Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Panic Room

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Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-31-2002, 05:24 PM:

03/31/2002, Regal Cinema World 8, Eugene OR, 12:00 noon, #4, scope, digital sound (probably SDDS). Excellent presentation. Attendance about 20 (probably low due to being early on Easter Sunday?).

A very well-made & suspenseful thriller, though not perfect. Jodie Foster and her young daughter move into a huge old house that has a "panic room" in it. Unknown to them at the time they move in, the panic room conceals a large stash of money. Immediately after they move into the house, 3 bad guys show up to recover the money, and they expect the house to be empty. Forest Whittaker is the "nice" bad guy -- all he wants is the money, no trouble or violence. The other 2 crooks are a little more intense about recovering the loot and not too concerned about what has to be done to get from here to there.

A significant flaw is that early on, it's established that the bad guys want something that's in the panic room. But it never dawns on Foster and her daughter to figure out what that might be and offer it up. We find out late in the move *why* that strategy wouldn't have worked, but there's never any explanation earlier when the question seems obvious. Also, the bad guys offer up some comic relief that seems out of place sometimes.

Apparently the entire movie was scanned in digitally so that effects could be added in the digital domain, then printed to film again. The movie looks OK but seems to lack fine detail. The upside of the effects work is the camera gets to move around and do things that would be physically impossible. This is all seamlessly done.

So anyway, overall I liked it.

Posted by Mitchell Cope (Member # 32) on 03-31-2002, 08:23 PM:

I think the movie started out very good, but it lost me about two-thirds of the way. The director, David Fincher, couldn't build and sustain the suspense like "Wait Until Dark", which this movie has to be compared to.

And what about that gas explosion? My knowledge of propane would have it heavier than air, yet the explosion was up on the ceiling. Surviving that was hard to swallow.

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 04-01-2002, 03:52 AM:

I haven't seen the film yet, but with the gas explosion from what I have seen in the previews, it looks more like methane rather than propane.

I personally refrain from comparing any movie to another unless it begs to be compared, as if it were a remake, a redo, or just a really bad copy.

Like Idle Hands was a terrible copy of Evil Dead.

When I go and see it this week, I will come back and decide if Mr. Fincher has created another classic, like Seven and Fight Club, or a dud, like Alien 3 (that was his wasn't it?).

Dave

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 04-01-2002, 09:07 AM:

Don't forget that the magnet was still on when he moved the drill press out of the way?

I too liked the movie, even during screening. Sometimes, a movie is more enjoyable with a crowd, than by yourself. I liked the opening credits that made them look like they were part of the buildings.

Paul.

Posted by Mitchell Cope (Member # 32) on 04-01-2002, 12:29 PM:

It may have looked like a methane explosion, but the gas came from a propane tank. It is unlikely it would have contained methane as propane has better storage and heating characteristics for a charcoal grill.

OK, what was the deal with the magnet being left on? Did I miss something crucial to the storyline?

And I had forgotten about the opening credits. The first one or two looked cool, but then it became overdone and added nothing to the movie. Even people around me were snickering at those.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 04-01-2002, 01:45 PM:

I forgot about that magnet being left on. I didn't get the significance either. ??

The opening credits were very original, nicely done.

Posted by David Koegel (Member # 25) on 04-02-2002, 09:06 AM:

Furthering Mitchell's comments, propane gas is one and a half times heavier than air while methane gas only about 55% the weight of an equivalent volume of air at atmospheric pressures. Even lighter is helium at 14%. So yes, natural gas could accumulate and float next to the ceiling while propane would most definitely sink to the floor.

And as for a cylinder of compressed natural gas, it comes in the same type of cylinders used in welding, available in pressures from 1265 psi to 2000 psi. You won't see it in any normal home

Posted by Paul Konen (Member # 41) on 04-02-2002, 12:26 PM:

I mentioned the magnet because he engaged it to make the drill press stick to the floor, but then after getting his access to view the tumblers, he just slides it out of the way. Unless, the magnet was for something else. Once he moved it, the zoomed to show that it was still on.

Paul.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-07-2002, 11:58 PM:

I saw "Panic Room" this weekend (my friends dragged me to the mall theater here in town where it was playing in a tiny 87 seat auditorium with bad sounding analog stereo. Overall, I enjoyed the movie but was distracted from having to strain to hear the dialog and had that hollow feeling the film would have sounded much better in DTS. Dwight Yoakum's "Ramon" character was pretty creepy.

On the title design, it was a neat visual idea; however, it seemed a bit cumbersome as well since every title listing demanded its own edit and shot setup. It seemed a little disjointed overall. At least they chose a bold weight of Copperplate Gothic rather than lapsing back to Trajan (although Jodie Foster's name is set in Trajan at the top of the movie poster one sheet).

The gas tank mentioned earlier in this thread was indeed a propane tank and was labeled as such. The blue green flames from the explosion looked nothing like the deep blue flame I typically see from a propane gas barbeque grille.

Here's an added wrinkle that bothered me about that gas incident. Propane is indeed heavier than air. If the characters had breathed in the gas, they would likely pass out and even stop breathing because of the weight of the gas. And then there is a possibility that pipe at the bottom of the room would have just drained out all the gas. So, either the gas inflow would possibly kill the panic room occupants quickly or not have any effect at all.

I remember an episode of Rescue 911 year ago involving such an incident. This fellow filled an air mattress with propane since he didn't have an air pump. His kid was sleeping in the tent with his head off the matress. A leak occured and the kid breathed in some of the gas and passed out. The child had to be held upside down to allow the gas to fall out of his lungs before CPR would do any good. Luckily the child survived.