Kidnap (2017)

Kidnap is a 2017 American abduction thriller film^[3] directed by Luis Prieto, written by Knate Lee and stars Halle Berry, Lew Temple, Sage Correa and Chris McGinn. The film follows Karla, a diner waitress, who is tailing a vehicle when her son is kidnapped by its occupants. The film is Berry's second abduction thriller following 2013's The Call. The film's development began in June 2009. Principal photography began on October 27, 2014 in New Orleans, with scenes also being filmed in Slidell. Filming was completed on December 7, 2014.

Kidnap premiered on July 31, 2017, at ArcLight Hollywood, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 4, 2017, by Aviron Pictures, who purchased the rights to the film for $3 million, after original producer Relativity Media filed for bankruptcy.^[4] It has grossed $34 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, with some calling it a "serviceable late-summer diversion" while others criticized the messy plot.

Karla Dyson (Halle Berry), a diner waitress, lives a mostly perfect life as a single mother with her six-year-old son Frankie (Sage Correa) 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.

However, with her phone lost, she tries to get help from nearby motorists, but the attempt is thwarted by the kidnappers. Karla is then forced to take another route after the woman threatens to kill her son. Not giving up on rescuing her son, Karla chases the green car again.

Karla hears the abductor's voice from her son's toy voice recorder, revealing the abductor's name Margo, who claims that Karla is looking for her son (despite all attempts to discourage her). She then sees a police motorcycle several meters behind her, and sways her car from side to side, successfully gaining the police officer's attention. The abductors' car slams the police motorcycle into Karla's car, apparently knocking the police officer unconscious.

Upon stopping at a grassy field, Karla confronts the male driver of the green car and demands he release her son, as long as she gives her money to the abductors. However, Margo gets out of the car and forces Karla to ride with her, who claims that they will get $10,000 ransom in exchange for her son upon reaching their destination. Margo orders Karla to follow her accomplice's car.

Upon reaching a tunnel, Margo attacks her, but Karla manages to subdue her and throws her out of the car. Karla puts on Margo's shirt, fooling the second abductor temporarily as she exits the tunnel. Having realized that the driver is not Margo, Karla is forced not to follow the car after the second abductor threatens to drop Frankie out onto the dangerous highway. After Karla loses them for several minutes, she spots a traffic jam, drives ahead of it, and finds the kidnappers' car abandoned after it caused a collision. One of the motorists tells her he saw the man and the boy emerge from the car and Karla drives after them in the direction which he gives.

Karla stops at the police station to report the incident; however, on seeing posters of young children who have been missing for a decade, and fearing that her son will likewise disappear for good, she continues the chase on her own. Karla eventually finds the abductor - who has now stolen a black Volvo - and chases him until she finally runs out of fuel. Karla quickly stops a truck to hitch a ride to follow the abductor, but the truck is suddenly hit by the returning abductors' car, killing the driver and knocking her unconscious.

Upon recovering, she finds that her son's not in the Volvo. The male abductor emerges from his car and begins to shoot at her with a sawed-off shotgun. He tries to attack her in her car and she releases the brake, causing the car to reverse into the woods with the abductor clinging to it being fatally struck by tree branches. Karla yells at the man demanding to know where her son is, but he dies before she can get the answer. Karla finds his identification card and learns his name, Terrence Vickey, and a nearby address where her son might be.

Karla arrives at the Vickey house at nightfall and eventually locates Frankie in the barn with two other kidnapped girls. Before that, she calls 911 as she hides from Margo, who leaves the house in search of her husband Terrence. Karla successfully rescues Frankie, but when Margo — who has just realized that Terrence is dead — returns, she and her son run out of the barn before she can retrieve the two girls. Karla creates a diversion by sailing the skiff away while hiding underwater.

Margo discovers them hiding, and Karla drags Margo down into the water and drowns her. Returning to the barn, she is approached by a man who is the Vickey's neighbor, who holds her at gunpoint. After listening to her and hearing the children in the barn attic, he then offers to help her by getting the two girls down. Realizing that he is the ringleader of the kidnappings since he knew that two girls were there without looking, she kills him with the shovel just before he draws his gun at her.

Karla rescues the two girls as the police arrive. Media reports praise her for saving the children from the abductors, and announcing that Karla's actions have led to police breaking up an international child abduction ring, with arrests being made in other parts of Louisiana, as well as New York, London, Paris, and Dubai. The media hails Karla as a hero.