Andrea Mitchell, Averi Curtis, Daniel Reed Farrell, drama, John D. Michaels, Kevin Wayne, Kionta Banks, Kylie Kay, Luna Rivera, McCartney Ogle, Michelle Haro, movies, reviews, Richie Johns, Roslyn Gentle, Still Hope, Wesley Ridings, Wilma Rivera
February 7, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Richie Johns
Culture Representation: Taking place in unnamed U.S. cities, the dramatic film “Still Hope” features a predominantly white and Latin cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: After a 16-year-old girl is kidnapped and forced into sex enslavement, she is rescued 18 months later, and is sent to a Christian therapy center because she has lost her faith in religious teachings.
Culture Audience: “Still Hope” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching faith-based movies that preach Christianity as the best solution to serious problems.
“Still Hope” starts off looking like a basic Lifetime movie about a kidnapped teenager who is forced into sex trafficking. And then, the second half of the movie turns into sanctimonious propaganda that pushes trafficking survivors to get Christian therapy. It’s a narrow-minded and very biased agenda that doesn’t take into account the reality that Christianity or religion won’t work for all survivors trying to heal from sexual trauma. There are plenty of people in the world who aren’t Christian or aren’t religious, but that doesn’t make them any less “worthy” of seeking happiness and healing than people who don’t share the same beliefs.
Directed by Richie Johns (who is one of the producers of the movie), “Still Hope” was written by Mitch Hudson and Randy McWilson. The movie takes place in unnamed cities in the United States. “Still Hope” was actually filmed in Missouri. “Still Hope” seems to be aiming for the same audience who embraced the controversial 2023 drama “Sound of Freedom,” a movie about a former U.S. government agent rescuing kidnapped Latin American children who are sold into sex trafficking. However, there are some big differences between the two movies.
“Sound of Freedom” is loosely based on experiences described by Tim Ballard (played by Jim Caviezel), the founder and former CEO of Operation Underground Railroad. After the release of “Sound of Freedom,” Ballard got caught in his own sex scandals when multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct. Some of the women have filed lawsuits against him. Ballard has denied all the allegations (which began surfacing in late 2023), but “Sound of Freedom” has now been tainted by these scandals.
“Still Hope” is “inspired by true stories,” according to a caption shown in the beginning of the movie. There is no character in “Still Hope” who is based on one particular person. Whereas “Sound of Freedom” was mostly about rescuing survivors of sex trafficking, the rescue is only part of “Still Hope.” The last half of “Still Hope” focuses on recovery and rehabilitation for the story’s main character who was kidnapped and rescued from her 18-month sex-trafficking ordeal.
The beginning of “Still Hope” shows that this survivor—Hope Creighton (played by Luna Rivera)—comes from a loving and middle-class Christian family. The movie doesn’t mention the family’s Christian denomination. However, religious beliefs are very important to this tight-knit family, except for religious skeptic Hope.
When the story begins, Hope is 16 years old. She is seen going to a church service with her father Garrett (played by John D. Michaels), her mother Valerie (played by Michelle Haro), Hope’s younger sister Skylar (played by Andrea Mitchell), and Garrett’s mother, who just has the name Nan (played by Roslyn Gentle) in the movie. Skylar is about five or six years younger than Hope.
During the church service, Hope is texting someone on her phone. Garrett quietly scolds her for texting during the church service and tells her to put away her phone. Hope’s response is to say that at least she’s not sleeping during the church service. Hope points out that Nan is fast asleep.
Hope will soon be leaving for a short visit with Nan and will be temporarily staying in Nan’s home. Hope is frequently texting someone on her phone, but she won’t say who it is. Nan doesn’t interfere or snoop because she assumes that Hope is texting a female friend. As far as Hope’s family knows, Hope is not dating anyone.
One night, while Nan is asleep, Hope sneaks out to meet the mystery person whom she had been texting. It’s a guy in his late teens named Trevor (played by Daniel Reed Farrell), who arrives by car in front of Nan’s house for a pre-arranged date with Hope. This date is the first time that Hope and Trevor are meeting in person, after they’ve been texting each other for several weeks.
Hope is a little nervous, but Trevor is relaxed, friendly and charming. He takes her to a bowling alley for this first date. And not long after they arrive at the bowling alley, Trevor gives Hope a gold necklace that says Esperanza, which is Hope’s name in Spanish. She is thrilled and flattered by this gift.
Trevor knows that Hope has snuck out of the house without telling anyone. He also knows that Hope kept their online relationship a secret from everyone she knows. Trevor used the online alias Hailey when texting Hope because he knows that Hope’s parents sometimes check her phone. Hope’s father Garrett also checks the location of Hope’s phone, which is why she left her phone behind at Nan’s house when Hope went on this date with Trevor.
At the bowling alley, Trevor introduces Hope to his friend Matt (played by Wesley Ridings), who seems to be a happy-go-lucky jokester type. Everyone at the bowling alley seems nice, including bowling alley manager Fabian (played by Kevin Wayne), who says a kind hello to Hope when she passes by. Hope begins to relax and have fun.
When Hope goes to the ladies’ restroom, she meets someone else who knows Trevor: a teenager named Tiffany (played by Averi Curtis), who sees the necklace that Hope is wearing and correctly guesses that Trevor gave the necklace to Hope. Hope and Tiffany have a cordial but slightly uncomfortable conversation. Tiffany, who seems a little envious of Hope, tells Hope that she and Trevor go to the same high school.
Tiffany also mentions that a lot of girls have a crush on Trevor and want to date him. Tiffany tells Hope that Hope should feel lucky that Trevor is interested in dating her and she should “lock that down” if she wants to keep dating him. Hope is depicted as virginal, and she seems taken aback that someone she’s just met is already suggesting that Hope should have sex with Trevor.
When Hope comes out of the restroom, Trevor hands her a drink, which she consumes without hesitation. Trevor and Hope than leave the bowling alley in his car. She tells him that she isn’t feeling well, so he drives to a nearby convenience store because he says he can get some medicine for her. Hope doesn’t find out until it’s too late that the drink that Trevor gave her was spiked with an unknown drug, and this date with Trevor is all a setup for her to be kidnapped for sex trafficking.
Two men in a car follow Trevor and Hope to the convenience store parking lot, which is dark, and no one else is around. Trevor goes inside the store, knowing that Hope is going to be kidnapped. After the kidnapping happens, Hope wakes up to see a woman in her late teens or early 20s giving Hope a small tattoo. It’s a common way that sex traffickers mark their victims for identification, as if they are cattle that need to be branded.
The woman’s name is Queen (played by Kionta Banks), and she’s the sidekick of a scruffy, middle-aged pimp named Bishop (played by Alex Veadov), who holds Hope captive and forces her into sex enslavement. Bishop decides that Hope’s alias is Blaze while she’s under his control. Queen usually goes with Hope to the sex trafficking encounters, to ensure that Hope does not escape. Bishop sometimes goes to these meetups too.
Bishop and Queen force Hope to take unnamed drugs to keep her under control. Hope eventually becomes addicted to the drugs. Bishop often physically assaults Hope if she “disobeys” him. Hope is frequently tied up so she won’t escape, although during her 18 months in captivity, she earns enough of Bishop’s trust that he gradually gives her more freedom.
Not long after Hope is kidnapped, she is joined by a wayward teen named Kylee (played by Kylie Kay), who wasn’t kidnapped, but Kylee says she has nowhere else to go. An ex-boyfriend recommended that Kylee join Bishop’s sex trafficking operation, so Kylee did out of desperation. Later in the movie, Bishop holds captive another kidnapping victim named Naomi (played by McCartney Ogle), who’s about 10 or 11 years old.
Hope tries to escape but fails, and it ends badly for her. This failed attempt to escape makes Hope afraid to escape again. The lead FBI investigator on the case is named Romero (played by James Liddell), who conducts the investigation methodically. He is also professional and compassionate with Hope’s family.
The movie hints that Trevor has done this type of kidnapping setup multiple times with other girls before he trapped Hope. It’s unknown if Trevor ever took his previous victims to a public place where there could be security cameras. On his date with Hope, Trevor made the mistake of going to a bowling alley that has security camera footage, which is one of the major breakthroughs in the case.
It’s mentioned later in the movie that Trevor only sets up the victims, but he doesn’t personally know the kidnappers or where the kidnapping victims are taken. Trevor has an accomplice, and it’s easy to figure out who it is, based on what’s shown before the accomplice is revealed. The movie eventually shows who gets arrested for the crimes against Hope.
Luna Rivera’s compelling performance is the best part of the movie, even though the search for Hope and her captivity are depicted in a very formulaic way. All of the other cast members’ performances are average—neither great nor terrible. “Still Hope” certainly has value in showing the dangers of meeting strangers online, but the movie raises some questions that it doesn’t bother to answer.
It’s not spoiler information that Hope gets rescued because the movie’s real agenda is to show what happens after the rescue. Hope becomes very bitter and cynical about her traumatic experience. She thinks that if God exists, then God wouldn’t let something this terrible happen to her.
Hope is referred to a live-in recovery center for female survivors of sex trafficking and other sexual trauma. The center is called Restore. And a counselor there named Jennifer (played by Wilma Rivera) spends most of her time with Hope trying to convince Hope to be a good Christian and forgive the people who harmed her. Hope is made to feel guilty because Jennifer doesn’t think Hope is being forgiving enough. You don’t even really know for sure if any of these counselors are licensed psychotherapists.
Instead of getting psychiatric help for her trauma, Hope gets drilled and trained to become a better Christian. After a while, Restore looks more like a Christian conversion camp than a therapy center for sex trafficking survivors. There’s no more talk about the legal aspects of this case. There’s no follow-up with family members on how the trauma is affecting them too. Apparently, Hope’s family members don’t need this type of therapy because they’re “good Christians” who don’t question their faith. “Still Hope” just turns into a series of monotonous lectures on Christianity.
The agenda for “Still Hope” becomes even more blatant during the film’s end credits, when producer Bethany Johns goes on camera to tell viewers to scan a QR code on screen for more information on recovery centers such as the Restore center that’s depicted in the movie. Although it might seem like “Still Hope” has upstanding intentions to advocate for sex-trafficking survivors, this movie is all about religious bias and being a sales/marketing pitch. It’s really a thinly disguised promotional video/commercial for the types of rehabilitation/recovery centers that preach the best way to recover from this trauma is to practice Christianity.
Fathom Entertainment released “Still Hope” in U.S. cinemas on February 5, 2026.