10 Movie Kidnappings Where the Criminal Ended Up a Victim

10 Movie Kidnappings Where the Criminal Ended Up a Victim

Is it just me or does it seem that kidnappers rarely, if ever, manage to get away with their crimes? The ransoms go unpaid, the tables are inevitably turned, and the criminal becomes the victim. Still, kidnappings are a fascinating occurrence and, as a result, they’ve spawned countless films and television shows centered on the dastardly deed. From chick flicks like Not Without My Daughter to innovative series like 24 to rough and tumble noir like End Result, audiences have welcomed the chance to root for the underdog. What’s better than seeing the hero win? Seeing the hero get revenge. Here are ten movie kidnappings where the criminal ended up a victim.

 End Result – You Must Be Merrek

1. Commando (1985)

He’s the one man you most certainly never want to piss off—Arnold Schwarzenegger. I mean, seriously, what were they thinking when they decided to kidnap Arnie’s darling daughter—a cute little Alyssa Milano? Did Arius, the kidnapper, honestly believe that the Governator wouldn’t drive a truck with no brakes down a mountainside, leap from an airplane into a swamp without a parachute, rip the front seat out of Tommy Chong’s daughter’s car with his bare hands, swing across a shopping mall on a banner, kill upwards of 1,000,000 terribly trained soldiers single handedly, and kill the main henchman by hurling a pipe through his torso? If he thought none of this would happen, then I have no idea how he ever rose to power because he is clearly incompetent.

2. Taken (2009)

In Taken, Liam Neeson is an utter badass who stays calm, cool and collected when his daughter calls him from Paris to say that there are men in the apartment. A former “company man,” he tells her that she will be taken and then tells one of her kidnappers that he will find them. And yep, he does. He finds them. He kills them. And then he kills everyone else who was trying to sell his daughter into sexual slavery. And he does it without any crappy CGI getting in the way, which is the way it should be.

3. Ransom (1996)

Before he was driving drunk and talking smack about Jews, Mel Gibson was the embodiment of all that is man. So, when his son was snatched in the aptly titled Ron Howard film Ransom, and both the kidnappers and the Feds told him to cooperate, did anyone in the world think for a second that Mad Mel would actually cooperate? Uh… Heeeeeells no! Even with his Samson-esque Lethal Weapon mullet gone, Mel was still a loose cannon and a force to be reckoned with. Naughty kidnappers Donnie Wahlberg, Lili Taylor, Evan Handler and Liev Schreiber were systematically eliminated until, finally, despicable turncoat cop Gary Sinise was dispatched with the help of Mel’s brave son who identifies his kidnapper by, well, pissing his pants.

4. Nick of Time (1995)

You’d think that the teaming of Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken would equal cinematic gold; but somehow, their pairing in Nick of Time resulted in cinematic crap. Bad guy (Walken) and his goons kidnap a man’s (Depp) daughter and tell him that she will die unless he kills a prominent politician. Needless to say, Johnny Depp’s good looks save his daughter and the day.

5. Breakdown (1997)

Directed by Jonathan Mostow, Breakdown opens with married couple Jeff and Amy Taylor (Kurt Russell, Kathleen Quinlan) when their car breaks down in the desert. Amy accepts a ride with a trucker named “Red” Barr (J.T. Walsh) to a small diner to call for help, while Jeff stays with the car. Jeff discovers disconnected wires to be the problem with the car and drives to the diner, but no one there has seen his wife. When he catches up with Barr, the trucker swears that he has never seen her, or Jeff, ever before. Jeff hails a passing sheriff, but a brief search of Barr’s truck is fruitless. Now Jeff must attempt to find his wife, who has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom. But who can he trust? Well, that’s not important. What is important is that you, the viewer, can trust that Kurt Russell will save his wife, who will put her own exclamation point on the finale by dropping a truck off a bridge and crushing the main bad guy.

6. Suicide Kings (1998)

Christopher Walken is a respected mafia man who is kidnapped by a group of youngsters, and Denis Leary is his right hand man who must search for him. Based on Don Stanford’s short story, The Hostage, the movie also stars Sean Patrick Flannery, Jay Mohr, Jeremy Sisto, Johnny Galecki and Henry Thomas as the retarded twenty-something’s who kidnap the made man in order to “save” the sister of one of the friends.

7. Kiss the Girls (1997)

Kiss the Girls is a psychological thriller starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd and Cary Elwes, directed by Gary Fleder and based on the book of the same name by James Patterson. The book (not the movie) was the second to star his recurrent character Alex Cross (Freeman), a prominent psychologist. The movie, on the other hand was the first to star Cross (see #8). The film’s plot follows Cross as he searches for his niece, who is being held by the masked and monstrous kidnapper/rapist/serial killer, Casanova, in an underground house somewhere in the woods of North Carolina. Alex Cross is aided in his quest by Kate McTiernan, the only woman to escape Casanova’s clutches. Needless to say, the good guys prevail and all is well and good in the world, until…

8. Along Came a Spider (2001)

Along Came a Spider is actually a prequel to Kiss the Girls (it was the first book in James Patterson’s Alex Cross series) and centers on a congressman’s daughter under Secret Service protection who is kidnapped from a private school by her computer science teacher Gary Soneji (Michael Wincott) who, in turn, calls Det. Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman, again), sucking him into the case even though he’s recovering from the loss of his partner.

Much like in Kiss the Girls, Cross is aided by a stunning blonde. This time it’s U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter), but all is not as it seems. That’s right. Get ready for the twist.

After killing Soneji, Cross becomes suspicious and realizes that someone discovered Soneji long before his plot came to fruition. After searching Flannigan’s home computer, he finds enough evidence to prove that Jezzie and her fellow Secret Service agent, Ben Devine (Billy Burke), used Soneji as a pawn in their own plot. He tracks them down to a secluded farmhouse where Flannigan has murdered Devine and is now intent on eliminating the congressman’s daughter. Cross saves the young girl and shoots Flannigan in the heart, killing her.

9. Fargo (1996)

The Cohen Brothers never fail to disappoint, thanks in large part to their uncanny ability to combine gory action with sidesplitting comedy. In Fargo, there’s plenty of both, and it all centers around a man (William H. Macy) hiring two goons (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) to “kidnap” his wife so that he can get her wealthy father to pay. But the inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen’s bungling and the persistent police work of pregnant Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand). Needles to say, Buscemi’s character gets it the worst when he winds up becoming bloody mulch after being shoved through a wood chipper.

10. The Crying Game (1992)

An unlikely kind of friendship develops between Fergus (Stephen Rea), an Irish Republican Army volunteer, and Jody (Forest Whitaker), a kidnapped British soldier lured into an IRA trap by Jude (Miranda Richardson), another IRA member. When the kidnapping ends up going horribly wrong, Fergus escapes and heads to London, where he seeks out Jody’s lover, a hairdresser named Dil (Jaye Davidson). Fergus adopts the name “Jimmy” and gets a job as a day laborer. He also starts seeing Dil, who knows nothing about Fergus’ IRA background. But there are some things about Dil that Fergus doesn’t know, either… like the fact that Dil is a dude, and Fergus is the most unfortunate movie kidnapper turned victim ever!

End Result – Where Is She