Please answer the following question: Build a movie plot around this: When the balloon pops, what does Horrigan think the sound is? Gunshots
A:
Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) is a Secret Service agent who is close to retirement age. When the story opens, he's waiting for a pickup from his new partner, Al D'Andrea (Dylan McDermott). They drive to a marina just outside of Washington DC to meet with a counterfeiter, Mendoza (Tobin Bell). Frank and Al are posing as buyers of false currency. Mendoza asks Al to board his yacht; after Al leaves, Mendoza reveals to Frank that he's been suspicious about Al, and figured out that Al is a Secret Service agent.When Frank boards the boat he sees that Mendoza's thugs have bound and gagged Al. Mendoza wants Frank to shoot Al as a test of loyalty. As Frank approaches, he hefts Mendoza's pistol, points it at Al's head and pulls the trigger. The pistol dry-fires and a thug slips a plastic bag over Al's head. Frank asks for his pistol back, IDs himself as an agent and shoots both of Mendoza's thugs. Mendoza tries to shoot Frank, but his weapon jams, and he is quickly captured. Frank later admits to Al that the pistol could have had at least one round in the chamber.A few days later, Frank investigates a complaint from an elderly landlady who says that one of her tenants, Joseph McCrawley, has been acting mysteriously. When he enters the man's apartment, he finds paraphernalia related to several presidential assassinations, especially John F. Kennedy's. Frank was an agent assigned to Kennedy when he was assassinated in Dallas in 1963, and still feels remorseful that he didn't prevent it. A further search of the room reveals that McCrawley is a skilled machinist who builds model racing cars. What Frank doesn't see is that McCrawley, whose real name is Mitch Leary (John Malkovich), is watching him through binoculars from across the street.They quickly determine that the guy is using a phony name as the real Joseph McCrawley died many years ago. Al and Frank return to the apartment later to find that it's been emptied and that the shrine to the dead presidents has also vanished. A single picture remains, one of a much...