7 Most tactical kidnappers we see in thriller movies

Thriller movies offer us such smart and tactical kidnappers that they leave the audience flabbergasted. Their mastermind tendencies, often tapping into great depths of psychological, moral, and sociopolitical territory, show just how lethal humanity can be. They are intelligent in an evil way and can come up with highly strategic plans just to achieve their goals. There is an air of ambiguity surrounding them, but it is all part of the mind games they play to trick the hostage and, more often than not, the audience. If you enjoy watching such plots, here is a list of the 7 most tactical kidnappers we see in thriller movies.

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7 Most tactical kidnappers we see in thriller movies

1) John ‘Jigsaw’ Kramer – Saw Series (2004–2017)

Starting off the list with none other than John Kramer, whom we first meet in the thriller hit Saw series. He is a meticulous planner who traps his victims based on their personal flaws, adding a layer of psychological and philosophical depth to their kidnapping and death. He believes himself to be some sort of redeemer, testing the morals of people in tactically designed killing games. He forces his hostages into situations that demand primal and raw survival instincts. For him, people are not humans, rather subjects meant to test his philosophical experiments. His tactical expertise can be seen in a scene in the movie where he is present in the same room as his hostages, disguised as a corpse.

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2) Dom Cobb – Inception (2010)

Dom Cobb from the movie Inception is an extraction specialist whose main task is to steal people's secrets from their subconscious while they are dreaming. To achieve this task, he has to kidnap his hostages without them getting the slightest whiff of his intentions. For this, he employs some mind-blowing strategies like using the layered system, where he operates across multiple dream levels, confusing his victims. He plays with the thin boundary between reality and illusion, which can be so deep that sometimes he himself loses his grip on reality. He is a master of temporal manipulation and creates a philosophical architecture surrounding his hostages, rooted in their emotional triggers.

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3) Amy Dunne – Gone Girl (2014)

Amy Dunne from the thriller movie - Gone Girl, breaks all notions of a tactical kidnapper by kidnapping none other than herself. She takes tactical brilliance to another level by portraying herself as the victim of a kidnapping and framing her husband for it. She knows how important narrative control is in any crime and makes full use of it. The psychological warfare she portrayed in the film showcases the power of female rage and how it annihilates everything in its way. Her moves are always meticulously calculated and precise, binding perception, legality, and revenge.

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4) Buffalo Bill – The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Another tactical kidnapper we see in movies is Buffalo Bill from the all-time classic thriller hit, The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Buffalo Bill is a very lethal criminal who kidnaps women and then skins them to make women's suits. He is very precise in his pursuit of victim selection, right from staged encounters to the confinement facilities, he has everything planned. For him, his victims are not humans, but objects he can use. He loves total control and is almost ritualistic about it. After he kills his victims, he makes sure to insert a dead moth into their throats to symbolise their rebirth.

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5) Mother Gothel – Tangled (2010)

The much-loved movie, Tangled, gives us another iconic kidnapper - Mother Gothel. She kidnaps the young princess Rapunzel and raises her in a secluded tower to use her magical hair to revive her youth and remain young and beautiful forever. She has mastered the art of kidnapping by gaslighting Rapunzel for a very long time into believing that she is her confidant and is keeping her safe. Her choice of a toxic weapon is control, disguised as care, making the victim believe she needs to be grateful to her instead of running away. She creates a psychologically thrilling environment of control to leave Rapunzel in self-doubt and thus suppress her identity and keep her entrapped in her secret tower.

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6) Old Nick – Room (2015)

Unlike the other tactical kidnappers we see on the list, Old Nick from the 2015 thriller movie, Room, is a much more normal representation of how real-life kidnappers are. He kidnaps a young teenage girl and keeps her in captivity for seven years, where she gives birth to her son. He constructs a soundproof prison for her where she is left in isolation, and every single thing is controlled, right from the basic necessities like light, food, water, and heat. With time, he diminishes the autonomy of his victim and makes the prison feel like a routine that she must adhere to very strictly.

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7) Howard Payne – Speed (1994)

Howard Payne from the thriller movie Speed is not only a kidnapper but also a terrorist. He is a retired bomb squad officer who is in a lot of pain because of his forced retirement and poor pension, and turns his resentment into terrorism. He kidnaps people in elevators and buses and designs a death trap for them. He believes killing them would be an act of revenge against the government. His tactical brilliance can be seen in his way of manipulating time and pressure by creating an environment of urgency, and he does so by setting absurd rules, like — if the speed of the bus drops to 50 mph, it will explode. His calculated cruelty, use of surveillance, and psychological manipulation make him a uniquely terrifying villain driven by bitterness, control, and perceived injustice.