Ben Affleck Gets Pulled Into a Kidnapping Nightmare in First Teaser Trailer for Netflix’s ANIMALS
Netflix has dropped the first teaser trailer for Animals, a dark kidnapping thriller directed by and starring Ben Affleck, and this looks like the kind of pressure-cooker crime story that Affleck handles incredibly well.
The film marks Affleck’s latest directing effort following Air, and this time he’s stepping into a much darker world of political ambition, ransom money, buried secrets, and a family forced into an increasingly desperate situation.
“Power can't protect you.” That’s the hook driving the story, which centers on a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped. Affleck plays the politician at the center of the nightmare, with Kerry Washington starring as his wife.
After receiving an ominous phone call, the couple learns they only have a few hours to produce the ransom money needed to save their son. There’s one pretty serious problem: much of their fortune has already been poured into the mayoral campaign.
With time running out, they’re forced to find another way to get the cash, and that apparently means getting their hands dirty. In the process, parts of their carefully constructed lives threaten to come spilling out into public view.
The film poses two pretty nasty questions for its characters: "How far would you go to protect your family? And who can you trust?"
The story brings Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low to mind. In fact, the basic ingredients are so similar that it’s hard not to make the comparison. Kurosawa’s classic also revolves around a kidnapping and an enormous ransom demand that puts wealth, morality, and social standing under tremendous pressure.
Animals relocates that type of scenario to modern-day Los Angeles and throws electoral politics into the mix, giving Affleck plenty of room to explore the ugly choices people make when family, money, reputation, and power all collide.
The teaser certainly sells Animals as a tense and grim thriller, and the premise fits nicely alongside some of Affleck’s strongest work as a filmmaker.
Ben Affleck previously directed Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Argo, Live by Night, and Air. Crime, desperation, morally compromised characters, and people making terrible decisions under pressure are territory he knows how to navigate.
Affleck also has a strong cast to work with here. Along with Washington, the movie stars Gillian Anderson, Adriana Paz, Ray Fisher, Christopher Woodley, Matt Gerald, Jacob Estrada, Luis Gerardo Méndez, and Steven Yeun.
The screenplay was written by Connor O. McIntyre, Billy Ray, and Affleck. The film is produced by Brad Weston, Collin Creighton, Affleck, Matt Damon, Dani Bernfeld, and Luciana Damon, with Artists Equity, Makeready, and Fifth Season producing.
Netflix will release Animals in select U.S. theaters and begin streaming the film on October 9, 2026.