Elevator (2012 film)

Elevator is a 2011 American thriller film directed by Stig Svendsen.^[1] It follows the struggles and conflicts of nine strangers trapped in a Wall Street elevator 49 floors above Manhattan on the way to a company party. One of the group has a bomb. The film's events follow the group's attempts to escape, with racism, greed and revenge playing key elements as they all fight to survive.^[2]

Plot

Nine people aboard an elevator in a New York City skyscraper 52 stories tall: security guard Mohammed (Waleed Zuaiter), sexy television reporter Maureen (Tehmina Sunny) and her bossy fiance Don (Christopher Backus), racist comedian George (Joey Slotnick), alcoholic newly widowed Jane (Shirley Knight), overweight employee Martin (Devin Ratray), pregnant Celine (Anita Briem), and the building owner Henry Barton (John Getz) with his spoiled ten-year-old granddaughter Madeline (Rachel and Amanda Pace), are on their way to a company party on the top floor.

On the way up, George, a claustrophobic, starts freaking out and on the 49th floor, Madeline hits the emergency stop button to agitate the comedian's anxious condition. Henry presses the lobby floor button, but the elevator only descends by a few feet and then stops. Henry presses the call button and alerts security, in which they advise him to release the emergency stop button and press the button to go back to the lobby. Henry then says the bad news, but even though security knows why the elevator stopped, he replies to them to just fix it.

While waiting for help, the group talk with each other. Jane says that her son died in Iraq in the last year, confronts Henry and says her husband lost everything because he invested in bonds with Barton Investments, which turned out to devalue to almost nothing. Due to her anger at Henry, she planned on "making a point" at a party the owner was hosting. Suddenly, Jane collapses and dies of a heart attack, but before she dies, she admits that she has a bomb with her. After arguing, Celine winds up checking Jane's body and finds the bomb secured around her waist via a bike lock. Don tries to look for a way out via the ceiling of the elevator, but to no avail.

After investigating the body, Celine lights a cigarette and smokes, to which Don says that she shouldn't smoke since she's pregnant. Celine swats his hands away, saying in frustration "since when did you become a concerned father?!" Maureen picks up on this comment, and Don confesses that he's the father of Celine's unborn child, which happened while they were working late together one evening. Maureen is distraught.

Henry once again calls security, but he angers them and they stop responding. Maureen documents the events with her phone and sends them to her television station, which picks up the story and starts running the footage she captured.

Don attempts to climb out of the elevator via opening the doors and climbing through the small opening leading to the 49th floor. The opening is too small so he attempts to press the elevator call button on the floor's wall using Jane's walking stick. While he does this, Madeline repeatedly presses a button on the elevator's control panel. For some reason, this causes the elevator's brakes to deactivate, letting the elevator drop many floors down and then jerk to a stop, severing Don's right arm off above the elbow in the process. Mohammed ties a tie around it to try and slow the blood loss. Henry is left confused and dazed in the process.

George suggests that they attempt to pry open the doors again to see if the elevator has lined up with a floor in their drop, but they discover that the elevator stopped between floors, much to their dismay.

Martin brings up the local news on his phone, and they watch a live interview with the bombmaker. The bombmaker was good friends with Jane's son who perished in Iraq and felt that he owed his family. When Jane asked him to build the bomb for her, he did, and it was equipped with a 2-hour timer that Jane had activated before she left the bombmaker's apartment. He then informed the news crew, and in turn the bombmaker says that there's only about 10 minutes left until it detonates.

Desperate, George suggests dismembering Jane's body in an attempt to separate her from the bomb and throw it down the shaft. He fails to do so and an angry Henry takes over, and promises each person $1 million if they make it out alive. While they are trying to tear the bomb off, a security guard comes on the intercom and tells them that the bomb squad is there and lowering the elevator to create an opening to allow everyone to escape. They are able to open the doors and a small opening towards the top of the elevator is made. They quickly help an injured Don, Madeline, Celine, Maureen, Henry, Mohammed and George escape, but when only Martin is left, he knows that the opening isn't big enough for him to fit through. George desperately tries to convince the SWAT members to raise the elevator so they can get Martin out, but they say they can't and will lower the elevator to the basement and get him out there. Martin releases the doors and begins to weep, knowing his death is imminent. He regains composure and says "I guess....I'm the hero.", knowing that he helped everybody survive. The elevator continues to descend, with the bomb detonating.

Don is taken to hospital, and George asks Henry about the $1 million he promised each of the group, to which he ignores. George and Mohammed have a brief discussion outside the building about what lies ahead for them. A news reporter asks George how he stayed so brave during the ordeal, to which George lies and said he had to stay calm for everybody there, then races off after a phone call from his wife (who had no idea what happened) to pick something up from the store as Mohammed looks on.

Cast

The film hosts an ensemble cast:^[3]

• Christopher Backus as Don Handley, a mutual funds manager at Barton, fiancé of Maureen
• Anita Briem as Celine Fouquet, a mutual funds employee at Barton who is pregnant.
• John Getz as Henry Barton, CEO of Barton Investments.
• Shirley Knight as Jane Redding, a newly widowed woman whose investments in Barton recently tanked.
• Rachel and Amanda Pace as Madeline Barton, Henry Barton's 10-year-old granddaughter.
• Devin Ratray as Martin Gossling, a mutual funds manager at Barton.
• Joey Slotnick as George Axelrod, a claustrophobic comedian who was booked at the last minute.
• Tehmina Sunny as Maureen Asana, an investigative reporter for a local news station, fiancée of Don.
• Waleed Zuaiter as Mohammed, a security guard.^[4]
• Michael Mercurio as The Bombmaker

Release

Rumored for a 2011 release, there were sneak preview screenings at the Australian Film and Television School, the University of Southern California and the Los Angeles Film School.^[5][6] Released in usa August 2011.

References

External links

• Elevator at the Internet Movie Database
• Elevator at Rotten Tomatoes
• Stig & Tehmina Interview