Le nouveau protocole (2008)

Raoul Kraft is a separated man who runs a forestry business. One day, his son Franck dies after his car leaves the road and plunges into a ravine. A young woman, Diane, tells him that Franck had been taking part in clinical trials for a new drug. After Raoul refuses to give her a sample of the drug in question, his pharmacy is broken into, but the burglars take nothing because Raoul has his son’s pills with him. He goes to Paris and meets Professor Pleynel of the Nextys laboratory, who had worked on the trials. The professor denies that there were any side effects. Raoul finds Diane, who has been thrown out of a conference by Louise Verneuil of the Hexcelor company, after accusing Verneuil of conducting clinical trials on African populations in which many deaths were recorded. Diane invites Raoul to her home, but he discovers that she is the person who had tried to steal the medication from him. As he is about to leave, he saves her from two men trying to grab her. They meet Diane’s friend William, to whom Raoul entrusts the drug for analysis. Raoul buries Franck and returns to Paris convinced that neither the car nor his son’s driving caused the accident. Diane tells him that Nextys has a subcontracting agreement with Hexcelor for the trials, and that Pleynel seems to be responsible. Diane is attacked by two armed men, but Raoul saves her once again, and the two of them flee. They then go to Nextys and manage to steal several documents, including Franck’s file. They intercept Pleynel, but he again insists that no irregularities were found in Franck’s case, adding that the people trying to intercept them are police officers. The professor also tells Raoul that Diane—who is threatening him with a gun—has been harassing his laboratory for several years and is under judicial supervision. They abandon her in the middle of the forest. William calls them and says that the drug is a placebo, arranging to meet Raoul and Diane to give them the analysis results. However, Kraft realizes it is a trap, and they find themselves pursued through the streets of the capital by the police. During the chase, Diane is hit by a bullet and dies of her injuries. Raoul takes the young woman’s revolver and goes to Davos, where a global pharmaceutical-industry summit is being held, with Louise Verneuil among those attending. He assumes the identity of a security guard and confronts the head of Hexcelor in her hotel room. She explains that her son took part in the trials because of his migraines, but that during the tests, symptoms of depression were noted and he was not removed from the protocol, blaming Pleynel. Verneuil then suggests that Franck killed himself. She says that the only protocol, signed by everyone, is to let some people die through clinical trials so that others can live, thanks to the positive results of those same trials. Stunned, Raoul lets Verneuil leave for her conference. However, while watching television, he sees the director speaking with Pleynel. Although their conversation is tense, their smiles for the camera infuriate him. Kraft enters the Conference Palace and assassinates the head of Hexcelor in the middle of her speech, before turning himself in.