Scent of Danger (2002 TV Movie) User Reviews

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[sol1218 · 6/10 · 2 February 2009]

**SPOILER** Overly complicated made for TV movie about this new "nut", or "psycho", in town who has this strange habit of kidnapping five year old girls and causing them to suffocate to death while their bereaved parents and rescue workers try to find them before the oxygen runs out.

Rescue dog handler Brenna Shaw, Sherilyn Fenn,first comes across this dangerous lunatic together with her dog Brie as he's in the process of dropping little Zoe Hendricks(Alicia Ducasse), whom he just kidnapped, into a nearby stream. After making his escape the psycho-calling himself Gideon- now wants to get back at both Brenna & Brie for making him, who feels he's a criminal mastermind, look bad.

This happens later on in the movie when Gideon, James McGowan, sets a booby trap, a bomb ladened bicycle, for Brie to sniff out in another one of his kidnappings of a five year old girl. With her rescue dog and best friend now history Brenna decides to quit the dog rescue agency that she works at feeling responsible for Brie's death. It's later when her boss ex Boston cop Chris Milos, Constas Mandylor, and FBI Agent Carol Blue, Emma Campbell, plead with Brenna to get back on the case of the "Kidnapped five year old girls" that Brenna reluctantly goes back to work.

**SPOILER*** The clues that Brenna soon comes up with, through Gideon's cryptic E-mails to her, bring out the true nature and reasons of his crimes. Gideon, actually Ivan Merrick, kidnapped and, in some cases, murdered the five year old girls as an act of personal revenge. This revenge goes back some ten years when he suffered a tragedy similar to those he's inflicting on his victims right now! Putting all the pieces together, from his victims, both Brenna & Chris realize that this Gideon will never stop his murder and kidnap spree until he's stopped himself. There's just too many names on his hit-list for him to quit right now. Those names have to do with his own five year old daughter's death some ten years ago in a house fire in Philadelphia!

Brenna and her new rescue dog-Brie's replacement- "Feathers" track down Gideon after his latest kidnapping of five year old girl Denise Johansen, Victoria Van Ryswyk, who he plans, like he tried to do to Zoe, to drown. This time around both Brenna & Feathers were ready for the creep which cause him to experienced an unexpected "leap of faith", with Feathers help, that finally put an end to his sick and twisted life of crime.

Not That Bad, Clearly Made For T.V.

[leggo_my_eggo · 4/10 · 11 May 2007]

This movie was not amazing but it was okay. It was one of those movies that you watch when you really have nothing else to watch and it just happens to be on T.V. There were some of those tearjerker, I love animal scenes. They were admittedly over the top and cheesy. But lets face it I gave my dog a hug anyways!It was a very typical "made for T.V." movie. I think the guy that commented on this previously took the movie a LITTLE too seriously! I mean clearly it was inaccurate! It starred the woman whom I only know of because she was on a few episodes of Gilmore Girls. This movie is simply a way to kill time and in no way should it reflect upon the police force, FBI or S&R teams. It also in no way should have prevented the previous commenter from watching Animal Planet (It wasn't THAT bad)

I Enjoyed It!

[starlightsky-51222 · 9/10 · 27 March 2020]

After reading other reviews, I do want to say that I understand the training was unrealistic BUT this was a thriller presented by Animal Planet. It wasn't a documentary on real life search and rescue dog handling, it was fictional. If I had been looking for knowledge on how search and rescue dogs were trained then I would have looked for educational videos such as a documentary. Though I wasn't, which is why I don't think the lack of precise knowledge in this movie is awful.

Now as for what I actually thought of the movie. I think the story line kept you on the edge without making it too action packed cheesy. I actually enjoyed each character. Brenna and Blue both needed to come out of their shell it seemed, I felt their acting appeared a little forced in the beginning. But AFTER only a couple scenes with them their characters really took off. I liked that most of the main characters were included rather equally. It gave it the "teamwork" type atmosphere to the case. I honestly would watch it again and would watch a sequel if there was ever one.

To TC-4 ([e-mail]): too technical but no real opinion !

[jussssst · 23 January 2007]

I'm referring to «This movie is an insult to real handlers and their dogs., 22 October 2002 -- Author: TC-4 ([e-mail])» I might candidly agree to all the «technical» arguments regarding dogs training. To a layman like me, they seem founded. But aren't they a bit too «limited», precisely by the dog training experience ? I mean, isn't that movie judged ONLY through that prism ? I would have wanted a personal opinion about the other aspects of that movie. There must be some... even if it's by no means the «greatest movie for TV ever made»! Personally, I found it «original» BECAUSE of the roles played by the dogs. Also, who but other «dog experts» could or would agree with the flaws denounced -- however accurate they are...? And I would tend to think that they really ARE! As a layman, of course. Cheers!

This movie is an insult to real handlers and their dogs.

[TC-4 · 22 October 2002]

As my wife is part of a Search and Rescue team, we decided to watch this movie on the Animal Planet which was supposedly about S&R.

Obviously this movie had no technical advisors as everything was totally wrong and made real handlers look stupid. For example, it takes years of training under all sorts of weather with qualified instructors and after passing difficult exams to become a certified S&R dog and handler. Yet one of the dogs was trained in a backyard once for 5 minutes and suddenly became a S&R dog. I can just imagine how the S&R handlers who were in NYC on 9/11 must feel.

This movie made everyone look bad including the police and the FBI. I just hope that people who know my wife and friends don't think that the movie is realistic. This is a good example as to why "tv-movies" are terrible for the most part. After this insult I will no longer watch anything on the Animal Planet. I thought they were smarter than this.