Ben Affleck is stepping back into the director’s chair with a tense new thriller that asks a frightening question: what happens when a carefully protected family image begins to collapse?

The official trailer for Animals has arrived, giving audiences a closer look at the Netflix film starring Affleck alongside Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, Adriana Paz and Luis Gerardo Méndez. Affleck directs and stars as Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose polished political life is shattered when his young son is kidnapped.

Before the crisis, Mark appears to have everything under control. He is building a political career, presenting himself as a devoted husband and father while campaigning for Los Angeles mayor. His wife Abigail, played by Washington, is part of the picture-perfect family that helps support his public image.

Then their son Denny disappears.

Suddenly, the couple are forced into a desperate race to raise the ransom while trying to understand who is behind the kidnapping. But the trailer suggests that finding the money may be only the beginning of their problems.

The deeper Mark and Abigail get into the crisis, the more secrets begin to surface.

That is where Animals appears to move beyond a conventional kidnapping thriller. The film places the couple’s marriage under extraordinary pressure, forcing them to confront information they may have deliberately kept from each other.

Netflix describes the story as a test of what people are willing to sacrifice when everything they have built is threatened. Affleck has also described the film as being deeply connected to marriage, trust and the compromises people make when their personal interests collide with their responsibilities.

Gillian Anderson plays Dayle, a mysterious fixer who becomes involved as the situation spirals. Her character delivers one of the trailer’s most unsettling warnings: with their son’s life at stake, the secrets Mark and Abigail have kept from each other can no longer remain hidden.

Steven Yeun, meanwhile, joins the ensemble alongside Adriana Paz and Luis Gerardo Méndez, adding further layers to a story that appears to blur the line between political ambition and personal desperation.

Behind the camera, Animals reunites Affleck with the kind of grounded crime storytelling that has become a major part of his directing career. He co-wrote the screenplay with Connor McIntyre and Billy Ray, while the movie was produced in partnership with Artists Equity, the studio founded by Affleck, Matt Damon and Gerry Cardinale.

The Los Angeles setting also plays an important role. Production took place in and around the city, allowing the political thriller to build its story around the world Mark is desperately trying to protect.

At its center, Animals is about a family pushed beyond its limits.

Mark and Abigail may have spent years building a life that looks perfect from the outside. But once their son is taken, every hidden compromise becomes a potential threat.

Animals arrives in select theaters and on Netflix on October 9, 2026.

Source: Various sources.