Ben Affleck Turns a Family Kidnapping Into a Political Pressure Cooker
Credit: Netflix
Power can’t protect you. And in Animals, apparently neither can a political campaign, a carefully constructed life, or having Ben Affleck on both sides of the camera.
Ben Affleck directs, co-writes and stars in the Netflix political crime thriller as Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose life detonates after his son is kidnapped. Kerry Washington plays his wife, Abigail, and the pair are forced into a desperate scramble to raise the ransom while getting pulled deeper into a web of deception.
The Campaign Is the Least of the Kimballs’ Problems
The setup is deliciously ugly: public power on one side, private panic on the other. Netflix says the kidnapping forces Mark and Abigail to make choices that could tear their world apart, turning the mayoral race into background noise while the family tries to survive the worst night of their lives.
Affleck co-wrote the screenplay with Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray. The cast also includes Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, Adriana Paz, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Ray Fisher, Matt Gerald, Mark Kassen and Christopher Woodley.
Credit: Netflix
Produced in partnership with Artists Equity, the film reunites Affleck with longtime collaborator Matt Damon on the producing side, alongside Dani Bernfeld, Brad Weston and Collin Creighton. Production took place in and around Los Angeles, which Netflix describes as an integral part of the film’s pressure-cooker world.
Animals hits select theaters and Netflix on October 9, 2026.
Watch the Official Teaser for Ben Affleck’s Animals
Netflix’s 1-minute, 4-second Animals teaser drops viewers into the Kimballs’ escalating family crisis ahead of the film’s October 9 release.
Source: Netflix Tudum.
