| Thomas Barnes | |
|---|---|
| |
| Thomas Barnes on Vantage Point | |
| Name: | Thomas Barnes |
| Gender: | Male |
| Hair color: | Dark Brown |
| Eye color: | Blue |
| Nationality: | United States of America |
| Affiliation: | United States Secret Service |
| Profession: | Secret Service agent |
| Status: | Alive |
| Played by: | Dennis Quaid |
| Film: | Vantage Point |
Thomas Barnes is a Secret Service agent and the main protagonist in the film Vantage Point.
Vantage Point[]
U.S. President Henry Ashton attends a political summit in Salamanca, Spain to promote an international treaty. Barnes, a Secret Service agent who took a bullet from an assassin to protect Ashton, has been shell-shocked ever since but is reluctantly returning to active duty. Paranoid and on medication, Barnes is seen loading up his SIG-Sauer P229 pistol with 9mm rounds (despite the fact that the Secret Service uses .357 SIG) and dressing slowly and compulsively. He is shown to be wary and panicky during the president's speech, despite his partner Kent Taylor's attempts to calm him down. Barnes notices a curtain fluttering in the window of a nearby building that was allegedly vacated, arousing suspicion, but while he is distracted by this, the president is shot twice. Barnes panicks and tackles a police officer, Enrique, who was rushing the stage (he was only trying to protect the mayor after seeing explosives thrown under the stage). While Barnes is distracted by this, the podium explodes, killing and injuring many. Barnes is haunted by his failure to save the president, but what he doesn't know is that the president's double was shot, while the president himself remained safe, having been warned about an assasination threat. Taylor pursues a lead to a potential assassin and following the second explosion, Barnes barges into the GNN production studio and asks to view their footage. He calls Taylor, who reports the direction of the suspected assassin's escape route. Barnes then views an image on one of the camera's live feeds that startles him and prompts him to run out.
President Ashton has returned to his hotel room with his aides, only for a masked assailant named Javier (who had been threatened to participate) to burst into the president's room, shoot his advisers and then abduct Ashton. Terrorist Suarez retrieves the remote-controlled automatic rifle from the room next to the suspicious window that had drawn Barnes' attention earlier. Barnes sees Taylor leaving the scene wearing a Spanish policeman's uniform on one of the GNN live feeds, even though he tells Barnes that he's in pursuit of the assassin over the phone. Barnes realizes Taylor is actually part of the terror plot. Ashton is later placed in an ambulance with Suarez and another terrorist, Veronica, both of whom are disguised as medics. Javier joins Taylor in a police car to a planned rendezvous at the overpass. Barnes commandeers a car and chases Taylor and Javier. Barnes however, gets into a collision with a truck, allowing the duo to escape. Javier is then shot and killed by Taylor when he demands to be brought to his brother, who had been killed earlier by Suarez. Enrique dies of his wounds as Barnes reaches the scene on foot firing several rounds at Taylor, who attempts to flee. After crashing his car, a critically injured Taylor is dragged out by Barnes. He orders Taylor to reveal where the president has been taken, but Taylor dies. Meanwhile, Ashton regains consciousness in the ambulance and attacks Veronica, distracting her and Suarez just as Anna runs into their path. Suarez swerves causing the ambulance to flip over just as Lewis pulls Anna out of its way. Barnes runs to the ambulance where he sees Veronica lying dead from the crash. A dying Suarez attempts to go for his Glock 26 pistol and kill Ashton, but Barnes intercepts and shoots him dead, later rescuing the president, having redeemed himself and regained his confidance.