HOSTAGE
Year: 2005
USA: Miramax Films
UK: Entertainment Film Distributors
Cast: Bruce Willis, Kevin Pollak, Ben Foster, Jonathan Tucker, Marshall Allman, Michelle Horn, Jimmy Bennett, Tina Lifford, Kim Coates, Serena Scott Thomas, Rob Knepper, Jimmy 'Jax' Pinchak, Rumer Willis, Hector Luis Bustamante, Christina Cabot, Ransford Doherty, Marjean Holden
Director: Florent Siri
Countries: USA / Germany
USA: 102 mins
UK: 113 mins
USA Rated: R for strong graphic violence, language and some drug use
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language and violence
USA Release Date: 11 March 2005
UK Release Date: 11 March 2005
Synopsis
Devastated by a hostage situation that resulted in the deaths of a young mother and her child, LAPD negotiator Jeff Talley (Bruce Willis) exits Los Angeles for a low-profile job as chief of police in the low-crime town of Bristo Camino in Ventura County. When three delinquent teenagers follow a family home intending to steal their car, they inadvertently pick the wrong house on the wrong day. The trio find themselves trapped in a multimillion dollar compound on the outskirts of town owned by a corrupt accountant. Panicked, the teenagers take the family hostage, placing Talley in exactly the kind of situation he never wanted to face again.
Soon after, Talley readily hands authority of the hostage situation over to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department and leaves the scene. But inside the compound is digital information critical to the mysterious criminals and their operation. They will stop at nothing to get what belongs to them, including taking Talley's family hostage, forcing him to resume the command he had abandoned. The stakes quickly evolve into a situation far more volatile and terrifying than anything he could ever imagine.
HOSTAGE is a mix of suspense, thrills, psychological drama and action with unforeseen twists and turns. The very idea of what it means to be a hostage continually evolves as the various characters' paths intersect and collide. Security becomes insecurity. Physical escape becomes mental manipulation. Mind games become life and death matters.
In HOSTAGE, director Florent Siri's first English language film, nothing is as it appears to be as the action unfolds in and around one house over the course of one day and one night. As in his acclaimed French language action thriller, THE NEST, Siri's intricate, mesmerizing shooting and editing style heightens the tension of the multi-layered, interwoven conflicts, while dazzling the audience with stunning visuals. HOSTAGE is a timeless film noir tale delivering a suspense-filled, visionary spin on thriller and action films.