Panic Room



2002 suspense thriller directed by David Fincher and starring Jodie Foster as Meg Altman, a recently divorced woman. A young Kristen Stewart plays her 12 year old diabetic daughter Sarah. They move into a four story Manhattan brownstone which has a fortified "panic room" in case of home invasion. Late at night three burglars (played by Forrest Whitaker, Jared Leto and Dwight Yoakum) break in looking for $3 million in bearer bonds belonging to the previous owner. The two women lock themselves up in the room, but are unable to call for help. Worse yet, the bonds were stored in the panic room and the burglars have no issue going through the new owners to get them.

Moderately successful upon its release, it introduced the concept of "panic rooms" and "safe rooms" into public knowledge.

Contains examples of:
""Dad's rich. Mom's just mad.""
 * Artistic License Chemistry: The  would fall to the ground instead of sticking to the ceiling as it does in the movie.
 * Big Damn Heroes:
 * Big Fancy House: Seriously, it's a ridiculously huge house for just Meg and her daughter. It even has an elevator!
 * This trope will hit New Yorkers especially hard; people living elsewhere have no idea how much a place like this would cost.
 * Not sure one would be able to point to any example anywhere of a person who thought that was anything less than a hugely expensive house.
 * When Meg and Sarah are being shown the house, Lydia says "He can afford it", meaning that Meg's ex-husband is loaded and this is a way to stick it to him for his affair.
 * Confirmed when Burnham asks Sarah if Meg is rich, to be able to afford the house.

"Meg: Ever read any Poe?
 * Book Dumb: Lydia has a moment like this:

Lydia: No, but I loved her last album."

"Burnham: Turn the gas off. Turn the gas off right now."
 * Boom! Headshot!:
 * Closed Circle: Meg and Sarah are trapped in the panic room, and the thieves won't leave until they get the money inside.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: A fair bit of Junior and Raoul's dialogue. Especially when the latter is really mad.
 * Cold-Blooded Torture:
 * Comic Trio: Although they aren't exactly comedic, the burglars fit the role nicely. Junior's the navigator, Raoul is the driver and Burnham's in the backseat.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Evan, the guy showing Meg around the house at the beginning. Also Sarah.
 * Drop the Hammer: Meg uses a sledgehammer on Raoul
 * Epic Tracking Shot - From one floor down to another, through keyholes and coffeemakers.
 * Establishing Character Moment:
 * Extremely Short Timespan: Most of the film unfolds over a single night.
 * Everyone Knows Morse: Sarah learned "SOS" from Titanic, and attempts to signal a neighbor by flashing it through a vent.
 * Fingore:
 * Foot Focus: Meg and Sarah spend almost the entire movie barefoot.
 * Genius Bruiser: Burnham is the biggest guy on screen (though he doesn't actually do much fighting), and he is also by far the most intelligent; he shows a level of competence in various fields and a resourcefulness equal to Meg's.
 * Genre Savvy: Generally quite a high level of this is shown by most characters in the film who are not explicitly shown to be quite thick. The only exception being the burglars not breaking the security cameras, though this is lampshaded as a silly thing to have missed.
 * Gut Punch: See 's Establishing Character Moment.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Why is Bella blonde?
 * Ghost Dog, is that you?
 * Angel Face with cornrows, go figure.
 * And why don't you use your gun, Clarice?
 * Hide Your Pregnancy: Jodie Foster was already a few months pregnant when she started filming. The scene where she answers the door and talks to the cop was filmed last and they put a baggy sweater over her.
 * Hope Spot: Several - one of which being when Meg and Sarah think they might have managed to alert one of their neighbors to their plight...
 * Howl of Sorrow: Meg lets out a howl of despair and rage when
 * Irony: The fact that a panic room Burnham built is keeping him and his crew from accomplishing their burglary. This is not lost on him.
 * Large Ham: Jared Leto as Junior.
 * Little Miss Snarker: Sarah.
 * Mama Bear: Meg.
 * Nobody Poops: Averted. Meg is shown going to the toilet in the middle of the night and her urinating is audible.
 * Not Quite Dead: is assumed dead by Meg, until she discovers that, although badly injured, he's still alive.
 * Oh Crap:
 * Oh Crap:

"Sarah: Oh my God."
 * Sarah has a similar reaction when she realizes what her Mom was about to do.

"Meg: Put him on the phone, bitch."
 * Only Sane Man: Burnham.
 * The Other Marty: Originally Nicole Kidman was cast in the lead role and shot a few scenes. She injured her knee while filming Moulin Rouge and was replaced by Jodie Foster. She did end up in the film as the voice of Foster's ex-husband's mistress when she calls him for help.
 * Papa Wolf: Stephen Altman.
 * Police Are Useless: Played with and ultimately averted:
 * Precision F-Strike: Meg is so bad at this her twelve-year-old daughter has to tell her how, and even then she screws it up. On the other hand... (see below).
 * Punch Clock Villain: Burnham. And, unlike Junior and Raoul, he refuses to hurt people.
 * Rape as Drama: Early in the movie, Meg & Sarah are in the panic room looking at the intruders on the closed-circuit TV, Sarah asks why the men are there. Meg replied that the robbers may want to rob them or ... something else. She trails off without finishing the thought, but it's clear that (as she doesn't think there's much of particular value in the house), she is worried about being raped.
 * Later, after  the first thing Meg says after being reunited is "Did they hurt you? Did they touch you?", in a tone of voice that clearly shows how terrified she was that this might have happened.
 * Rule of Cool: The three dimensional opening credits that look like they're floating above various shots of the New York City skyline.
 * Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Junior. It is debatable whether  would have actually let him leave anyway, but muttering loudly to yourself information that shows you've been lying to your fellow criminals is not a good idea.
 * The Stoic: Raoul... at first.
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill:
 * This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: ...Meg does manage this quite well.


 * Trigger Happy: Raoul, although Junior clearly doesn't know just how much of a psychopathic lunatic he really is
 * Would Hurt a Child: Raoul implies that he plans to kill Sarah, and at one point outright threatens to do it.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Meg and Burnham are quite well matched in this regard, and engage in a lot of this as they try to outmaneuver each other.