In 1992, Ron Howard was placed under FBI protection to keep his family safe. Three years later, he made a movie about it

Ron Howard’s family received FBI protection in 1992 after police research found their home phone had been tapped. The episode, which included kidnapping threats against his children and suspicious vehicles outside their home, later informed his thriller *Ransom*.

Howard’s daughter Bryce Dallas Howard recalled seeing armed visitors and sensing her parents’ stress during the Los Angeles riots. Three years later, Howard directed the film, in which Mel Gibson plays a father trying to recover his kidnapped son; Howard said he channelled his anxiety and curiosity about the crisis into the story.