"Most thrillers these days are about stunts and action. In the Line of Fire has a mind."
That being said, the smaller scale of this movie is sort of the whole point. It’s an “assassinate the President” movie without the president. The writing and the acting are so good that the president is almost an afterthought*. Clint Eastwood plays Frank Horrigan, a Secret Service agent who has stood by the side of presidents his entire career.