You’ve heard of Stockholm Syndrome – the psychological phenomenon where hostages form a bond with their captor despite the whole, y’know, hostage-captor thing. It all stems from a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden in 1973, when a stick-up-turned-standoff saw captured employees defend the gun-wielding criminal – and now that story forms the basis of The Captor, a comedically-tinged crime caper that delves into the whole absurd story, with Ethan Hawke leading the cast.
He’s Lars Nystrom, the pill-popping, cowboy hat-wearing gunman who storms into a bank and makes his demands, with Noomi Rapace as Bianca, the married-with-kids bank teller who eventually finds herself curiously attracted to him. Hey, he does look like Ethan Hawke, even if he’s wearing a mad wig and has a big ol’ handlebar moustache. Empire has an exclusive look at the opening four minutes of the film – watch the beginning of Lars’ siege here:
The Captor, titled Stockholm in some territories, comes from Canadian director Robert Budreau, and is a Blumhouse pic – continuing the production company’s foray into crime movies after the success of Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. Hawke is a total Blumhouse veteran at this point, having starred in Sinister, The Purge, Ti West’s In A Valley Of Violence, and now this. Here's the film's poster.
You can catch The Captor – and maybe even find yourself falling for it – in UK cinemas on 21 June, when it will also receive a Digital HD release.
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