Script To Screen: “Panic Room”
From the 2002 thriller Panic Room, written by David Koepp.
From the 2002 thriller Panic Room, written by David Koepp.
Setup: Meg and daughter Sarah have just moved into an apartment. Now the place has been invaded by Bad Guys. Meg and Sarah are forced to respond.
INT. ELEVATOR - NIGHT
Meg SLAMS the gate shut and PUNCHES the button for the first
floor. The elevator GROANS to life and starts down --
slowly.
Sarah looks up at her, terrified.
SARAH
What's going on?!
MEG
People. In the house.
As the elevator descends, they see Raoul, through the window
in the door, as he drops to his knees, to get a good look at
them.
INT. TOP FLOOR HALLWAY - NIGHT
Raoul turns from the elevator, SHOUTS to the open stairwell.
RAOUL
IN THE ELEVATOR! BOTH OF 'EM HEADED
TOWARD YOU!
INT. THIRD FLOOR HALLWAY - NIGHT
Junior turns from the open doorway of the master bedroom and
races back down the hall, toward the elevator. He reaches
the door, peers through the window.
He sees the bare feet of Meg and Sarah, dropping toward him.
He grabs the door handle, pulls as hard as he can, but it
stays locked, with the elevator moving beyond.
He bangs on the button, hoping the elevator will stop. As
Meg and Sarah drop fully into view, he stands there, eye to
moving eye with her for a moment. But the elevator doesn't
stop, it keeps going down.
INT. ELEVATOR - NIGHT
Meg stands frozen, terrified, staring at Junior as they move
past him.
Junior has another go at the door, pulling as hard as he
can, actually bending the door, but the elevator is still
moving, the catch holds fast and the door won't open.
As they pass, his face suddenly disappears, he takes off.
INT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT
Junior flies down the stairs, to cut them off at the first
floor.
INT. ELEVATOR - NIGHT
MEG
He's going down.
SARAH
That room!
MEG
What?!
SARAH
PANIC ROOM!
Meg thinks, then punches the button for three, to go back
up.
But the elevator continues down. She jabs at it, futilely.
SARAH
No. you gotta...
She reaches past her, pushes the STOP button. The elevator
jerks to a halt. Then Sarah pushes three. Now the elevator
starts to rise.
Meg looks at her, impressed. Love that kid.
INT. ENTRY FLOOR - NIGHT
In the foyer, Junior freezes, hearing the elevator stop and
start again.
JUNIOR
SHE'S COMING BACK UP TOWARD YOU!!
He takes off up the stairs again. Burnham can't take it
anymore, he takes off after Junior, following him upstairs.
INT. FOURTH FLOOR HALLWAY - NIGHT
Raoul, still on the top floor, heads for the stairs, fast.
INT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT
Junior races back up the stairs. They have her caught in
the middle.
INT. THIRD FLOOR HALLWAY - NIGHT
The door to the elevator BANGS open on three, the gate
RATTLES aside, and Meg and Sarah leap out. They take off
down the hall, toward the doorway to the master bedroom.
Raoul flies down the stairs, not twenty feet behind them.
INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT
Meg and Sarah run through the master bedroom. As she passes
the night table, Sarah swings an open hand to grab her cell
phone from its cradle. But in her haste she starts to pull
it out at an angle and the prongs at the bottom stick in the
charger. The phone slips from her fingers, bounces off the
corner of the table, caroms off her foot, and skitters under
the bed.
Sarah turns, looks to the head of the stairs just as Junior
turns the corner and Raoul thunders down the steps from
four.
She abandons the phone, grabs Sarah, and they lunge through
the open doorway to the panic room.
Junior and Raoul burst through the doorway to the bedroom,
just a few steps away.
INT. PANIC ROOM - NIGHT
Meg and Sarah trip over each other coming through the
doorway, they tumble to the floor of the panic room, the
door wide open behind them. Meg spins around, hurls herself
at the red button on the wall --
-- Junior leaps, sailing through the air toward them --
-- Meg SLAMS her open palm on the red button, the massive
coiled spring that holds the metal door open is released,
the steel barrier leaps forward out of the wall --
-- and WHANGS shut in a split-second.
INT. MASTER BEDROOM - NIGHT
Junior SLAMS into the closing metal door, banging his
shoulder into it, and slithers to the ground, too late.
INT. PANIC ROOM - NIGHT
Meg rolls over and pulls Sarah into her arms, both of them
breathing hard, asking each other if they're okay, scared
out of their minds.
But safe.
Here is the scene from the movie:
I’ll see you in comments for a discussion of this terrific scene from Panic Room.
One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a weekly series on GITS where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.
For more Script To Screen posts, go here.