Dead Silence is a 1997 Canadian-American crime thriller television film directed by Daniel Petrie Jr. and written by Donald E. Stewart, based on the 1995 novel A Maiden's Grave by Jeffery Deaver.

A veteran FBI agent negotiates the release of a bus load of hearing impaired school children taken hostage by three desperate escaped convicts.

After an auto accident that attracted police attention, the criminals hijacked the bus and took refuge in an abandoned meat slaughterhouse factory.

A basement tunnel opens up onto river rapids----Charro manages to sneak herself and the children to this exit point;and authorities are waiting in small rubber boats.

With the siege approaching the 24 hour mark,detective Sharon Foster,who has had previous experience with Handy,arrives to lend assistance.

Doubling back there, he discovers Handy and the girl taking the two million dollars out of the duct pipes;aided by a crooked local politician who had planned the job.

[4] In their June 1997 review, Variety labelled it "strictly for undemanding thriller fans",[2] and commented that, "For most of its length, Dead Silence is a routine hostage drama, though a couple of plot twists in the final reel, while implausible, enliven the hitherto mundane fodder.