John Q. Archibald (Denzel Hayes Washington Jr.) is a factory worker. He works hard and takes care of his family, but his life is still not rich. In order to support the family, his wife Denise also had to go to work to earn money. The couple became increasingly indifferent because of their busyness, and their marriage almost broke down. The only bright spot in their lives is their 9-year-old son Michael. Unfortunately, it always happens to bad karma people by surprise. One day, Michael suddenly fainted in the baseball field. John Q took him to the hospital and learned that his son had a serious congenital heart disease and needed a heart transplant to save his life. The cost of heart transplantation is very expensive, and John Q's medical insurance is far from enough to cover the operation cost of 25 thousand dollars. When the head of the hospital (anne heche) learned of this situation, he decided to remove Michael from the waiting list unless John Q could pay 3% of the operation fee in advance. This angered John Q. After failing to turn to Michael's attending doctor Turner (james woods), he angrily broke into the emergency room of the hospital with a gun, kidnapped several medical staff and patients as hostages, and asked the hospital to operate on his son immediately. However, things are not as simple as John Q imagined. He is faced with not only a group of innocent hostages who need nursing, but also an experienced negotiator (robert duvall) and a sheriff (ray liotta) who wants to make a quick decision. The confrontation between John Q and the police also alarmed the media, and the public in the city paid great attention to the development of this situation. Their feelings seem to be more inclined to John Q, the lawbreaker, because he is the victim of today's inhuman medical and insurance system. But public sympathy can't help John Q. What is his future?