On January 13, 1996 a young girl named Amber Rene Hagerman was abducted while riding her bike in Arlington, Texas. Four days later her body was found on the side of the road, brutally murdered. Now, this wasn’t the first time a child went missing or was murdered - and it sadly hasn’t been the last either - but it was the incident that opened the country’s eyes to the importance of protecting its youth. By the end of that same year, the President of the United States signed the Amber Hagerman Child Protection Act into law. It created both the national sex offender registry and a program that would create an emergency alert system in case any child ever went missing again. Also adopting Hagerman’s name, the system became known as the AMBER Alert.

 

Since its inception, the AMBER Alert has contributed to the recovery of 1,200 children and the rescue of at least 180. Despite its impact on the country, it’s surprisingly only been used as a plot point for a movie twice. If you think that’s interesting, it’s probably not as interesting as the fact that both films, (fittingly titled Amber Alert) were written and directed by the same person, a man named Kerry Bellessa.

 

The first, released over a decade ago, was a found footage film that followed a group of friends who get an AMBER Alert, then see the car that matches the license plate on the road and follow it to see if the driver really has abducted a child. The second, which is just about to be released, ditches the found footage gimmick in favor of an objective narrative. It follows a woman (Hayden Panettiere) and her ride-share driver (Tyler James Williams) as they spot a car that matches an AMBER Alert, and end up in a game of cat and mouse with the driver after they begin following it.

 

While similar, the latter is far superior for its additional dimension of storytelling. At the start of the film, the audience sees just how quickly a child can be taken, as well as how most predators stake out their prey before taking action. Although Panettiere and Williams are the main characters here, Bellessa does his due diligence by taking a step back from them - and their frontline action - to show us how stressful dealing with an AMBER Alert can be in real time. From the moment the child goes missing in this film, we see the mother break down. We follow her as she goes to the police, asks them for help, and as she even gets denied because she doesn’t have enough information about the vehicle she believes abducted her daughter. This is one of many moments where Bellessa reveals an obvious flaw in the alert system. After all, how can anyone describe a car they didn’t really see? But rather than use the film as a platform to criticize the system, he uses his characters to have rational conversations and come to better solutions.

 

For example, even before the alert is finally approved and sent out, we see some of the law enforcement characters talk about how irresponsible it might be to push a vague description. And we see the consequences of this decision play out in real time too as those same officers end up with so many tips to field that the real one almost gets literally lost in translation. This thought process is echoed by Panetierre and Williams’ characters, Jaq and Shane. The first time they both get notified about the missing girl, you hear them talk about how some alerts actually turn out to be false alarms or custodial misconceptions. The first time they see a car that kind of matches the description of the alert, Shane is quick to dismiss Jaq too, telling her that the make and model of the car are so common that the odds of them actually finding the real alleged perpetrator are improbable. That is, until the driver of that particular car does something suspicious…

 

Both Panettiere and Williams are fantastic here. The way their dynamic shifts is also another reason to praise both Bellessa and co-writer Joshua Oram’s script. At the start of the film, Shane is a ride-share driver, just trying to make it across town in time for his son’s birthday dinner. Jaq is a woman running late for a date, whose other ride just canceled on her. Shane doesn’t want to take her, out of fear he’ll miss his own engagement, but does so when Jaq offers him a big tip. They obviously don’t like each other, and they obviously come from two different worlds with nothing in common. But that same polarity between the two of them highlights arguably the film’s most profound theme: how the desire to do the right thing proves that we’re not that different after all.

 

As previously mentioned, Bellessa’s film shines when he’s using the characters to have meaningful and thoughtful conversations about doing the right thing. Still, there are moments where it takes a step back from its attempt to restore faith in humanity to try and also make a thriller. That’s not to say that Bellessa shouldn’t have tried to do both, or that the film doesn’t do both effectively. However pure his intentions, there are some very noticeable tonal shifts in the third act that might throw off the audience. Additionally, when our antagonist’s true intentions are revealed, they feel almost too horrific compared to the total amount of terror the film delivers.  

 

Make no mistake. Amber Alert is a buzzworthy thriller, but its most enjoyable attribute isn’t its suspense. The best part about this ride is its relatable characters, their realistic actions and thought-provoking conversations. All of which signal the power human beings have when they come together for the greater good.