Taglines: Vengeance is a mother.
Kidnap Movie Storyline. Working-class, single mother, Karla Dyson, feels the ground fall out from beneath her feet when a carefree afternoon in the park with her only son, the 6-year-old Frankie, turns into a living nightmare as he is abducted in broad daylight. Fortunately, as the desperate mother catches a glimpse of Frankie being shoved into a beat-up car, the resolute Karla will take matters into her own hands, unleashing a blind and furious chase on the Interstate highways. Promising herself that she will never stop, the pained mother will push herself beyond her limits, nevertheless, is Karla’s maternal instinct enough to get Frankie back?
Kidnap is a 2017 American abduction thriller film[3] directed by Luis Prieto, written by Knate Lee and stars Halle Berry, Lew Temple, Sage Correa and Chris McGinn. The film follows Karla, a diner waitress, who is tailing a vehicle when her son is kidnapped by its occupants. The film is Berry’s second abduction thriller following 2013’s The Call. The film’s development began in June 2009. Principal photography began on October 27, 2014 in New Orleans, with scenes also being filmed in Slidell. Filming was completed on December 7, 2014.
Kidnap premiered on July 31, 2017, at ArcLight Hollywood, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 4, 2017, by Aviron Pictures, who purchased the rights to the film for $3 million, after original producer Relativity Media filed for bankruptcy. It has received mixed reviews from critics, with some calling it a “serviceable late-summer diversion” while others criticized the messy plot.
As of September 14, 2017, Kidnap has grossed $30.6 million in the United States and Canada and $1.3 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $31.9 million, against a production budget of $21 million. In North America, Kidnap was released alongside the opening of The Dark Tower, and the wide expansion of Detroit, and was projected to gross around $8 million from 2,378 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $3.7 million on its first day (including $500,000 from Thursday previews) and $10 million over the weekend, finishing 5th at the box office. It dropped 49.1% in its second week to $5.1 million, finishing 8th.
About the Story
Karla Dyson (Halle Berry), a diner waitress, lives a mostly perfect life as a single mother with her six-year-old son Frankie (Sage Correa) despite fighting a custody battle/court order with her estranged husband.
One day, Karla takes Frankie to the local carnival. Upon entering, she temporarily leaves her son, in order to take an important phone call from the divorce lawyer she is working with. But when Karla comes back, she finds that her son is missing, leaving his toy voice recorder behind. Suddenly, Karla sees a woman dragging Frankie aggressively into a green Ford Mustang and, while the car is driving away, she clings at the side of the car trying to stop them, losing her phone in the process. Karla drives her car and chases the other one, with an ensuing lengthy chase.
However, with her phone lost, she tries to get help from nearby motorists, but the attempt is thwarted by the kidnappers. Karla is then forced to take another route after the woman threatens to kill her son. Not giving up on rescuing her son, Karla chases the green car again.
Karla hears the abductor’s voice from her son’s toy voice recorder, revealing the abductor’s name Margo, who claims that Karla is looking for her son (despite all attempts to discourage her). Margo sees Karla talking over the phone. She then sees a police motorcycle several meters behind her. Hoping to stop the abductors’ car, Karla sways her car. The abductors’ car slams the police motorcycle into Karla’s car, apparently knocking the police officer unconscious.
Upon stop at grassy field, Karla confronts another abductor and demands he release her son, as long as she gives her money to the abductors. However, Margo gets out of the car and forces Karla to ride with her, who claims that they will get $10,000 ransom in exchange of her son upon reaching their destination. Margo orders Karla to follow her accomplice’s car.
Upon reaching the tunnel, Margo attacks her, but Karla manages to subdue her and throws her out of the car. Karla puts on Margo’s shirt, fooling the second abductor temporally as she exits the tunnel. Having realized that the driver is not Margo, Karla is forced not to follow the car after the second abductor threatens to drop Frankie out onto the dangerous highway. After Karla loses them for several minutes, she spots a road accident and finds the abductors’ car ahead of the traffic jam. One of the motorists saw the man and the boy emerge from the car and Karla drives after them.
Karla stops at the police station to report the incident and sees posters of young children who had been missing for a decade. Fearing that her son will disappear for good, she continues the chase. Karla eventually finds the black Volvo used by the abductor and chases him until she finally runs out of fuel. Karla hitches a ride to follow the abductor but is suddenly hit by the abductors’ car, killing the driver.
Upon recovering, she finds that her son isn’t there in the car. The male abductor emerges from his car and begins to shoot at her with a sawed-off shotgun. He tries to attack her and she releases the brake, causing the car to reverse into the woods with the abductor clinging to it being struck to death by tree branches. Karla yells at the man demanding to know where her son is, but he dies before she can get the answer. Karla finds his identification card and learns his name, Terrence Vicky, and an address where her son might be.
Karla arrives at the Vicky house and eventually locates Frankie in the barn with two other kidnapped girls. Before that, she calls 911 as she hides from Margo, who leaves the house in search for her husband Terrence. Karla successfully rescues Frankie, but when Margo—who has just realized that Terrence is dead—returns, she and her son run out of the barn before she can retrieve the two girls. Karla creates a diversion by sailing the skiff away while hiding underwater.
Kidnap (2017)
Directed by: Luis Prieto
Starring: Halle Berry, Lew Temple, Christopher Berry, Dana Gourrier, Robert Walker Branchaud, Justin Lebrun, Ritchie Montgomery, Erica Curtis, Carol Sutton, Kristin McKenzie Rice
Screenplay by: Knate Lee
Production Design by: Sarah Webster
Cinematography by: Flavio Martínez Labiano
Film Editing by: Avi Youabian
Costume Design by: Ruth E. Carter
Set Decoration by: Deanna Simmons
Art Direction by: Frank Zito
Music by: Federico Jusid
MPAA Rating: R for violence and peril.
Studio: Relativity Media
Release Date: August 4, 2017
Visits: 156
