The Captive

Synopsis: Teenager Cassandra is locked up against her will unable to contact her family to let them know she's still alive. Flashback to eight years ago when 9-year-old Cass was abducted from her father's truck and he goes straight to the authorities who immediately peg him as the prime suspect. Eight years later, her father, Matthew, is still being investigated by the police who are also trying to crack the bigger problem of crimes against children, Matthew's marriage has deteriorated and leads in the case are hard to come by. So much time but so little has changed and it's going to be up to Matthew and Cassandra herself to repair the estranged family.
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Director(s): Atom Egoyan
Production: A24 and DIRECTV
  1 win & 7 nominations.
 
IMDB:
5.9
Metacritic:
36
Rotten Tomatoes:
30%
R
Year:
2014
112 min
Website
690 Views


And all I have to do today

Is get past remembering...

Maybe.

Just this once.

Let me think about

it a little bit. Okay?

Hi, Tina.

Something happened?

No. I just didn't want

to come this year.

'Cause it's her thirteenth birthday.

I guess.

I understand.

I hate living in that house alone.

I miss Matthew.

I miss Cassandra.

I miss living.

Going into town?

Yeah.

All right.

- It's cold out there, huh?

- Sure is.

- I'm Matt.

- Page.

- What's your name?

- Page.

Page. Nice to meet you, Page.

- Thanks.

- Yeah.

Hi.

Hey. What's up?

Not much.

Planning on going?

Well, aren't you?

She said she wanted to

meet with both of us.

Well, it is... it's dumping up here.

How is it down there?

No, it's fine. It's clear.

There's no way that I'm

going to get down there.

It's okay. You always

have excuses, Matthew.

Yeah.

Do you remember that brush

that she used to love?

- The one that my mum gave her?

- Yeah.

Well, I just found one.

It... it's almost the same.

Where?

One of the rooms.

Someone must have left it.

That's weird.

Yeah, it's weird.

I should get back to work.

Okay. I love you.

Love you.

I really feel like...

I have been cracking the

whip here on them, okay.

But if there is any chance of

us finishing this on time, I...

You will. Which you will 'cause it's

your job to make sure we finish on time.

I mean,

how old were you when you first

started working for me as a welder,

how old were you?

- Fifteen.

- Fifteen.

And in all those years did I

ever treat you like a friend?

Never!

Now I might have treated you like a son,

but I never treated you like a friend.

That's the problem here, Mika.

You're treating all these guys

like they're your buddies

and they're not.

They're tradesmen.

They're working for you.

They're not your friend.

Hey there.

This is a... this is a

beautiful development.

We... we sold out the first

phase in a couple of days.

And you jump in now you can have

your place on the ninth hole.

Vince Grey.

Detective Cornwall. Hi. I'd like to...

I'd like to ask you some questions

about your charity ball.

Still no word?

Well, I... I gave a statement

to one of your colleagues and...

Listen, we can do this here or

we can go down to the station.

Wherever you want.

Hey, okay. Sure. Sit down.

The woman that offered Detective

Dunlop a ride, had you seen her before?

- No.

- You'd never seen her?

No.

I had not. How do you know that...

Detective Dunlop's disappearance

is connected to this woman?

Did... did I say it was?

Look, I've... I've already

made a statement.

- I've already talked to a detective.

- Right.

I mean, I... I really, I don't know

how I can help you more than that.

Your wife is on the board

of this charity, correct?

- Yeah.

- Well, I'd like to speak to her, if I can.

Well, be my guest.

Well, she won't return any of my

phone calls. I've tried many times.

- I'll make sure that she does.

- Good. Thank you.

One more thing.

A guest reported seeing the two

of you having a conversation.

- What was that about?

- I made a comment

to her about how different she looked...

that night from how she

appears in this picture.

Is that why you kept it?

You were seen having a

conversation in front of it.

Before she went missing.

Why don't you take it?

Take 'em both.

Is there any hope of the two

of you getting back together?

We talk. He calls, you know,

all the time.

It's like one big talk.

Talks me to sleep sometimes.

But he's scared to show his face.

Why?

'Cause he's guilty.

Because it's his fault.

This whole thing is his fault.

You know, I want him to feel guilty.

It makes sense.

Nothing else does.

That cowboy?

Yeah.

Come on in.

Thank you.

- Detective Jeffrey Cornwall.

- Hi.

Yeah, Jeff.

You have an impressive

clearance rate, Detective Cornwall.

Thank you.

Why would you walk away from a great

career in homicide to join my unit?

Well, I figure it's pretty

much the same skill set.

Except here I get to deal

with living victims,

- for a change.

- What is your history with children?

Well, I was one, once.

Have you ever felt attracted to them?

No.

Do you have a fantasy life?

What does your fantasy life involve?

Adult females.

Brown hair, blue eyes.

Single?

Yes.

Dating?

No, I haven't been in a

relationship in a while.

Why is that?

It's less complicated.

Take a seat.

So here's what we are dealing with.

Ready?

Yeah.

Jesus Christ!

We look at images and

videos like that every day.

Kids being abused...

and tortured online while others watch.

Our job is to not look away.

The people who do that to kids...

- Pedophiles.

- I want to stop them.

You want to shoot them?

Beat them up? Put them in the ground?

I want to stop 'em.

Internet technology keeps leaping ahead.

We're always playing catch-up.

Sometimes the only way

to find a needle in the haystack

is one straw at a time.

Sam, our computer geek.

Mike, from Drugs.

Everyone, this is Detective

Jeffrey Cornwall.

You've already met Frank.

He is old school.

- Young at heart.

- Yeah but, old everywhere else.

And that's Teddy.

He has a very particular skill:

visual pattern recognition.

Teddy has an eye for detail.

- Wanna show him, Teddy?

- No, I don't, Sam.

I wish you would stop

doing this every time

- someone new comes in the office.

- Come on.

Come on, come on, come on. Come on.

- All right.

- All right.

Okay, it's like an old stone building.

It's a church or a castle or something.

With a bridge going over a river.

There's a woman standing on

the bridge in a beige coat,

holding a red umbrella.

That's impressive.

Not really. Practice and guess work.

Could have been a red kite.

- So what's your deal, Jeff?

- Me?

I arrest people.

All right. Sounds good.

- Promise.

- I promise.

Pinkie promise.

Okay. Pinkie promise.

Cass, say bye to Albert, honey.

We gotta go.

- Bye.

- Bye, Albert!

- Bye!

- Bye, buddy.

What were you guys talking about?

I made him promise,

he'll never skate with anyone else.

- Nobody else, ever as long as he lives?

- Nobody else.

- Wow, that's a...

- That's a big promise.

- For your whole life?

- Yeah. We're a team.

- There's my girl. But we gotta go.

- Yeah. Bye.

Come here.

Okay, I'll see you at home. Love you!

Bye!

- Bye!

- Bye! I Bye!

But the fact that you

guys made that promise

to each other,

promise to always be a team,

it means you have to start thinking

about how you present yourselves, okay?

It's... it's... I'm just saying

that it's not necessary.

You guys are so good

it's actually distracting.

Albert thinks it makes us stand out.

I don't think so. I think what makes

you stand out is your talent.

Whether you got a white skate on one

foot and a black on the other it's...

What's the... what's the

word I'm thinking of?

- Irrelevant?

- Irrelevant. Right.

Irrelevant.

It's like a trick you don't need.

- A trick?

- Yeah, exactly.

- What's so funny?

- No, it's not a trick, it's a gimmick.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes

Atom Egoyan

Atom Egoyan, CC is a Canadian director, writer, producer and former actor. Egoyan made his career breakthrough with Exotica, a film set primarily in and around the fictional Exotica strip club. more…

All Atom Egoyan scripts | Atom Egoyan Scripts

0 fans

Submitted on August 05, 2018

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "The Captive" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_captive_19890>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Watch the movie trailer

    The Captive

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.


    Quiz

    Are you a screenwriting master?

    »
    What does "FADE OUT:" signify in a screenplay?
    A A transition between scenes
    B The beginning of the screenplay
    C The end of the screenplay
    D A camera movement