Seven million dollars changes hands in Animals, yet the person who ends up with it is easy to miss amid the film’s chaotic final act. After a kidnapping, a botched rescue and a carefully curated public narrative, the ransom has a quiet destination that says a lot about the movie’s politics.
The kidnappers demand $7 million for a boy they believe is Denny Kimball, the son of Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball (Ben Affleck). Mark and his wife Abigail (Kerry Washington) cannot raise that sum overnight, because he has already poured the family’s fortune into his campaign. Too scared to involve the police, he turns to an outside fixer.
Denny turns up safe, which exposes the kidnappers’ mistake. They took Hector, the son of Cecilia and Ramon, after matching Halloween costumes confused the boys. Ramon is undocumented, and Mark had refused to help him earlier because of how it would look to voters.
How Did Mark Come Up With the $7 Million?
Not from Mark’s accounts. His campaign has swallowed the family’s savings, and he takes out another large loan against his inheritance just to keep advertising to Latino voters. By the night of the kidnapping, he has debt and no cash.
The money arrives with Dayle Burton (Gillian Anderson), a fixer who works outside the law. She offers Mark two options. She can arrange the ransom for a $1.4 million fee, or she can kill the kidnappers and take the money back.
Mark picks the second plan. His campaign manager Sam (Steven Yeun) has warned him that abandoning Hector would wreck his campaign, and I read Mark’s hesitation as a calculation about votes. The $7 million is Dayle’s, and the plan is built so it returns to her.
Following the $7 Million Through the Flood Channel
The exchange takes place in a Los Angeles flood-control channel, with Mark carrying the bag. The masked kidnappers send Hector down the steep edge in a wagon, forcing Mark to run and catch him. Dayle’s sniper then kills two of them as they move toward the money.
A third gunman changes everything. He shoots the sniper, then Dayle, and turns on Mark and Hector next. Ramon ends the attack with a rifle shot from a long distance, using a gun that belonged to Mark’s grandfather.
Dayle is left gravely wounded, and Mark glances at her before walking away. The film strongly implies she dies, and Mark helps hide her body along with the others. Dayle appears to work alone, so nobody is left to ask where her money went.
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Who Really Won the $7 Million?
The ending points to Ramon, who takes the $7 million to Mexico and plans to start a ranch. The film presents the transfer as an informal arrangement rather than a documented transaction. Ramon is undocumented, so the money buys his family a fresh start somewhere safer than Los Angeles.
Mark takes the other prize. He says Hector was always the target, cuts the ransom to a fraction of the real amount ($100k), and claims he killed the kidnappers himself. Ramon backs the story in public, and Mark wins the mayoral race.
What’s striking is how little the money matters to Mark by the end. A man who once hesitated over seven million dollars to save a child walks away a hero, his entire image built on a foundation of lies. He starts his campaign promising to uplift immigrant communities, yet finishes it by driving an immigrant family out of the country just to keep his narrative clean.
What bothers me most is how gradual the slide is. Mark never decides to become a villain in one scene. He gets there through small calculations, a hesitation here and a convenient silence there, until leaving Dayle behind and burying bodies feels like problem solving.
Dayle’s view that people are merely animals who survive by stories serves as the film’s core thesis, and Mark ultimately proves to be her best student. He learns that a compelling narrative easily beats a clean conscience, and the voters happily reward him for it. I only wish more political thrillers had the nerve to end on a win this profoundly uncomfortable.
Despite its thematic ambition, the film hasn’t won over audiences or critics. This Netflix thriller opened with a dismal 42% score on Rotten Tomatoes, ranking as the second lowest of Affleck’s career as both a director and actor.
Animals is currently streaming on Netflix.
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