Asger Holm, a Copenhagenpolice officer awaiting a hearing for shooting and killing a 19-year-old man, is assigned to answer emergency calls at the Emergency East desk. On the evening before the hearing, he receives a call from a woman named Iben Østergård, who does not say she has an emergency and acts as if she is talking to a child. Initially about to hang up, Asger guesses the distressed Iben is not alone and asks her yes and no questions; she discreetly reveals she has been abducted but explicitly mentions a white van. Tracing the call by the nearest cellphone tower, Asger calls the North Zealand station to tell them to look for a white van driving north. The North Zealand dispatcher tells him this is not enough information and a licence plate number and specific location are required. Asger talks to the North Zealand patrol car, who pull over a light-coloured van but let it go when no woman is found inside. Becoming absorbed in the case, Asger looks up information about Iben Østergård and finds a home telephone number, calling it. Iben's six year old daughter Mathilde answers. Mathilde says her father Michael Berg was at the house, despite being separated from Iben, and drives a white van. Michael had gone into the room of Mathilde's baby brother Oliver and shouted, apparently at Oliver, Mathilde says. Michael then grabbed Iben and left with her. Mathilde also gives Asger her father's phone number. Asger tells Mathilde to go look after her baby brother and calls North Zealand to have police sent over to Iben's house to check on Mathilde and Oliver; he learns Michael has a criminal record. Night shift arrives and though technically off the job, Asger moves into a separate room to continue following Iben's case. Intermittently, Asger speaks again to Iben, who says she does not want to be locked up. He also speaks to the police at the Østergård house, who find Mathilde is covered in blood. The officers check Oliver's room and find the baby has been cut open and is deceased. Asger is devastated, and asks his colleague Rashid to break into Michael's house for clues as to his destination. We learn that Asger and Rashid conspired to give false testimony at the hearing, which worries Rashid. After deliberating, Asger phones Michael's number and argues with him, with Asger shouting Michael should be executed. The van is heading to Elsinore, and Asger speaks again to Iben. Worried that Michael might kill Iben, Asger instructs Iben to hit Michael with a brick. Iben says Oliver is fine now and no longer crying. Asger asks her what she means, and Iben says Oliver had snakes in his stomach and was crying, so she cut them out to help him. The call is disconnected, leaving Asger in shock. Asger receives a call from Rashid at Michael's house, who finds records showing Michael lost visitation rights due to his criminal record, while Iben spent time in a psychiatric hospital in Elsinore. Asger realizes Michael was taking Iben to the hospital because she unknowingly killed their son. He tells Rashid not to lie at the hearing and calls Michael again, who says Iben hit him and escaped. Asger receives another call from Iben, who is about to jump off a bridge, after realizing she killed her son. He confesses to her he shot a man and it was not in self-defense, but he says unlike him he knows Iben did not mean to harm anyone. With the noise of police officers approaching, Asger urges her to surrender to them. He speaks again to North Zealand, who confirm they have Iben and congratulate him on his work. He gets up from his desk and slowly walks away while his colleagues, who heard his confession to Iben, watch in disbelief.
, the film holds a 97% approval rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 114 reviews, and an average rating of 7.94/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Sleek, well-acted, and intelligently crafted, The Guilty is a high-concept thriller that wrings maximum impact out of a handful of basic—and effective—ingredients." Metacritic assigned the film a normalized score of 83 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Accolades
Remake
In 2018 it was announced that Nine Stories and Jake Gyllenhaal had bought the American rights to The Guilty with Gyllenhaal set to star.
