Lt. Chris Sabian is the secondary Protagonist in the 1998 movie The Negotiator. He was portrayed by Kevin Spacey.
Sabian works as a Police Lieutenant for the west precinct of the Chicago Police Department and is the city's second top negotiator. He has a reputation for solving all hostage situations with talking instead of using tactical action, which he sees as a last resort. He once talked for 55 hours and he even once talked a man out of blowing up the Sears Tower, although it's unknown if both instances were the same. At home, he reads a lot of books and watches a lot of old movies, especially westerns. Unfortunately, His negation skills don't work on his family. He Eventually meets his match in East Precinct officer Danny Roman, the city's best Negotiator, who has been framed for laundering money from his Precinct's disability fund and murdering his Best friend and Partner Nate Roenick, who had been investigating the theft. Before Roenick's death, he told Roman that several of their fellow officers and Internal Affairs were involved in the theft, forcing Roman to take IAD hostage. Among hostages are investigator Terence Niebaum, whom Roenick's informant suspected of involvement in the embezzlement, his administrative assistant Maggie, police commander Grant Frost and two-bit con man Rudy Timmons.
With the building evacuated and placed under siege by his own CPD unit and the FBI, Roman unable to trust the former demands they summon Sabian. At His home, Sabian tries to negotiate a truce between his wife and daughter when the phone rings for him. After hearing about the situation, he heads to the building. After Sabian arrives, Roman is revealed as he made it just in time. It's almost been two years since both of their precincts showed up at a situation on the North side of the city. When asked by Roman what he does when not working, Sabian tells him of his home life and how he reads a lot of books and watches old films on AMC, his favorites being westerns. Roman says he prefers old comedies, but he did like the western Shane, leading both men to disagree about whether Shane lived or died at the end of the film and Sabian saying he reads a lot of books on a particular subject in order to get all the details before deciding himself what really happened.
Roman them issues his conditions: his badge brought to him, a department funeral if he dies and finding both Roenick's informant and Killer. When Sabian is summoned up, He sees Roman holding a frightened Timmons. When Sabian asks why he's here, Roman reveals what Roenick told him and because both negotiators only met once before that sometimes strangers are the only people that can be trusted after one's friends betray them. Just then Roman's Precinct hastily attempts a breach that goes poorly, resulting in two additional SWAT officers becoming hostages. After Sabian makes it back down, he clashes with Chief Al Travis, who ordered the Breach and Commander Adam Beck, who justifies the attempt and tells Sabian that he doesn't know Roman as well as they do. Sabian says that he's kept a 0 deaths rate for 5 years because tactical action is a last resort and that Roman's Squad will solve the situation his way, or he'll leave and let the FBI take over. Travis relents, gives Sabian full command and introduces him to the team.
In order to get the authorities to take him seriously, Roman pretends to shoot and kill one of the officers from the failed breach. Roman trades Frost to Sabian in exchange for restoring the building's electricity. With help from Maggie and Timmons, Roman accesses Niebaum's computer and pieces together the scheme: corrupt officers submitted false disability claims that were processed by an unknown insider on the disability fund's board. He also discovers recordings of wiretaps, including a conversation that suggests Roenick was meeting his informant before he died. Sabian, using the information Roman provided, claims to have located Roenick's informant in a bid to get Roman to release the hostages. Roman realizes Sabian is bluffing when Niebaum's files reveal Roenick himself worked for IAD and was the informant.
Roman's precinct is angry at Sabian for the deceit, but Sabian says he doesn't who's innocent. Roman's wife Karen is also mad and attempts to Leave, but Sabian tells her that he doesn't know who he can trust. While Sabian talks to Karen, Roman threatens expose Niebaum to gunfire from his office window. A frightened Niebaum then admits that Roenick gave him wiretaps implicating three of Roman's squad mates in the embezzlement scheme. When Niebaum confronted them, they bribed him to cover up their crimes. He adds that they attempted to bribe Roenick, who refused and was killed because of it. Niebaum says that he doesn't know who the inside ringleader is but that he has the taps somewhere safe. The same corrupt officers have secretly entered the room via the air vents under the pretext of being part of a team to take Roman out in case he started killing hostages; upon hearing Niebaum's confession, they open fire and kill Niebaum before he can reveal where he has hidden the wiretaps corroborating their guilt. Roman fights back, but the sound of the gunshots cause Travis and Beck to initiate another breach. Sabian having heard the gunshots attempts to terminate the breach while Roman single-handedly fights the 3 corrupt squad members and the good ones off using the flashbangs he seized from the officers in the previous failed breach.
Sabian is furious that someone was killed when he walked out to talk to Karen, But Beck insists that his men had to respond and believes that Niebaum's death was an accident. Believing that Sabian and the police can't resolve the situation anymore, the FBI assume jurisdiction over the operation, cease negotiations, relieve Sabian of his command and order a full breach. Sabian now believes in Roman's innocence and heads up to warn him. Believing he can no longer prove he's innocent, Roman prepares for his eventual arrest. Maggie then reveals that Niebaum also worked at his house and that he could've kept Roenick's taps there. When Sabian comes up, He warns Roman about the FBI coming up. Roman asks if Beck ordered the breach, to which Sabian says it was, but that Beck thinks that Roman fired first and his men responded with Niebaum's death being an accident. However, Roman shows Sabian that Niebaum was murdered as he has 3 bullets in his center-mass. Roman then shows Sabian the officer he supposedly killed is still alive. Sabian gives Roman a chance to prove his case: while the FBI and SWAT team raid the building and rescue the hostages, Roman escapes disguised in the officer's SWAT uniform. Roman and Sabian proceed to Niebaum's house, but are unable to find the wiretaps on his computer. The police arrive and the corrupt officers enter the house, but they back off as Frost enters and tries to talk Roman down. Sabian observes Frost discreetly taking a loaded gun from one of the corrupt officers and realizes that Frost is the ringleader of the conspiracy, the insider on the disability fund and Roenick's killer.
In front of Frost, Sabian seemingly shoots Roman dead and offers to destroy the "evidence" they have uncovered in return for a cut of Frost's take. Frost agrees and effectively makes a full admission to his crimes. He then destroys the floppy disks and shoots Niebaum's Computer. When Frost exits the house, he discovers Roman had feigned death and used a police radio to broadcast his confession to the police surrounding the area. Humiliated, Frost attempts to kill himself but is disarmed and arrested with the other corrupt officers, who are imprisoned for life. As Roman is loaded into an ambulance, Sabian gives him back his badge and departs.