The Contender

In THE CONTENDER, the sudden death of the vice president of the United States forces U.S. president Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges) to pick a replacement. He decides against picking the popular governor of Virginia, Jack Hathaway (William Petersen), and instead makes the radical choice of Senator Laine Hanson (Joan Allen) to become the nation's first female veep. Governor Hathaway's political friends include Shelly Runyon (Gary Oldman), a powerful congressman who will oversee Hanson's confirmation. Runyon digs into Hanson's personal life and finds evidence that in college, Hanson participated in an alcohol-fueled orgy as part of a sorority initiation.