Prisoners
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Denis Villeneuve
Produced by	Broderick Johnson Kira Davis Andrew A. Kosove Adam Kolbrenner
Written by	Aaron Guzikowski
Starring	Hugh Jackman Jake Gyllenhaal Viola Davis Maria Bello Terrence Howard Melissa Leo Paul Dano
Music by	Jóhann Jóhannsson
Cinematography	Roger Deakins
Edited by	Joel Cox Gary D. Roach
Production company	Alcon Entertainment
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	August 30, 2013 (2013-08-30) (Telluride Film Festival) September 20, 2013 (2013-09-20) (United States)
Running time	153 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$46 million[2]
Box office	$122.1 million[2]

Prisoners is a 2013 American thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay written by Aaron Guzikowski. The film has an ensemble cast including Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo and Paul Dano.^[3]

The plot focuses on the abduction of two young girls in Pennsylvania and the subsequent search. At the 86th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Cinematography.

Plot[edit]

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) and his wife Grace (Maria Bello) attend a Thanksgiving dinner at the home of their friends, Franklin (Terrence Howard) and Nancy (Viola Davis) Birch. The children go for a walk in the neighborhood and approach a campervan that is parked outside a house nearby. There is music playing, which suggests there is somebody inside. After dinner, both families' younger daughters, Anna Dover and Joy Birch, go missing.

Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is informed and starts a search. He arrests the driver of the campervan, which is now parked up at a gas station. The young man, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), has the IQ of a ten-year-old, and appears confused when being questioned at the police station. His vehicle is searched by forensics but nothing is found relating to the girls. Pursuing other leads, Loki discovers a corpse in the basement of Father Patrick Dunn's house. The priest (Len Cariou) admits that he killed the man because he confessed he was "waging a war against God" and boasted of killing sixteen children.

As the search continues, Dover is informed that Jones has been released and attacks him outside of the police station. Jones whispers to him, "They didn't cry until I left them." Since Loki won't re-arrest him, Dover abducts Jones by himself, locks him up in an abandoned apartment building and begins torturing him until he cooperates with the help of a reluctant Franklin. Loki follows Dover to where Jones is being held prisoner but doesn't find him, as Dover fabricates a story about stopping over in the building so he's able to drink to ease his suffering without his wife knowing.

At a candlelight vigil for the girls, Loki sees a hooded man acting suspiciously, who flees when Loki approaches him. Later on, the man breaks into both families' houses but leaves without doing anything. A store clerk recognizes the man from an e-fit and reports him to Loki after seeing him buying children's clothing. The suspect, Bob Taylor (David Dastmalchian), is later arrested at his home, whose walls are covered in drawings of mazes. Loki then finds crates filled with maze books, live snakes, and bloodied children's clothing, including items belonging to the missing girls after Dover confirms it. At the police station, Taylor confesses to the abduction but he kills himself before revealing any more information. The police conclude that Taylor was a fantasist and had no involvement with the disappearances; he stole the clothes from the girls' homes and bloodied them with pig's blood to recreate abductions.

Dover continues to torture Jones, who then starts denying he is Alex Jones and claims he escaped from a maze. Dover visits Jones' aunt, Holly (Melissa Leo), who tells him that Alex is the way he is because he had an accident with snakes her husband kept as pets when he was younger. She also says that she and her husband were religious until their young son died of cancer. Back at the police station, Loki becomes frustrated with getting nowhere with the case until he matches the mazes from Taylor's house to the maze necklace worn by the man Patrick Dunn killed in his basement.

Suddenly, Joy Birch is found drugged but alive. Dover visits her in the hospital to ask for information. Her memories are confused but she mumbles, "You were there" to Dover, instantly making him a suspect. He then realizes that Joy may have seen him at the Jones' house when he visited Holly, and runs from the police. Loki searches for Dover at the apartment building and discovers Alex. Dover then goes back to the Jones' 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 her nephew has been found. He finds a photograph of Holly's husband wearing the same maze necklace found on the body in the priest's basement, making the deceased Holly's husband. Loki finds Holly with Anna and exchanges gunfire, wounding him and killing Holly. He then rushes Anna to the hospital where she reunites with her mother. Alex, revealed to be Barry Milliband in the newspaper, is reunited with his parents after surviving the torture. A day later, Loki returns to the Jones' house where the authorities have begun excavating the property. As the other investigators depart for the night, Loki hears Dover's labored whistling from the pit and the film ends as he moves closer to investigate.

Cast[edit]

• Hugh Jackman as Keller Dover
• Jake Gyllenhaal as Detective Loki
• Viola Davis as Nancy Birch
• Maria Bello as Grace Dover
• Terrence Howard as Franklin Birch
• Melissa Leo as Holly Jones
• Paul Dano as Alex Jones
• Dylan Minnette as Ralph Dover
• Zoë Soul as Eliza Birch
• Erin Gerasimovich as Anna Dover
• Kyla-Drew Simmons as Joy Birch
• Wayne Duvall as Captain Richard O'Malley
• Len Cariou as Father Patrick Dunn
• David Dastmalchian as Bob Taylor
• Jeff Pope as Elliot Milland

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

Prisoners premiered at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival and was released theatrically in Canada and the United States on September 20, 2013. It was originally rated NC-17 by the MPAA for substantial disturbing violent content and explicit images; after being edited, it was re-rated R for disturbing violent content including torture, and language throughout. Prisoners opened in North America on September 20, 2013, in 3,260 theaters and grossed $20,817,053 in its opening weekend, averaging $6,386 per theater and ranking #1 at the box office. After 77 days in theaters, the film ended up earning $61,002,302 domestically and $61,124,385 internationally, earning a worldwide gross of $122,126,687, above its production budget of $46 million.^[2]

Critical response[edit]

Prisoners received generally positive reviews from film critics, who praised the performances of Jackman and Gyllenhaal. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 81% based on 226 reviews, with a rating average of 7.3 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states: "Prisoners has an emotional complexity and a sense of dread that makes for absorbing (and disturbing) viewing."^[4] On Metacritic, another review aggregator, the film has a score of 74 out of 100 based on 46 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."^[5]

Christopher Orr of The Atlantic wrote: "Ethical exploration or exploitation? In the end, I come down reservedly on the former side: the work done here by Jackman, Gyllenhaal, and especially Villeneuve is simply too powerful to ignore." Ed Gibbs of The Sun Herald wrote: "Not since Erskineville Kings, in 1999, has Hugh Jackman appeared so emotionally exposed on screen. It is an exceptional, Oscar-worthy performance." The film was a second runner-up for the BlackBerry People's Choice Award at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, behind Philomena and 12 Years a Slave. Gyllenhaal received the Best Supporting Actor of the Year Award at the 2013 Hollywood Film Festival for his "truly compelling, subtly layered" performance as Detective Loki.^[6]

Top ten lists[edit]

Accolades[edit]

Soundtrack[edit]

The Prisoners soundtrack, composed by Johann Johannsson, was released on 20 September 2013.^[11]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official website
• Prisoners at the Internet Movie Database
• Prisoners at AllMovie
• Prisoners at Rotten Tomatoes
• Prisoners at Box Office Mojo
• Prisoners at Metacritic
• Prisoners filming locations at Movieloci.com