.

Later, Nick is cleared of all charges and released from custody and meets Joey, Angie, and Lydia at a bar owned by Nick's father, where it is revealed that the bartender, also the hotel concierge, is in fact Nick and Joey's father, Frank Cassidy, who had faked his own death in order to allow Nick to break out of prison under the guise of attending his father's funeral, and prove his innocence. Lydia at this point in the film asks Nick to "explain everything" to her before Joey proposes to Angie with a diamond ring presumably stolen from Englander's vault. She accepts and they all celebrate together.

• Sam Worthington as Nick Cassidy / Joe Walker[5]
• Jamie Bell as Joey Cassidy[6]
• Elizabeth Banks as Lydia Mercer[5]
• Ed Harris as David Englander[7][8]
• Anthony Mackie as Mike Ackerman
• Genesis Rodriguez as Angela "Angie" Maria Lopez
• Kyra Sedgwick as Suzie Morales[9]
• Edward Burns as Jack Dougherty
• Titus Welliver as Dante Marcus
• Felix Solis as Nestor
• William Sadler as the hotel concierge, later revealed to be Franklin "Frank" Cassidy
• Pooja Kumar as Nina, Englander's assistant

On September 3, 2010, it was confirmed that Jamie Bell had joined the cast.[6] Filming began on October 30 in New York City. On November 1, it was confirmed that Ed Harris and Titus Welliver had joined the cast.[7]

The first image from the set was revealed on November 2, 2010.[4] The first teaser poster for the film was released on November 5, 2010. The first trailer was released by Summit Entertainment on September 22, 2011.[10] The film was distributed by Summit Entertainment and E1 Entertainment (UK).

During development a large, on-rails prop was used to make the Roosevelt hotel seem taller, so that the hotel would remain consistent with the shots filmed in-studio instead of on the hotel itself. During the scenes where Nick is running along the sides of the hotel, extra floors were added during post-production in order to save the need for a second attachment. In post-production crowds were edited in from other shots so that the crowds would appear consistent throughout the film. The lead actor, Sam Worthington, admitted during interviews that he had a fear of heights that he had to tackle during recording of the film.

The soundtrack to Man on a Ledge was released on January 27, 2012.

• Fourteen Hours (1951)

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