Kidnap(2017)

Plot Summary

• The film starts with video clips recorded by Karla Dyson (Halle Berry) of her baby son Frankie (Sage Correa). The clips go on over the years as Frankie gets older, with Karla enjoying every minute with him.In the present, Karla is a single mother that works as a waitress at a diner to support herself and Frankie. She has to deal with obnoxious customers while being short-staffed, including a family whose son whines about wanting hash browns, and a couple where the girlfriend is rude and impatient with Karla. Karla's boss says he has called another waitress to come help so she and Frankie can leave to spend the day together.Karla takes Frankie to the park. While he runs around the playground, they play "Marco Polo". The two then sit down to watch a show in the park when Karla gets a phone call. She leaves Frankie on the bench with his recording toy. Karla talks to her lawyer, who tells her that her ex-husband wants full custody of Frankie. When Karla tries to argue against this, her call gets dropped. When she goes back to the bench, Frankie isn't there. Karla asks other parents if they have seen him while she goes around shouting "Marco" repeatedly. Karla then goes to the parking lot and sees a woman (Chris McGinn) pulling a screaming Frankie into a green Ford Mustang. Karla runs to the car and clings to the side until she falls off, and her phone falls out of her bag.Karla hops in her minivan and chases after the other car. They ride through the parkway where the Mustang causes some accidents. Karla tries to alert other drivers to the incident once she realizes she's lost her phone. The woman then drops a tool box on the road to get Karla off their tail. As Karla gets closer, the kidnappers roll down the window so the woman can hold Frankie at knifepoint, forcing Karla to take a different route. She continues to follow them off the parkway. She listens to the recording toy and hears the female kidnapper talking to Frankie, making him believe his mom was looking for him. The kidnapper says her name is Margo.Karla sees a police officer on a motorcycle and tries to get his attention by driving erratically. The officer rides up and tells Karla to pull over, but once he gets between Karla and the kidnappers, the villains pin the officer between both cars and cause him to crash his motorcycle in a ditch.The kidnappers pull over onto a grassy field, and Karla stops too. The male kidnapper, Terrence Vicky (Lew Temple), steps out with his knife and runs toward Karla. She reverses her car until Terrence runs out of breath. Karla drives toward him as he runs, but she doesn't strike him. Karla offers him money in return for Frankie but also promises she won't stop looking for her son as long as he is in the car. After Terrence runs back to the car, Margo goes to Karla's minivan and calmly tells her that she wants $10,000 in exchange for Frankie's safe return. She orders Karla to let her ride in the minivan so they can follow Terrence, or he will kill Frankie. Karla reluctantly lets Margo inside.Karla follows Terrence's car. As they go through a tunnel, Margo attacks Karla. Karla is able to fight her off and throw her out of the minivan. Karla takes Margo's jacket to give Terrence the impression she's still riding in the van. As Karla continues to follow, Terrence eventually figures that Margo is no longer with her, so he threatens to drop Frankie out of his car, forcing Karla to slow her pursuit.Karla loses Terrence's car for a while. She passes a family fishing and tells them to call the cops on a green Ford Mustang. She then spots an accident he caused that led to a traffic jam. She drives through the field and runs to the car, only to see that Terrence and Frankie are gone. One of the people in the accident tells Karla where Terrence was running off to with the boy.Karla runs to a nearby police station to report the kidnapping. The officer at the desk tells her to wait. Karla then sees pictures of other missing children, some of whom have been gone for over a decade. Karla worries Frankie will suffer the same fate, so she continues the search on her own.Karla goes by a parking lot and sees a black Volvo speeding out, realizing this is Terrence. She chases him until Terrence strikes a pedestrian. Another car almost hits this woman until Karla blocks the oncoming car with her own. She continues to chase after Terrence but her car is running out of fuel. Karla then spots an authority vehicle on the road and tries to hitch a ride, only for Terrence to ram into the car, killing the other driver and knocking Karla unconscious.When Karla comes to, she runs to the Volvo but doesn't find Frankie in there. Terrence emerges and proceeds to shoot at her. Karla runs back in the car with Terrence trying to cling on. Karla lets the car go in reverse into the woods, with Terrence getting pierced by multiple branches until the car hits a tree. Karla questions Terrence over Frankie's whereabouts, but he dies. She then gets his wallet out and learns his name, plus his home address, thinking Frankie might be there.Karla drives to Terrence's house. She finds pictures of Terrence and Margo, indicating they were married. Karla sneaks around as Margo is there. Margo talks on the phone to an accomplice over where Terrence is and how Karla has become a problem for their operation. Margo leaves the house, and Karla makes her way to find Frankie. She calls the police, and the operator says that officers will arrive within 7 to 15 minutes.Karla runs to a nearby barn where she finally finds Frankie. To her surprise, Frankie is there with two other abducted girls. Karla gets Frankie out but has to run when Margo returns. Margo appears to realize that Terrence is dead. Karla and Frankie run by the lake. Margo sics her dog on Karla, but she and Frankie are hiding under the docks. Karla creates a diversion by letting a small boat sail across the water to make Margo think she is there. Margo shoots at it but then sees Frankie under the dock. She tries to shoot the boy, but Karla pulls Margo underwater. After a struggle, Karla stabs Margo and lets her drown.Karla goes back to the barn for the other two girls. A neighbor, Del (Kurtis Bedford), enters the barn with a shotgun after hearing commotion. Karla tells him that Terrence and Margo kidnapped children, though Del claims they wouldn't do that, having known them for over a decade. Del calls to the children and refers to them as "girls" before Karla says that she never told him they were girls. Realizing he is part of the kidnappings, Karla swings a shovel at Del's face and kills him before he turns his gun on her.The police arrive and bring Karla and the kids out safely. We then hear news reports about how Karla has stopped an international sex trafficking operation, with arrests being made in places like New York, Paris, and Dubai.

Storyline

• In the US, a child goes missing every 40 seconds. You never think it will happen to you. Until it does. Alone and scared, Karla Dyson (Halle Berry) is unwilling to leave the fate of her son's life in someone else's hands. When she catches a glimpse of the abductors speeding away, she decides to fight back. In a heart pounding race against time, Karla begins a high speed pursuit and will stop at nothing to save her son's life. 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? — Nick Riganas Karla Dyson, a diner waitress, lives a mostly perfect life as a single mother with her six-year-old son Frankie 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 returns, she finds that her son is missing, leaving his toy voice recorder behind. Frantically searching for her son, 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.