Prisoners
Short description
Keller Dover's six-year-old daughter Anna and her friend Joy disappear while playing near their homes on Thanksgiving. The only lead is a dilapidated camper van that had been parked on the street. Detective Loki, who heads the investigation, arrests the driver, Alex Jones, but the police are forced to release him for lack of evidence. As the search stalls, Keller, convinced that the authorities are moving too slowly and increasingly certain of Jones's guilt, decides to take matters into his own hands, kidnapping and interrogating the suspect himself. The film follows both men as the hunt for the girls turns into a contest between a father's obsession and a detective's determination to find the missing children before Keller goes too far.
The film is directed by Denis Villeneuve, the fifth of the thirteen features he has made to date, following Incendies and preceding Enemy. Aaron Guzikowski wrote the screenplay, and the cast includes Hugh Jackman as Keller, Jake Gyllenhaal as Loki, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard and Melissa Leo. Produced by Broderick Johnson, Andrew A. Kosove and Kira Davis, it runs 153 minutes.
Made for 46 million dollars, the film grossed about 122 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 8.2/10 from roughly 926,000 votes and on TMDB 8.1/10 from about 13,500 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 7.4/10 from 249 reviews, so audiences rated it noticeably higher than critics did.
What's left behind the scenes
- Originally, Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale were planned to star in the leading roles, with Bryan Singer set to direct.
- Hugh Jackman was attached to the project even when Antoine Fuqua was slated to direct. Both subsequently left the project. After several years of development, Hugh Jackman re-committed to the leading role.
- Leonardo DiCaprio was long considered for the main role, but eventually left the project.
- Filming took place in Atlanta, Conyers (Georgia), and Derby (Connecticut).
- From Detective Loki's cards, you can learn his full name is David Wayne Loki.
- In this film, Hugh Jackman plays the role of a father whose daughter is kidnapped. He was considered for a similar role in "The Lovely Bones" (2009), but Mark Wahlberg was cast instead, and he could have played the lead role in this film.
- The car that covers the pit where the girls, and later Hugh Jackman's character, were held is a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am.
- Towards the end of the film, when the father goes to Mrs. Jones' house, it is daytime outside. After they come outside a short time later, it is already night.
- The first time Detective Loki needs to leave the Dover family's home, he is sitting in the car and talking to Keller Dover through the window – at that moment he has a match in his mouth, but the match abruptly disappears in the next shot.
- When Holly points a gun at Keller in the kitchen, she dramatically cocks the hammer. However, in the following shot, when the gun is shown in close-up, it is visible that the hammer is not cocked.
- Initially, the film was given an “NC-17” rating (not intended for viewers under 18), but after the torture scenes were slightly shortened and allusions to pedophilia were removed, the rating was changed to “R” (viewing by persons aged 17 requires the presence of an adult).
- For the role of Holly, actress Melissa Leo wore a gray wig and hip pads. She also asked that the lenses of her glasses not be cleaned at the end of each shooting day.
- The scene in which Hugh Jackman's character attacks Paul Dano's character with a hammer was conceived on the spot.
- In preparation for the role of Detective Loki, Jake Gyllenhaal reviewed 100 hours of video recordings of interrogations of detainees and suspects.
- The line with which Melissa Leo’s character addresses Hugh Jackman’s character and offers him another drink was invented by the actress herself. She felt that Jackman hadn’t drunk enough for the scene to look believable.
- Initially, it was assumed that the police would never find the hero played by Hugh Jackman, and that he would remain missing.
- Jake Gyllenhaal and Denis Villeneuve enjoyed working together on the thriller "Enemy" (2013) so much that Villeneuve cast Gyllenhaal as Loki without even holding auditions.
- The film is set in Pennsylvania, but features billboards for the Atlanta law firm "Morgan and Morgan" positioned above a liquor store.
- Jake Gyllenhaal came up with some of the details for Detective Loki's character himself (the tattoos, the signet ring, and the nervous tic).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
