My Daughter’s Ransom (2019 Lifetime)
Cast: Scottie Thompson, Lucas Kerr, McKinley Blehm, Matthew Pohlkamp
Listen to the Lifetime Uncorked Podcast here!
Please buy me a coffee (or glass of 🍷 ) Support Lifetime Uncorked by leaving a $3 tip.
Synopsis (via Lifetime)
Rachel chaperones on her daughter Lindsey’s school field trip, struggling to keep up with the kids when she sees a man pulling Lindsey into a van. Frantic, she starts to dial police but gets an incoming call where a threatening voice orders Rachel to do exactly what he says or he’ll kill her daughter. Rachel is directed to a cardboard box where she finds electronic equipment and a beret. Now the kidnapper can hear everything she says, speak to her and track her movement. The twisted mind games begin as he takes his sick game to the next level.
Thoughts
We start off at a zoo, which is a nice change of pace! I love animals. Rachel is walking around with a clipboard, so we know she is in charge of this field trip. She tells her daughter that she is going to be a scientist, but the compliments are cut short when Rachel goes to help another kid of fell and scraped her knee… literally.
Lindsey goes missing, and Rachel runs around in slow motion intercut with animals. Rachel sees a man putting her daughter in the back of a van, and she chases after him calling him a “son of a bitch.”
Flash to 20 hours earlier. Rachel is getting seduced by her husband, Tony, in a towel while she is trying to get ready for a dinner party. She tells him that she needs to go toss the salad, and he tells her that he is going to toss HER salad. Lifetime! So naughty! The dinner guests arrive, including Gina (POC Friend), Frank (Business Partner), and Tony’s mother. They talk about trivial things while a man in a van is parked out front listening in. The house is bugged.
We cut back to the zoo before Lindsey gets kidnapped. A man wearing an earpiece pretends to be zoo staff and takes her to go see a special exhibit. On their way, Lindsey catches the man in a lie when he is spouting off animal facts. She tries to get away but is chloroformed.
Still, at the zoo, Rachel gets a call on her phone, and it is the man with his voice distorted. The tells her to do as he says or he will kill his daughter. The man has cameras set up and is tracking Rachel via GPS. She is under his control. He forces her to put in an earpiece and destroys her phone. With every command, he counts down, and if she doesn’t complete the task, he will kill her daughter. It really adds urgency to everything.
Rachel is given a car to drive, and the man watches where she is going via a camera he placed in a barret he gives her. Rachel heads to Eagle Rock, where her husband is. The man tells Rachel that she is going there to ask for a divorce. He admits that he has been listening to her for the last year, and it is what she really wants. He turns off the voice distortion, and it is CARTER?????? Carter is an ex of Rachel’s who was in prison and clearly deranged, but pretty hot.
After telling Tony that she wants a Divorce. Carter and Rachel argue. They met at rehab and started dating. Rachel witnessed Carter murder a man in cold blood. She turned him into the cops and testified against him in court. All why they are reminiscing, Lindsey is trying to break free from the ropes.
Next, Carter sends Rachel to a bar full of skeezy looking men in a “sexy” dress. He makes Rachel get up on the bar, dance sexy, and party with every guy in there. The skeezy men start throwing money at her and let the men touch her. Rachel has had enough and runs out of the bar. Carter almost smacks Lindsey in retaliation for her disobedience; Rachel convinces him to hurt her, not her daughter?
Rachel breaks into Gina and Frank’s house. Carter makes Rachel lay in Frank’s bed because he knows that she is in love with her friend’s husband. Gina catches her in her husband’s bed. Rachel tells her friend (via Carter) that she was waiting for Frank, and they are sleeping together for the last five years. She also tells Gina that she is getting a divorce. Gina is more outraged that her husband is having too much sex, not sex with other people. Gina calls Frank and confronts him on speakerphone. All this is for Carter amusement, it seems.
Lindsey and Carter talk. She tells him to leave her mom alone. Then Carter breaks it down for Lindsey, so she will understand what Rachel did to him. Lindsey says that she understands why he is going this to her mom, but you know, she still wants to be untied and keeps trying to cut through the ropes.
Rachel goes to the office and tells the assistant to transfer money into her personal account. It is hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the assistant is not about to help her. Rachel threatens to fire her, but the assistant refuses, so Rachel causes a scene. Carter is setting her up to appear like a woman who is going through a breakdown.
At the warehouse, Frank and Rachel talk, and she tells him that she loves him. They kiss, and as they are kissing, Tony catches them. Gina shows up, too, and everyone starts arguing. While they are arguing, Rachel starts spelling help in some sawdust on the floor. It gets brushed away when Frank and Tony start fighting after Rachel tells them she is pregnant with Frank’s baby.
Lindsey frees herself, and Carter chases after her. Since Lindsey is a little kid, he catches her and re-ties her up. Then, he makes Rachel head home to open the safe, which contains some dirty money. Rachel calls Tony for the combination and threatens to kill herself if he doesn’t give it to her. As Rachel is packing up the money, Tony’s mom catches her and tries to stop her. The mom starts having a heart attack, and Rachel doesn’t want to leave her, but Carter threatens to kill her daughter, so she leaves. Tony shows up as she is going and takes his mom (and the money.) to the hospital.
Rachel follows Tony and grabs the money while he is distracted. Tony chases after her through the subway and a park. He tackles her, but she grabs his phone and types a coded message. Tony gets the message and lets her go with the money.
Tony trails Rachel to the house where he is keeping Lindsey at knifepoint. Rachel ties herself up and gives Carter the money. Carter has his villain monologue where he is setting it up to look like Rachel and Lindsey ran off and left their family and friends. Carter records a video message where Rachel says goodbye to everyone in her life intercut with clips of them in the movie.
While distracted, Carter doesn’t realize that Tony has snuck into the house and is wielding a brick. While the boys punch each other, Lindsey unties her mom. Rachel grabs the knife and guts, Carter. He tries to make a run for it but collapses in the street. Rachel stands over him and watches him die. Then she hugs her husband and daughter.
Side Note
Alternative Title: Race for my Daughter
Minority Report: Rachel’s friends at the beginning of the movie.
Don’t forget to listen to the Lifetime Uncorked Podcast available on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Donate to keep the blog and podcast going 😊
Overall rating
🔪 (1 Knife)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required)
*Photo Credit: © 2019 Lifetime
