Prisoners is a American thriller film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Aaron Guzikowski. The film follows the abduction of two young girls in Pennsylvania and the subsequent search for the perpetrator by the police. After police arrest a young suspect and release him, the father of one of the daughters takes matters into his own hands. Prisoners premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 30, , and was released to theaters on September 20, It was chosen by the National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of , and at the 86th Academy Awards , Roger Deakins was nominated for Best Cinematography.
Detective Loki responds to a police call about an RV matching the description and arrests the man inside, Alex Jones. During interrogation, Loki realizes Alex's diminished IQ prevents him from planning a kidnapping and learns that his RV contains no forensic evidence of the missing girls. Loki runs down leads on local sex offenders and finds a corpse in the house of Priest Patrick Dunn.
Dunn admits to killing him after the man confessed to murdering sixteen children for his "war on God. The police release Alex to his aunt, Holly. Convinced of Alex's guilt, Keller Dover, the father of one of the missing girls, assaults him outside the police station, where Alex whispers to him, "They didn't cry 'til I left them.
At a vigil for the girls, Loki approaches a suspicious man who flees. Loki releases a sketch of him to the community. The suspect sneaks into the Birch and Dover houses. Grace, Keller's wife, hears him and calls Loki.
He tails Keller to the empty building, where Keller claims he goes to drink, but Loki doesn't find Alex. Loki tracks down and arrests the suspect, Bob Taylor, at his house. The walls are covered in maze drawings and Loki opens crates filled with snakes and bloody children's clothes. Loki shows Keller and the Birch parents photos of the bloody clothes, and they identify several as Joy's and Anna's. As Taylor draws detailed mazes, Loki assaults him, demanding the location of the girls.
