Line #31 Film/Buried


1	[[quoteright:290:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Buried_6587.jpg]]
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3	->''170,000 SQ miles of desert.\
4	90 minutes of oxygen.\
5	No way out.''
6	-->-- '''{{Tagline}}'''
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8	''Buried'' is a 2010 English-language Spanish thriller film directed by Rodrigo Cortés, written by Chris Sparling, and starring Creator/RyanReynolds.
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10	Reynolds plays Paul Conroy, a US contractor working in Iraq in 2006. After an attack on his convoy, he awakens buried in a coffin with no idea how he got there. With limited oxygen and only a handful of supplies -- including a cell phone, a lighter and a pen -- Paul tries to piece together what happened to him and how to get out in a desperate race against time.
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12	The film notably takes place entirely in Paul's coffin, with Reynolds being the only on-screen actor during its entire runtime.
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14	''Buried'' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010. After a bidding war, the US and UK distribution rights to the film were bought by Creator/{{Lionsgate}}, and the film had a theatrical release in fall 2010.
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17	!!This film provides examples of:
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19	* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: PlayedWith. Paul uses a zippo lighter in the beginning of the movie, as the coffin is pitch black and he doesn’t want to use up the phone battery. When he mentions this to Brenner, the latter encourages him to use it in order to find markings around the coffin, despite the former’s protests, acknowledging that it’s actively eating away at his oxygen supply. Despite this, Paul uses the lighter quite liberally, before and after he finds the flashlight left for him, and it doesn’t seem to affect his breathing all that much.
20	* AllThereInTheManual: The kidnapper's name, Jabir, is only revealed in the credits.
21	* BuriedAlive: The premise of the entire movie.
22	* {{Chiaroscuro}}: No sunlight penetrates the coffin, and the artificial light sources make harsh shadows.
23	* CruelTwistEnding: [[spoiler:Dan tells Paul that his team have been given the whereabouts of a man who was buried alive and are driving to the location to dig him up, and [[HopeSpot it seems that Paul is finally going to be rescued]]. However, with Paul's coffin dangerously filled with sand, Dan informs him that the coffin his team dug up was the one that belonged to Mark White, not him. Paul is given all of 10 seconds to process this before his coffin completely fills with sand and he suffocates, during which Dan can only apologize.]]
24	* DaydreamSurprise: [[spoiler:Paul finally gets bathed in light as a team of soldiers unbury him and crack the coffin open, only for the movie to cut back to Paul, still staring at the wooden boards above him and daydreaming.]]
25	* DesperatePleaForHome: When talking to the Iraqi insurgents who have buried him alive for the first time, Paul pleads for them to let him go home. They don't listen.
26	* DownerEnding: Primarily detailed under CruelTwistEnding above, but possibly {{ambiguous\|Ending}} as well. [[spoiler:After the credits, there's a cryptic shot that shows us that Paul wrote the name of Mark White on the lid of his coffin. [[MindScrew The meaning of the shot is not immediately clear.]] It's possible that they dug Paul up successfully, took off the lid, saw the name on it, and assumed it was Mark White. The scene appears to be shot so that the lid is still on and the coffin is filling up with sand, but it's somewhat ambiguous, and Paul is out of it, so the film could simply be showing us his perception of the situation. That still leaves a dead 26-year-old med student out there in Iraq somewhere.]]
27	* DrivenToSuicide: ''Very closely'' subverted. [[spoiler:After having been sent a video of his colleague Pamela being shot and killed, Paul drags a knife across his throat and replays the moment in his mind, having numerous flashbacks as he deeply ponders going through with it. It isn’t until he remembers the voice of his son that he decides to keep going.]]
28	* EnclosedSpace: It doesn't get any more enclosed than the coffin.
29	* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:In Paul's final moments, when he knows that he isn't going to be saved, he tries to remain calm and take steady breaths with the air he has left. Just before his coffin fills completely, he can be heard whispering, "Okay. Oh, God." This differs from an earlier version of the ending in a draft of the film's script that made its way online, where [[FaceDeathWithDespair Paul protests up until the very end and is heard screaming after his coffin fills up]].]]
30	* FalseReassurance: Paul seems to be GenreSavvy about this, and asks Dan to give him at least one example of a civilian being rescued from a premature burial to prove that he’s not being led on. Dan relates to Paul the story of Mark White, a 26-year old med student who was similarly kidnapped by insurgents and buried alive, but was rescued by Dan. Paul is slightly skeptical about this claim, but uses it as a symbol of hope regardless. [[spoiler:Sadly, this was indeed just a way to keep Paul calm while Dan did everything he could to find the coffin. He ends up actually finding the coffin of Mark White at the worst possible time, digging it up when he thought he had been led to Paul's coffin -- mere moments before Paul's coffin is to fill completely at that -- and apologizes profusely as Paul dies knowing that he’d been clinging to false hope.]]
31	* FinallyFoundTheBody: [[spoiler:The capper of the CruelTwistEnding is that whatever Dan the negotiator did offscreen to be led to the alleged location of Paul's burial site, he was instead led to the one of Mark White -- the hostage Dan had told Paul about as a successful rescue months ago.]]
32	* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler:Paul's captors make him cut off his own finger.]]
33	* FiveFiveFive: Averted. Several full phone numbers are mentioned over the course of the film, none of them including 555.
34	* {{Flashback}}: Averted, while most of the viewers expect to see some flashbacks to mix up a bit the constant scenes with just the wooden box and Ryan in it, the movie never actually leaves the box. The closest the movie comes to having flashbacks is [[spoiler:when Paul is considering suicide after watching Pamela’s execution. He replays the audio in his head and hears the many calls he made shortly after, ending with the voice of his son, Shane, from his home’s voicemail.]]
35	* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:The film ends as the box Paul was buried alive in fills with sand, capping off a brutal HopeSpot.]]
36	* HeWhoMustNotBeSeen: Everyone except Paul [[spoiler:and his colleague, Pamela]].
37	* HopeSpot: A particularly nasty two-fold example sets up the film's [[CruelTwistEnding bleak]] [[DownerEnding ending]].
38	** [[spoiler:Dan calls Paul just as his coffin is almost completely filled with sand and tells him that his team have found his coffin. Paul's wife Linda calls, and he switches over to tell her they've found him. They exchange "I love you"s and she makes him promise that he'll get home safe, then he switches back to Dan. On the other line, Paul hears the team soldiers digging, desperately trying to get him out, but he can't hear anything around him. At the last second, Dan apologizes and tells Paul that they've been led to the wrong person just as the coffin fills up completely.]]
39	** [[spoiler:The body Dan's team finds is that of a man that Dan earlier told Paul that he saved months ago. Since he had to lie just to give one example of a successful rescue, Dan has presumably never saved anyone before. What little hope for rescue Paul had throughout the film was based on a lie.]]
40	* {{Hypocrite}}: Jabir certainly raises good points about the American invasion of Iraq. (Further below) However, when Paul counters that he is only a civilian truck driver who had nothing to do with any of the killings or the decision-making, and was in fact there to help with rebuilding, Jabir has no response.
41	* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: Several cases. Paul's kidnappers initially not telling him about the bag at the foot of the coffin (and indeed placing it in such a difficult place to begin with), despite obviously wanting him to use it. Also, leaving Paul a Zippo (which would burn up oxygen, cutting Paul's life expectancy short and leaving the kidnappers less time to get their ransom), when they also left him a flashlight. Also the silver hip flask which, in normal circumstances, would also most likely be looted]].
42	* IHaveAFamily:
43	** Paul pleads to his kidnapper to let him go, as he wants to see his wife and son again. [[spoiler:This might’ve unintentionally endangered them, as the kidnapper reveals that he has his credentials, and threatens to go after Paul’s family if he doesn’t give into his demands.]]
44	** [[spoiler:Pamela Lutti was a mother of two kids, not that it saved her from her execution.]]
45	** Jabir himself was the father of five kids, but four of them are dead.
46	* JerkassHasAPoint: The American invasion on Iraqi soil is Jabir's justification for him and the insurgents to kidnap and/or kill every single American they see. He points out that [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror 9/11]] and the actions of UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein were not the fault of his people and yet Americans are still occupying their land. Dan also points out how easy it is for Paul, an American, to say that he wouldn't commit some of the atrocities the insurgents commit for the sake of their families since he wouldn't typically be in a situation where he has his land taken from him and has to do anything he can to protect his own family.
47	* KickTheDog: Paul's employer phoning him in the coffin to inform him his employment has been retroactively terminated to prior to his abduction and his family will not receive any benefits.
48	* MinimalistCast: Creator/RyanReynolds is the only actor shown. Save for one character seen in a video on a cell phone, no one else appears on-screen in the film.
49	* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailers promoted this as being an intense, high-octane thriller similar to the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' movies. It is nothing like it at all, and is closer to an art film.
50	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:Paul attempting to reason with the kidnapper by mentioning his family ends up putting them in the crosshairs, as the kidnapper threatens to kill them if Paul doesn’t cut off his finger and/or pay the ransom.]]
51	* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Paul's employers, who [[spoiler:contact him to let him know that they've ''retroactively'' fired him, dating his termination as the previous day. That means that his family won't get any benefits or insurance from him, ''and'' they're covering their own behinds from any legal culpability in his death.]]
52	* OrangeBlueContrast: Literally the only lights come from a lighter and an old flashlight giving off yellow/orange light and a cellphone and glowstick giving off blue/green light. Combine the two together as occurs in several shots and you get this.
53	* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: The entire film builds up to a point where it seems like Paul will be rescued, only for the final moments to have the hostage negotiators sadly reveal that they were given the wrong location. Paul suffocates and dies. The end.]]
54	* SmallSecludedWorld: Almost nothing gets in or out of the coffin, not even the camera.
55	* SquirrelsInMyPants: At one point, while Paul is asleep, a snake crawls up his pants. The next scene shows Paul waking up as it slides out of his pants, where he sets it on fire.
56	* StressVomit: Paul vomits violently after [[spoiler:watching Pamela get executed by their captors]].
57	* SuperCellReception: Paul Conroy manages to make calls to the USA with a mobile phone, while [[BuriedAlive buried in a wooden coffin]] in Iraq. He only loses one or two calls to a bad signal, and the battery manages to last the entirety of the film. Of course, since the action never leaves the coffin, he has to be able to call people.
58	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Jabir claims that he lost his job, home, and four of his five children because of the invasion of Iraq. This would make it seem like his kidnapping and ransom of Paul is a desperate attempt to feed what's left of his family. [[spoiler:[[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist This is subverted, however,]] since when Jabir had Pamela executed even after Paul gave in to his demand to record the ransom video, he proved that his motives are purely revenge and spite, which is still understandable, but ultimately of no benefit to anyone.]]

Context Film / Buried