The Call

Jordan Turner (Halle Berry) is an LAPD 9-1-1 operator who receives a call from Leah Templeton (Evie Thompson), a teenage girl fearing for her life as a man breaks into her home. Jordan's clever instructions allow Leah to evade the intruder, but when the call disconnects, Jordan redials the number, causing the phone to ring, alerting the intruder. The mistake results in Leah's capture and murder. Jordan confides in her boyfriend, Officer Paul Phillips (Morris Chestnut), that the event has put her in a mental state where she can no longer field calls. Six months later, she is a trainer for 911 operators. At this time, the same killer kidnaps another teenager Casey Welson (Abigail Breslin) from a mall parking garage and drives away with her in the trunk of his car. Brooke (Jenna Lamia), a rookie operator, receives the call and clearly cannot handle it; Jordan sees this and takes over. Because Casey is using a disposable phone, they cannot get an exact GPS location on her. Jordan guides Casey into signalling nearby cars who call 911, allowing the police to narrow their search. The kidnapper ends up killing others who try to intervene, and switches cars with Alan Denado (Michael Imperioli), one of his victims, to elude the police. However, he inadvertently leaves fingerprints at the scene of the car switch, and the police are finally able to determine his identity as Michael Foster (Michael Eklund). Michael arrives at his destination and when he takes Casey out of the trunk finds her on the phone, mid-call, with 911. After Jordan tells Michael that they know his identity, he smashes the phone, but not before telling Jordan "It's already done." Jordan then realizes that Michael is the same person who murdered Leah Templeton. Meanwhile, Paul and other officers raid Michael's home looking for clues when Paul realizes that Casey looks very similar to Michael's deceased sister. A photograph shows their childhood home and Michael's wife says it has been long gone but a nearby secondary house still stands. The police raid the house but find no one. Jordan is anguished by a second failure to save a child from Michael and decides to drive out to the secondary home to look for clues herself. While there she recognizes sounds from a flagpole outside which she heard during the final moments of the 911 call. When she goes to investigate she finds a trap door amid the dirt and scrub where the primary house used to stand. After she accidentally drops here cellphone down the cellar, she climbs down in without calling the police. Combining clues from scenes in the movie as well as observations of Michael in the cellar, his back story is put together. Michael had a sister growing up that he adored to the point of having incestuous feelings towards her. In high school, she got leukemia, lost all of her hair, and died. Michael has a prop head that he keeps in the cellar and treats it like his sister. He has been killing young girls who have similar blond hair and scalping them. He takes the scalps of his victims and puts them on the mannequin head, but so far, none of the scalps have matched his sister's, so he keeps killing until he can find the "right" one. Now that Jordan has stumbled upon the cellar, she spies Casey strapped down on a table as Michael is about to scalp her. He shows some remorse toward her for his actions, but says he can't stop. Jordan attacks him from behind, freeing Casey. Casey and Jordan fight against Michael and manage to knock him out. While he is knocked out, they tie him up and chain him to a chair. When he comes to, he mocks them and tells them they can't leave him tied in the chair when the police come. Jordan reveals that she hadn't called the police. Instead, they tell Michael they are going to leave him to die using the cover story that Casey had escaped, Jordan found her in the woods, and Michael simply disappeared. Before they leave, he tells them that they can't just leave him, but as they walk out, Jordan says what he said to her both times when he grabbed the phone from the victim, "It's already done."