Top 10 Kidnapping Movies
Better hope you have enough ransom money. Join http://www.WatchMojo.com as we count down our picks for the top 10 kidnapping movies. For this list, we are looking at the most memorable or popular films that focus on the purposeful abduction or kidnapping of individuals as the main plot. However, we're excluding films like “Oldboy,” in which the victim is released early in the story.
Special thanks to our users Malcolm Lim, Ruston BlackBatman Henry, Andrew A. Dennison and ezkay for submitting the idea on our Suggestion Tool at http://www.WatchMojo.comsuggest
Top 10 Kidnapping Movies
Top 10 Kidnapping Scenes
Better hope you have enough ransom money. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 kidnapping movies. For this list, we are looking at the most memorable or popular films that focus on the purposeful abduction or kidnapping of individuals as the main plot. However, we’re excluding films like “Oldboy,” in which the victim is released early in the story.
#10: “Raising Arizona” (1987)
We start off this dark list with our most light-hearted entry. No one expected the story of a childless couple looking to kidnap children to be comedic at all, especially coming from the Coen Brothers, as one of the follow-ups to their very dark and twisted debut, “Blood Simple”. Little did the world know they would go on to become dark comedy kings. Though Nicolas Cage’s brilliant turn as an ex-con who just wants to be a daddy makes this classic look more like a Roadrunner cartoon than a crime caper, this is still one of the best kidnapping comedies of the late ‘80s.
#9: “Misery” (1990)
Every artist loves meeting his or her biggest fans, but famous author Paul Sheldon will soon wish he hadn’t. After being rescued from a car crash and nursed back to health-ish by the fanatic Annie Wilkes, he realizes she clearly has no plans of letting him go. Her ransom demands? That he write a new novel for her, and bring back the beloved character that he’d previously killed off. Kathy Bates, in a career-making role, gave the world a psychotic movie villain that could only have come from the mind of Stephen King.
#8: “Gone Baby Gone” (2007)
Top 10 Action Movies That Should Have A Sequel
Adapted from a Dennis Lehane novel, Ben Affleck’s directorial debut shocked the world with its unflinching view of the Boston underbelly and its all-too realistic portrait of a world shattered by drugs, gangsters and corrupt detectives. Affleck draws out brilliant performances from little brother Casey, Morgan Freeman and an Oscar-nominated Amy Ryan, as they are searching for a missing child. With cops, feds and private detectives going around in circles, do not expect to find any good guys here, as the lines between doing your duty and doing what’s right are constantly blurred.
#7: “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)
Top 10 Cannibals in Scary Movies
What more can be said about this masterpiece? Multi-Oscar winner. Career-defining performances. Era-defining horror masterpiece. If poor Jodie Foster knew what was coming, she would have kept running. The FBI was desperate and without a plan when they drastically sent rookie Clarice Starling to interview the infamous Hannibal “the Cannibal” Lecter for help on catching at-large serial killer, Buffalo Bill. This results in a maniacal battle of wits as the clock ticks. Why the rush? Buffalo Bill just kidnapped his latest victim, a senator’s daughter.
#6: “Man on Fire” (12004)
Top 10 Kids' Movies with the Most Fire Soundtracks
This action thriller stars Denzel Washington as a drained former CIA officer and U.S. Marine with plenty of issues who becomes a bodyguard-for-hire. Annoyed with having to be subjected to protecting the spoiled 9-year old of a businessman, he soon opens up and takes a liking to the kid, that is - until she is abducted by a kidnapping ring in Mexico. The 2nd adaptation of A. J. Quinnell’s novel, “Man on Fire” may’ve been violent, but it featured some incredible chemistry between Washington and Dakota Fanning as his kidnapped charge, and was a box office hit.
#5: “Suicide Kings” (1997)
Top 10 Over The Top Suicide Squad Characters
The ‘90s had an ungodly amount of dark comedies, many of them about abductions and kidnappings going wrong. Add Christopher Walken to your comedy of errors and create ‘90s gold. In this action comedy, four friends kidnap a crime boss in order to get hefty ransom to pay off the kidnappers that took one of their sisters. Well, with a plot as twisted as that, obviously things are gonna go wrong. Add a psychotic Dennis Leary, a couple of severed fingers and some witty banter, and you get a What-NOT-to-do instructional video for the MTV generation.
#4: “Ransom” (1996)
Mel Gibson’s follow-up to his megahit “Braveheart” became one of the biggest successes of the year and of Gibson’s career as well. A remake of a 1950s crime drama, “Ransom” begins as a mundane and typical kidnapping story, as the obvious target of a millionaire’s son is taken from under his parents’ noses, and a large ransom is demanded. But it quickly becomes a thrilling game of cat and mouse, as desperate father Tom Mullen turns to the FBI and creates a media frenzy. Excellent storytelling and a chilling performance by Gibson cement this as a grade-A thrill ride.
#3: “The Vanishing” [aka “Spoorloos”] (1988)
Top 10 Fictional Hostage Movies
What can poor Rex do when his girlfriend just disappears in broad daylight, in the middle of a busy gas station? He’s made it clear that he will do anything to find her, or at least to learn what happened to her. What starts off as a thrilling drama about a man grieving over his abducted partner becomes one of the most stressful and tense cinematic experiences, when her kidnapper offers to show him exactly what he did to her. Prepare for a surprising, unexpected and blood-curdling ending you will never forget - which is completely diluted in the 1993 Hollywood remake.
#2: “Taken” (2008)
Top 10 Space Movies That Are Scientifically Accurate
He has a set of skills we all wish we had, and he is not afraid to use them. The movie that cemented Liam Neeson as not-just-your-dad’s action hero, “Taken” took a more Jason Bourne action approach to the revenge thriller, as we follow the unlucky idiots who decide to kidnap an American tourist in Paris, who just so happens to be the daughter of a retired CIA operative. Writer Luc Besson is no stranger to action films, but, like his star Liam Neeson, he seems to be getting better with age. Before we let our top pick go, here are a few honorable mentions: - “High and Low” (1963) - “The Searchers” (1956) - “Nick of Time” (1995) - “Prisoners” (2013) - “Changeling” (2008)
#1: “Fargo” (1996)
As we come full-circle back to the Coen Brothers, we have the best movie about the worst attempted kidnapping in history. Scathingly hilarious and at times beyond gruesome and gloomy, this multiple Oscar winning masterpiece follows poor miserable Jerry as his plot to stage his wife’s kidnapping, screw the hired criminals out of the shared ransom, and stick it to his wealthy father-in-law, falls quickly to the way side. Having a very determined and very pregnant police chief on your trail doesn’t help. Anything that could go wrong does go wrong in Fargo. Do you agree with our list? Which kidnapping film is your favorite? For more exciting top 10s published daily, don’t forget to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.
