Animals: Who Are The Kidnappers In Ben Affleck's Netflix Movie?
by Joe Roberts · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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This post contains spoilers for "Animals"
In 2010, Ben Affleck gave audiences one of the best crime thrillers ever made in "The Town." Now, he's back with a new Netflix thriller, "Animals." The film sees Affleck, who also directs, star as Mark Kimball, a lawyer and Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is taken captive. At least, that's how things start. Midway through the film, we discover the bumbling kidnappers in question have managed to kidnap the wrong boy, instead taking Hector (Jacob Estrada), the son of Kimball's handyman. In the end, Hector makes it back to his parents. But unless you paid close attention, you might still be in the dark as to who actually executed this shambles of a kidnapping.
Affleck has spoken about how his movie is more about performative identities than anything else. As he told Entertainment Weekly, "We live in a world that increasingly asks us to live a presented life," and "Animals" explores "what happens when the mask comes off, when we can no longer afford to perform our identities." As such, the identity of the kidnappers is treated as less important than how Kimball and his wife, Abigail Kimball (Kerry Washington), react when they're forced to confront hidden truths about who they really are.
But ultimately, this is a thriller about a kidnapping, and viewers will surely be left wondering why we didn't get more details about those responsible for the central event around which the whole movie revolves. Turns out a group of aggrieved small business owners with a score to settle are behind it all, but you have to watch closely to get any sort of insight into their motivations.
The kidnappers in Animals are a group of small business owners with a vendetta
"Animals" probably isn't going to be remembered as one of Ben Affleck's best movies, in part because it doesn't actually seem too interested in explaining the kidnapping at the heart of the story. We can, however, piece things together from a few brief scenes.
The movie opens with a campaign video for Affleck's Mark Kimball, and reveals that prior to running for mayor, he ran his own law firm. At one point, Kimball Law filed the Environmental Action Act as part of a fight for clean drinking water in Los Angeles. We soon learn, however, that this act had devastating consequences for small businesses in the area of the San Fernando Valley that Kimball and his firm targeted.
Following the campaign video, we're shown ominous shots of a shuttered business, where a mysterious figure is surrounded by overdue bills, eviction notices, and a petition for a dissolution of marriage. The recipient of this notice, James Bureaux, is seemingly the same man whose business had been closed down as a result of the Environmental Action Act, resulting in his life falling apart and his wife filing for divorce.
A scene shortly after shows us news articles quoting similarly affected small business owners who were forced to close up shop due to the act. It seems, then, that James Bureaux is the ringleader of a crew of kidnappers made up of fellow proprietors who lost everything thanks to Kimball's Environmental Action Act. The whole kidnapping plot, then, is the result of a vendetta against Kimball for shutting down multiple small businesses and claiming victory for the people of Los Angeles.
Who plays the lead kidnapper in Animals?
"Animals" ends with Mark Kimball taking a bag of cash to the Los Angeles River drainage system, where two kidnappers emerge and are promptly shot down by Chris Gann's Rand. But Rand himself is then taken out by the lead kidnapper, James Bureaux, who then attempts to kill Kimball and Hector before being shot by Hector's father, Ramon (Luis Gerardo Méndez).
It's only during this final scene that we get a somewhat decent look at Bureaux, who's played by Mark Gerald. Taylor Sheridan fans will recognize Gerald from "Yellowstone," on which he played Grant Horton, one of the people responsible for helping orchestrate John Dutton's controversial death. He also plays Cody J, aka Goose, on Sheridan's action thriller series "Lioness" and has appeared in multiple high-profile film and TV projects, including Netflix's "Daredevil," where he played Melvin Potter, and "The Shield," where he played Tommy Hisk. Gerald also played Corporal Lyle Wainfleet in "Avatar: The Way of Water" and "Avatar: Fire and Ash," and has even cropped up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as White Power Dave.
In "Animals," Bureaux's co-conspirators are never named, and the credits list each of them only as "kidnappers." They're played by Craig Bexley Jr., Zack Duhame, and Brett Sheerin. Presumably their characters had lost their businesses like Bureaux, but the film never clarifies that aspect. We also don't learn much more about Bureaux, who, having lost everything, including his wife, provides a bleak glimpse into Kimball's potential future had he lost the mayoral election.