Panic Room (film)

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Panic Room
Theatrical poster
Directed by	David Fincher
Produced by	Ceán Chaffin Judy Hofflund David Koepp Gavin Polone
Written by	David Koepp
Starring	Jodie Foster Kristen Stewart Forest Whitaker Jared Leto
Music by	Howard Shore
Cinematography	Conrad W. Hall Darius Khondji
Editing by	James Haygood Angus Wall
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	March 29, 2002
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$48,000,000
Gross revenue	$196,397,415
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Panic Room is a 2002 thriller film directed by David Fincher, and starring Jodie Foster and Forest Whitaker. It also stars Jared Leto, Dwight Yoakam, and Kristen Stewart. The film tells a story of a mother and a daughter hiding in a panic room during an invasion by three armed robbers who aimed at millions of dollars stored in the house. The tale expresses strong moral themes.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Production and release 3 Cast 4 Reception 5 Score 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Plot

The film focuses on a panic room, a safe shelter located in some high-end residences, such as brownstones. The panic room in this film is protected by a four-inch-thick steel door and an impressive security system, and features a separate phone line.

The residence is 38 West 94th Street in Manhattan, a four-story townhouse that was previously owned by a disabled reclusive millionaire. Following the owner's death, the house was bought by Meg Altman (Foster), a woman, recently divorced from the owner of a pharmaceutical giant, who is planning to go back to college. Meg has a 12-year-old daughter Sarah (Stewart) who suffers from Type 1 diabetes.

On the night the two move into the home, it is broken into by Junior (Leto), the grandson of the previous owner, and Burnham (Whitaker), an employee of the security company used by the residence. The two are after $3 million in bearer bonds, which is locked inside a floor safe in the panic room. Unknown to Burnham until after they've broken in, Junior has recruited Raoul (Yoakam), a bus driver who lives in Flatbush, to assist in the heist.

After discovering that the Altmans have moved into the home one week before they anticipated, the burglars decide to go on as planned with the heist. However, Meg wakes up and discovers the intruders from the CCTV monitors in the panic room when she wanted to switch off its glaring light. Before the three can stop her, she runs to Sarah, wakes her, and they escape to the panic room.

The three make several attempts to get into the room, including filling the room with propane to get the Altmans to come out, and tunneling in from underneath. Neither works.

The Altmans make several attempts to call for help, including signaling a nearby neighbour with a flashlight (who they can only see from the opening of a water pipe) and tapping into the main telephone line to call for help (because Meg has not yet hooked up the panic room's phone). Only one works; the two get through to Meg's husband and Sarah's father, Stephen, before the burglars cut them off. To make matters worse, Sarah collapses due to hypoglycaemia caused by her diabetes and unfortunately the glucagon injections are in the refrigerator.

When all attempts to get into the room fail, Junior lets it slip that there is much more money in the panic room than he let on, and gives up. Burnham and Raoul find out that the bonds are actually worth $22 million. Upon trying to leave the house, Junior is shot in the head by Raoul. Stephen Altman arrives at the home and is then taken hostage by Raoul and Burnham. Raoul severely beats him. They then use the unconscious Altman to trick Meg (who is desperate to get the glucagon injections for Sarah) into momentarily exiting the panic room. Raoul ambushes her and a brief struggle ensues which ultimately results in Raoul and Burnham becoming trapped in the panic room with the critical Sarah, and Meg outside with Raoul's gun. However Meg was able to throw in the glucagon syringe in time and begs the two intruders over the intercom to give Sarah the injection, which Burnham, being the more humane of the two, later does.

However, two police patrolmen arrive, having received Altman's call earlier. With Sarah trapped with the two burglars, and Raoul threatening to kill her, Meg lies to the officers. Meanwhile, Burnham gets to work on the safe and obtains the bearer bonds. As the duo attempt to leave while using Sarah as a hostage, Meg and the badly injured Altman attack them. After an intense struggle, Burnham flees while Raoul prepares to kill Meg with a sledgehammer. However, upon hearing Sarah's screams of panic, Burnham doubles back and kills Raoul, delaying him enough that he gets caught by the police who return as the earlier patrolman was suspicious at Meg's behavior. As they approach, he releases the bonds, letting them fly off into the night and kneels in surrender.

The film closes with Meg and Sarah searching for a new house in the newspaper. This scene was added against the wishes of David Fincher after a test screening in which several people complained that the "cut to black" ending was too abrupt.

[edit] Production and release

Though the movie is set in New York City, in reality it is primarily filmed in Los Angeles, California and released in March 29, 2002. It garnered box office of 95,308,367 USD.^[1]

David Prior, the producer of Panic Room's DVD, noted that the film was the "most elaborate, complex DVD I have yet produced". According to Prior, David Fincher originally conceived Panic Room as a low-budget B-film, but during the process it evolved into "a gargantuan undertaking that tested the endurance and tenacity of everyone involved", and due to budget disagreements, the production was shut down three times.^[2]

Director David Fincher agreed that the film's production was indeed an arduous project, remarking it as a "logistical nightmare". He said that the lighting issue during the filming process was a particular difficulty due to the complexity with the security cameras used in the mansion that send surveillance images to the television in the panic room.^[3]

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Jodie Foster	Meg Altman
Kristen Stewart	Sarah Altman
Forest Whitaker	Burnham
Dwight Yoakam	Raoul
Jared Leto	Junior
Patrick Bauchau	Steven Altman
Ann Magnuson	Lydia Lynch
Ian Buchanan	Evan Kurlander
Andrew Kevin Walker	Sleepy Neighbor
Paul Schulze	Officer Keeney
Mel Rodriguez	Officer Morales
Richard Conant	SWAT Cop
Paul Simon	SWAT Cop
Victor Thrash	SWAT Cop
Ken Turner	SWAT Cop
Nicole Kidman	Steven's Girlfriend (uncredited, voice only)

Actress Nicole Kidman was originally to star in the role of Meg Altman, but had to back out due to a knee injury she sustained during the filming of Moulin Rouge!.^[4] However, she did add her voice to the movie portraying Steven Altman's girlfriend and talking with Meg Altman on the phone.

Hayden Panettiere was originally cast as Sarah Altman but was replaced by Kristen Stewart^{[citation needed]}

Maynard James Keenan of the rock band Tool was in passing offered the role of Raoul, by the director, but nothing came for it.^[5]

[edit] Reception

The film receives 76% positive reviews from the reviewers affiliated with the website Rotten Tomatoes, and the site's "consensus" commented the film as a "well-crafted, above-average thriller".^[6] Roger Ebert gave Panic Room a three out of four stars rating, indicating a mildly positive opinion.^[7]

Jodie Foster was nominated for the 2003 Saturn Award Best Actress for her role as Meg Altman, but did not win.^[8]

[edit] Score

The film's score was released in 16 April 2002 on Varese Sarabande records. The album contains nine cues, running 30:09.

1. "Main Titles"
2. "Caution - Flammable"
3. "Working Elevator"
4. "Fourth Floor Hallway"
5. "Locking Us In"
6. "Castle Keep"
7. "What We Want is in That Room"
8. "Zone 19 Disabled"
9. "A Very Emotional Property"

Howard Shore, the Canadian composer known for the scores of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, composed and conducted the score. It was a smaller project undertaken by Shore shortly after completion of The Lord of the Rings scores, and was remarked to be one of Shore's "darkest, most brooding thrillers".^[9].

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Panic Room at the Internet Movie Database
• Panic Room at Rotten Tomatoes
• Panic Room at Box Office Mojo
• Guardian interview with Fincher

v • d • e Films directed by David Fincher Alien 3 (1992) • Se7en (1995) • The Game (1997) • Fight Club (1999) • Panic Room (2002) • Zodiac (2007) • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)