Genre: Crime/Thriller
Director: David Slade
Writer: Dwight Gallo
Cast: Daniel Craig, Kyle Chandler, Anya Taylor-Wood, Hayley Atwell, W. Earl Brown
Plot: Rain and fog from Lake Michigan envelop the hilly terrain throughout the forests of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. A hunter (Daniel Craig) hikes through with his crossbow and arrows. He sees a trophy ram and sneaks closer. The hunter pulls the trigger. The ram jerks at the impact of the arrow. The hunter finds the arrow and picks it up - it went straight through the ram. The fog becomes more dense as the hunter searches for the wounded ram. The hunter comes across a stream. In the middle of the stream, a young woman's body - naked, decomposing, an arrow sticking straight up out of its back - lays stuck in a couple inches of freezing water. The hunter merely steps around the body. He finally finds the ram, having finally died from its wounds between two boulders. The hunter transports the ram's body back to his base camp. He takes a picture of his trophy kill. He then takes out a large knife and begins skinning the ram and boning its meat.
In the city of Ypsilanti, Emmy (Anya Taylor-Joy) takes the stage at a dingy strip club, the Beaver Den. The hunter watches Emmy dance from a corner booth much like he watched the ram. At the end of her dance, Emmy gathers her undergarments and collects the money scattered over the stage. Emmy goes backstage and starts changing when the floor manager, Mel (W. Earl Brown), comes in and tells Emmy he has a private dance for her. She doesn't want to do it since her shift is over in 10 minutes. She begrudgingly heads to a private booth where she finds the hunter waiting for her. The hunter tries to make small talk as Emmy gives him a lap dance. He tells her that he's a professional photographer who takes pictures for many major magazines. The hunter tells Emmy that she has a very timeless look and he would love to photograph her sometime. She gets off his lap and tells him she's not going to sleep with him. Emmy then storms off. Emmy smokes a cigarette in the alley behind the club. The hunter come outside and apologizes to her. He offers her $300 if she'll perform oral sex on him. She agrees and they get into the cab of his pickup truck. She unzips his pants, but the hunter grabs her by the neck and chokes her until she is unconscious.
In Detroit, FBI Agent David Halsey (Kyle Chandler) is sitting at his desk in the Detroit Field Office when he hears a commotion coming from the lobby. He walks out there to see Allison Atwood (Hayley Atwell) yelling at the receptionist that she wants to see an agent immediately. Halsey asks Allison what's going on, and Allison tells him that her sister has gone missing. Halsey escorts Allison to an interview room and asks where she's from. She tells him she is from Ypsilanti. Halsey asks Allison to go ahead and tell him what has happened to her sister. Allison tells him that her sister Emmy has gone missing, but the local police aren't concerned because of Emmy's track record. Halsey asks what she means, and Allison talks about how Emmy has had various run-ins with the law for drugs and prostitution, mostly from when she was a teenager. Allison is convinced that Emmy must have been kidnapped. Halsey asks Allison why she is so convinced that Emmy was kidnapped. Allison tells Halsey that Emmy was about to start taking classes at Eastern Michigan University and was very excited about it. She worked very hard to get into the school and Allison really doesn't think that Emmy would throw away all of her hard work. Halsey tells her that officially it isn't necessarily within the purview of the FBI, but that he will take an unofficial look at the circumstances regarding her sister's disappearance. If he finds something out of the ordinary, he can probably get the local police to start a proper investigation. Allison thanks Halsey for his time and leaves the office.
Emmy wakes up to find herself naked and chained to a table in a cabin. The hunter asks her how she's enjoying his hunting cabin. She begs him to let her go, but he is more interested in showing off his various hunting trophies. He tells her the details of each and every trophy buck and ram adorning the walls of his cabin. He then pulls out a stack of Polaroid photographs. He tells her these are pictures of his best hunts. Each picture depicts a different young woman. There is a picture of ech one chained up just as Emmy is, and then another picture showing the woman dead, usually with an arrow sticking out of their lifeless bodies. Emmy is horrified by the pictures and looks away. The hunter then slaps her across the face and demands that she look at the pictures since they are important to him. Emmy asks the hunter if he's going to kill her. The hunter smiles at her and tells her that all depends.
Agent Halsey drives to the outskirts of Ypsilanti, an area dominated by various low-end industrial outfits, and parks in front of the Beaver Den. He flashes his credentials at the front door and asks to speak to the manager. The bouncer calls over Mel to speak to Agent Halsey. Mel angrily asks Halsey what he wants. Halsey shows Mel a picture of Emmy and asks if she dances at the club. Mel says she used to be she stopped showing up. Halsey asks why Mel wouldn't be concerned about one of his dancers missing work. Mel laughs and says Halsey's clearly never worked a club before. The girls come and go all the time. It is not uncommon at all for one of the dancers to skip town with some guy or just simply quit without notice. It all comes with the industry. Halsey asks to look at Mel's security tapes from Emmy's last shift, but Mel tells him that they don't store any footage older than 48 hours old. Frustrated, Halsey asks Mel if there was anyone suspicious at the club during Emmy's last shift. Mel tells him to look around at the clientele. It would be suspicious if the customers didn't look suspicious. Halsey hands Mel a business card and asks him to give him a call if he remembers anything out of the ordinary about the night of Emmy's disappearance.
The hunter tells Emmy that he's going to unchain her and let her free. She's confused, and the hunter goes on to tell her that he's also going to give her a head start before he starts to hunt her down. Otherwise it simply wouldn't be much of a challenge. He tells her that he's going to track her down and hunt her like any other game. The hunter undoes Emmy's chains and tells her that she has an hour before he comes after her. Emmy sprints out the cabin doors and into the chilly winter air.
Thinking about what Mel said about dancers disappearing all the time, Halsey sits in his office going through missing person reports for similarities. He finds that several young women have been reported missing who have worked at strip clubs in the seedier sections of Ypsilanti. He goes to the Ypsilanti Police Department and asks to look through their files regarding the missing women. They are hesitant to allow him access to their files, but Halsey is persistent and they finally relent to get him to leave them alone. They set him up in a conference room and bring him a box of files. Halsey scans all of the files for their similarities to Emmy's disappearance. He asks one of the officers about the similarities between the various cases, but they insist they chalked them up to mere coincidences.
Emmy is running though the woods, naked and frightened. She's out of breath and freezing. She hides in a hollowed out tree and tries to warm herself by rubbing her arms and legs. Her skin is starting to turn blue and she is shivering uncontrollably. The hunter steps out of his cabin, crossbow in hand. He begins howling like a wolf, announcing that he's coming after her. Emmy hears the faint howls off in the distance before she passes out from exhaustion.
Allison shows Agent Halsey around Emmy's apartment. It's small and cluttered. Halsey looks at a pile of recently purchased text books on a table. Allison asks Halsey what he has found so far. Not wanting to worry her, Halsey tells her that he hasn't turned up anything suspicious yet, but that he'll look a little more before telling her his thoughts. Allison thanks Halsey again for his time.
Emmy wakes up in the hollowed out tree. She pokes her head out to look for the hunter, but doesn't see him anywhere. She begins moving again, following the sun. As she moves through the dense Michigan wilderness it begins to snow. She tries to not make noise as she moves through the brush. With each careful step she looks all around her for signs of the hunter.
Halsey checks security footage from a gas station across the street from the Beaver Den. He finally finds footage from the night of Emmy's disappearance. As he watches, he writes down all of the license plate numbers of any lone male gas customer. He watches as the hunter appears on the tape putting gas in his pickup truck. Halsey is sure to add the license plate number to his list. Halsey searches each of the license plate numbers into the police database to see if any of the gas customers have a criminal record. When he searches the hunter he discovers that he was convicted of rape and assault 20 years prior. Halsey prints out the hunter's picture. Halsey heads to the Beaver Den and shows Mel a picture of the hunter and asks if he recognizes him. Mel says the man shows up here and there, but he's not exactly a regular. Halsey leaves a copy of the picture with Mel and asks him to give him a call if the man shows up again.
The hunter continues hiking through the woods with his crossbow as snow continues to fall upon the forests of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. He spots a buck off in the distance. The hunter is tempted to go after it, but he reminds himself that he is currently after different prey. He looks up to the sun and sees that it is over halfway across the sky. If he doesn't track the girl down before it gets dark, she may get away, or she may die from the elements. Neither of which are his preferred outcome.
Halsey stakes out the hunter's house. A pickup truck is parked out front, but there are no lights on and he hasn't spotted any movement inside. Halsey drinks a cup of coffee as he continues to watch the hunter's house from his car. It starts to get dark. Halsey takes a look at his watch and is about to start his car and call it a day when a light turns on inside the hunter's house. Halsey sneaks out of his car and peeks through a window. He sees the hunter sitting in front of his television with a beer. Halsey starts walking back towards his car when he notices some blood in the back of the hunter's pickup, peeking out from under a tarp. Halsey carefully pulls the tarp away, only to find the head of a ram. The hunter storms out his front door and demands to know what Halsey is doing on his property. Halsey is about to go for his gun, but the hunter is already aiming one at him. Halsey tells the hunter he is with the FBI and is looking into a missing persons report. The hunter smiles slyly at Halsey and tells him to come back with a warrant. Halsey asks the hunter if he can ask him some questions, but the hunter fires a warning shot into the air and tells Halsey to get off of his property. Halsey promptly gets back in his car and drives away.
The sun has almost completely left the sky. Emmy is exhausted and freezing. She stops at a stream for a drink of water. Emmy then continues moving, following the stream, when an arrow suddenly strikes her in the back. She falls down, face first into the stream. The hunter walks up to her body and takes a picture of it for his collection. The hunter then holsters his crossbow and begins hiking back to his hunting cabin, satisfied.
Halsey watches as FBI agents search through the hunter's house for evidence. The hunter is fuming. He is furious and agents are currently restraining him. Halsey looks through the living room and notices a picture hanging on the wall of the hunter smiling in front of a cabin. Halsey demands that the hunter tell him where the cabin is located. The hunter doesn't say anything. Halsey tells him that he will tear the house apart if he doesn't tell him where the cabin is. The hunter tells him to go ahead. Halsey calls the office and asks them to look into any real estate holdings in the hunter's name.
A helicopter lands in a clearing next to the hunter's cabin in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Halsey and some fellow agents break in the door to the cabin. They find various hunting paraphernalia and observe the insane numbers of hunting trophies. Just when they are about to give up, Halsey comes across a small lock box. He throws against the wall, breaking the lock. Dozens of Polaroid photographs scatter from the box. Halsey starts picking them up and sees that they are of dead women. He keeps flipping through them until he stops on one. It is a picture of Emmy chained to a table in the cabin. Halsey announces that they got the son of a bitch on this one.
Halsey visits Allison and tells her he has some bad news for her. Allison breaks down crying as Halsey tells her that Emmy was murdered. The hunter is escorted into a tiny prison cell. Halsey asks the hunter to help them find the bodies, that it would only help the outcome of his pending trial. The hunter sits down on the bed in the cell and smiles at Halsey. Halsey asks for an answer to his request. The hunter simply wishes him luck on his hunt before laying down and closing his eyes.
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