Fourteen Hours

In the early morning light, a room-service waiter finds Robert Cosick standing on the narrow ledge outside a 15th-floor hotel room in New York. Traffic cop Charlie Dunnigan is sent to the street below while the police chief dismisses the incident as routine. Cosick refuses to engage, turning the breakfast crisis into a high-stakes stand-off.

A curious crowd forms below and on surrounding rooftops as Cosick refuses to speak to psychiatrists. Dunnigan tries to reach him on a human level, while onlookers speculate and react to the unfolding drama.

Police identify the man as Robert Cosick and locate his mother, whose distraught behavior heightens the tension. Cosick's father arrives and clashes with his wife, and Cosick threatens to kill him, escalating the crisis.

Mrs. Cosick mentions Virginia, Cosick's estranged fiancée, prompting police to send for her in Connecticut. Her emotional interviews with reporters reveal the family's troubled history and draw national attention.

A psychiatrist explains the Cosick family dynamics in Freudian terms, suggesting how a mother's enmity toward the father has shaped Cosick's self-loathing. The analysis deepens the viewers' understanding of why he feels unworthy of love, offering a glimmer of hope that he can be helped.

Among the watchers, cabbies bet on when Cosick will jump, a young couple reunites, and a woman seeking a divorce experiences a turning point. The crowd's attention intensifies as the day wears on.

Defying the psychiatrist's advice, police lower a man down to lasso Cosick. Dunnigan loses his temper, reminding Cosick of the helpers below and then urges him to jump, a damaging moment that strains the fragile trust.

Dunnigan convinces Cosick that the room will be cleared so he can rest, then a mentally ill street evangelist enters, frightening Cosick and shattering the trust Dunnigan had built. The plan to ease the tension is derailed by the new variable.

Night falls and giant spotlights glitter on the street, though the chief orders them turned away. Virginia arrives, insisting she has not broken the engagement and urging Cosick to seek help, while the psychiatrist explains the family dynamics again. There is a sense of fragile hope that he can be helped.

Virginia pleads with Cosick to come in, and he responds by finishing a despair-filled poem she loves. The moment underscores his longing for connection and his deep-seated self-doubt, as the family dynamics continue to weigh on him.

Police place a net below Cosick, while TV crews focus on the evangelist's exhortations. A teenage onlooker's prank lights a spotlight, momentarily blinding Cosick and changing the balance of the crisis.

A spotlight blast blinds Cosick, causing him to fall from the ledge into the net and be hauled into the hotel amid cheers. The psychiatrist tells Virginia and Dunnigan that Cosick wants to live, signaling a hopeful turn in the crisis.

In the hotel lobby, Dunnigan's son runs into his arms and is carried out to his mother as the crowd disperses and a sanitation truck cleans the street. This marks the resolution and a return to normal life.