Murder at 1600

Murder at 1600
The movie poster for Murder at 1600.
Directed by	Dwight H. Little
Written by	Screenplay: Wayne Beach David Hodgin Novel: Margaret Truman
Produced by	Arnold Kopelson Arnon Milchan
Starring	Wesley Snipes Diane Lane
Cinematography	Steven Bernstein
Edited by	Leslie Jones Billy Weber
Production company	Regency Enterprises
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	April 18, 1997
Running time	107 min.
Language	English

Murder at 1600 is a 1997 thriller film starring Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane, Dennis Miller, Ronny Cox, Daniel Benzali and Alan Alda. The 1600 in the title refers to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the address of the White House. The film is based on the novel Murder in the White House by Margaret Truman, daughter of U.S. President Harry S. Truman.

Plot

In a restroom in the White House in Washington, D.C., a janitor finds White House secretary Carla Town (Mary Moore) dead. Washington, D.C. homicide Detective Harlan Regis (Wesley Snipes) is put on the case.

At the White House, Regis is introduced to Secret Service chief Nick Spikings (Daniel Benzali), national security advisor Alvin Jordan (Alan Alda) and Secret Service agent Nina Chance (Diane Lane). Spikings assigns Nina to keep an eye on Regis.

On the next day, after Regis checks out the White House, Nina tells him that she won a gold medal for sharpshooting in the 1988 Olympics.

Regis and Nina discover that Carla had an appointment in New York City and a flight from New York to the Virgin Islands, with no intention of returning to the USA.

Coroner Jimmy Foley (Richard Blackburn) then tells Regis and Nina that whoever had sex with Carla on the night of the murder used a condom and left absolutely no DNA. Regis is then told that White House janitor Cory Allen Luchessi (Tony Nappo) was unaccounted for on the night of the murder.

Cory is questioned and his words lead Regis to suspect that the Secret Service may be involved. That night, a man breaks into Regis's apartment and tries to kill him.

Whoever is behind the murder has bugged Regis's house and is eavesdropping on everyone. In a picture of Carla, Regis sees Secret Service agent Burton Cash (Nigel Bennett), who is in charge of Kyle Neil (Tate Donovan), the son of U.S. President Jack Neil (Ronny Cox) and First Lady Kitty Neil (Diane Baker).

Jack has been trying to deal with a situation where Americans are being held hostage in North Korea and some people think Jack is not handling it the right way. Some people think Jack should send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages.

Regis figures out that it was Kyle who had sex with Carla on the night of the murder. Spikings then forbids Nina to have any more contact with Regis.

At a dance club, Regis talks to a young woman who says that Kyle once bragged that he shared Carla with Jack. Carla's uncle's company, Brookline Associates, is Jack's leading East Coast fundraiser and Brookline also owns the apartment Carla lived in.

That night, Regis goes to Nina's house and asks her why she never told him that she used to be the agent on Kyle's detail. Nina explains that one night, she heard noises coming from Kyle's apartment, went in, and found Kyle beating up his girlfriend.

That's when Nina asked to be reassigned. Nina was replaced by Burton Cash and the Secret Service covered up the beating for Kyle so he wouldn't get arrested.

On the next day, Spikings sends Agent Cooper (Tom Wright) to look for Nina, who successfully avoids Cooper. During a meeting at the White House, General Clark Tully (Harris Yulin) urges Jack to take action and send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages, but Jack declines, prompting Tully to call Jack a criminal. Jack tells Tully to submit his resignation.

That night, Nina tells Regis that Carla had an appointment in New York with Craig Nisker & Associates, who have sold 5 of the top 10 scandal memoirs of all time, and they know that the appointment would be a good motive for Kyle to kill Carla.

Later that night, Nina and Regis meet at a restaurant where Nina tells Regis that she has discovered that Jack and Kitty were in the White House at the time of the murder, not at Camp David like they said they were. Jack would have the same motive Kyle would have.

Nina has rented a hotel room to keep the Secret Service from finding her, but they do anyway, and Nina and Regis escape out the back door of the building.

On the next day, Regis and Nina discover that Carla's appointment book was forged, and she never had any appointments. Regis goes to Spikings's office to question Spikings, who is killed by a sniper.

Later that day, Regis and Nina discover that Alvin Jordan is behind everything, and Jordan has now framed Regis and Nina.

Jordan wants Jack to resign so Vice President Gordon Dylan (Chris Gillett) can take over as president, because Dylan would not be afraid to send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages, and Jordan believes that Jack's refusal to send troops to North Korea to rescue the hostages makes Jack unfit to be president.

Regis, Nina, and Regis's partner Stengel (Dennis Miller) enter the White House tunnels while Jordan still tries to make sure Dylan can take over as president. In the tunnels, the sniper who killed Spikings for Jordan shoots Stengel, who lives, and Nina kills the sniper.

Nina and Regis are grabbed, and in a hallway in the White House, there is a confrontation in which Jordan is shot dead and Nina and Regis prove their innocence. In return, the President agrees to look into the commission who bought Regis's building with the intention of evicting him and his neighbors to build a parking lot.

External links

• Murder at 1600 at IMDb