In New York City, a man (Sam Worthington) named Walker checks into the Roosevelt Hotel, goes to his hotel room on the 21st floor, and climbs on the ledge, apparently 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 Walker. However, Walker 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 Walker’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 “Walker” is actually Nick Cassidy, an ex-policeman who was 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 claims that Englander has framed him for the theft of the diamond in an insurance fraud scheme to maintain his wealth, as Englander lost his fortune in a bad business deal and was too proud to sell the diamond. Man on a Ledge 2012
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.