Along Came a Spider is a 2001 American neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Lee Tamahori. It is the second installment in the Alex Cross film series and a sequel to the 1997 film Kiss the Girls, with Morgan Freeman and Jay O. Sanders reprising their roles as detective Alex Cross and FBI-agent Kyle Craig. The screenplay by Marc Moss was adapted from the 1993 novel of the same title by James Patterson, but many of the key plot elements of the book were eliminated. The film was a box office success, although receiving mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Alex Cross was a detective, forensic psychologist and author in Washington, D.C. for many years, but he recently retired from the force after a sting operation ended in the death of his partner. His departure is short-lived when Megan Rose, the daughter of a US senator, is kidnapped from her private school by Gary Soneji, a computer science teacher. US Secret Service Special Agent Jezzie Flannigan is held responsible for the breach in security that allowed Soneji to take the girl. In response, Alex Cross and Jezzie Flannigan join forces to track down Soneji and find Megan Rose.
After Cross receives a phone call from Soneji, he is struck with horror and panic when he finds a small sneaker in his mailbox. Cross soon realizes that Soneji is trying to emulate the 1932 Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. kidnapping, a crime so infamous that it became known as the Crime of the Century. With the knowledge that Soneji is trying to make a name for himself in the same way as Richard Hauptmann, Cross is even more determined to bring Soneji to justice and get Megan back safely, which he posits is a storyline worthy of one of his true crime books.
Despite Soneji's now-public identity, the FBI is unable to capture him until Cross secretly tracks his calls and locations. Unbeknownst to Cross and Flannigan, Soneji's abduction of Megan is only a small part of his elaborate plan to secure greater fame. His coordinated kidnap plot is then revealed to center around the son of the President of Russia, Dimitri Starodubov. Soneji attempts to capture the young boy without absolute management from police and security guards.
However, before he is able to kidnap Starodubov, Cross and Flannigan confront Soneji and rescue the boy. In desperation, Soneji sends Cross a ransom demand asking for $10 million in diamonds from the president. If Cross fails to comply, Soneji will have no further reason to reach an agreement and Megan will be killed. Knowing there is no other recourse, Cross complies and follows a set of directions to a number of public phone-booths spread out throughout the city where he will make deliveries and collect further instructions. Cross eventually delivers the diamonds by throwing them off a moving train to a man in black.
Soneji soon arrives at Flannigan's home in order to kidnap her and use her as ransom. However, after arriving and disabling Flannigan with a taser, Soneji finds Cross present, who confronts him about the ransom. Cross comments on Soneji receiving $12 million in ransom, to which Soneji does not react. He realises that Soneji did not demand the ransom, and when Soneji attempts to escape, Cross shoots him dead.
Upon further investigation, Cross realises that Flannigan had known about Soneji for some time now, and had used him as a pawn in her own plot to collect a ransom from Megan's family. She and her fellow Secret Service agent Ben Devine had crafted a plan together to do just that, and had been slowly gathering Soneji's information to use when the time was right. Cross realizes that someone had discovered Soneji long before his plot became active, and can't help but think that Flannigan has been playing them all along. This culminates in Cross accessing Flannigan's personal computer, which contains all the details of the Soneji plot leading up to the kidnapping of Megan, the attempted kidnapping of Dmitri, including his information, timelines, and plans.
Cross soon tracks Flannigan down to a secluded farmhouse. Here, Flannigan has brutally murdered Devine, and she is now intent on killing Megan. Cross gets the better of Flannigan though and arrives in time to prevent another tragedy. He takes aim, and with a single shot, stops Flannigan from taking Megan's life. Cross then takes Megan to safety, delivering her back to her parents and a sense of closure to a traumatic ordeal. Megan and her family now have the opportunity to move on with their lives, thanks to Cross.