Ben Affleck returns to a familiar kind of pressure in Animals, a political thriller in which his character’s family is suddenly pulled into a kidnapping crisis. The trailer introduces Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball, whose son is taken, forcing Mark and his wife Abigail to find ransom money while confronting truths they have hidden from each other. Affleck both directs the film and plays Mark.
Affleck is comfortable handling tense thrillers as an actor, a director, or both. His work in The Town, Argo, Gone Girl, and The Accountant has made his pressured characters a reliable draw for viewers. He has already starred in one gripping Netflix thriller this year, The Rip. The actor, who has won two Oscars, now returns as both director and star of another tense thriller, Animals.
The trailer turns a kidnapping into a test of marriage
The trailer opens with an unusually tense mood. “In a crisis, we discover who we are, and what's important to us,” says Mark Kimball, the Los Angeles mayoral candidate played by Affleck. The warning quickly becomes personal when Mark’s son is kidnapped, leaving the family facing an immediate crisis.
Mark and Abigail, played by Kerry Washington, must arrange the ransom payment while trying to protect their child. The money is only one part of the problem. As the crisis tightens, the couple is pushed toward long-buried secrets, and the choices they make could damage the foundation of their marriage and family.
Political stakes raise the cost of every secret
Because Mark is running for mayor, the kidnapping is not presented as a private emergency alone. His public role, his family, and the information they have kept hidden all become part of the same crisis. The trailer does not reveal what happens after the secrets emerge, but it makes clear that time is running out.
Gillian Anderson appears as Dayle, a shadowy fixer whose purpose remains uncertain. She tells Mark, “Your son's life is at stake, so whatever secrets you've kept from one another need to come out now.” Dayle’s involvement raises another question: whether she is there to help the family or has another purpose.
The project once had a different lead pair
Animals was initially envisioned with Matt Damon and Jennifer Garner in the leading roles. Plans changed when Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, a film with a similar theme, was released; the project was then shelved. The project has since moved forward with Affleck, who is directing it as well as playing Mark.
The story promises deception and painful choices
The plot centers on a Los Angeles couple whose husband is running for mayor, and their child’s abduction pulls them into a web of lies. To assemble the ransom payment, they must make difficult choices and expose secrets that could rip their lives apart. The cast also includes Steven Yeun, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Adriana Paz, and Ray Fisher.
Netflix release will answer the trailer’s questions
The trailer leaves viewers wondering whether Affleck and Washington can save their child, what the spouses have concealed from each other, and what Dayle really wants. Animals arrives on Netflix and in selected cinemas on October 9, bringing answers to those questions.
