The Guilty is a 2021 thriller film directed and co-produced by Antoine Fuqua and written by Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective).
A remake of the 2018 Danish thriller of the same name, it stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Joe Baylor, a troubled police detective working at a emergency dispatch call center, thanks to an impending court case, who receives a call from a young woman claiming to have been abducted.
Shot in Los Angeles in November 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic, the film was given a limited theatrical release on September 24, 2021, followed by release on Netflix on October 1.
The Guilty (2021) examples of:
- Bittersweet Ending: Joe manages to help Emily and thanks to his heroic determination, baby Oliver is saved from death. However, shaken from his experience and having learned from his mistakes, he decides to plead guilty to killing a 19-year-old boy at his trial instead of lie to get off the hook, and is set to face the consequences as a result.
- Bottle Episode: The entire movie takes place at a 911 call center.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Joe is divorced from his wife and prone to squabbling with her over access to their daughter. He has also been relegated to a 911 call center over a recent incident and has a court hearing about it set for the next day, at which he and his partner plan to lie about what happened. We later find out that Joe killed a 19-year-old perp in a fit of anger while on duty.
- Desk Sweep of Rage: Joe eventually becomes so frustrated that he swipes some of the stationary off his desk in anger.
- The Determinator: Joe is obviously not keen on answering 911 calls while on suspension as a detective, even being a jerkass to a caller whom he thinks is trying to escape an aggressive prostitute. But when Emily calls and he figures out what's going on or thinks he does, Joe calls in favors from his old partner and watch officer to make sure Emily is found and saved, potentially ruining what little chances he has left of reinstating his detective status. Even after he discovers the truth about Emily, Joe doesn't quit trying to help her. In the end, he even goes so far as to admit his own guilt in an attempt to snap her out of her suicidal line of thought.
- Hidden Villain: An unusual version. It's revealed that Emily was actually the one who'd tried to kill her baby, but it was done in a psychotic episode, not out of malice. When she realizes what she's done, she becomes suicidal, and Joe still very much wants to help her. In a sense, the conflict that drives the plot has No Antagonist, being driven by mental illness, poor decision-making, and lack of communication.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Played straight almost to the point of parody. Oliver somehow survives Emily attempting to gut him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Joe is a bit of an asshole who is rather abrasive and quick to anger, but he's still a cop who believes in the law and is trying to do his best to help who he thinks is a kidnap victim. He's furious when he discovers the abductor has allegedly killed a child, and even after he learns that Emily was the culprit due to her being mentally ill, he still tries to help her and prevent her from potentially harming herself.
- Minimalist Cast: Only three actors actually appear onscreen. The audience only hears the other actors' voices over the telephone.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: The highway patrol Joe calls has shades of this. The woman sounds bored and disinterested with the situation, and at worst doesn't want to waste resources chasing a van with a vague description. Justified as there is a raging fire in the background and resources are spread thin as it is.
- Papa Wolf: Joe (who is a father himself) goes damn near berserk when he learns that an infant has been possibly murdered, so much that he calls the kidnapper on his phone and proceeds to get very angry with him.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Joe tells his former partner to go to Henry's place and kick the door down. The man refuses, as they don't have a warrant to do so, but the door is unlocked, so he does eventually go inside to look for clues.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Oliver survives, whereas in the original he dies.
