Mad City is a 1997 drama film and thriller film written by Tom Matthews and Eric Williams, directed by Costa-Gavras, and starring John Travolta, Dustin Hoffman, Mia Kirshner, Alan Alda, Blythe Danner, Ted Levine, Raymond J. Barry, and Larry King. Sam Baily gets laid off from his job as a museum security guard. In desperation for not being able to provide for his wife and kids, he comes armed with weapons and explosives and takes his boss Mrs. Banks and a number of children (at the museum on a school field trip) as hostages. Television journalist Max Brackett is in the museum using the restroom after an interview with the curator about financial difficulties. He becomes directly involved in the hostage situation, acting as Baily's intermediary to the outside world and the police. Baily accidentally shoots a friend still working there as a security guard, sending him to the hospital, and later fires a gun again, frightening the children and becoming more and more unstable as he takes...