Verdict: A star-driven crime thriller with a killer premise it keeps fumbling. ★★★☆☆
Ben Affleck knows how to direct a crime movie. The Town and Gone Baby Gone are modern classics of the genre. So there was real reason to be excited about Animals, his Netflix thriller about an LA mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped — only for the ransom plot to twist into something far uglier. The premise is genuinely excellent. The execution is messier than it should be, but the film’s icy cynicism makes it a more interesting streaming watch than most Netflix originals manage to be.
The setup: the wrong kid
Mark, played by Affleck himself, is an LA mayoral candidate — an environmental lawyer with a famous father, a campaign on the ropes, and a carefully managed marriage to Abigail (Kerry Washington). When he receives a ransom demand for their son Denny, the couple’s world collapses. Then the first twist lands: their son walks through the front door, safe and unharmed. The kidnappers took the wrong child.
The real victim is Hector, the young son of Ramón (Steven Yeun), the undocumented boyfriend of the Kimballs’ nanny. The $7 million demand still stands — and now Mark faces the question at the heart of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 classic High and Low, which Animals openly echoes: he’d pay anything for his own son, but will he pay to save somebody else’s?
What works: the premise and the performers
The Kurosawa shadow is the film’s strongest card. The moral geometry of High and Low — wealth, obligation, and what a rich man owes the poor — maps disturbingly well onto modern LA, and the first hour crackles with genuine tension. Affleck’s direction is muscular and confident when the camera is on Mark’s panic; the fundraising calls, the campaign war room, the fixer arriving like a ghost — these sequences hum.
Gillian Anderson is the best thing in the film as Dayle Burton, a professional “fixer” the Kimballs hire to make the problem disappear. Anderson plays her with ice-water calm, and every scene she walks into sharpens. Steven Yeun, as Ramón, does more with silence than most actors manage with monologues — his presence quietly indicts everything Mark does.
There’s also a notable production backstory: Affleck originally intended only to direct, with Matt Damon set to star as Mark and Jennifer Garner as Abigail. Affleck stepping in front of the camera gives Mark an odd, self-lacerating quality — as if the director wanted to personally embody the compromise he was satirising.
What doesn’t: a shootout solves what the script wouldn’t
The film’s biggest problem is its third act. Where the setup promises a moral thriller about class, race, immigration, and political self-interest, the payoff is a convoluted shootout in a concrete drainage channel that resolves everything with gunfire rather than reckoning. The kidnappers themselves remain essentially anonymous — hired muscle with no real reckoning scene between hero and villain, the kind of face-to-face confrontation that made both High and Low and its modern echo, Highest 2 Lowest, land.
The romance at the film’s centre is also a problem. Affleck and Kerry Washington have the chemistry of two people reading different scripts, and the marriage subplot never quite convinces. A few too many threads wrap up too neatly for a film that wants to be about how nothing in this world resolves cleanly.
Reviews have been mixed, and that split feels honest. There’s a great film inside Animals trying to get out — one about how power converts trauma into campaign material. What reaches Netflix is a very watchable genre piece that keeps gesturing at that greater film without quite becoming it.
The ending: the most cynical Netflix finale of the year
Spoilers follow, so look away if you haven’t watched. In the finale, Mark hires Dayle’s associate to kill the kidnappers during the ransom drop — a phone call she records, sealing her own fate. Dayle is fatally shot in the ensuing chaos. But the real sting comes after: Ramón, not the expensive professionals, is the one who kills the final kidnapper and saves Hector.
And then Mark does the coldest thing in the film. He goes public, spins the kidnapping into a hero’s narrative, and rides the coverage to election victory. He and Ramón “exchange places” in the media story — the powerful candidate becomes the brave father, the family is quietly relocated with the ransom money Mark borrowed from the now-deceased Dayle, and Mark gets probation, community service, and a $10,000 fine. The truth is sacrificed entirely. Mark doesn’t just survive the crisis, he rewrites what it means to fit his ambitions. Everyone involved leaves with something they want — except the truth.
There’s no post-credits scene, and the kidnappers’ identities are never revealed. Affleck has described the film as being about whether people have a genuine moral compass or simply act in their own interests. The ending refuses Mark an uncomplicated redemption — and that refusal is the bravest thing about it.
Should you watch it?
If you’re looking for a taut, smart genre thriller for a weeknight, Animals delivers enough tension, twists, and star power to justify two hours. If you’re looking for the next Town, adjust expectations downward. The film’s cynicism is its real subject, and its ending — a politician literally profiting from a child’s kidnapping — will sit with you longer than the shootout that precedes it.
Animals (2026) — facts at a glance
| Director | Ben Affleck |
| Cast | Ben Affleck (Mark), Kerry Washington (Abigail), Gillian Anderson (Dayle Burton), Steven Yeun (Ramón) |
| Platform | Netflix |
| Release date | October 9, 2026 |
| Genre | Crime thriller |
| Premise | An LA mayoral candidate’s son is kidnapped — but the kidnappers took the wrong child, and the $7M ransom still stands |
| Inspired by | Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963) |
| Post-credits scene | No |
| AwareEarth verdict | ★★★☆☆ — a star-driven thriller with a better premise than payoff |
Frequently asked questions
Is Animals based on a true story?
No. It’s an original screenplay, though its kidnapping premise openly echoes Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 classic High and Low, and loosely its 2025 Spike Lee remake, Highest 2 Lowest.
Who was actually kidnapped in Animals?
The kidnappers grabbed the wrong child. Mark and Abigail’s son Denny returns home safe; the real victim is Hector, the son of the Kimballs’ nanny’s boyfriend Ramón. The $7 million ransom demand remains in play.
Does Animals have a post-credits scene?
No. The film ends without a stinger, and the identities of the kidnappers are never revealed.
What happens at the end of Animals?
Mark pays the ransom and Ramón saves Hector, but Dayle Burton is killed. Mark then spins the kidnapping into a heroic media narrative, wins the election, and avoids serious legal consequences — while Ramón’s family quietly leaves with the money.
Who was originally cast in Animals?
Ben Affleck initially planned only to direct, with Matt Damon set to play Mark and Jennifer Garner as Abigail. Affleck eventually took the lead role himself.