John Q. is a 2002 American thriller drama film starring Denzel Washington, with co-stars Robert Duvall, Kimberly Elise, Anne Heche, James Woods, and Ray Liotta, lastly directed by Nick Cassavetes. The film tells the story of John Quincy Archibald, a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and who finds out he is unable to receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it, before he decides to hold hostages at the hospital and force them to do it.