Desperate Measures (1998)

Frank Connor, a San Francisco police detective, has one goal: to save his young son Matthew, who is dying of leukaemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. After secretly searching federal records, Frank finds the only compatible donor, Peter McCabe, a highly intelligent killer serving a life sentence. McCabe agrees to the procedure, but only as part of an elaborate escape plan, and once he breaks loose inside the hospital, Frank faces an impossible situation: the police want McCabe dead, while Frank needs him alive at any cost. Barbet Schroeder's thriller is driven by this moral dilemma and by Michael Keaton's cold, playful turn as the villain opposite Andy Garcia's desperate father. Much of the action is set within the corridors, stairwells and ducts of a single hospital, giving the chase a tight, claustrophobic feel.