Be taken for a ride

[Bushwhacker]

It seems this idea has different meanings. I've found it in the following paragraph:
"In a thriller, audiences want to be taken for a ride; they’re looking below the surface and trying to get ahead of the plot."

Please, can you say to me the meaning here?

Thanks

[bianca]

You know what they say: "on the surface, everything seemed fine, but below the surface - there's another story."

Looking below the surface, then, is similar with "reading between the lines" to get to the essence. Don't interpret everything literally - appearances deceive...

The audience is taken for an (adventurous) ride - through the landscape of the story. They are inside the plot, and yet passive spectators of the show unfolding before them.

The audience is trying to get ahead of the plot, i.e. to be one step ahead of everything happening in it, and based on what they know figure out the end of the story, long before it's over.

[BobK]

You know what they say: "on the surface, everything seemed fine, but below the surface - there's another story." Looking below the surface, then, means smth similar with "reading between the lines" to find out the truth. Don't interpret everything literally - appearances deceive...

The audience is taken for an (adventurous) ride - through the landscape of the story. They are inside the plot, and still passive spectators of the show unfolding ahead of them.

The audience is trying to get ahead of the plot, i.e. to be one step ahead of everything happening in it, and based on what they know figure out the end of the story, before it's over.

So - and I suspect this is Bushwhacker's problem - this use of 'taken for ride' is not the usual (figurative) one, meaning swindled/conned/tricked/duped:

I shouldn't have bought them, but I was taken for a ride by the smooth-talking door-to-door salesman.

b