Thriller film , also known as suspense film or suspense thriller , is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. Tension is created by delaying what the audience sees as inevitable, and is built through situations that are menacing or where escape seems impossible.
225-486: Panic Room is a 2002 American thriller film directed by David Fincher . The film stars Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart as a mother and daughter whose new home is invaded by burglars, played by Forest Whitaker , Jared Leto , and Dwight Yoakam . The script was written by David Koepp , whose screenplay was inspired by news coverage in 2000 about panic rooms . The film was Fincher's fifth feature film, following Fight Club (1999). Fincher and Koepp brought together
450-689: A Primetime Emmy Award . She was also honored with the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2013 and the Honorary Palme d'Or in 2021. Foster began her professional career as a child model and later gained recognition as a teen idol through various Disney films, including Napoleon and Samantha (1972), Freaky Friday (1976), and Candleshoe (1977). She appeared in Martin Scorsese 's comedy-drama Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) and thriller Taxi Driver (1976). For her role as
675-529: A Saturn Award . In November, Foster hosted Saturday Night Live , becoming the youngest person to do so until Drew Barrymore hosted at age 7 in 1982. Her final film of the year was the Disney comedy Freaky Friday , "her first true star vehicle". She played a tomboy teen who accidentally changes bodies with her mother, and she later said the film marked a "transitional period" when she began to grow out of child roles. It received mainly positive reviews, and
900-401: A popcorn movie about survival. His previous film Fight Club had 400 scenes and 100 locations, so he wanted to simplify the production of Panic Room . To this end, he wanted to focus production on a single set and to plan the scenes and shots thoroughly before the start of filming. Despite the preparation, he experienced difficulty in production with changes in the cast and the crew as well as
1125-426: A thriller that uses suspense to augment attention to abuses of power and instances of oppression in society. This new subgenre gained notoriety in 2017 with the release of Get Out . Other examples include The Tall Man , Dirty Pretty Things , Parasite , and The Constant Gardner . Spy film is a genre in which the protagonist is generally a government agent who must take violent action against agents of
1350-494: A "shadowy ambience" as a backdrop for Meg and Sarah Altman. Casting began in 2000, with Nicole Kidman and Hayden Panettiere cast as Meg and Sarah Altman, the film's mother and daughter. Forest Whitaker , Jared Leto , and Dwight Yoakam were also cast as the film's burglars. In December 2000, before the start of filming, Panettiere left the project, and was replaced by Kristen Stewart . Filming began in January 2001. Shortly after
1575-475: A Duckling , Tenebrae , Opera , and Sleepless . A subgenre involving horror . Legal thriller is a suspense film in which the major characters are lawyers and their employees. The system of justice itself is always a major part of these works, at times almost functioning as one of the characters. Examples include The Pelican Brief , Presumed Innocent , A Time to Kill , The Client , The Lincoln Lawyer , The Firm . Political thriller
1800-474: A Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress. In 2013, Foster received the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 70th Golden Globe Awards . Her next film role was Secretary of Defense Delacourt opposite Matt Damon in the dystopian film Elysium (2013), which was a box office success. She also returned to television directing for the first time since the 1980s, directing the episodes "Lesbian Request Denied" (2013) and "Thirsty Bird" (2014) for Orange Is
2025-413: A New Yorker who becomes a vigilante after her fiancé is murdered. It was not a success, but earned Foster her sixth Golden Globe nomination. Her last film role of the decade was in the children's adventure film Nim's Island (2008), in which she portrayed an agoraphobic writer opposite Gerard Butler and Abigail Breslin . It was the first comedy in which she had starred since Maverick (1994), and
2250-458: A bomb that struggles to land in a snowstorm. Similar films about a group of survivors escape several locations, such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno (1974) and Earthquake (1974) about a group of troubled people in Los Angeles. The films often featured all-star casts and often had the disaster happening early or mid-way into the story rather than at the climax with
2475-412: A bond with co-star Robert De Niro , who saw "serious potential" in her and dedicated time rehearsing scenes with her. Foster called Taxi Driver a life-changing experience and said it was "the first time anyone asked me to create a character that wasn't myself. It was the first time I realized that acting wasn't this hobby you just sort of did, but that there was actually some craft." Taxi Driver won
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#17328590111922700-709: A close relationship with horror films, both eliciting tension. In plots about crime, thriller films focus less on the criminal or the detective and more on generating suspense. Common themes include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit and romantic triangles leading to murder. In 2001, the American Film Institute (AFI) made its selection of the top 100 greatest American "heart-pounding" and "adrenaline-inducing" films of all time . The 400 nominated films had to be American-made films whose thrills have "enlivened and enriched America's film heritage". AFI also asked jurors to consider "the total adrenaline-inducing impact of
2925-417: A crew of people with whom each had worked with before. The house and its panic room were built on a Raleigh Studios lot. Nicole Kidman was originally cast as the mother, but she left after aggravating a previous injury. Her departure threatened the completion of the film, but Foster quickly replaced Kidman. The filmmakers used computer-generated imagery to create the illusion of the film camera moving through
3150-476: A crime thriller similar to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), where money is "an object that everyone's after for the wrong reasons". The director was also interested in the story's conciseness of happening in one place and in one night, and how the screenplay was well-laid out to let the director decide a variety of shots and use of set-pieces. Fincher also saw the project as a way to be "in lock-step with
3375-413: A depiction with her divorcee status and her residence in a home too big for her and her daughter Sarah. The academic says calling this depiction merely a sexist stereotype is too dismissive: "It is logical that anxieties around the home and loss of children would privilege women because the domestic sphere has remained a gendered space." Kapur recalls 1940s films wherein a woman enters the husband's home as
3600-422: A depressed man who develops an alternative personality based on a beaver hand puppet. It starred Maverick co-star Mel Gibson and featured herself, Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence in supporting roles as his family. Foster called its production "probably the biggest struggle of my professional career", partly due to the film's heavy subject matter but also due to the controversy that Gibson generated when he
3825-427: A director, Little Man Tate , a drama about a child prodigy who struggles to come to terms with being different. The main role was played by previously unknown actor Adam Hann-Byrd , and Foster co-starred as his working-class single mother. She had found the script in the " slush pile " at Orion Pictures , and explained that for her debut film she "wanted a piece that was not autobiographical, but that had to do with
4050-543: A documentary on one of the first female film directors. Foster directed the finale of the 2020 science fiction drama Tales from the Loop . Her next project was the legal drama The Mauritanian (2021), in which she starred as the lawyer of a prisoner ( Tahar Rahim ) at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp . Foster won a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe for her performance. At the 2021 Cannes Film Festival , Foster received
4275-482: A drama like that." She said the incident had a major impact on her career choices, but also acknowledged that her experience was minimal compared to the suffering of Reagan's press secretary James Brady , who was permanently disabled in the shooting and died from his injuries 33 years later, and his loved ones: "Whatever bad moments that I had certainly could never compare to that family." Foster has received two Academy Awards , three British Academy Film Awards ,
4500-523: A film's artistry and craft". In his book on the genre, Martin Rubin stated that the label "Thriller" was "highly problematic" declaring that "the very breadth and vagueness of the thriller category understandably discourage efforts to define it precisely.". This was echoed by Charles Derry in his book The Suspense Thriller , which found that the terms "suspense thriller", "thriller" and "suspense film" are used continuously in popular press, academic writings and
4725-493: A genre in which the hero/heroine confronts a large, powerful group of enemies whose true extent only she/he recognizes. The Chancellor Manuscript and The Aquitaine Progression by Robert Ludlum fall into this category, as do films such as Awake , Snake Eyes , The Da Vinci Code , Edge of Darkness , Absolute Power , Marathon Man , In the Line of Fire , Capricorn One , and JFK . Crime thriller as an genre
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#17328590111924950-477: A glucometer as a watch.) Sarah's diabetes in the film is never explicitly outlined for audiences, but they hear dialogue about moderating beverage intake and see the glucometer count down. Ferguson says, "The glucometer arranges the viewer's acknowledgement of diabetic selfcare, thus implicating the viewer in the process of control. The pure watchfulness of cinemagoers mimics the controlling relationship diabetic characters must endure." Though mother and daughter bond in
5175-565: A good child actress; she's just a good actress", although both reviewers panned the film. Foster's fourth film of 1976 was the Canadian-French thriller The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane , in which she starred opposite Martin Sheen . The film combined aspects of thriller and horror genres, and showed Foster as a mysterious young girl living on her own in a small town. The performance earned her
5400-529: A harsher more conflict-riddled world closer to those of the anti-Bond spy films. These films were also harsher and more violent, mostly due to the demise of the Hays Code . The influence of the police thriller was long lasting, leading into the popular Die Hard and Lethal Weapon film series and attaching itself to other genres such as science fiction ( Mad Max , Blade Runner , RoboCop ), and comedy ( 48 Hrs. and Beverly Hills Cop ). Offshoots of
5625-411: A man who planned to kill her but changed his mind after seeing her perform in a college play. Foster has seldom publicly commented on Hinckley. She wrote an essay, "Why Me?", published in 1982 by Esquire on the condition that "there be no cover lines, no publicity and no photos". In 1991, she canceled an interview on NBC's The Today Show when she discovered that Hinckley would be mentioned in
5850-577: A minor role as Meg's ex-husband Stephen. Kidman, though she left the primary role due to her knee injury, had an uncredited off-screen role as the voice of Stephen's supermodel girlfriend. Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker , who contributed as writer for several of Fincher's previous films, had a cameo in Panic Room as a sleepy neighbor. Panic Room was directed by David Fincher based on a screenplay written by David Koepp. The film, produced at Columbia Pictures ,
6075-645: A mixed critical response and was a commercial failure. In 1996, Foster received two honorary awards: the Crystal Award , awarded annually for women in the entertainment industry, and the Berlinale Camera at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival . She voiced a character in an episode of Frasier in 1996 and in an episode of The X-Files in early 1997. After Nell (1994), Foster appeared in no new film releases until Contact (1997),
6300-598: A more paranoid edge to their plots. Police thrillers returned to popularity around the period of law-and-order issues between 1968 and 1972 presidential campaigns through a general swing towards the right in the United States due to the Vietnam War . The police-centered were much less critical in their treatment of their justice obsessed lawmen and were showcased fighting to protect society where official institutions have failed them. The police thriller returned in 1967 with
6525-485: A nomination for a BAFTA Award . Foster's first film release after the success of The Accused was the thriller The Silence of the Lambs (1991). She portrayed FBI trainee Clarice Starling , who is sent to interview incarcerated serial killer Hannibal Lecter ( Anthony Hopkins ) in order to hunt another serial killer, Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb ( Ted Levine ). Foster later named the role one of her favorites. She had read
6750-483: A peak of character development and moral complexity in the film thriller that was closer to the psychology films of Alfred Hitchcock than the action or mystery-oriented forms of the police thriller. Syndicate gangster films of the era had similarities to the anti-communist spy films and alien-invasion science fiction films of the era with films like The Enforcer (1951) while The Phenix City Story (1955) and The Brothers Rico which contained borderline breakdowns of
6975-560: A pretty face, because I worked for 20 years doing that stuff and I feel it's really invaluable; it really taught me a lot.'" Foster's mother was concerned that her daughter's career would end by the time she grew out of playing children and decided that Foster should also begin acting in films for adult audiences. After the minor supporting role in Alice , Scorsese cast her in the role of a child prostitute in Taxi Driver (1976). To be able to do
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7200-515: A production coordinator, on the set of Sommersby (1993). They were in a relationship from 1993 until 2008 and had two sons together, born in 1998 and 2001. Foster is their biological mother; the biological father's identity has not been made public. In 2014, Foster married actress and photographer Alexandra Hedison after a year of dating. Foster's sexual orientation became the subject of public discussion in 1991 when publications such as OutWeek and The Village Voice , protesting against
7425-787: A rape victim in The Accused (1988) and Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991). She also received a nomination for her performance in Nell (1994). Her other notable films include Sommersby (1993), Maverick (1994), Contact (1997), Anna and the King (1999), Panic Room (2002), Flightplan (2005), Inside Man (2006), The Brave One (2007), Nim's Island (2008), Carnage (2011), Elysium (2013), The Mauritanian (2021), and Nyad (2023). The last of these earned Foster her fifth Oscar nomination. In 2024, she starred in
7650-520: A recently divorced woman who, with her daughter Sarah, looks for a new home in New York City. Nicole Kidman was originally cast as Meg, but she left the project due to a knee injury. Foster, who almost joined the cast of Fincher's 1997 film The Game , replaced Kidman. Fincher said Kidman's portrayal was "about glamour and physicality", while Foster's portrayal was "more political". Meg was originally written to be helpless, but with Foster's involvement,
7875-431: A reclusive millionaire, had installed a " panic room " to protect the occupants from intruders. The room is reinforced with concrete and steel on all sides and features a thick steel door. It also includes an extensive security system with multiple surveillance cameras and a public address system . On Meg and Sarah's first night, three men break into the home: Junior, the previous owner's grandson; Burnham, an employee of
8100-568: A remake of Get Carter (1971), and Black Mama, White Mama (1973) a remake of The Defiant Ones (1958). The cycle generally slowed down by the mid 1970s. During the 1970s, contemporary situations such as the Watergate scandal and disillusionment about the Vietnam War led to conspiracy thrillers. A cycle of these films included Executive Action (1973) about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy , The Parallax View (1974) about
8325-747: A rival government or (in recent years) terrorists. The subgenre often deals with the subject of espionage in a realistic way (as in the adaptations of John Le Carré 's novels). It is a significant aspect of British cinema , with leading British directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Carol Reed making notable contributions, and many films set in the British Secret Service . Thrillers within this subgenre include Berlin Express , Spy Game , Hanna , Traitor , Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy , The Tourist , The Parallax View , The Tailor of Panama , Mission Impossible , Unknown , The Recruit ,
8550-661: A role in the television film Menace on the Mountain (1970), she made her feature film debut in Napoleon and Samantha (1972), playing a girl who befriends a boy, played by Johnny Whitaker , and his pet lion. She was accidentally grabbed by the lion on set, which left her with scars on her back. Her other early film work includes the Raquel Welch vehicle Kansas City Bomber (1972), the Western One Little Indian (1973),
8775-456: A scene that was an eighth of a page in the script took two days to film. Another repeated take was one five-second shot being filmed over a hundred times: Meg being attacked by Raoul and dropping Sarah's medical kit. The shot was repeated so it would look like Meg did not toss the kit but instead lost it. Simultaneously, the kit needed to land in frame and in focus for the audience. Fincher argued for repeated takes so he could combine performances by
9000-447: A science fiction film based on a novel by Carl Sagan and directed by Robert Zemeckis . She starred as a scientist searching for extraterrestrial life in the SETI project. The film was a commercial success and earned Foster a Saturn Award and a nomination for a Golden Globe. Foster next produced Jane Anderson 's television film The Baby Dance (1998) for Showtime . Its story deals with
9225-446: A score of 65 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal said, " Seven was stylishly gloomy, and Fight Club was smarmily pretentious, while Panic Room has been admirably stripped down to atmosphere as a function of architecture, and action as a consequence of character." Morgenstern commended the characters Meg and Sarah as feminist heroines and also called
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9450-457: A serial killer was another popular motif in the 1990s. A famous example is Jonathan Demme 's Best Picture–winning crime thriller The Silence of the Lambs (1991)—in which young FBI agent Clarice Starling ( Jodie Foster ) engages in a psychological conflict with a cannibalistic psychiatrist named Hannibal Lecter ( Anthony Hopkins ) while tracking down serial killer Buffalo Bill—and David Fincher 's crime thriller Seven (1995), about
9675-440: A sinister corporation linked to a series of political murders, and others like The Conversation (1974) and Winter Kills (1979). Unlike other films of the past, the paranoia of these films often focused on American institutions opposed to gangsterism or communists. A thriller-related movement in the 1970s was the disaster film , which came with the great financial success of Airport (1970), about an airplane crippled by
9900-460: A stranger, with "the house and the husband as sources of dependence and dread". She contrasts them with films like Panic Room , in which the female protagonists instead defend against dangerous intruders. She writes, "They are not economically dependent on the marriage. Yet they portray for most of the film an image of feminized vulnerability, replaying the racist trope of diminutive white women in need of protection from outsider threats." Panic Room
10125-527: A style coined by French critics in 1946 which arose in the mid-1940s. The film noir style was not acknowledge by American filmmakers, critics or audiences until the 1970s. Early films considered as harbingers of the movement include Fritz Lang's You Only Live Once (1937), the b-film Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) and I Wake Up Screaming (1941) and the first universally acknowledged major film noir : Billy Wilder 's Double Indemnity . During
10350-476: A teenage prostitute in the latter, she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress . Other early films include Tom Sawyer (1973), Bugsy Malone (1976), The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976), Carny (1980), and Foxes (1980). After attending Yale University , Foster transitioned into mature leading roles and won two Academy Awards for Best Actress for playing
10575-411: A teenager at ten years old. It was about the daughter being a parent to her mother." When Foster replaced Kidman, the character Meg was rewritten so she and Sarah would be similar. Forest Whitaker , Jared Leto , and Dwight Yoakam star as the film's burglars, Burnham, Junior, and Raoul, respectively. Whitaker's character Burnham was originally written to be "a slick, technical type" and the designer of
10800-522: A way to escape the clutches of the villain—these devices influenced a number of thrillers in the following years. Rob Reiner 's Misery (1990), based on a book by Stephen King , featured Kathy Bates as an unbalanced fan who terrorizes an incapacitated author ( James Caan ) who is in her care. Other films include Curtis Hanson 's The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) and Unlawful Entry (1992), starring Ray Liotta . Detectives/FBI agents hunting down
11025-482: A wealthy California couple who struggle with infertility and decide to adopt from a poor family in Louisiana . On her decision to produce for television, Foster stated that it was easier to take financial risks in that medium than in feature films. In 1998, she also moved her production company from PolyGram to Paramount Pictures . Also in 1998, asteroid 17744 Jodiefoster was named in her honor. Foster's last film of
11250-577: A wealthy businessman. She is of German, Irish, and English heritage. On her father's side, she is descended from John Alden , who arrived in North America on the Mayflower in 1620. Her parents' marriage ended before she was born, and she never established a relationship with her father. She has three older full siblings: Lucinda, Constance ("Connie"), and Lucius ("Buddy") ; as well as three half-brothers from her father's earlier marriage. Following
11475-579: A woman who hides in a panic room with her daughter when burglars invade their home. It grossed over $ 30 million on its North American opening weekend in March 2002, becoming the most successful film opening of Foster's career as of 2015 . In addition to being a box office success, the film also received largely positive reviews. After a minor appearance in the French period drama A Very Long Engagement (2004), Foster starred in three more thrillers. The first
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#173285901119211700-456: A world where everything seems to fit together as part of an ever-widening web of conspiracy". This type of editing was later applied to numerous film noirs such as Robert Siodmak 's The Killers (1946) and Stanley Kubrick 's The Killing (1956). It was also used in Oliver Stone 's JFK (1991) and Bryan Singer 's The Usual Suspects . During the silent era, German Expressionism
11925-482: A worldwide total of $ 197.1 million . The film was well-received by critics, who praised Foster's performance and the film's suspense. Panic Room has been assessed for its portrayal of childhood and feminism , the elements of video surveillance and diabetes , and its thematic approach to mortality . Recently divorced Meg Altman and her eleven-year-old daughter, Sarah, move into a four-story brownstone in New York City's Upper West Side . The house's previous owner,
12150-725: Is a hybrid type of both crime films and thrillers, which offers a suspenseful account of a successful or failed crime or crimes. Such films often focus on the criminal(s) rather than a policeman . Central topics include serial killers/murders, robberies , chases, shootouts , heists , and double-crosses . Some examples of crime thrillers involving murderers are Seven , No Country for Old Men , The French Connection , The Silence Of The Lambs , Memento , To Live and Die in L.A. , Collateral , and Copycat . Examples of crime thrillers involving heists or robberies are The Asphalt Jungle , The Score , Rififi , Entrapment , Heat , and The Killing . Erotic thriller
12375-472: Is a psychological type of film (until the often violent resolution), the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional rather than physical. Characters, either by accident or their own curiousness, are dragged into a dangerous conflict or situation that they are not prepared to resolve. To overcome their brutish enemies characters are reliant not on physical strength but on their mental resources. This subgenre usually has elements of drama , as there
12600-547: Is a suspenseful film in which the manipulation of sophisticated technology plays a prominent part. Examples include WarGames , The Thirteenth Floor , I, Robot , Source Code , Eagle Eye , Supernova , Hackers , The Net , Futureworld , eXistenZ , and Virtuosity . Jodie Foster Alicia Christian " Jodie " Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. She has received numerous accolades , including two Academy Awards , three BAFTA Awards , three Golden Globe Awards and
12825-477: Is a thriller film that has an emphasis on eroticism and where a sexual relationship plays an important role in the plot. It has become popular since the 1980s and the rise of VCR market penetration. The genre includes such films as Body Heat , Sea of Love , Basic Instinct , Chloe , Disclosure , Dressed to Kill , Eyes Wide Shut , In the Cut , Lust, Caution , and Single White Female . Giallo
13050-591: Is a type of film in which the protagonist must ensure the stability of the government. The success of Seven Days in May (1962) by Fletcher Knebel , The Day of the Jackal (1971) by Frederick Forsyth , and The Manchurian Candidate (1959) by Richard Condon established this subgenre. Other examples include Topaz , Notorious , The Man Who Knew Too Much , The Interpreter , Proof of Life , State of Play , and The Ghost Writer. Psychological thriller film
13275-509: Is an Italian thriller film that contains elements of mystery , crime fiction , slasher , psychological thriller , and psychological horror . It deals with an unknown killer murdering people, with the protagonist having to find out who the killer is. The genre was popular during the late 1960s-late 1970s and is still being produced today, albeit less commonly. Examples include The Girl Who Knew Too Much , Blood and Black Lace , Deep Red , The Red Queen Kills Seven Times , Don't Torture
13500-617: Is an impostor. She then replaced Meg Ryan in the Western comedy Maverick (1994), playing a con artist opposite Mel Gibson and James Garner . According to film scholar Karen Hollinger, both films featured her in more "conventionally feminine" roles. Both Sommersby and Maverick were commercially successful. Foster had founded her own production company, Egg Pictures, a subsidiary of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment in 1992, and released its first production, Nell , in December 1994. It
13725-631: Is an in-depth development of realistic characters who must deal with emotional struggles. The Alfred Hitchcock films Suspicion , Shadow of a Doubt , Rear Window , and Strangers on a Train , as well as David Lynch 's bizarre and influential Blue Velvet , are notable examples of the type, as are The Talented Mr. Ripley , The Machinist , Shutter Island , Mirrors , Insomnia , Identity , Gone Girl , Red Eye , Phone Booth , Fatal Attraction , The River Wild , Panic Room , Misery , Cape Fear , 10 Cloverfield Lane , and Funny Games . Social thriller are
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#173285901119213950-403: Is an irreconcilable contradiction of freedom and safety. Dietmar Kammerer says there is no closed system within the home for the characters: "There is always communication; every action provokes a reaction." In contrast, the film's "camera eye" can travel unimpeded throughout the home, passing through walls. The surveillance footage in the film is never the camera eye; the camera eye itself observes
14175-474: Is diabetic. Kevin L. Ferguson says, "With diabetes, this self-aware focus on the ethics of the body is drawn sharply by films that also raise the older form of direct, punitive power. This is the reason why diabetics appear with frequency in films involving criminality and law." In a review of nearly forty films with diabetes as a key element, Panic Room is one of the only three that shows a glucometer (a device diabetics use to measure their glucose ; Sarah wears
14400-428: Is one of several films at the turn of the 21st century that use video surveillance as a key element. In particular, video surveillance is featured to illustrate aspects of a " surveillance society ". The home is wired with a closed-circuit television system, and the images are displayed in the home's panic room. Since the burglars want to access the safe in the panic room where Meg and her daughter Sarah are hiding, there
14625-457: Is possibly no such thing as a pure "thriller thriller". Rubin further expanded on the problematic usage of the genre due to its wide usage in media, such as the American magazine TV Guide listing Basket Case (1982) as a thriller, while its sequel Basket Case 2 (1990) was a comedy and that films as diverse as the horror film Halloween (1978), the detective film The Big Sleep (1946),
14850-428: Is safe to temporarily leave the panic room. When she leaves to retrieve Sarah's medication, the men enter the room with Sarah inside. Meg manages to throw the med kit in just as Burnham closes the door, inadvertently crushing Raoul's hand. She pleads with the men to give Sarah her medication, which Burnham eventually does. Two policemen later arrive at the house following up on Stephen's earlier 911 call and complaints from
15075-632: Is usually set against a problem, such as an escape, a mission , or a mystery. Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identifies thriller films as one of eleven super-genres in his screenwriters' taxonomy , claiming that all feature length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres. The other ten super-genres are action , crime , fantasy , horror , romance , science fiction , slice of life, sports , war , and western . Thriller films are typically hybridized with other super-genres; hybrids commonly including: action thrillers, fantasy and science fiction thrillers. Thriller films also share
15300-592: The Die Hard series, and the Bourne series. Comedy thriller is a genre that combines elements of humor with suspense. Such films include Silver Streak , Dr. Strangelove , Charade , Hera Pheri , Malamaal Weekly , Kiss Kiss Bang Bang , In Bruges , Mr. & Mrs. Smith , Grosse Point Blank , The Thin Man , The Big Fix , Pocket Listing , The Lady Vanishes , and Game Night . Conspiracy thriller
15525-648: The Orange Is the New Black episode " Lesbian Request Denied " (2013). She has also directed episodes of Tales from the Darkside (1988), House of Cards (2014), the Black Mirror episode " Arkangel " (2017), and Tales from the Loop (2020). Alicia Christian Foster was born on November 19, 1962, in Los Angeles, California, the youngest child of Evelyn Ella "Brandy" (née Almond; 1928–2019) and Lucius Fisher Foster III,
15750-585: The San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "not enough can be said about the performance of Foster in this film. She brings to the role a quality of having seen the absolute worst in people, but also the suggestion that, as a result, she accepts them on their own terms and knows how to handle any situation." Rick Bentley from Tampa Bay Times declared Foster's performance one of her "best and most memorable." The same year, Foster co-produced and narrated Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché (2018),
15975-533: The American Film Institute and Sight & Sound , and has been preserved in the National Film Registry . Foster also acted in another film nominated for the Palme d'Or in 1976, Bugsy Malone , a British musical that parodied films about Prohibition Era gangsters by having all roles played by children. Foster appeared in a major supporting role as a star of a speakeasy show. Director Alan Parker
16200-531: The Cannes Film Festival 's Honorary Palme d'Or , three Golden Globe Awards , a Primetime Emmy Award , and a Screen Actors Guild Award . She also earned the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2013. Foster has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for the following films: People magazine named her the most beautiful woman in the world in 1992, and in 2003, she
16425-568: The HBO anthology series True Detective: Night Country , for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award. Foster made her directorial debut with Little Man Tate (1991) and has since directed films such as Home for the Holidays (1995), The Beaver (2011), and Money Monster (2016). She founded her own production company, Egg Pictures, in 1992. Foster has also received Primetime Emmy nominations for producing The Baby Dance (1998) and for directing
16650-542: The Harold Lloyd comedy film Safety Last! (1923), the Hitchcock spy film North by Northwest (1959), the disaster film The Poseidon Adventure (1972), and the science fiction monster movie Alien (1979) can all be considered thrillers. Due to what Rubin describe as a "wide, imprecise scope", it is unwieldy to attempt a comprehensive history of individual genres, including the thriller, and suggests it better to view
16875-684: The James Bond franchise, The Debt , The Good Shepherd , and Three Days of the Condor . Supernatural thriller films include an otherworldly element (such as fantasy or the supernatural ) mixed with tension, suspense, or plot twists. Sometimes the protagonist or villain has some psychic ability and superpowers . Examples include Fallen , Frequency , In Dreams , Flatliners , Jacob's Ladder , The Skeleton Key , What Lies Beneath , Unbreakable , The Sixth Sense , The Gift , The Dead Zone , and Horns . Techno-thriller
17100-651: The Lycée Français de Los Angeles , a French-language prep school . Her fluency in French has enabled her to act in French films. She also dubs herself in French-language versions of most of her English-language films. At her graduation in 1980, she delivered the valedictorian address for the school's French division. She subsequently studied at Yale University , where she majored in African-American literature . She wrote her thesis on Toni Morrison under
17325-548: The Mark Twain adaptation Tom Sawyer (1973), and Martin Scorsese 's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), in which she appeared in a supporting role as a " Ripple -drinking street kid". Foster said she loved acting as a child and values her early work for the experience it gave her: "Some people get quick breaks and declare, 'I'll never do commercials! That's so lowbrow!' I want to tell them, 'Well, I'm real glad you've got
17550-463: The Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival , where Foster impressed journalists when she acted as a French interpreter at the press conference. Taxi Driver was a critical and commercial success, and earned her a supporting actress Academy Award nomination, as well as two BAFTAs , a David di Donatello and a National Society of Film Critics award. The film is considered one of the best in history by
17775-481: The Screen Actors Guild were threatening to strike over contractual disputes, so Fincher was pressured to re-cast the role of Meg Altman before it took place. Since the film was early in production, Fincher was ready to shut down, but the studio wanted to continue production and find a replacement. If the studio had shut down production permanently, it would have collected $ 3 million from insurance. If production
18000-523: The Sundance Film Festival in January 2002. It received good reviews, and had a limited theatrical release in the summer. After the cancellation of Flora Plum , Foster took on the main role in David Fincher's thriller Panic Room after its intended star, Nicole Kidman , had to drop out due to an injury on set. Before filming resumed, Foster was given only a week to prepare for the role of
18225-468: The spy film , horror film and various sub-genres of crime films more so than Westerns , musicals , and war films . Derry also suggested this, stating that the film was an "umbrella genre" that cuts across several more clearly defined genres. Rubin went as far to suggest that there was possibly no such thing as a pure "thriller thriller" as it was easier to apply it as a quality as a spy thriller , detective thriller, horror thriller , and that there
18450-425: The 10 philosophies I've accumulated in the past 25 years. Every single one of them, if they weren't in the script from the beginning, they're there now." Some reviewers felt that the film did not live up to the high expectations, and regarded it as "less adventurous than many films in which [she] had starred", but others praised it, like Roger Ebert, who called it "the kind of film you enjoy watching". Regardless, it
18675-427: The 1940s, the influence of other foreign movements such as Italian neo-realism and American filmmaker's participation in making war documentaries and the audience's growing familiarity with these documentaries gritty and fact-based style led to Hollywood developing crime films that were shot in actual locations opposed to studio sets. These films included The House on 92nd Street and Call Northside 777 (1947) and
18900-454: The 1950s with I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951), The Red Menace (1949), and Samuel Fuller 's Pickup on South Street (1953). Crime was the significant focus of thrillers in the 1950s. The more realistic crime films of the 1940s and film noir merged into films about police detectives thrillers. Unlike the more clean-cut police officers of the 1940s realistic films, these films often had
19125-460: The 1960s thrillers with their sordid atmosphere. Another cross-fertilization between American and European thrillers was the French New Wave , a movement which arose in the late 1950s. The style of these films were generally more self-conscious and intrusive than that of Hollywood films. When these films had thriller aspects, these aspects of their story had a throwaway quality. The influence of
19350-485: The 1990s was the period drama Anna and the King (1999), in which she starred opposite Chow Yun-Fat . It was based on a fictionalized biography of British teacher Anna Leonowens , who taught the children of King Mongkut of Siam , and whose story became well known as the musical The King and I . Foster was paid $ 15 million to portray Leonowens, making her one of the highest-paid female actors in Hollywood. The film
19575-673: The 19th century at fairgrounds and amusements parks with thrill-oriented rides and attractions such as Ferris wheels , Shoot the Chutes , which Rubin described as offering a "departure from humdrum reality that is merely a heightened version of that same humdrum reality.". Fairgrounds were the earliest venues for film exhibitions in peep-show arcades, which film historian Tom Gunning described as "the cinema of attractions". Film exhibitions were composed of novelty-oriented shorts that provided surprise, amazement, laughter, or sexual stimulation with no narrative. The sensation of motion in these early films
19800-530: The American Film Institute's top ten of the greatest film heroes and villains , and the film is preserved in the National Film Registry. Later in 1991, Foster also starred in the unsuccessful low-budget thriller Catchfire , which had been filmed before Silence , but was released after it in an attempt to profit from its success. In October 1991, Foster released her first feature film as
20025-555: The Bond films, while still differentiating themselves from the patriotic and Anti-Nazi and anti-communist spy films of the past. These films deglamorized the nature of the Bond films while still remaining thrillers, such as The Ipcress File (1965), Funeral in Berlin (1966), The Defector (1966) and The Quiller Memorandum (1966). These films featured spies who seemed less invincible than James Bond and other super spies, and often featured
20250-473: The British sci-fi anthology series Black Mirror (2011–). As the decade drew to a close, Foster continued to mix acting with directing. She starred together with Sterling Brown in the dystopian film Hotel Artemis (2018). Although the film was a commercial and critical disappointment, Foster's performance as Nurse Jean Thomas, who runs a hospital for criminals, received positive notices. Mick LaSalle of
20475-469: The French New Wave was seen on American thrillers such as Mickey One (1965), Point Blank (1967) and Bonnie and Clyde (1967) as well as later films ( Sisters (1972), Blue Velvet (1986), Reservoir Dogs (1992)). The spy film had been what Rubin described as "stagnating" for several years due to the limitations of post-war anti-communist films. The genre was dramatically revitalized by
20700-564: The Honorary Palme d'Or for lifetime achievement. In 2023, Foster appeared in the Netflix biopic Nyad as Bonnie Stoll . Her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She next starred in the fourth season of True Detective , subtitled Night Country . It won her a Primetime Emmy Award . Foster met producer Cydney Bernard, who was then
20925-477: The Left (2009), P2 (2007), Captivity (2007), Vacancy (2007), and A Quiet Place (2018). Action scenes have also gotten more elaborate in the thriller genre. Films such as Unknown (2011), Hostage (2005), and Cellular (2004) have crossed over into the action genre. The thriller film genre includes the following sub-genres: Action thriller is a blend of both action and thriller film in which
21150-460: The New Black , and the episode "Chapter 22" (2014) for House of Cards . "Lesbian Request Denied" brought her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, and the two 2014 episodes earned her two nominations for a Directors Guild of America Award . She also narrated the episode "Women in Space" (2014) for Makers: Women Who Make America , a PBS documentary series about women's struggle for equal rights in
21375-760: The Rings: The Two Towers . The Art Directors Guild nominated Panic Room for the Excellence in Production Design for a Contemporary Film Award. The Online Film Critics Society Award nominated Panic Room for Best Editing . Panic Room won an award at the 3rd Golden Trailer Awards for having the Best Horror/Thriller film trailer, beating fellow nominees Signs , Brotherhood of the Wolf , Jurassic Park III , and No Such Thing . For her performance in
21600-528: The United States and Canada, it ranked first again with $ 18.2 million , competing mainly with the new release High Crimes . The film went on to gross $ 96.4 million at the US and Canadian box office and $ 100 million in other territories' box offices for a worldwide total of $ 196.4 million . (In 2006, the film had a re-release in Hong Kong that grossed $ 682 thousand , increasing the total to $ 197.1 million .) The film
21825-620: The United States. In 2015, Foster received the Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award at the Athena Film Festival . The fourth film Foster directed, the hostage drama Money Monster , premiered out-of-competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2016. It starred George Clooney and Julia Roberts , and despite mixed reviews, was a moderate commercial success. The next year, Foster continued her work in television by directing an episode, " Arkangel ", for
22050-479: The actions. Film serials , featuring stories broken up into regularly scheduled episodes, expanded on the suspense-inducing devices of the earlier chase films. Originally published in newspapers as fictional story installments, the Chicago Tribune came upon the idea in 1913 by running serialized stories in both newspapers and film versions. This led to The Adventures of Kathlyn , a serial in 13 parts which
22275-458: The actors for "fluid" scenes. He also repeated takes with Stewart to ensure that her acting would be comparable to Foster's veteran performance. The studio planned to release Panic Room in February 2002, but it determined that production could not be completed by then. Executives reviewed dailies of the film's opening scene and did not like Foster "hiding her stomach under a coat and purse". (Foster
22500-662: The alleged homophobia and transphobia in The Silence of the Lambs , claimed that she was a lesbian. She publicly acknowledged her 14-year relationship with Bernard in 2007 in a speech at The Hollywood Reporter ' s "Women in Entertainment" breakfast honoring her. In 2013, she addressed her decision to come out in a speech after receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 70th Golden Globe Awards, which led many news outlets to describe her as gay. Some sources noted that she did not use
22725-413: The audience" in a change of pace from his previous films. Koepp's screenplay emphasized pace over exposition. Koepp and Fincher agreed to streamline the film so the opening would introduce the characters as soon as possible. Fincher also sought to lay out the film so audiences could see characters make plans and thus be ahead of them, calling the tense foresight "a very cinematic notion". He wanted to track
22950-523: The awards jury at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival . Foster had a week to prepare for her role before filming resumed. Five weeks after Foster began filming Panic Room , she learned she was pregnant. She informed Fincher and his producer Chaffin of her pregnancy, and they decided to continue filming. Fincher did not want to rush production, so Foster changed her wardrobe from a tank top to a heavy sweater to disguise indications of her pregnancy. For action scenes, stunt double Jill Stokesberry replaced Foster. In
23175-550: The breadwinners of the family during this time. She had recurring roles in The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969–1971) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1973), voiced Pugsley Addams in The Addams Family animated series (1973–1975), and starred opposite Christopher Connelly in the short-lived Paper Moon (1974), adapted from the hit film . Foster also appeared in films, mostly for Disney . After
23400-502: The camera to have "total freedom to travel" inside the house. Fincher said, "What we were just trying to do with CG was to say, there's no camera operator, there's no crew, there's no track, and the camera can go everywhere." The crew applied photogrammetry —"mapping still images over the surface of computer-generated 'sets'". The filming schedule was also shortened since camera setups could be evaluated and discarded virtually. Fincher had two-thirds of Panic Room ' s shots planned before
23625-448: The casting call, where she was noticed by the casting agents. The television spot led to more advertising work and in 1968 to a minor appearance in the sitcom Mayberry R.F.D. , in which her brother starred. In the following years, Foster continued working in advertising and appeared in over 50 television shows, including Gunsmoke , The Doris Day Show , My Three Sons , Bonanza , and Kung Fu ; she and her brother became
23850-497: The character was revised to be stronger. The casting change also led to Meg's character being rewritten to be similar to her daughter, whereas Meg had been different from her before. Foster became pregnant soon after she started filming. She told the filmmakers, and they decided to keep filming her scenes but with a wardrobe that would conceal her pregnancy. Studio executives did not like the dailies and suspended production until Foster gave birth and returned to perform re-shoots. Foster
24075-446: The cityscapes of the thriller genre, they do not deploy the adventure nature of The Adventures of Kathlyn or The Spiders usually lacking in exaggerated methods of transport, such as parachute drops, safaris, submarines, or even high-speed chases. Like the spy film, another genre that grew popular due to the war-generated phenomena in the early to mid-1940s saw the rise of thrillers centered around various phases of crime films such as
24300-456: The cold war elements of the original novels and spy films of the past, locating their films in Jamaica, Istanbul and Miami over Cuba, Berlin or Israel. Rubin found that the Bond films important to the development of the thriller, but their own thriller dimensions was limited due to the Bond stories gravitating towards adventures, suspense sequences being moderate, and tensions kept simple compared to
24525-622: The concept of a thriller as an overarching, broad category is "traditionally unclear" due to the varied definitions between authors, with its "boundaries often blurred, overlapped, and hybridized with other genres." In his book The Suspense Thriller (1988), the genre-studies specialist Charles Derry found the "suspense thriller" to be crime films that lacked a traditional detective figure and featured non-professional criminals or innocent victims as protagonists and excluded films that are often labeled as thrillers such as hard-boiled detective stories, horror films, heist films and spy films. Derry found
24750-452: The confrontation is unauthentic because of the function of Jacques Lacan 's symbolic order , "We can never find what we are looking for because truth and reality exist on a different plane of discovery... Truth is hidden in the symbolic order, and no panoptical vision is going to reveal it to us." Kitterman says the film hides the truth of mortality, especially by making everywhere in the film visible to audiences. He concludes, "[Fincher] hides
24975-439: The criminal world and the lawful world. The gangsters of these films do not resemble conventional criminals of the past, they dressed casually while being non-confrontational with muted violence. The 1950s also saw the movement of the science fiction thriller, which previously was a relatively minor genre. The most prevalent was a hybrid of science fiction and horror in films like Them! (1954) and Tarantula (1955) while
25200-403: The development of the thriller with its "duplicitous, labyrinthine network of decadent nightspots and secret dens that are linked together by murky thoroughfares, twisting back alleys and subterranean passages." Lang's later film Spies (1928) extensively used crosscutting not only to enhance suspense and draw thematic parallels, but also to develop what Rubin described as a "paranoid vision of
25425-445: The different characters' agendas and to also keep scenes chronological, so he set up "computer-generated motion-control shots" to move the camera around the set. He planned scenes in which parallel scenes could be seen through the panic room's video monitors and also intercut between different characters. The final screenplay was similar in outline to the original one; there were minor changes in dialogue and specific moments, especially in
25650-419: The director. Author John T. Caldwell cites the special edition DVD of Panic Room as an example of demonstrating directorial control to "aesthetically elevate" the film. Columbia Pictures sold the television rights for Panic Room to Turner Broadcasting and CBS , who shared the rights over five years. In September 2004, Turner aired the film on channels TBS and TNT for 12 months, and afterward, CBS aired
25875-399: The divorce, Brandy raised the children with her female partner in Los Angeles. She worked as a publicist for film producer Arthur P. Jacobs until focusing on managing the acting careers of Buddy and Jodie. Although Foster was officially named Alicia, her siblings began calling her "Jodie", and the name stuck. Foster was a gifted child who learned to read at age three. She attended
26100-539: The doors on genres like the detective film, re-contextualizing genres like the neo-noir , and enhancing the popularity of some genres such as the spy film briefly and other genres like the police film for longer periods. The expansion of foreign-film exhibition in the United States of highly regarded thrillers was an influence on the American thriller film. Among the earliest of these was Henri-Georges Clouzot 's The Wages of Fear (1953) and Les Diaboliques (1955) and Jules Dassin 's Rififi (1955) which influenced
26325-405: The early 1980s. Kapur also says the depiction of paranoia in the decade's conspiracy thrillers is divided by gender, describing the male protagonist as "an idealized subject who thinks fast on his feet and cuts through fear to find the conspirators". In contrast, the female protagonist "gives in to her fear, turns delusional and vulnerable to suggestion"; Kapur cites Meg Altman in Panic Room as such
26550-524: The end of January 2001, Kidman was injured on set. An x-ray revealed a hairline fracture underneath one of her knee joints. The fracture was an injury from Kidman's filming of Moulin Rouge! (2001), and the fracture had never fully healed. When Kidman left the project, Fincher continued filming scenes that did not include her character. During the same time of Kidman's departure, the Writers Guild of America and
26775-497: The extended vulnerability of the enthralled protagonists and victims in the thriller anticipated the thriller genre, a statement echoed by Robert D. Hume's 1969 essay which asserts that the Gothic novel involved a reader in a new way, with increased emphasis on suspense, sensation and emotion opposed to moral and intellectual focuses. The gothics being considered thrillers is problematic as they are set in antiquated decaying worlds and fail
27000-442: The few films to win in all main categories. In contrast, some reviewers criticized the film as misogynist for its focus on brutal murders of women, and homo- / transphobic due to its portrayal of "Buffalo Bill" as bisexual and transgender . Much of the criticism was directed at Foster, who the critics claimed was herself a lesbian. Despite the controversy, the film is considered a modern classic: Starling and Lecter are included on
27225-425: The film cannot provide that experience authentically. He notes that the film's protagonist Meg Altman is reminded by the panic room of author Edgar Allan Poe , who wrote several short stories related to premature burial . Kitterman highlights one story, " The Premature Burial ", as synonymous with Panic Room . He says, in both works, "It is in the representing or acting out of such fears of being buried alive or being
27450-467: The film focuses on the aftermath of a gang rape and its survivor's fight for justice in the face of victim blaming . Before making it, Foster was having doubts about whether to continue her career and planned to start graduate studies, but decided to give acting "one last try" in The Accused . She had to audition twice for the role and was cast only after several more established actors turned it down, as
27675-497: The film for test audiences, who rated poorly the ending with the SWAT raid and Burnham's capture. By the screening, the set had been deconstructed due to storage costs, and Fincher estimated that it would cost $ 3 million to rebuild enough of the set to reshoot the ending. Instead, editors Haygood and Wall revisited Burnham's scenes and chose takes in which the character would appear less sympathetic. The final production budget for Panic Room
27900-826: The film industry with no clear agreement of what the definition is. Unlike other genres such as the Western which had recognizable iconography (cowboys, saloons, southwestern landscapes), the thriller lacks such unique iconography. Rubin went on to state that thrillers involve an excess of certain qualities beyond the narratives: they tend emphasize action, suspense and atmosphere and emphasize feelings of "suspense, fright, mystery, exhilaration, excitement, speed, movement" over more sensitive, cerebral, or emotionally heavy feelings. Rubin described thrillers as being both quantitative and qualitative as virtually all narrative films could be considered thrilling to some degree, while they could contain suspense to some degree, but at "a certain hazy point",
28125-558: The film three times in an 18-month span. Turner resumed airing Panic Room for 30 months after CBS's turn. A Blu-ray version of the film has yet to be released. In April 2024, Fincher said he was remastering Panic Room for a new release. Howard Shore won from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers an ASCAP Award in the Top Box Office Film music category for his scores for Panic Room and The Lord of
28350-402: The film was too mainstream after Fincher's Fight Club . Rotten Tomatoes reported that 76% of 188 sampled critics gave the film positive reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The consensus states: "Elevated by David Fincher's directorial talent and Jodie Foster's performance, Panic Room is a well-crafted, above-average thriller." Metacritic , which uses a weighted average, gave the film
28575-567: The film's producers were wary of her due to her previous failures and because she was still remembered as a "chubby teenager". Due to the subject matter, the filming was a difficult experience for the cast and crew, especially the shooting of the rape scene, which took five days. Foster was unhappy with her performance and feared that it would end her career. Instead, The Accused received positive reviews, with Foster's performance receiving widespread acclaim and earning her Academy , Golden Globe and National Board of Review awards, as well as
28800-500: The film's progression, the house degrades in quality, so Fincher filmed scenes in continuity as the set changed. He also filmed many sequences twice due to their near-parallel appearance on the panic room's video monitors. Editor Wall said there were 2,073 set-ups for the film with most set-ups having two cameras. One repeated take was when Raoul attempts to break into the panic room through the plaster ceiling below it. The plaster took 45 minutes to replace, so combined with repeated takes,
29025-530: The film's themes, and the studio relented in publishing Fincher's poster. Panic Room had its world premiere on March 18 , 2002 in Los Angeles. Fincher refused to edit the film to receive a PG-13 rating (parental guidance for children under 13) from the Motion Picture Association of America , so the MPAA gave the film an R rating (restricted to filmgoers at least 17 years old) for violence and language. It
29250-475: The film, Jodie Foster was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actress . Thriller film The cover-up of important information from the viewer, and fight and chase scenes are common methods. Life is typically threatened in a thriller film, such as when the protagonist does not realize that they are entering a dangerous situation. Thriller films' characters conflict with each other or with an outside force, which can sometimes be abstract. The protagonist
29475-423: The film, Foster had to undergo psychiatric assessment and was accompanied by a social worker on set. Her older sister Connie acted as her stand-in in sexually suggestive scenes. Foster later commented on the role, saying that she hated "the idea that everybody thinks if a kid's going to be an actress it means that she has to play Shirley Temple or someone's little sister." During the filming, Foster developed
29700-472: The film, the mother actively monitors her daughter's health. Ferguson says, " Panic Room ' s emphasis on vision and technology necessitates a paternalistic, monitoring attitude towards the diabetic character." He also notes that the glucometer parallels the overarching surveillance system in the film in being read "excessively". Academic John Kitterman says audiences see Panic Room as a way to confront their fears and to achieve catharsis, but he argues that
29925-439: The films become thrilling enough to be considered part of the genre. For Alfred Hitchcock , a director very associated with the genre, he proclaimed that the whodunnit generated "the kind of curiosity that is void of emotion, and emotion is essential ingredient of suspense" and thus for Hitchcock, "mystery is seldom suspenseful" In their discussions on the political thriller, Pablo Castrillo and Pablo Echart stated in 2015 that
30150-699: The films more attuned to the thriller occasionally saw an alien invasion theme, such as in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) which Rubin described as being between "science-fiction mundaneness and film-noir moodiness". The science fiction thrillers of the era are not set on far off planets or but featured in present-day locales such as in It Came from Outer Space and The Incredible Shrinking Man . The 1950s also launched what Rubin called "a run of Hitchcock masterpieces", following an uneven part of experimentation in
30375-544: The films of Hitchcock or Lang. Following the success of the Bond films, the character became the standard which all other spy films of the era were defined by within their similarities or dissimilarities. These included having the spy being suave hero, colorful locations, attractive women and flamboyant decors. Many pre-1970s spy films were predominantly comedies with spy film elements, such as Our Man Flint (1966) and The Silencers (1966) and their sequels. Another style of spy films attempted to differentiate themselves from
30600-784: The focus of a major reevaluation of Hitchcock's artistic stature, which included with the first full-length books study of his work: Hitchcock (1957), by Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol as well as the first English-language assessment, with Robin Wood 's Hitchcock's Films (1965). The plots and themes of these films would be re-worked into later directors such as Jonathan Demme ( Last Embrace (1979)), Brian de Palma ( Dressed to Kill (1980), Body Double (1984), Obsession (1976)) and Curtis Hanson ( The Bedroom Window (1987)). Around 1960, Rubin described that key thriller categories went through major overhauls. This led to closing what he described as "subversive debunking" that nearly closed
30825-410: The footage on the monitors. Of the cameras, Kammerer says, they are "Extremely mobile, but unstable: the surveillance technology in Panic Room is useful and harmful, good and evil at once." When the cameras are destroyed, Meg and Sarah are able to overcome the burglars. Kammerer says the cameras reflect ambivalence in the film, between "freedom and security, openness and closedness". In the film, Sarah
31050-448: The genre by literary roots, ideology and sociological backgrounds and that thrillers could be reduced to just two components: a hero and a conspiracy. Palmer noted the hero in a thriller must be professional and competitive and not an amateur or an average citizen and suggested and declared characters such as spy James Bond or private eye Mike Hammer to be "quintessential thriller heroes". Palmer also noted that audiences must approve of
31275-613: The guidance of Henry Louis Gates Jr. and graduated magna cum laude in 1985. She returned to Yale in 1993 to address the graduating class and received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1997. In 2018, she was awarded the Yale Undergraduate Lifetime Achievement Award. Foster's career began with an appearance in a Coppertone television advertisement in 1965, when she was three years old. Her mother had intended only for Jodie's older brother Buddy to audition, but had taken Jodie with them to
31500-457: The hero's actions and adopt their moral perspective. Palmer included styles such as detective films as part of the genre. Rubin argued against Palmer's definition, noting that it would include melodramas and courtroom dramas such as Meet John Doe (1941) into the genre and eliminate such films as Purple Noon (1960) and Psycho (1960) from the genre. Rubin borrowed from G. K. Chesterton 's "A Defence of Detective Stories", stating that
31725-419: The home invaders "intriguing". He also applauded Foster's performance and the film's cinematography, and he said to Koepp's script as "all worked out too". Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, describing Panic Room as close to "the ideal of a thriller existing entirely in a world of physical and psychological plausibility." Ebert wrote, "There are moments when I want to shout advice at
31950-431: The home's security company; and Raoul, a thug recruited by Junior. They intend to steal bearer bonds locked inside a floor safe in the panic room, as Junior does not want to share them with his extended family when his grandfather's estate is settled in probate . When Meg wakes during the night to use the bathroom, she sees the men on the security cameras and quickly rushes to the panic room with Sarah. To force them out,
32175-436: The horror anthology series Tales from the Darkside , and starred in the romantic drama Stealing Home (1988) opposite Mark Harmon . The film was a critical and commercial failure, with Roger Ebert "wondering if any movie could possibly be that bad". Foster's breakthrough into adult roles came with her performance as a rape survivor in The Accused (1988). Based on the real criminal case involving Cheryl Araujo ,
32400-426: The house's rooms. Foster became pregnant during the shooting schedule, so filming was suspended until after she gave birth. The film's production cost $ 48 million . The film was commercially released in the United States and Canada on March 29 , 2002. The film grossed $ 30 million on its opening weekend. In the United States and Canada, it grossed $ 96.4 million . In other territories, it grossed $ 100.7 million for
32625-425: The inherent inflexibility of his initial planning. Screenwriter David Koepp was inspired by news coverage in 2000 about how safe rooms were becoming prevalent among the wealthy living in urban areas. He sold the script to Sony Pictures for $ 4 million . Before Fincher's involvement, director Ridley Scott was briefly connected to the project, and actor-director Forest Whitaker studied the script before declining
32850-403: The interaction between Meg and Sarah Altman due to Foster replacing Kidman. Explicit mention of Sarah's diabetes, such as the emergency syringe containing glucagon , were removed from the dialogue. Careful beverage intake, refrigerated medicine bottles, and Sarah's glucometer watch were intended as evidence of her diabetes. The house was built on a soundstage on a Raleigh Studios lot. The set
33075-480: The introduction and the producers would not change it. She discussed Hinckley in a 1999 interview with Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes II , explaining that she does not "like to dwell on it too much ... I never wanted to be the actress who was remembered for that event. Because it didn't have anything to do with me. I was kind of a hapless bystander. But ... what a scarring, strange moment in history for me, to be 17 years old, 18 years old, and to be caught up in
33300-402: The late 1940s. Rubin noted as Hitchcock hitting his stride with Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). During this period, Anglo-American critics of the era preferred Hitchcock's lighter-hearted British classics of the 1930s, these films were declared as "more ambitious and mature works" by Rubin, which became
33525-656: The latter being more successful financially than any the previously mentioned thrillers. Like Bond, Bullitt featured much of the mystique as the James Bond series, with his stylish lifestyle and being an elite specialist working with a larger organization and is granted considerable autonomy on the course of his assignments. Bullitt ' s producer Philip D'Antoni featured even more elaborate variations in his later productions such as The French Connection (1971) and The Seven-Ups (1973) as car chases became staple to modern police thrillers. These police thrillers also featured
33750-413: The men pump propane gas into the room's air vents. Meg ignites the gas while she and Sarah cover themselves with fireproof blankets; the ignited propane leaves Junior badly burned. Meg taps into the main telephone line and calls her ex-husband, Stephen. As she tries to explain their situation, the intruders cut the line, abruptly ending the call. When all attempts to breach the room fail, Junior gives up on
33975-524: The mid-1930s as when the thriller entered its "classical period" with the emergence of key genres that were previously either non-existent or minor. These included the spy film, detective film, the film noir , the police film and the science fiction thriller. The horror films of the early 1930s with their Europeanized settings and villains led to what Rubin described as a "growing uneasiness towards Europe" Such anxieties were directly registered with spy thriller films, that were previously marginalised but grew as
34200-404: The most acclaimed of these films, The Naked City (1948) which re-created a police manhunt for a brutal killer. These films eventually began toning down their factuality to be applied to more noir styles, such as with Kiss of Death (1947), The Street with No Name (1948), and He Walked by Night (1949). Rubin found that placing these films in actual locations increased the tension of
34425-507: The most significant European venue for serials was Germany, with Fritz Lang writing serials like The Mistress of the World (1919) and later directing films like The Spiders (1919). Lang would make films similar to those of Feuillade, with his films based on Dr. Mabuse that were set in a contemporary time. Lang's Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922) was described by Rubin as an important part of
34650-540: The multiple-Oscar winning film In the Heat of the Night (1967), which was more about social issues than being a straight thriller, the films' use of racial epithets and strong-arm methods paved the way for films featuring characters like Dirty Harry and Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle for the upcoming police cycle. Early films in the cycle included Madigan (1968), The Detective (1968), Coogan's Bluff (1968) and Bullitt (1968),
34875-446: The narrative focusing on the group of survivors. The genre ended following overt sequels, television films and parodies. The genre had a brief revival in the late 1990s through the science-fiction and disaster hybrid Independence Day (1996), which was followed by Dante's Peak (1997), Volcano (1997) and Titanic (1997). In the early 1990s, thrillers had recurring elements of obsession and trapped protagonists who must find
35100-447: The neighbors. To protect Sarah, Meg convinces the officers that everything is fine, and they leave. Meanwhile, Burnham opens the safe and finds $ 22 million in bearer bonds inside. As the men prepare to leave with Sarah as a hostage, Meg leads them into an ambush, using a sledgehammer to knock Raoul over a banister and into a stairwell. As Burnham flees, the injured Raoul crawls back up and overpowers Meg, preparing to bludgeon her with
35325-404: The neo- noir Siesta (1987), was rated a failure, but her next project, the independent film Five Corners (1987), was better received. A moderate critical success, it earned Foster an Independent Spirit Award for her performance as a woman whose sexual assaulter returns to stalk her. The following year, Foster made her debut as a director with the episode "Do Not Open This Box" for
35550-591: The new decade was Keith Gordon 's film Waking the Dead (2000), which she produced. She declined to reprise her role as Clarice Starling in Hannibal (2001), with the part going instead to Julianne Moore , and concentrated on a new directorial project, Flora Plum . It was to focus on a 1930s circus and star Claire Danes and Russell Crowe , but had to be shelved after Crowe was injured on set and could not complete filming on schedule; Foster unsuccessfully attempted to revive
35775-511: The non-professional or victim being placed in unfamiliar situations enhanced their vulnerability and thus increased greater suspense. Derry specifically noted the "innocent-on-the-run" theme a coherent in the genre, presenting them in films such as The 39 Steps (1935), North by Northwest (1959) and conspiracy thriller films like The Parallax View (1974) and the comedy-tinged Silver Streak (1976). Alternatively, British communication professor Jerry Palmer in his book Thrillers defined
36000-433: The novel it was based on after its publication in 1988 and had attempted to purchase its film rights, as it featured "a real female heroine" and its plot was not "about steroids and brawn, [but] about using your mind and using your insufficiencies to combat the villain." Despite her enthusiasm, director Jonathan Demme did not initially want to cast her, but the producers overruled him. Demme's view of Foster changed during
36225-412: The opportunity to direct. Fincher said he was interested in the script's omniscience and that he was reminded of "the specific subjectivity" of Rear Window (1954). He also saw Panic Room as a cross between Rear Window and Straw Dogs (1971), though he was concerned "a modern audience" would compare Panic Room more to Home Alone (1990) than to Rear Window . Fincher also saw Panic Room as
36450-423: The ordinary world opposed to the limited confines of the studio sets. Further spy films were made, including The House on 92nd Street began encompassing anti-communist themes. This was inaugurated with films like The Iron Curtain (1948). These titles drew on 1930s gangster film conventions, with the American branch of the communist parties being depicted like a gangster organization. This cycle continued into
36675-455: The panic room in Meg and Sarah's home. Fincher did not think a designer could be persuaded to break into a home, so he rewrote the character to be a blue-collar worker who installs panic rooms for a living. The director told Whitaker to watch Key Largo (1948) and to emulate Humphrey Bogart 's character. Whitaker said he liked Burnham's "conflicted" nature and preferred it to Raoul's villainy. Raoul
36900-438: The period, Rubin stated that Hitchcock became a "top rank" filmmaker specialising in the classical film thrillers, opposed to his prior output, which only sporadically included films that could be considered thrillers. Compared to Lang, Hitchcock approach to the spy thriller was described by Rubin as "less abstract, less epic" with "a greater emphasis on individual psychology and subjective points of view" while Lang's primary focus
37125-580: The police officer following darker paths. These included The Man Who Cheated Himself (1951), The Prowler (1951), Pushover (1954). A smaller wave of similar police thrillers had the police detective having moral weakness, but excessiveness. These included Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), On Dangerous Ground (1952), The Big Heat (1953). Rubin declared Orson Welles ' Touch of Evil (1958) as another major film of this flawed-cop style. Rubin found that these late noirs collectively represent
37350-521: The police thriller is the vigilante film , in which an avenger in an urban setting throws off the restraints of the super cop of the police thrillers to operate as a loner without a badge or uniform. The main characters usually revolve around personal revenge and desire to cleanse society of its evil doers. Examples include the Death Wish film series, Taxi Driver (1976) and Ms. 45 (1981). A cycle of action films featuring black leads that came from
37575-521: The police thriller, vigilante films, and blaxploitation films arrived with the 1970s. The films predominantly feature loose-cannon private eyes such as in Shaft (1971), Slaughter (1972) and Coffy (1973) or hustlers such as in Super Fly (1972) and The Mack (1973). The films were often derivations of earlier films such as Cool Breeze (1972), a remake of The Asphalt Jungle , Hit Man (1972)
37800-437: The production, and he later credited her for helping him define the character. Released in February 1991, The Silence of the Lambs became one of the biggest hits of the year, grossing close to $ 273 million, with a positive critical reception. Foster received largely positive reviews and won Academy, Golden Globe, and BAFTA awards for her portrayal of Starling; Silence won five Academy Awards overall, becoming one of
38025-436: The project several times in the following years. Controversially, she also expressed interest in directing and starring in a biographical film of Nazi film director Leni Riefenstahl , who did not like the idea. In addition to these setbacks, Foster shut down Egg Pictures in 2001, saying that producing was "just a really thankless, bad job". The company's last production, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys , premiered at
38250-469: The protagonist confronts dangerous adversaries, obstacles, or situations which he/she must conquer, normally in an action setting. Action thrillers usually feature a race against the clock, weapons and explosions, frequent violence, and a clear antagonist. Examples include, Face/Off , Hard Boiled , Dirty Harry , Taken , The Fugitive , Snakes on a Plane , Speed , The Dark Knight , The Hurt Locker , The Terminator , The Equalizer ,
38475-585: The proto-types to the thriller was early detective and mystery fiction, such as Edgar Allan Poe 's " The Murders in the Rue Morgue " (1841), which is widely considered the first detective story. The detective story drew upon the previously mentioned forms, and is shown through stories such as the Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles . The roots of the thriller also generally associated with
38700-505: The realm of mundane and modern-day urban existence. In his book Crime Movies: An Illustrated History , Carlos Clarens discussed location being related to thrillers as well, stating that crime films as emphasized broad, socially symbolic characters such as the criminal, the Law, and society while thrillers were more concerned with violence or disturbances within a private sphere. Rubin declared that thrillers attached itself to other genres such as
38925-779: The rise in popularity of detective films. These ranged from B-film detectives such as Michael Shayne , The Falcon , Boston Blackie , the Crime Doctor as well as modernized Sherlock Holmes stories having him battle Nazis. These smaller budget films led to more major productions such as John Huston 's The Maltese Falcon (1941) while Murder, My Sweet (1944) introduced the character Philip Marlowe to film. Marlowe would appear again in The Big Sleep (1946). These detective films drew upon thriller and thriller-related genres with their nocturnal atmosphere and style influenced by expressionism. They often overlapped with film noir ,
39150-401: The rise of and fall of the criminal with Rubin noting that suspense in these films was "relatively slight", with both genres leaving an imprint on subsequent forms of the thriller with mid-1930s G-Man films, the early detective films of the 1940s, and the gangster films of the 1950s. The gangster film itself imbued the modern urban environment with larger-than-life overtones. Rubin described
39375-462: The rise of the urban-industrial society in the 19th century which created new and expanded mass audience, along with new forms of entertainment. This included stage play melodramas such as Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) in which an escaped slave escapes over an ice-choked river and the rural-set melodrama Blue Jeans (1890) which features a heroine who unties the hero just before he is cut by and advancing buzz saw. Other forms of entertainment arrived in
39600-447: The robbery but lets slip that there is more money in the safe than he initially disclosed. When he tries to leave, Raoul fatally shoots him and then forces Burnham to continue with the robbery. Stephen arrives and is immediately taken hostage. Raoul severely beats him, ensuring that Meg sees it on the security camera. Sarah, a diabetic , then suffers a seizure as her glucagon syringes are in her bedroom. Raoul tricks Meg into thinking it
39825-407: The screen, but just as often the characters are ahead of me." Ebert also called Fincher "a visual virtuoso", and applauded Foster's performance as "spellbinding". Panic Room was first released on VHS and DVD on September 17, 2002. The studio produced VHS copies only for rental and not for sale, believing that owners of DVD players were more likely to buy the film. The studio used the design from
40050-560: The search for a serial killer who re-enacts the seven deadly sins . Another notable example is Martin Scorsese 's neo-noir psychological thriller Shutter Island (2010), in which a U.S. Marshal must investigate a psychiatric facility after one of the patients inexplicably disappears. In recent years, thrillers have often overlapped with the horror genre, having more gore/sadistic violence, brutality, terror and frightening scenes. The recent films in which this has occurred include Disturbia (2007), Eden Lake (2008), The Last House on
40275-468: The sequence transited seamlessly to introduce the film's main characters. The opening titles were inspired by those seen in The Trouble with Harry (1955) and North by Northwest (1959). The scene of Burnham's arrest also used computer-generated effects. Several scenes also involved practical effects: Junior's injuries from a flaming gas burn and Stephen Altman's bloodied, beaten self. A team of puppeteers
40500-458: The show". Foster's two BAFTAs were awarded jointly for her performances in Taxi Driver and Bugsy Malone . Her third film release in 1976 was the independent drama Echoes of a Summer , which had been filmed two years earlier. The New York Times named Foster's performance as a terminally ill girl the film's "main strength" and Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune wrote that she "is not
40725-424: The sledgehammer. Hearing Sarah's terrified screams, Burnham rushes back and shoots Raoul, killing him. The police, alerted by Meg's earlier odd behavior, return in force and apprehend Burnham, who is forced to drop the bearer bonds, which scatter in the wind. A few days later, Meg and Sarah search the newspaper for a new, smaller home, having recovered from their harrowing ordeal. Jodie Foster stars as Meg Altman,
40950-517: The start of filming, cinematographer Darius Khondji was fired from the film. Khondji said he was fired after a conflict with a crew member that he did not want to name, but David Fincher said he and Khondji could not agree "on aspects of production". Much of the film was already planned in pre-production, and Khondji could not be given flexibility. Fincher replaced Khondji with Conrad W. Hall , with whom he found "a balance". Khondji said he supported Hall as his replacement. After two weeks of filming, at
41175-480: The start of filming. Director Steven Soderbergh reviewed Fincher's test footage and warned him that excessive planning would make actual production difficult for him and his crew. Fincher sought to light his film less than most other films; he believed darkness contributed to the scare factor. Entering production, he initially planned to film the first half of the film in near-total darkness but decided that it required too much patience from audiences. Instead, he chose
41400-423: The style in terms of cycles. Prior to the development of films, the genre has its connections to broadly-based fiction of the 18th century. Elements of the thriller are traced to the earliest gothic novel with Horace Walpole 's The Castle of Otranto (1765) which led to Matthew Lewis 's The Monk (1796) and Ann Radcliffe 's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian (1797). Rubin noted that
41625-495: The surprised hit Dr. No (1962), which led to increasingly expensive and lucrative sequels as well as spearheading a 1960s spy craze in cinema and mass media. Dr. No was conceived as a series of action set pieces (called "bumps" by the series co-producer Albert R. Broccoli ) which mixed the film's action and violence with generous doses of humor and Bond's post-bloodshed quips and sexual banter. The Bond films generally distanced themselves with apolitical villains, that toned down
41850-452: The table." Despite mixed reviews, it was a commercial success, and earned Foster a Screen Actors Guild Award and nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her acting performance. The second film that Foster directed and produced for Egg Pictures was Home for the Holidays , released in late 1995. A black comedy "set around a nightmarish Thanksgiving ", it starred Holly Hunter and Robert Downey Jr. The film received
42075-485: The tensions of the 1930s and the outbreak of World War II . The genre grew into popularity in Great Britain in the mid-1930s with the output of the countries leading filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock . Between 1934 and 1938, Hitchcock directed five spy thrillers: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Secret Agent (1936), Sabotage (1936), and The Lady Vanishes (1938). Along with Lang's output of
42300-454: The theatrical release poster for the video cover, where Fincher had wanted a black cover that would differ from the poster. Though previsualization supervisor Ron Frankel wanted to include materials to show storyboard animation, the DVD was released as a single-disc edition with no audio commentary or other features. Fincher also chose not to include on the DVD scenes filmed with Nicole Kidman before she
42525-400: The third biggest opening to date for a non-supernatural thriller film, following Hannibal (2001) and Ransom (1996). Audiences polled by CinemaScore , during the opening-weekend, gave Panic Room a "B" grade on an A+ to F scale. The audience demographic was 53% female and 47% male, and 62% of audience members were aged 25 years and older. In the film's second weekend (April 5–7) in
42750-691: The thriller's technique of accelerated motion. Chase films were limited in scope, but their emphasis on the chase sequence would extend well into the future in films such as On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Vanishing Point (1971), and Speed (1994). The period between 1907 and 1913 solidified the film industry's increasing mastery of narrative filmmaking, predominantly with D.W. Griffith 's films, which Rubin described as "enhancing suspense, psychological depth, and spatial orientation." Griffith applied new techniques such as cross-cutting to build suspense in films such as The Girl and Her Trust (1912), which also supplied psychological context for
42975-484: The tone of his previous two films and that it would not appeal to the same audiences. He believed Panic Room would appeal more to audiences who saw Kiss the Girls (1997) and The Bone Collector (1999). He also disagreed with the studio's marketing materials for Panic Room , which advertised it as "the most terrifying movie ever made". Fincher also argued with the studio about the poster design, which he believed reflected
43200-576: The tradition of being considered "modern". The second literary form that predated thrillers was the Victorian sensation novel , starting with Wilkie Collins ' The Woman in White (1859–1860) which stripped the gothic genre of its mysticism and brought to a contemporary time closer to everyday life. These sensation novels often were published in serialized form, sometimes concluding their installments with cliffhangers called "climax and curtain". The third of
43425-415: The truth behind a veil of visibility, using the camera to create a hegemony of vision that brainwashes us all into believing that what we are seeing is real. But the real of death cannot be symbolized." Columbia Pictures marketed Panic Room as being produced by the same director who produced Seven and Fight Club . Fincher disagreed with the approach because he believed that Panic Room did not match
43650-451: The victim of a home invasion that the protagonist actually calls for that trauma to happen." He says that Meg's nervous recognition of the panic room guarantees that her fear will come to pass. Though the home "looks like a mausoleum", the combination of the panic room's being able to monitor all the rooms and the unbounded movement of the film's camera leads audiences to believe they have some control over confronting their fears. Kitterman says
43875-673: The words "gay" or "lesbian" in her speech. On December 19, 1983, Foster was detained by U.S. customs agents at Logan International Airport for possessing a single gram of cocaine. She was charged with a misdemeanor and placed on one year's probation. During her freshman year at Yale in 1980–81, Foster was stalked by John Hinckley Jr. , who had developed an obsession with her after watching Taxi Driver multiple times. He moved to New Haven and tried to contact her by letter and telephone. On March 30, 1981, Hinckley attempted to assassinate United States president Ronald Reagan , wounding him and three other people, claiming that his motive
44100-408: The world of the thriller is in an urban world, opposed to bygone eras of knights, pirates and cowboys which assists with the concept that "one normally does not think of Westerns as thrillers, even though they often contain a great deal of action, adventures chases and suspense." Similarly, the adventure film is predominantly set in an environment that is already exotic and primitive, and removed form
44325-409: The year she turned 18. In 1980, she gained positive notices for her performances in the independent films Foxes and Carny (1980), before becoming a full-time student at Yale in 1981. She later said that going to college changed her thoughts about acting, which she had previously thought was an unintelligent profession. She now realized that "what I really wanted to do was to act and there
44550-473: Was Flightplan (2005), in which she played a woman whose daughter vanishes during an overnight flight. It became a global box office success, but received mixed reviews. It was followed by Spike Lee 's critically and commercially successful Inside Man (2006), about a bank heist on Wall Street , which co-starred Denzel Washington and Clive Owen . The third thriller, The Brave One (2007), prompted some comparisons to Taxi Driver , as Foster played
44775-454: Was $ 48 million . A seamless shot at the beginning of Panic Room took nine days to film on set but took several months to complete in post-production. The shot was a combination of camera footage and computer-generated effects. Koepp originally wrote the opening scene to be a series of shots that would zero in on the brownstone house, but Fincher instead chose a sequence of landmarks in New York City with credits hovering in front of them before
45000-625: Was Fincher's fifth feature film, following Fight Club (1999). Koepp was also a producer for Panic Room , and he was joined by Judy Hofflund and Gavin Polone, with whom he collaborated on Stir of Echoes (1999). Fincher included as producer Ceán Chaffin, with whom he had worked on commercials and music videos. Fincher also included in his initial crew people with whom he had worked before: cinematographer Darius Khondji, production designer Arthur Max, costume designer Michael Kaplan, and editors James Haygood and Angus Wall. Fincher envisioned Panic Room as
45225-485: Was Fincher's second highest-grossing to date after Seven , which grossed $ 327.3 million worldwide. In the United States and Canada, Panic Room ranks fifth among David Fincher's films in box office gross. Adjusted for inflation, Panic Room ranks third. Worldwide, unadjusted for inflation, it ranks fifth. Critics called Panic Room "a high-tension narrative". They compared the film to the works of Alfred Hitchcock , both positively and negatively. Several critics thought
45450-441: Was a box-office success, gaining Foster a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. As Foster grew, her mother wanted photos to reflect Foster's ability to take on adult roles, so she arranged for Emilio Lari to do a partially nude photoshoot. The photoshoot was taken at a rented estate in Los Angeles, with Foster's mother and Lari's wife on set. Estimates of the year of the photoshoot range between 1975 and 1979, when Foster
45675-463: Was a commercial success but a critical failure. In 2009, she provided the voice for Maggie in a tetralogy episode of The Simpsons titled " Four Great Women and a Manicure ". In the 2010s, Foster focused on directing and took fewer acting roles. In February 2011, she hosted the 36th César Awards in France, and the next month released her third feature film direction, The Beaver (2011), about
45900-583: Was a grand success and resulted in the newspaper developing the even more successful The Million Dollar Mystery . Serials often ended with cliffhangers, an element that led to the tendency in thrillers to break up the story into a series of self-enclosed set pieces. Film serials were later produced in Europe, with French directors such as Louis Feuillade who went from making chase films to making serials based on novels about master criminals, such as Fantômas (1913) and Les Vampires (1915). Outside of France,
46125-505: Was a moderate box office success. Foster's final film appearance of the year came in a small role as a sex worker in Shadows and Fog (1991), directed by Woody Allen , with whom she had wanted to collaborate since the 1970s. Foster next starred in the period film Sommersby (1993), portraying a woman who begins to suspect that her husband ( Richard Gere ) who returns home from the Civil War
46350-577: Was accused of domestic violence and making antisemitic , racist, and sexist statements. The film received mixed reviews, and failed the box office, largely due to this controversy. In 2011, Foster also appeared as part of an ensemble cast with John C. Reilly , Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz in Roman Polanski 's comedy Carnage , in which the attempts of middle-class parents to settle an incident between their sons descends into chaos. It premiered to mainly positive reviews and earned Foster
46575-424: Was active from 1905 onward. These films featured distorted sets and stylized gestures which had an influence on filmmaking all over the world, including the United States. The expressionist cinematic style was particularly relevant to the thriller, combining psychology and spectacle. The early 1930s saw the rise of two film genre movements: the gothic styled horror film and the gangster film . Universal Pictures
46800-483: Was also suffering from a sprained hip from distended ligaments due to her pregnancy.) The studio suspended production until after Foster's childbirth and rescheduled for the film to be released in March 2002. Foster gave birth in September 2001, and she returned to perform re-shoots, including the opening scene. She also returned two months later for additional filming, which concluded that November. Columbia Pictures screened
47025-606: Was between 13 and 16. After her breakthrough year, Foster spent nine months living in France, where she starred in Moi, fleur bleue (1977) and recorded several songs for its soundtrack. Her other films released in 1977 were the Italian comedy Casotto and the Disney heist film Candleshoe , which was filmed in England and co-starred David Niven and Helen Hayes . After its release, Foster did not appear in any new releases until 1980,
47250-413: Was commercially released in the United States and Canada on March 29, 2002. It was screened in 3,053 theaters and grossed $ 30 million on its opening weekend. It ranked first at the box office, and for both actor Jodie Foster and director David Fincher, the opening weekend gross was a personal best to date. It surpassed The Matrix (1999) to have the biggest Easter holiday-weekend opening and also had
47475-446: Was designed by production designer Arthur Max, and it cost $ 6 million to build. The panic room was 6 feet (1.8 m) by 14 feet (4.3 m). Three versions of the room were built so Fincher could film scenes from multiple angles. A 3D computer model of the set on the soundstage was designed. Fincher, who had done pre-visualization for Fight Club , used the model to design shots and decide their sequence. The computer model also enabled
47700-554: Was directed by Michael Apted and starred Foster in the titular role as a woman who grew up isolated in the Appalachian Mountains and speaks her own invented language. The film was based on Mark Handley 's play Idioglossia , which interested Foster for its theme of "otherness", and because she "loved this idea of a woman who defies categorization, a creature who is labeled and categorized by people based on their own problems and their own prejudices and what they bring to
47925-577: Was impressed by her, saying that "she takes such an intelligent interest in the way the film is being made that if I had been run over by a bus I think she was probably the only person on the set able to take over as director." She gained several positive notices for her performance, with Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times writing: "at thirteen she was already getting the roles that grown-up actresses complained weren't being written for women anymore". Variety called her "outstanding", and Vincent Canby of The New York Times called her "the star of
48150-455: Was later input into a framework known as the "chase film" which came into prominence in 1903. The chase films were often produced in Britain and France and employed minimal narrative for an extended chase scene. This genre led to one of the most commercially celebrated American films of the period, The Great Train Robbery (1903). It contained elements of the heist film with its depictions of ingeniously planned robberies, as well as relying on
48375-576: Was nothing stupid about it." Although Foster prioritized college during these years, she continued making films on her summer vacations. These were O'Hara's Wife (1982), the television film Svengali (1983), the John Irving adaptation The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), The Blood of Others (1984), and the period drama Mesmerized (1986), which she also co-produced. None of them gained large audiences or critical appreciation. After graduating from Yale in 1985, Foster struggled to find further acting work. In 1987, her first film after college,
48600-400: Was on "the structure of the trap", Hitchcock's was on the "mental state of the entrapped." The first major American spy thriller of the World War II era was Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939). After relocating to the United States, Hitchcock continued his attachment to spy films with films like Foreign Correspondent (1940) and Saboteur (1942). Despite having these films exist beyond
48825-405: Was originally written to be "a giant scary hulking guy", but Fincher rewrote him to be "this wiry, mean kind of ex-con white trash guy". In one revised instance, Raoul punches Meg instead of slapping her to be reinforced as "an appalling character". The role of Raoul was originally offered to Maynard James Keenan , whom Fincher had directed in a music video for A Perfect Circle 's " Judith ". Keenan
49050-410: Was replaced by Jodie Foster. In its first week, the film ranked second in DVD sales after Monsters, Inc. , though it ranked first in DVD rentals. In March 2004, the studio released a special edition DVD, which consisted of three discs, two which provided featurettes of the pre-production, production, and post-production processes for the film. The DVD also had several commentary tracks, including one by
49275-478: Was reportedly paid $ 12 million for her role. Kristen Stewart stars as Sarah, Meg's diabetic daughter. Hayden Panettiere was originally cast as Sarah, but when she left the project toward the end of 2000, Stewart was cast in the role. Panic Room was Stewart's second feature film after The Safety of Objects (2001). When Kidman was cast as Meg, Fincher said Stewart was "to complement [Kidman's portrayal], to be her antithesis, tomboyish, androgynous, dismissive,
49500-435: Was shut down then restarted, it would cost the studio $ 10 million , necessitating a quick replacement for Kidman. Rumored actors included Sandra Bullock , Angelina Jolie , and Robin Wright . Jodie Foster was previously occupied with directing duties of Flora Plum before its star Russell Crowe was injured and left the project, leading to that production's shutdown. To join Panic Room , Foster also stepped down as head of
49725-564: Was subject to controversy when the Thai government deemed it historically inaccurate and insulting to the royal family and banned its distribution in the country. It was a moderate commercial success, but received mixed to negative reviews. Ebert panned the film, saying the role required Foster "to play beneath [her] intelligence" and The New York Times called it a "misstep" for her and accused her of only being "interested ... in sanctifying herself as an old-fashioned heroine than in taking on dramatically risky roles". Foster's first project of
49950-543: Was the leader of the horror genre in the early 1930s with its expressionist-derived atmosphere that started with two big hits film: Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931). Rubin noted that both films lacked the thriller's fundamental tension between the familiar and exotic or adventurous. Also in the early 1930s, the gangster film arrived with early major films including Mervyn LeRoy 's Little Caesar (1930), William A. Wellman 's The Public Enemy (1932) and Howard Hawks Scarface (1932). These films centered on
50175-428: Was to impress Foster. The incident drew intense media attention, and Foster was accompanied by bodyguards while on campus. Judge Barrington D. Parker confirmed that Foster was innocent in the case and had been "unwittingly ensnared in a third party's alleged attempt to assassinate an American President". Her videotaped testimony was played at Hinckley's trial. While at Yale, Foster also had other stalkers, including
50400-402: Was too busy as the singer for Tool , so Fincher then offered the role to Yoakam, knowing him from his performance in Sling Blade (1996). For the role of Junior, Fincher cast Leto, who was in the cast of Fincher's previous film Fight Club (1999). As part of atypical class division, Junior is "the uptown rich kid", where Burnham is blue-collar, and Raoul is undefinable. Patrick Bauchau had
50625-425: Was used to move Stephen's sticking-out collarbone. Fincher also sent the film reel to be digitally color-corrected as he had done for Fight Club and Seven . Academic Jyotsna Kapur identifies Panic Room as one of several American conspiracy thrillers in the 2000s that re-cast the subject of childhood as "one of horror and alarm", where it had previously been a subject of celebration in family films dating back to
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