Shortly after Talley denies a SWAT commander's request to give snipers the order to open fire, the despondent husband kills his wife, son, and himself.

Traumatized, Talley moves with his family and becomes police chief in Bristo Camino, a suburban hamlet in nearby Ventura County.

A year later, Talley finds himself in another hostage situation when two teenagers, Dennis Kelly and his brother Kevin, and their accomplice Marshall "Mars" Krupcheck take the accountant Walter Smith and his two children, teenage Jennifer and young Tommy, hostage in Smith's house after a failed robbery attempt.

Traumatized and unwilling to put himself through another tragedy, Talley hands authority over to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department and leaves.

Talley is instructed to return to the hostage scene, regain authority, and stall for time until the organization can launch its own attack against Smith's house.

Dennis forces Kevin and Mars to tie up the children, while he knocks out Smith and finds a large amount of cash.

In an attempt to end the standoff and secure the DVDs himself, Talley meets with Dennis and agrees to provide a helicopter in exchange for half of the money.

Talley says the helicopter will only carry three additional people and insists that Jennifer stay behind, but the deal breaks down and the boys return to the house.

Hearing their screams, Talley breaches the house and is attacked by Mars, who then kills most of the fake agents using his pistol and multiple Molotov cocktails.

The main difference is that the novel's complicated subplot involving powerful West Coast Mafia crime lord Sonny Benza was removed, with the film giving little explanation of Walter Smith's criminal associates.

[10] Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, writing: "In scenes where a hero must outgun four or five armed opponents, however, Hostage does use the reliable action movie technique of cutting from one target to the next, so that we never see what the others are doing while the first ones are being shot.