Ransom

Ransom is a 1996 Golden Globe nominated thriller film, starring Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, and Gary Sinise and directed by Ron Howard. The movie was nominated Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Mel Gibson, and was the 5th highest grossing movie of 1996 in the United States.

• Director:Ron Howard
• Release Date:8 November 1996
• Genre:Action | Crime | Thriller
• Tagline:Someone is going to pay.
• Runtime:121 min

Cast

• Mel Gibson : Tom Mullen
• Rene Russo : Kate Mullen
• Brawley Nolte : Sean Mullen
• Gary Sinise : Det. Jimmy Shaker
• Delroy Lindo : Agent Lonnie Hawkins

Tom Mullen (Mel Gibson) is the self-made, wealthy head of a large airline, Endeavor. In events that are not depicted in the film but that become important to the storyline, Mullen acts to head off a labor strike by bribing a union head named Jackie Brown (Dan Hedaya). After the FBI begins investigating, Mullen falsely blames Brown for having initiated the bribe. Tom’s lie lands Brown in prison but leads to Mullen and his airline being subject to FBI scrutiny for months. The movie begins as Mullen and his wife, Kate, host a party to celebrate the release of a new Endeavor Airlines commercial for television that features Tom prominently. Shortly thereafter, Mullen’s son, Sean, is kidnapped while the family attends an outdoor science fair in Central Park. The kidnappers initially contact Tom and Kate by e-mail, with a video attachment showing Sean chained to a bed and blindfolded. The ransom for Sean’s safe return, they are told, is $2 million. At first, the Mullens believe Jackie Brown is behind the kidnapping, but he angrily denies any knowledge when Tom visits him in prison.

A later scene (with a plot twist) reveals that the kidnappers’ leader is actually Detective James Shaker (Gary Sinise). Among the kidnappers are siblings Clark and Cubby Barnes (Liev Schreiber and Donnie Wahlberg), two small-time thugs; Maris Connor (Lili Taylor), who is actually the Mullens’ caterer and Shaker’s girlfriend; and alcoholic computer genius Miles Roberts (Evan Handler), who scrambles the phone lines to stop them from being traced and disguising Shaker’s voice through communicating with the Mullens. While the others are either indifferent or hostile to Sean, Cubby talks to Sean and promises him that he will be returned to his parents alive.

The Mullens contact the FBI, led by Lonnie Hawkins (Delroy Lindo). Soon enough, Shaker contacts Mullen and gives him a series of instructions to bring the money to a drop-off point, also promising to give him an address in return. However, at the drop-off, Cubby, who was chosen by Shaker to pick the money up, has no clue of any address, and in the ensuing fight, Cubby is shot and killed by the FBI. At this point, it becomes painfully obvious to Tom that Shaker has no intention of returning Sean even if he receives the money. The kidnappers take Sean to a secluded part of the woods to discuss what they are going to do. His hands are tied behind his back with rope; he is cleave gagged with a piece of white cloth that has duct tape placed over that; and is blindfolded with more strips of duct tape.Read more

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Ransom Trivia

• Production was delayed a few days when Mel Gibson needed an emergency appendectomy.
• Tom (Gibson) suggests “John Smith” as a good pseudonym; Gibson provided the voice for John Smith in Pocahontas (1995).
• In the science fair scene, when Rene Russo’s character asks which school is this, they reply P.S. 41. This is an actual school which provided some of the science fair props for the scene.
• Composer Howard Shore wrote and recorded a full score, which was rejected by director ‘Ron Howard’ and replaced with a new one by James Horner.
• The nosy reporter at the party was played by actual reporter A.J. Benza and the partner of Gary Sinise in the convenience store scene was played by screenwriter Richard Price.
• This film was based on an episode of “The United States Steel Hour” (1953) called “Fearful Decision” that first aired live on June 22, 1954. It was so well received it was restaged on May 10, 1955. A film was made from the drama called Ransom! (1956) that was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
• The story about the Eloi (above ground) en the Morlocks (under ground) that Sinise tells to Gibson by car phone is from H.G. Wells’s “The Time Machine”.
• Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jack Black both auditioned for the role of Cubby Barnes.
• Ron Howard’s first choice for the role of Jimmy Shaker was Alec Baldwin, who turned it down due to the sinister nature of the character as well as the film’s theme of endangering a child.

Ransom Mistakes

• In an early scene where Mel Gibson is talking to his son, a boom mike can be seen at the top of the screen. Boom mikes drop in several times throughout the film.
• Near the end of the movie, the woman kidnapper’s tattoo has apparently slipped down about four inches after she’s fallen down some steps, then it has sprung back where it was to start with.
• Toward the end of the movie when Gary Sinise goes into Mel Gibson’s house to collect the reward money and Gary pulls out his gun it is a Glock 9mm. Later when they are fighting and Mel Gibson throws Gary through the glass of the store window and his gun falls out of his hand, it is a Berretta not a Glock 9mm.
• In the scene where the first kidnapper gets shot in the rock quarry, his mouth is full of blood. Yet in the next shot his mouth is clean.
• When Mel Gibson is leaving NYC by car they come out of the Lincoln Tunnel onto route 4, that is impossible. The only way out of the Lincoln Tunnel is onto route 3. Then when they are driving through New Jersey on route 4, Mel Gibson says “There is the exit for 208.” While you can get to 208 from route 4, they were driving on route 4 east, heading back towards NYC, not route 4 west which is the way onto route 208 they showed in the movie.
• When Mel Gibson pulls up at the road crossing, there is a red car in front of him. But in the next shot when all the kids walk across the road, it is gone. Then in the next shot, it returns.
• Near the end of the film, Mel and Jimmy Shaker go to the bank to get the money. When we see them going into the bank there is a blue car parked in front of the bank and it is covered in dust and is dirty. When they exit the bank the car is all clean and shiny.
• When Mel Gibson and Gary Sinise are fighting at the end of the movie (after crashing through window), Gary is covered very heavily in blood. When he raises his hidden gun and then gets shot, his shirt is almost clean (the shot where you see the bullet hit the shirt).
• When the media truck follows Mel, he comes to a traffic light and stops. When he throws away the van’s keys, he speeds off from the intersection. Why are the cars at his left not driving? They look like they have parked there and with no drivers present in the car. Weird for a very busy road.

Ransom Quotes

• Maris Conner: And you’re fuckin’ drinkin’ again.
  Miles Roberts: Well, that’s okay, though, see, ’cause I haven’t been drinking with the kid.
• [on live TV]
  Tom Mullen: The whole world now knows… my son, Sean Mullen, was kidnapped, for ransom, three days ago. This is a recent photograph of him. Sean, if you’re watching, we love you. And this… well, this is what waits for the man that took him. This is your ransom. Two million dollars in unmarked bills, just like you wanted. But this is as close as you’ll ever get to it. You’ll never see one dollar of this money, because no ransom will ever be paid for my son. Not one dime, not one penny. Instead, I’m offering this money as a reward on your head. Dead or alive, it doesn’t matter. So congratulations, you’ve just become a two million dollar lottery ticket… except the odds are much, much better. Do you know anyone that wouldn’t turn you in for two million dollars? I don’t think you do. I doubt it. So wherever you go and whatever you do, this money will be tracking you down for all time. And to ensure that it does, to keep interest alive, I’m running a full-page ad in every major newspaper every Sunday… for as long as it takes. But… and this is your last chance… you return my son, alive, uninjured, I’ll withdraw the bounty. With any luck you can simply disappear. Understand… you will never see this money. Not one dollar. So you still have a chance to do the right thing. If you don’t, well, then, God be with you, because nobody else on this Earth will be.
• Tom Mullen: My son is dead, go to hell!
  Sean Mullen: Seems like someone’s always mad at you.
  Tom Mullen: The way that seems?
  Sean Mullen: [Sean nods his head] Mm-mmm.
  Tom Mullen: Ohoy, I guess that… you’re not mad at me are you?
  Sean Mullen: No.
  Tom Mullen: Well, I can, I can fix that.
  [Starts tickling Sean]
• [beating Kate]
  Detective Jimmy Shaker: [whispering] It’s very simple.
  [Kate moans from pain and through a choke-hold]
  Detective Jimmy Shaker: I’m growing very, very tired of this bullshit.
  Kate Mullen: Then could you…
  [cut off by the choke-hold]
  Detective Jimmy Shaker: It’s up to you. Get him to take back the reward and pay me my money… or you’re gonna find pieces of your little boy all over New York. I’m not gonna waste a bullet. I’m just gonna sharpen my knife.
• Tom Mullen: So how do I get my son back?
  Detective Jimmy Shaker: Are you going to pay me?
  Tom Mullen: Of course I am.
  Detective Jimmy Shaker: Then it shouldn’t be a problem