The Siege

The Siege (1998) is a political thriller directed by Edward Zwick — watch it online on iFILM. Denzel Washington plays FBI special agent Hubbard, racing to stop a string of bombings tearing through Brooklyn before the city descends into chaos.

Each attack comes faster than the last. Annette Bening plays a CIA operative with her own agenda and a network of informants inside the Arab-American community she won't easily hand over. Their fragile partnership cracks when the government caves to public panic: Bruce Willis's General Devereaux rolls tanks into Manhattan, rounds up thousands of Arab-Americans, and shreds civil liberties with military efficiency. Tony Shalhoub brings a sharp, grounded edge as Hubbard's Lebanese-American partner caught between his loyalties and the crackdown.

Released three years before September 2001, the film asks a question that aged badly for everyone who dismissed it: how much freedom does a democracy trade away when it's afraid? Screenwriter Lawrence Wright later wrote the Pulitzer-winning nonfiction account of al-Qaeda. Watch The Siege (1998) in full on iFILM.