This film's story is pretty straightforward in the sense and can be divided into two arcs. The first is pretty much introductory and lays the foundation for what's going to happen in the main arc. Halle Berry plays the role of Jordan Turner, an LAPD 9-1-1 operator who receives a frantic call one night from a teenager named Leah Templeton who is terrified by the appearance of an intruder into her home. Although Jordan manages to give good advice in helping Leah evade detection by the intruder, the disconnection of the call leads Jordan to redial the number immediately and this results in the intruder turning back and locating Leah easily. Jordan tries frantically to stop the man from hurting Leah when he picks up the phone but he replies with a cold answer, "It's already done." and hangs up. Days later, Leah is found dead and her corpse dumped in the open.
This incident causes Jordan to lose her confidence and she is so guilt-stricken that she can no longer be a 9-1-1 operator. 6 months later, she becomes a trainer for the operators and chances upon a call received by a newbie operator from another teenager Casey Welson who gets abducted from a shopping mall's carpark. The newbie operator is unable to handle the situation thus Jordan takes over the call with great reluctance and attempts to help Casey escape from the trunk of the abductor's car by giving her instructions over the phone...
The reason why I became interested in this film was due to an interview of Halle Berry about her role of playing a 9-1-1 operator in this movie. She mentioned that as part of the preparation for the role, she listened to voice recordings of people who had called the hotline and there was one which was especially painful to listen to. The call was from a woman who called for help because she was in danger of being sexually assaulted but there was nothing the operator could do other than listening helplessly to what was happening at the other end of the line (apparently, the police had not reached the caller yet when she was undergoing such an ordeal). There was a line in the movie as well which seemed to bring out the message of the dilemma these emergency hotline operators face. Although they are expected not to be too emotionally involved in what their callers are going through, it can be rather emotionally draining for them especially if they do not know if the police or medics reached the callers in time or whether the cases ended well. Like what happened in this film, it is not difficult to imagine the trauma Jordan went through because her action had unwittingly caused the death of a caller who depended on her to survive.
However, this film chooses not to dwell too much on this soul-searching part and focuses a lot on the action aspect. It was a pulsating ride to the end where Jordan struggles to make the best out of the situation and help Casey escape from the abductor. Time after time, Casey's attempts are thwarted and innocent people are drawn into the case and suffer at the hands of the abductor. I think the tempo of these scenes was very well-controlled and it made up for the lack of emphasis of the emotional side of things in the story. The icing on the cake was that, the ending was pretty unconventional and helped the film to make a deep impression on the viewers. Whether you agree with the way things were handled is one thing but it sure is an unexpected development that will set viewers thinking a little more about the movie rather than dismissing it as a forgettable suspense thriller from the minute they step out of the cinema.
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