Taglines: Every moment matters.
Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) and his family attend a Thanksgiving dinner at the home of their neighbors Franklin (Terrence Howard) and Nancy Birch (Viola Davis). Both families’ young daughters, Anna Dover (Erin Gerasimovich) and Joy Birch (Kyla Drew Simmons), go missing.
Detective David Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) arrests the driver of a suspicious vehicle, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), who has the IQ of a ten-year-old, but finds no link. Dover attacks Jones as he is released, and Jones whispers to him: “They didn’t cry until I left them.” Dover abducts Jones and imprisons him in an abandoned apartment building, torturing him for days with Franklin’s reluctant help, but learns nothing.
Pursuing other leads, Loki discovers a corpse in the basement of a priest’s house. The priest admits that he killed the man because he confessed he was “waging a war against God” and boasted of killing sixteen children.
At a candlelight vigil for the girls, Loki sees a hooded man acting suspiciously who flees when Loki approaches him. The man breaks into both girls’ houses. A store clerk recognizes the man from an e-fit and reports him buying children’s clothing. The suspect, Bob Taylor (David Dastmalchian), is arrested at his home, whose walls are covered in drawings of mazes.
Loki finds crates filled with maze books, live snakes, and bloodied children’s clothing, including items belonging to the missing girls. Taylor confesses to the abduction, but kills himself before revealing more information. The police conclude that Taylor was a fantasist and had no involvement with the disappearance; he stole the clothes from the girls’ homes and bloodied them with pig’s blood to recreate abductions.
Dover continues to torture Jones, who denies he is Alex Jones and claims he escaped from a maze. Dover visits Jones’s aunt, Holly (Melissa Leo), who tells him that she and her husband were religious until their young son died of cancer.
Joy Birch is found drugged but alive. Dover visits her in the hospital to ask for information. Her memories are confused, and she mumbles “You were there”, making him a suspect. He realizes she may have seen him at the Jones’s house, and runs from the police. Loki searches for Dover at the apartment building and discovers Jones.
Dover goes to the Jones’s house to get information from Holly, but she pulls a gun on him. She explains that she and her late husband abducted many children as part of their “war on God” after their son’s death. Alex was the first child they abducted, followed by Taylor. Holly imprisons Dover in a concealed pit in her yard, where he finds a whistle belonging to his daughter.
Loki goes to Holly’s house to tell her that Jones has been found. He finds a photograph of Holly’s husband wearing the same maze pendant found on the body in the priest’s basement. Loki finds Holly with Anna and exchanges gunfire, wounding him and killing Holly. Loki rushes Anna to the hospital, where she reunites with her mother. Outside the Jones’s house, Loki hears Dover’s labored whistling from the pit.
Prisoners (2013)
Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Eliza Birch
Screenplay by: Aaron Guzikowski
Production Design by: Patrice Vermette
Cinematography by: Roger Deakins
Film Editing by: Joel Cox, Gary Roach
Costume Design by: Renée April
Set Decoration by: Frank Galline
Music by: Jóhann Jóhannsson
MPAA Rating: R for disturbing violent content including torture, and language throughout.
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: September 20, 2013
Visits: 92
