Panic Room (2002)

Newly-divorced Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her 11-year-old daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart), tour a large, neglected Manhattan brownstone that formerly belonged to a reclusive, paranoid millionaire who recently died.

Meg reluctantly agrees to buy because no other home on the market meets her requirements.

With two of its four floors taken up by bedrooms, the home is not only an overlarge and impractical space for this mother and daughter but also an extravagance that few New Yorkers could afford.

The 100-year-old home’s sole update is the “safe room” adjoining the master suite.

The real estate agent explains the room’s features: concrete-and-steel construction designed to be virtually impregnable, a separate ventilation system, a protected, separate phone line, and a bank of video monitors for tracking activity throughout the property.

As Meg and Sarah move into the home, its vast emptiness is emphasised by the arrival of many boxes but few furnishings. We learn that the pair’s melancholy results from Meg’s dissolving marriage to a multimillionaire who has chosen a younger woman over her.

Meg and Sarah’s repeated attempts to reassure one another that things will be all right are expressions of bravado that neither quite believes.

Having put Sarah to bed and taken a long bath, a good cry and a bottle of red wine dispel any lingering doubts as to Meg’s dolorous state.

Director David Fincher’s camera then takes us on a voyage through the home’s walls, floors, keyholes, basement, and even the kitchen counter.

An unusual set, built specifically for this film, the home’s construction is specially tailored to permit this extended shot, which clarifies its layout.

This intimate examination of the home’s anatomy introduces it as a major player: integral to the action.

We experience a sense of violation as we watch three men attempt to breach its defences. They are Burnham (Forest Whitaker), Junior (Jared Leto), and Raoul (Dwight Yoakam), a trio of inexperienced burglars who think the house is still empty and want to look for the millions the reclusive old man reportedly left stashed there.

The three disagree from the get-go about how to carry out the theft and split the proceeds. Immediately after the break-in, an argument erupts among the three, giving Meg time to rouse herself and observe the men on the safe room’s monitors.

An old-fashioned, lattice-gated elevator becomes an important component for Meg’s retrieval of her daughter from the third floor and their entry into the panic room.

Ironically, once locked inside, Meg learns that the old man’s loot is hidden in that very room.

Sarah’s severe diabetes – which requires frequent doses of insulin – guarantees that Meg will be forced to make a run for it because she failed to connect the room’s phone line.

Much like Audrey Hepburn’s blindness in Wait Until Dark (1967), these handicaps heighten the urgency of the situation while maintaining constant tension and motivating Meg to summon inner strength she is unaware of.

Time and again, Meg’s and Sarah’s efforts are thwarted, but the robbers are equally frustrated. Whatever Meg’s faults are, the pull of the maternal bond rather than the resources arising from wealth proves a match for the robbers’ unbridled greed.

As the intruders attempt a methodical assault on the room, Meg and her daughter take advantage of each error, thinking and acting fast enough to save themselves, although Fincher wisely allows his protagonists to make several devastating mistakes.

Perhaps the film’s most unusual feature is that following the first 10 minutes, its unbroken stream of action leaves no room for inattention of any kind. Each moment is so exciting that those unable to sit through two hours without a bathroom break will be better off waiting for the video.

Meg Altman
Jodie Foster
Sarah Altman
Kristen Stewart
Burnham
Forest Whitaker
Raoul
Dwight Yoakam
Junior
Jared Leto
Stephen Altman
Patrick Bauchau
Lydia Lynch
Ann Magnuson
Evan Kurlander
Ian Buchanan
Sleepy Neighbor
Andrew Kevin Walker
Officer Keeney
Paul Schulze
Officer Morales
Mel Rodriguez

Director
David Fincher

Video