Stars: Sean Connery, Ian McShane, Isabel Dean, John Quentin, James Maxwell, William Fox

Director: Casper Wrede

Summary: A passenger plane is hijacked in Scandinavia at the same time that the British Ambassador is taken hostage. Police Chief Nils Tahlvik is assigned the task of resolving the situation - but all is not as it seems.

An adventure thriller filmed in Norway with good photography by Sven Nykvist. When international terrorists seize a passenger plane in Oslo, diplomacy is held hostage. Their demands: the release of jailed cohorts in England. Their bait: the British ambassador held captive in the jet. Only one man stands in the hijackers' way--Scandinavian security expert Nils Tahlvik. He's determined to stop the British government from granting the terrorists' wishes. Tahlvik and his adversaries face off in a cat-and-mouse game amid such breathtaking sights as the Norwegian mountains and the wild blue yonder. Things turn personal as Tahlvik matches wits with Petrie, the leader of the desperadoes. Concerned for her husband's well-being, the ambassador's wife pleads with Tahlvik to hand over the ransom. But Tahlvik is too busy trying to stay one step ahead of the terrorists--one of whom might be a British spy--to play into the hijackers' hands.

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When it comes to ramping up to vein-bursting levels of tormented anxiety , Mel Gibson has a kind of mainstream intensity that makes him perfect for his heroic-father role in director Ron Howard's child-kidnapping thriller. When you think of Ransom, you automatically think of the scene in which Mel reaches his boiling point and yells, "Give me back my son!" to the kidnapper on the other end of a phone. Trapped in the middle of any parent's nightmare, Mel plays a self-made airline mogul whose son (played by Brawley Nolte, son of actor Nick Nolte) is abducted by a close-knit group of uptight kidnappers. But when a king's ransom is demanded for the child's safe return, Mel turns the tables and offers the ransom as reward money for anyone who provides information leading to the kidnappers' arrest.

Thus begins a nerve-racking battle of wills and a test of the father's conviction to carry out a plan that could cost his son's life. The boy's mother (played by Rene Russo, reunited with Gibson after Lethal Weapon 3) disapproves of her husband's life-threatening gamble, and a seasoned FBI negotiator (Delroy Lindo) is equally fearful of disaster as the search for the kidnappers intensifies. Through it all, Howard maintains a level of nail-biting tension to match Gibson's desperate ploy, and the plot twists are just clever enough to cancel out the overwrought performances and manipulative screenplay. Ransommay not be as sophisticated as its glossy production design would suggest, but it's a thriller with above-average intelligence and an emotion-driven plot that couldn't be more urgent. Adding to the intensity is a superior supporting cast including Gary Sinise, Lili Taylor and Liev Schreiber as the kidnappers, who demonstrate that even the tightest scheme can unravel under unexpected stress. Remade from a 1956 film starring Glenn Ford, Ransomis diluted by a few too many subplots, but as a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, it's a slick and satisfying example of Hollywood entertainment. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Trailer
Year:	1974
Release Date:	August 9, 2004
Runtime:	90 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C C D 30054
Keywords:	Action, General, Ransom, Adventure, Terrorists
Genre:	Action/Adventure