ANIMALS Full Trailer Puts Ben Affleck in a Desperate Race to Save His Kidnapped Son
Netflix has dropped the full trailer for Animals, a tense new kidnapping thriller directed by and starring Ben Affleck, and this looks like the kind of pressure-cooker crime story that suits him incredibly well.
The film follows Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball, played by Affleck, whose carefully managed life begins to collapse after his son is kidnapped. Mark and his wife Abigail, played by Kerry Washington, are suddenly racing against the clock to come up with the ransom while trying to figure out who they can trust.
The story asks the question: What happens when money and political influence can’t save you? As the official tease puts it, "How far would you go to protect your family? Who can you trust?"
The situation becomes even more complicated because Mark has poured much of his money into his political campaign. Getting the ransom together means crossing lines, digging into parts of their lives they’d rather keep hidden, and potentially exposing secrets that could destroy everything they’ve built.
The film’s synopsis offers another ominous warning: "Power can't protect you." There’s also a very familiar foundation underneath Animals. While Netflix isn’t officially selling the movie as a remake, the premise clearly draws from Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1963 kidnapping thriller High and Low.
Affleck’s film appears to take that basic framework and reshape it around modern Los Angeles, politics, wealth, cultural divisions, relationships, and affairs. That gives Animals room to explore its own characters and conflicts rather than simply recreating Kurosawa’s film in a new city.
The cast also includes Gillian Anderson, Adriana Paz, Ray Fisher, Christopher Woodley, Matt Gerald, Jacob Estrada, Steven Yeun, and Luis Gerardo Méndez.
Affleck previously directed Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Argo, Live by Night, and Air, so he’s certainly comfortable working with crime stories built around characters making increasingly difficult choices.
The screenplay was written by Connor O. McIntyre, Billy Ray, and Affleck. Brad Weston, Collin Creighton, Affleck, Matt Damon, Dani Bernfeld, and Luciana Damon produced the film through Artists Equity, Makeready, and Fifth Season.
The trailer makes Animals look like a slick, intense little thriller about what people are willing to sacrifice when their family, reputation, career, and secrets are all put on the table at once. Throw Affleck into that kind of moral mess and give him a ticking clock, and I’m interested.
Animals will open in select U.S. theaters and begin streaming on Netflix on October 9th, 2026.