KIDNAPPING/HOSTAGE
by creekgeek | created - 23 Oct 2015 | updated - 29 Oct 2019 | Publicabduction/high jacking/hostage/kidnap themed films. (list of unforgettable ones)
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1. Hostage (2005)
R | 113 min | Action, Crime, Drama
When a family is held hostage, former hostage negotiator Jeff Talley arrives at the scene. Talley's own family is kidnapped and Talley must decide which is more important: saving a family he doesn't even know or saving his own family.
Director: Florent-Emilio Siri | Stars: Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollak, Serena Scott Thomas, Jimmy Bennett
Votes: 113,559 | Gross: $34.64M
2. Ransom (1996)
R | 121 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Multi-millionaire Tom Mullen's son is kidnapped, but after initially agreeing to pay the ransom Mullen then decides to use the ransom money as a bounty.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Mel Gibson, Gary Sinise, Rene Russo, Brawley Nolte
Votes: 135,529 | Gross: $136.49M
3. Along Came a Spider (2001)
R | 104 min | Drama, Thriller
When a senator's daughter under Secret Service protection is kidnapped from a private school, detective Alex Cross investigates the case even though he's recovering from the loss of his partner.
Director: Lee Tamahori | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Michael Wincott, Monica Potter, Dylan Baker
Votes: 95,922 | Gross: $74.08M
4. Kidnapping Mr. Heineken (2015)
R | 95 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The inside story of the planning, execution, rousing aftermath, and ultimate downfall of the kidnappers of beer tycoon Alfred "Freddy" Heineken in 1983, which resulted in the largest ransom ever paid for an individual.
Director: Daniel Alfredson | Stars: Jim Sturgess, Sam Worthington, Ryan Kwanten, Anthony Hopkins
Votes: 21,691
5. Trapped (I) (2002)
R | 106 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The Jennings' fight for their daughters life after she is kidnapped by an experienced gang of thieves.
Director: Luis Mandoki | Stars: Kevin Bacon, Charlize Theron, Courtney Love, Stuart Townsend
Votes: 25,878 | Gross: $0.06M
6. Gone Baby Gone (2007)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two Boston area detectives investigate a little girl's kidnapping, which ultimately turns into a crisis both professionally and personally.
Director: Ben Affleck | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan
Votes: 293,085 | Gross: $20.30M
7. Suicide Kings (1997)
R | 106 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A group of youngsters kidnap a respected Mafia figure.
Director: Peter O'Fallon | Stars: Christopher Walken, Denis Leary, Sean Patrick Flanery, Mark Watson
Votes: 29,192 | Gross: $1.69M
8. The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)
R | 106 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Armed men hijack a New York City subway train, holding the passengers hostage in return for a ransom, and turning an ordinary day's work for dispatcher Walter Garber into a face-off with the mastermind behind the crime.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Luis Guzmán, Victor Gojcaj
Votes: 208,116 | Gross: $65.45M
9. John Q (2002)
PG-13 | 116 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
John Quincy Archibald takes a hospital emergency room hostage when his insurance won't cover his son's heart transplant.
Director: Nick Cassavetes | Stars: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Gabriela Oltean, Kimberly Elise
Votes: 143,746 | Gross: $71.76M
10. Non-Stop (2014)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller
An air marshal springs into action during a transatlantic flight after receiving a series of text messages demanding $150 million into an off-shore account, or someone will die every 20 minutes.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra | Stars: Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, Scoot McNairy, Michelle Dockery
Votes: 276,598 | Gross: $92.17M
11. Abduction (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
A young man sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website.
Director: John Singleton | Stars: Taylor Lautner, Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Jake Andolina
Votes: 83,395 | Gross: $28.09M
12. Speed (1994)
R | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A young police officer must prevent a bomb exploding aboard a city bus by keeping its speed above 50 mph.
Director: Jan de Bont | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Joe Morton
Votes: 392,134 | Gross: $121.25M
13. Taken (I) (2008)
PG-13 | 90 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A retired CIA agent travels across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.
Director: Pierre Morel | Stars: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen, Leland Orser
Votes: 634,743 | Gross: $145.00M
14. Don't Say a Word (2001)
R | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
When the daughter of a psychiatrist is kidnapped, he's horrified to discover that the abductors' demand is that he break through to a post traumatic stress disorder suffering young woman who knows a secret...
Director: Gary Fleder | Stars: Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Brittany Murphy, Skye McCole Bartusiak
Votes: 57,090 | Gross: $55.00M
15. Cellular (2004)
PG-13 | 94 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A young man receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from an older woman. The catch? The woman claims to have been kidnapped, and the kidnappers have targeted her husband and child next.
Director: David R. Ellis | Stars: Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, Jason Statham, William H. Macy
Votes: 105,453 | Gross: $32.00M
16. Firewall (2006)
PG-13 | 105 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A security specialist is forced into robbing the bank that he's protecting, as a bid to pay off his family's ransom.
Director: Richard Loncraine | Stars: Harrison Ford, Virginia Madsen, Paul Bettany, Carly Schroeder
Votes: 59,627 | Gross: $48.75M
17. Trespass (2011)
R | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
As they're held for ransom, a husband and wife's predicament grows more dire amid the discovery of betrayal and deception.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Cam Gigandet, Ben Mendelsohn
Votes: 45,574 | Gross: $0.02M
18. Shattered (2007)
R | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A perfect family's dynamic is ruined by a kidnapper's brutally efficient plot.
Director: Mike Barker | Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Maria Bello, Gerard Butler, Emma Karwandy
Votes: 33,597
19. Deja Vu (2006)
PG-13 | 126 min | Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
After a ferry is bombed in New Orleans, an A.T.F. agent joins a unique investigation using experimental surveillance technology to find the bomber, but soon finds himself becoming obsessed with one of the victims.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, Jim Caviezel, Val Kilmer
Votes: 327,767 | Gross: $64.04M
20. ATM (I) (2012)
R | 90 min | Horror, Thriller
On a late night visit to an ATM, three co-workers end up in a desperate fight for their lives when they become trapped by an unknown man.
Director: David Brooks | Stars: Alice Eve, Josh Peck, Brian Geraghty, Mike O'Brian
Votes: 25,389 | Gross: $0.00M
21. Captain Phillips (2013)
PG-13 | 134 min | Action, Biography, Crime
The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the U.S.-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
Director: Paul Greengrass | Stars: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Catherine Keener
Votes: 492,883 | Gross: $107.10M
22. Phone Booth (2002)
R | 81 min | Crime, Thriller
Publicist Stuart Shepard finds himself trapped in a phone booth, pinned down by an extortionist's sniper rifle. Unable to leave or receive outside help, Stuart's negotiation with the caller leads to a jaw-dropping climax.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Radha Mitchell
Votes: 285,884 | Gross: $46.57M
23. Gone (I) (2012)
PG-13 | 94 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery
A woman is convinced her kidnapper has returned when her sister goes missing.
Director: Heitor Dhalia | Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Jennifer Carpenter, Wes Bentley, Daniel Sunjata
Votes: 46,397 | Gross: $11.65M
24. Kidnap (I) (2017)
R | 95 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A mother stops at nothing to recover her kidnapped son.
Director: Luis Prieto | Stars: Halle Berry, Sage Correa, Chris McGinn, Lew Temple
Votes: 39,102 | Gross: $30.72M
25. The Call (II) (2013)
R | 94 min | Drama, Thriller
When a veteran 911 operator takes a life-altering call from a teenage girl who has just been abducted, she realizes that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl's life.
Director: Brad Anderson | Stars: Halle Berry, Evie Thompson, Abigail Breslin, Morris Chestnut
Votes: 129,803 | Gross: $51.87M
26. Kiss the Girls (1997)
R | 115 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Police hunting for a serial kidnapper are helped when a victim manages to escape for the first time.
Director: Gary Fleder | Stars: Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes, Alex McArthur
Votes: 81,238 | Gross: $60.53M
27. Taken in Broad Daylight (2009 TV Movie)
TV-14 | 89 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
The true and inspiring survival story of kidnapped teen, Anne Sluti, and how she manages to stay alive by manipulating her captor, engineering her own rescue and negotiating her safe release after 6 days of hell.
Director: Gary Yates | Stars: Sara Canning, James Van Der Beek, LeVar Burton, Diana Reis
Votes: 1,545
28. Alpha Dog (2006)
R | 122 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Johnny and his pals kidnap Jake's 15-year-old brother Zach, then assign his buddy Frankie to be Zach's minder. They develop a brotherly friendship. Zach parties with his captors as things begin to spin out of control.
Director: Nick Cassavetes | Stars: Emile Hirsch, Justin Timberlake, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Willis
Votes: 108,019 | Gross: $15.23M
29. Proof of Life (2000)
R | 135 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Alice hires a professional negotiator to obtain the release of her engineer husband, who has been kidnapped by anti-government guerrillas in South America.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe, David Morse, Pamela Reed
Votes: 58,917 | Gross: $32.60M
30. The Negotiator (1998)
R | 140 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In a desperate attempt to prove his innocence, a skilled police negotiator accused of corruption and murder takes hostages in a government office to gain the time he needs to find the truth.
Director: F. Gary Gray | Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, David Morse, Ron Rifkin
Votes: 155,031 | Gross: $44.48M
31. Air Force One (1997)
R | 124 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Communist radicals hijack Air Force One with the U.S. President and his family on board. The Vice President negotiates from Washington D.C., while the President, a veteran, fights to rescue the hostages on board.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Wendy Crewson
Votes: 210,215 | Gross: $172.96M
32. House Arrest (1996)
PG | 108 min | Comedy, Family
Desperate to keep their various parents from getting divorced, a group of teenagers kidnaps them and holds them prisoner in a basement to force them to reconcile.
Director: Harry Winer | Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Pollak, Kyle Howard, Herbert Russell
Votes: 9,257 | Gross: $6.97M
33. Flightplan (2005)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A bereaved woman and her daughter are flying home from Berlin to America. At 30,000 feet, the child vanishes, and nobody will admit she was ever on the plane.
Director: Robert Schwentke | Stars: Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Sean Bean, Kate Beahan
Votes: 171,896 | Gross: $89.71M
34. Panic Room (2002)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A divorced woman and her diabetic daughter take refuge in their newly-purchased house's safe room when three men break-in, searching for a missing fortune.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Jodie Foster, Kristen Stewart, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam
Votes: 297,033 | Gross: $96.40M
35. Red Eye (2005)
PG-13 | 85 min | Thriller
A woman is kidnapped by a stranger on a routine flight. Threatened by the potential murder of her father, she is pulled into a plot to assist her captor in a political assassination.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Laura Johnson
Votes: 140,858 | Gross: $57.89M
36. The Fugitive (1993)
PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Dr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt led by a seasoned U.S. Marshal.
Director: Andrew Davis | Stars: Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Sela Ward, Julianne Moore
Votes: 318,856 | Gross: $183.88M
37. Oldboy (2003)
R | 120 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must track down his captor in five days.
Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jeong, Kim Byeong-Ok
Votes: 636,301 | Gross: $0.71M
38. The Captive (I) (2014)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Eight years after the disappearance of Cassandra, some disturbing incidents seem to indicate that she's still alive. Police, parents and Cassandra herself, will try to unravel the mystery of her disappearance.
Director: Atom Egoyan | Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Scott Speedman, Rosario Dawson, Mireille Enos
Votes: 35,796
39. Oldboy (2013)
R | 104 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
Obsessed with vengeance, a man sets out to find out why he was kidnapped and locked into solitary confinement for twenty years without reason.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharlto Copley
Votes: 80,837 | Gross: $2.19M
40. Split (IX) (2016)
PG-13 | 117 min | Horror, Thriller
Three girls are kidnapped by a man with a diagnosed 23 distinct personalities. They must try to escape before the apparent emergence of a frightful new 24th.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan | Stars: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula
Votes: 554,571 | Gross: $138.29M
41. Room (I) (2015)
R | 118 min | Drama, Thriller
A little boy is held captive in a room with his mother since his birth, so he has never known the world outside.
Director: Lenny Abrahamson | Stars: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers, Wendy Crewson
Votes: 450,764 | Gross: $14.68M
42. Shuttle (2008)
R | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A late night airport shuttle ride home descends into darkness.
Director: Edward Anderson | Stars: Tony Curran, Peyton List, Cameron Goodman, Cullen Douglas
Votes: 6,085 | Gross: $0.01M
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