# There was a movie with this plot, right? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 7, 2016, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710 "2016-06-07T02:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/1 "2016-06-07T02:58:39Z")
A politician’s daughter hires people to kidnap her in a bid for attention but her dad was all like, “Yay! She was nothing but trouble anyway and I’ll win the next election with the sympathy vote.” Anyone know/remember? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/2 "2016-06-07T03:37:01Z")
That was part of _Escape From L.A._, sort of. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/3 "2016-06-07T18:25:27Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > A politician’s daughter hires people to kidnap her in a bid for attention but her dad was all like, “Yay! She was nothing but trouble anyway and I’ll win the next election with the sympathy vote.” > > Anyone know/remember? Excess Baggage starring ASLicia Silverstone, Harry Connick Jr, Benicio Del Toro and Christopher Walken? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/4 "2016-06-07T19:02:30Z")
That’s it BurnMeUp. Thank you! Now I can tell my son his idea for an original script isn’t so original. I knew I saw something like it ages ago. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/5 "2016-06-07T19:08:30Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > That’s it BurnMeUp. Thank you! Now I can tell my son his idea for an original script isn’t so original. I knew I saw something like it ages ago. Its a variation on _The Ransom of Red Chief_. There are multiple movies that play around with the theme. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/6 "2016-06-07T19:16:59Z")
There’s a twist on a similar plot in “Spartan”: the daughter of the president is kidnapped for white slavery, and the kidnappers aren’t aware of who she is. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/7 "2016-06-07T19:21:31Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Its a variation on _The Ransom of Red Chief_. There are multiple movies that play around with the theme. RUTHLESS PEOPLE takes the cake, where the whole gag was that the rich businessman had planned to _murder_ his just-got-kidnapped wife, and in best Danny DeVito fashion pops open the champagne and cheerfully keeps failing to meet their demands. “I’m being marked DOWN? I’ve been kidnapped by K-Mart!” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/8 "2016-06-07T19:31:29Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > RUTHLESS PEOPLE takes the cake, where the whole gag was that the rich businessman had planned to _murder_ his just-got-kidnapped wife, and in best Danny DeVito fashion pops open the champagne and cheerfully keeps failing to meet their demands. > > “I’m being marked DOWN? I’ve been kidnapped by K-Mart!” The fourth and fifth seasons of _Weeds_ touched on this, when a Mexican drug cartel kidnaps Celia Hodes (Elizabeth Perkins) and rapidly discovers that nobody is willing to pay anything for her return. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/9 "2016-06-07T19:35:03Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > That’s it BurnMeUp. Thank you! Now I can tell my son his idea for an original script isn’t so original. I knew I saw something like it ages ago. Go easy on the kid. Everything is derivative! ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/10 "2016-06-07T19:52:21Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > There’s a twist on a similar plot in “Spartan”: the daughter of the president is kidnapped for white slavery, and the kidnappers aren’t aware of who she is. And the twist is that a story comes out that the president’s daughter and her college professor were found drowned. I.e. - the prez was writing his daughter off as gone and taking advantage of the political sympathy. But she turned out to be not quite so dead (not to spoil the movie). Good flick, though. Mamet. I think there are only about 20 lines in the whole movie, but the characters repeat themselves and each other so often the rest of the film is filled out with dialogue. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/11 "2016-06-07T22:07:57Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Go easy on the kid. Everything is derivative! I agree, there haven’t been any truly original story ideas since the Theatre of Dionysus. And even those were probably copied from an earlier, lost source. What _can be_ original is how the story idea is presented. I’d encourage him to keep writing, see what he comes up with. ---
**Author:** ![psiekier](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psiekier/32/116_2.png) [@psiekier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psiekier)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/12 "2016-06-08T15:14:49Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > That was part of _Escape From L.A._, sort of. If you’re looking for a movie featuring both Kurt Russell and Bruce Campbell (and, as a bonus, Mary Elizabeth Winstead!), _Sky High_ is so much better than _Escape_. I had no choice, though. _Escape_ was the in-flight movie on a trans-Pacific flight and I could just walk off the plane. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/13 "2016-06-08T15:52:03Z")
I feel compelled to mention that The Boy is a 29 year old man. He became The Boy to differentiate him from his twin sister. It’s funny because we no longer call her The Girl, but The Boy stuck. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/there-was-a-movie-with-this-plot-right/756710/14 "2016-06-11T18:14:25Z")
> [@psiekier](#): > > …_Escape_ was the in-flight movie on a trans-Pacific flight and I could just walk off the plane. Wow. I’ve never met a superhero before!