Prisoners

Play trailer

Prisoners

R

2013

2h 33m

Mystery & Thriller

Crime

Drama

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

82%

Tomatometer

249 Reviews

87%

Popcornmeter

100,000+ Ratings

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) faces a parent's worst nightmare when his 6-year-old daughter, Anna, and her friend go missing. The only lead is an old motorhome that had been parked on their street. The head of the investigation, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), arrests the driver (Paul Dano), but a lack of evidence forces Loki to release his only suspect. Dover, knowing that his daughter's life is at stake, decides that he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

Watch on Fandango

Stream Now

Critics Consensus

Prisoners has an emotional complexity and a sense of dread that makes for absorbing (and disturbing) viewing.

Read Critics Reviews

Kate Stables

Sight & Sound

Jul 31, 2018

Guzikowski's well-honed thriller occasionally idles under Villeneuve's dark character studies, but the director's powerfully imposed mood of dread elevates what might otherwise have been just a superior police procedural.

Go to Full Review

Jason Bailey

Flavorwire

Jun 19, 2016

An increasingly sloppy thriller, filled with obvious clues, laughable red herrings, and halfhearted "shock" reveals, played at a snail's pace that lets far too much air into the narrative.

Go to Full Review

Chris Stuckmann

ChrisStuckmann.com

Apr 17, 2015

A+

This film haunted me for days and weeks after seeing it, and the feeling still lingers.

Go to Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Oct 15, 2026

3.5/4

Prisoners feels like an AMBER Alert writ large, using the queasy notion of missing children as a starting point for its exploration of several issues that aren’t black and white but instead rot away inside a malodorous area of gray.

Go to Full Review

Matt Oakes

Silver Screen Riot

Oct 15, 2026

A-

We are captive to the deep digging questions steaming out of the gutters of the film. Questions that we can only answer for ourselves in the vastness of solitude.

Go to Full Review

Carla Renata

The Curvy Film Critic

Mar 24, 2026

PRISONERS, however, is the most jaw-dropping thriller I have seen in years! It was absolutely thrilling, spellbinding and kept my attention from beginning to end.

Go to Full Review

Read all reviews

Jody C

@JodyCazz 3 days ago

A masterclass on emotion, suspense and acting! A phenomenal ride with so much different weights to the different perspectives you encounter. I mean how far will a parent go to save their child? How far SHOULD a parent go? The protagonists have so much build to them and they really did a supreme job of showing a man that had prepared for everything they could come up with but at the end of the day, he was desperate and out of answers. The detective was also quite flawed morality wise but was the closest thing to true good that we could come up with in this journey. I could go on and on. The twist was good, very few people i know saw it coming. The clues are all right there in front of you so people pay attention! An absolute must watch.

See more

S T

@SMgolf 5 days ago

Choice of actors, hairdos, make it somewhat unrealistic.

See more

cole D

@RT35275046 6 days ago

ARE YOU JOKING ME, SAT HERE FOR 2 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES OF MY LIFE AND I DONT GET TO SEE THE KID REUNITED WITH THE FATHER ALSO WHY WE DID NOT SEE THE BODIES IN THE END IS BEYOND ME, EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL UNTIL THAT SHOCKING ENDING, WHOEVER WROTE IT SHOULD BE SENT TO LIFE IN JAIL

See more

Felipe Q

@ParaGustosColores 6 days ago

A veces rogamos porque a algunas películas pudiéramos darles una calificación de cero... A otras, rogamos porque pudiéramos calificarlas con diez o más...

See more

Simon 1

@Simon869 Nov 7, 2026

sehr gut , realistisch, schwer zuzuschauen

See more

Yaneishka R

@nickycole88 Nov 3, 2026

very good and heartbreaking

See more

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

POST RATING

Denis Villeneuve

Director

Hugh Jackman

Keller Dover

Jake Gyllenhaal

Det. Loki

Viola Davis

Nancy Birch

Maria Bello

Grace Dover

Terrence Howard

Franklin Birch

Out of the Furnace

54%

52%

Out of the Furnace

Watchlist

Broken City

26%

40%

Broken City

Watchlist

Trance

69%

62%

Trance

Watchlist

Runner Runner

8%

33%

Runner Runner

Watchlist

The Counselor

34%

24%

The Counselor

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

Hugh Jackman’s 10 Best Movies

Jake Gyllenhaal’s 10 Best Movies

Naomi Judd’s Five Favorite Films

View more photos

Synopsis

Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) faces a parent's worst nightmare when his 6-year-old daughter, Anna, and her friend go missing. The only lead is an old motorhome that had been parked on their street. The head of the investigation, Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), arrests the driver (Paul Dano), but a lack of evidence forces Loki to release his only suspect. Dover, knowing that his daughter's life is at stake, decides that he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Producer: Broderick Johnson, Kira Davis, Andrew A. Kosove, Adam Kolbrenner
Screenwriter: Aaron Guzikowski
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Production Co: 8:38 Productions, Madhouse Entertainment
Rating: R (Language Throughout|Disturbing Violent Content|Torture)
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 20, 2013, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): May 10, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $61.0M
Runtime: 2h 33m
Sound Mix: Datasat, SDDS, Dolby Digital

Join The Newsletter

Join The Newsletter

Cookie Settings