Back in 2002, this high concept romp launched to much fanfare. Starring the ever-awesome Jodie Foster, the thriller Panic Room explored themes of survival and rooms for panicking in.

Directed by David Fincher in one of his more formulaic films, this is nevertheless one that’s stuck with us over the years. With a brilliant Foster on top form, backed by a young Kristen Stewart, 23 years on it still holds up well. As it should! That room has a steel door blocking it up.

There’s Every Reason to Stay Calm in Panic Room

Righto, the plot follows the life of newly divorced human female Meg Altman (Jodie foster) and her teenage daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart).

They’ve moved to a fancy new home in New York, a four-story brownstone building. The previous owner, a millionaire, had installed a panic room in the event of intruders.

This thing is a fancy room of reinforced concrete and steel, with surveillance cameras, and a public address system. Essentially, once you’re in the room there’s no way for any evil bastard to get in.

Thus, you get the idea this room may be a central plot point for the movie, eh?

Sure enough, shortly after she’s moved in on one VERY rainy night, several burglars (played by Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakam) bust into the joint. The Altmans dash to the panic room.

Safe!? No! As, OMG, there’s a twist in the tale ahead when it turns out they’re in the one room the burglars want access to.

SPOILER here but it turns out there’s a hidden safe in the room containing many millions of dollars in bearer bonds. Not the most inventive reason, but a good enough cause for a claustrophobic thriller to play out.

In other words, Altman must use her smarts to try and get around the problem the panic rooms becomes.

There’s a strong theme of motherly protection going on, quite similar to how Ripley protects Newt in Aliens (1986). Not sure if that was David Fincher’s goal, but it’s ironic given he’d directed the pretty awful Alien 3 (1992).

Not that the plot is overly complex, Panic Room is one of Fincher’s most straightforward films.

But it presents its thriller concept well, elevated further by the acting prowess of Jodie Foster. She’s a quiet star who doesn’t hog the limelight, but she’s always brilliant in anything she’s in and adds real gravitas to Panic Room.

However, the film is quite limited to its dingy setting. Replete with trademark Fincher cinematography and lots (lots) of rain.

A huge chunk of the film is the three burglars trying to get into the panic room, which is quite limited in its appeal, even though Forest Whitaker has a moral conscience and realises what they’re doing is wrong. That’s pretty much the arc of the film before, sure enough, equilibrium is restored.

The last time we saw this was in 2007 as part of a flatshare watchalong and everyone enjoyed it a great deal. Watching it again recently, it hasn’t aged well now its concept has worn off a little.

However, as big Jodie Foster fans it’s always welcome to see her running about in an action chops role. But it is a good film, rather than a great one.

The Production of Panic Room

Big fact shock here… Nicole Kidman was the original choice to play Meg Altman. She had the role and was all set to go, but had to drop out of the project due to a leg injury.

Kidman even began the shoot and recorded various scenes, but left the project due to a fractured knee.

2002 was 23 years ago now (omg) and it’s easy to forget some of these big hit blockbusters. Off its $48 million budget it made almost $200 million and that’s not shabby at all. An indication of David Fincher and Jodie Foster’s respective star power.

Everything was shot on a soundstage with the house designed and built for $6 million, which included constructing the panic room of 6ft by 14ft.

Everything was filmed in January 2001, with Foster finding out she was pregnant soon after. This led to wearing various types of tops to cover up her ever-increasing bump size, but as this was so obvious various scenes were re-short after Foster had given birth.

To add to director Fincher’s continuity issues, Kristen Stewart was growing rapidly during the 120 day shoot. She was 11 when it began and shorter than Foster, but taller than her co-star by the time the film wrapped.

Notable with it all is the kickass feminist quality to the film.

If Panic Room launched now, you can guarantee right-wingers would be claiming it’s “woke” and terrible. Foster and Stewart have a tomboy identity and offer feminist resistance, fending off the violent actions of three men. Foster kept her private life a secret for a long while, but she is now openly gay and married her wife in April 2014. Huzzah and good for her.

After the success of this film, Foster tried a similar high concept film called Flight Plan in 2004. We remember the plot of that being so ridiculous it was hard to take it seriously.