Proof of Life is a 2000 American action thriller film directed and produced by Taylor Hackford, and starring Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe The title refers to a phrase commonly used to indicate proof that a kidnap victim is still alive. The film's screenplay was written by Tony Gilroy, who also was an executive producer, and was inspired by William Prochnau's Vanity Fair magazine article "Adventures in the Ransom Trade", and Thomas Hargrove's book Long March to Freedom, in which Hargrove recounts how his release was negotiated by Thomas Clayton, who went on to be the founder of kidnap-for-ransom consultancy Clayton Consultants, Inc.

Taylor Edwin Hackford is an American film director and former president of the Directors Guild of America. He won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for Teenage Father (1979). Hackford went on to direct a number of highly regarded feature films, most notably An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and Ray (2004), the latter of which saw him nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best Picture.