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1[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_call_2013.jpg]]
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3''The Call'' is a 2013 American thriller film from Creator/WWEStudios, directed by Brad Anderson and starring Creator/HalleBerry and Creator/AbigailBreslin.
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59-1-1 operator Jordan Turner (Berry) takes a call from Leah, a terrified teenage girl in a house with an intruder. Despite her best efforts to save her, the girl is kidnapped and later found dead, and Jordan is unable to continue in the job.
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7Six months later, Jordan is now an instructor to new recruits; when a neophyte operator receives a distress call from Casey (Breslin), another teenage girl who's been abducted while leaving a mall, Jordan replaces the flustered newbie. It soon becomes a race against the clock to track down and save Casey, especially when Jordan realizes that the abductor (Michael Eklund) is the same man who killed the first girl...
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9The biggest hit to date from WWE Studios. And although there ''is'' a wrestler in the cast (Wrestling/DavidOtunga), he plays a supporting role as the partner of Jordan's cop boyfriend (Creator/MorrisChestnut).
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11----
12!!This film provides examples of:
13* ApatheticCitizens: Averted. Everyone who notices something amiss tries to do something to save Casey, even though it gets one of them killed and another seriously injured for their trouble.
14%%* ArcWords: [[spoiler:"It's already done."]]
15%%* AxCrazy: [[BigBad Michael Foster]].
16* BadassBystander:
17** The soccer mom who, upon recognizing Casey waving out of the hole in the trunk, calls 911 and spends a while following and describing the car for them before losing them at a turn.
18** Juan the gas station attendant, who upon realizing that Michael is a kidnapper, briefly attempts to stop him while armed with just a box cutter.
19* BatmanGambit: In order to save Leah, Jordan orders her to drop her flip-flops down her room's window and hide under the bed, thus making it look like she escaped the house off the window and discarded them to run faster barefoot. It actually works and gets the killer to leave... until Jordan unfortunately calls Leah again, attracting him with the noise.
20* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. Casey winds up with a puffy cheek and the beginnings of a black eye, and [[spoiler: a long and bloody incision on her forehead after Michael tries to scalp her]].
21* BigDamnHeroes: Jordan [[spoiler:hitting Michael over the head before he could finish scalping Casey]].
22* [[BottleEpisode Bottle Movie]]: Aside from a 10-15 minute prologue, the majority of the movie takes place over one day (and six months after said prologue).
23* BrotherSisterIncest: Heavily implied. [[spoiler:Michael loved his sister ...a bit too much. If not a physical relationship, the feelings are definitely there.]]
24* CreepyCrossdresser:[[spoiler:The killer's modus operandi is to mutilate women and take their body parts to create wigs and dresses. While he doesn't have time to dress up in women's clothes in the film, he begins the torture by playing "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club, fronted by famous crossdresser Boy George.]]
25%%* DamselInDistress: Casey.
26* DamselOutOfDistress: [[spoiler:Toward the finale, Casey does a lot of the work rescuing herself, after her would-be rescuer Jordan needs to be rescued too.]]
27* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Michael will likely die the same way his cancer-stricken sister whom he obsessed over did, by rotting away in a stationary position, unable to do anything.]]
28* DistantPrologue: It takes place 6 months before the bulk of the movie.
29* DistressCall: The whole movie is based around Casey's 9-1-1 call.
30* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: [[spoiler:Michael's reaction to meeting Jordan face to face.]]
31* FakeoutEscape: Attempted by Leah thanks to Jordan's instructions--she hides under the bed in her room while leaving the French doors open, making her would-be attacker think that she's managed to flee. Unfortunately, when Jordan calls her back, he hears the phone and realizes she's still in the house.
32* FreezeFrameBonus: As Casey and Autumn walk through the mall, they pass a man who appears to be eyeing a window display. [[spoiler: The emphasis is on the word "appears", because on closer inspection, the viewer realizes that it's Michael.]]
33%%* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Casey.
34* HateSink: The movie goes to great lengths to prove what a psychotic, disgusting, and perverted animal Michael Foster is, making it very hard to sympathize with him after [[spoiler:Jordan and Casey leave him tied up in his basement with no means of escape or rescue.]]
35* HeroicBSOD: Jordan, after making an error that leads to Leah's abduction and murder. Afterwards, she limits herself to training new recruits rather than handling phone calls.
36* IronicEcho: 911 Operator Jordan (Halle Berry) is twice told by the BigBad "It's already done." when she begs him on the phone not to torture and kill the victim he just took the phone away from. At the end of the movie, Jordan and his latest kidnap victim Casey (Abigail Breslin) [[spoiler:duct tape him to a chair in his [[TortureCellar secret underground torture dungeon.]] When he begs them not to leave him there to die, Jordan says, "It's already done" just before she slams the door on him.]]
37%%* JumpScare
38* ManOnFire: A particularly disturbing example where [[spoiler: Michael soaks the gas station attendant who tries to rescue Casey in gasoline, before lighting him on fire and leaving him to burn.]]
39* MurdererPOV: Several shots of Casey as she roams through the mall.
40* PayEvilUntoEvil: [[spoiler:Casey and Jordan's decision to lock up Michael, chained up and incapacitated, in his own basement until his eventual death instead of letting the authorities take him alive can be seen as this.]]
41* PlotSensitiveItems: When [[spoiler: Jordan]] arrives at the place where [[spoiler: Casey]] is being held, her phone appears to have no service. However, when the former rescues the latter at that very spot, she attempts to call 9-1-1, as if she now has cellular service. Additionally, the former drops her phone into an underground murder lair. Cell phones don't work well underground.
42* PunkInTheTrunk: Casey spends the majority of the film locked up in Michael's car trunk.
43* PrecisionFStrike: '''[[spoiler: [[MotherFBomb MOTHERFUCKER]]!!!]]'''
44%%* SerialKiller: Michael.
45* ShoutOut: Casey's favorite movie is ''[[spoiler:Film/{{Bridesmaids}}]]''. Jordan says that she loves it and that she thinks she saw it about 100 times (although she might be just playing along in order to comfort her).
46* SlashersPreferBlondes: Michael targets Leah and Casey, who are both blondes. It's revealed that this has to do with his fixation [[spoiler:on his dead sister, who had blonde hair and lost it due to chemotherapy.]]
47* SoundtrackDissonance: "Puttin on the Ritz" playing on the car radio as Casey wakes up in the trunk. Plus, Michael bopping along to it like a normal guy rather than a psycho. Much of the nice songs playing on the car radio throughout the movie fall under this, in fact "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club is also featured while [[spoiler: Casey is getting prepped in Michael's lair where he scalps the victims]]. The upbeat harmonica in contrast with the fear in Casey's eyes as well as the setting is extremely jarring.
48* ThatOneCase: Technically, her failure to save Leah Templeton (the first girl) is this for Jordan, as it drove her to quit taking 9-1-1 calls [[spoiler: and ultimately leads her to track down Michael by herself in the final act]].
49* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: The driver Alan Denado (Michael Imperioli) who noticed the white paint leaking from Micheal's car. It's bad enough that he followed Michael to an area with no people around. He also pulled out his cell in clear view where Michael can see him. And if that wasn't bad enough, after getting knocked out and waking up in the trunk of the car, he screams like crazy which sealed his fate. Strike three.]]
50* TookALevelInBadass: [[spoiler: Jordan.]]
51** [[spoiler: Also Casey, who went from a girl teased by her friend for not using profanity, to a "fighter" who comes up with the idea to lock Michael in his underground lair forever.]]
52%%* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Jordan and Casey.
53%%* TomboyishName: Jordan.
54%%* TortureCellar
55* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer basically gave the entire plot of the movie: Jordan messes up and so a girl dies because of her actions, another girl is kidnapped, they figure out it's the same kidnapper, a dude gets set on fire trying to help the victim, and then Jordan gets involved besides running the phone.
56* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: It's mentioned that the attack on [[spoiler: the gas station attendant]] was classified as an assault, and not a homicide, when Jordan is being informed of it, although given his wounds, he may have died.
57* WouldHitAGirl: Michael beats Leah unconscious when kidnapping her and, after [[spoiler: setting the gas station attendant on fire]], punches Casey in the face to knock her out.

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