Every parent’s worst nightmare is to lose their child, and perhaps the worst way for that to happen is if the child is abducted. When two small girls are taken in broad daylight and the only suspect is released by the police, Keller (Jackman), the gruff God-fearing father of one of the missing children, takes the desperate step of committing an abduction of his own. Kidnapping simple-minded suspect Alex (Paul Dano) – the only obvious culprit – Keller resorts to torture in an attempt to make him confess.

Meanwhile Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) searches for the missing girls using more conventional police methods, but his suspicions soon begin to fall on Keller himself. As the days drag by, hopes of finding the girls alive slowly fade and Keller’s actions become more and more desperate and brutal. Sooner or later, someone will crack.

Prisoners could be accused of featuring one unlikely plot twist too many, but the tension throughout runs so high that most viewers won’t care, and the desperation of the families and the police is nearly palpable. Powerful and spine-tingling, Prisoners is easily the finest thriller of 2013.