Compliance (2012)

Compliance is a 2012 drama film written and directed by Craig Zobel, and starring Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, and Pat Healy. The plot focuses on a prank caller who pretends to be a police officer and convinces the manager of a fast food restaurant that one of her employees committed a crime. It is based on the strip search prank call scam and more specifically inspired by the Bullitt McDonald's case.

Plot: Sandra, (Ann Dowd) a manager of a restaurant in the ChickWich fast food chain, receives a phone call from a prank caller referring to himself as Officer Daniels. He states that the police received a complaint that a member of the restaurant staff had stolen money from a customer’s purse that day. Daniels explains that he is preoccupied with the search of the suspected thief’s home and that Sandra would have to detain and question the employee about the theft. With Daniels on the phone, Sandra agrees to help and summons Becky, (Dreama Walker) who fits the caller’s description of the perpetrator.

Becky denies committing any crime, but complies with Sandra and Daniels by being escorted into an office in the rear of the restaurant. The caller asks a series of questions and instructs Sandra to search Becky’s pockets and purse for the stolen cash. When the money is not found, Daniels then orders Sandra to conduct a strip search, claiming that the alternative would be to jail Becky whilst a larger investigation at Becky’s home is being undertaken. The caller tells Sandra to put the clothing into a bag and take it to her car for later collection by the police, leaving the humiliated Becky covered only by an apron.

Sandra explains to Daniels that she must resume managing the restaurant during the busy work day, and the caller instructs her to leave Becky under the watch of a male employee for “security purposes”. Through Daniels’ demands, Becky is ordered to perform invasive and degrading acts in the nude under the threat of facing worse punishment for the initial theft allegation.