Line #74 Film/PanicRoom


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/panic_room.jpg]]
2
3	->'''Raoul:''' Hey! What is funny about this?... Is this shit funny to you? \
4	'''Burnham:''' Well, I spent the last 12 years of my life building these rooms specifically to keep out people like us.
5
6	''Panic Room'' is a 2002 thriller film directed by Creator/DavidFincher, starring Creator/JodieFoster and a young Creator/KristenStewart.
7
8	Recently-divorced Meg Altman (Foster) and her 12-year-old daughter Sarah (Stewart) move into a [[BigFancyHouse four-story Manhattan brownstone]] which has a fortified "panic room" in case of home invasion. Late at night, three burglars -- Burnham (Creator/ForestWhitaker), Junior (Creator/JaredLeto), and Raoul (Music/DwightYoakam) -- break in looking for money hidden in the house by the previous owner.
9
10	The two women lock themselves up in the room, but are unable to call for help. Worse yet, the money was stored in the panic room and the burglars have no issue going through the new owners to get it (also, originally unbeknownst to them, it was ''far'' more than they had been told it was, and in the form of bearer bonds).
11	----
12	!!This film contains examples of:
13
14	* ActionSurvivor: Meg starts to become one towards the end of the film, notably when she [[spoiler:whacks Raoul across the head with a sledgehammer]].
15	* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:By the end of the film, Raoul and Junior are dead and Burnham is arrested. To add insult to injury, as he's being apprehended, he is ordered to open his hands, and that means he must lets go of the bearer bonds, which blow away in the storm.]]
16	** An earlier case of it occurs when Burnham tells Junior and Raoul that they were on video tape the moment they got within proximity to the house. It's discovered the [=VCRs=] were empty when Burnham and Raoul trick Meg out of the panic room, meaning that at any time, they could have easily left without worrying of leaving videographic evidence.
17	* AmbiguousSituation: It's never explained exactly why [[spoiler: Raoul brought a gun to the job in the first place. It clearly shows his violent inclinations. However, given the house was supposed to be empty, it seems to imply he may have been planning to use it to rob his fellow burglars of their shares all along. Then again, there is the old adage that having a gun and not needing it is better than needing a gun and not having it. Raoul was probably worried that a witness or police officer would catch them in the act.]]
18	* AmbiguousSyntax: When Junior is going over all the relatives he has to share the money with if it gets found, he says "Stephen, Jeffrey, Catherine, David. Five grandkids." It's unclear if he means he and the other four are the five grandkids (and the only heirs), or he means five grandkids, and the other four people. Burnham seems to think it's the later, commenting that Junior just named eight people he had to share with.
19	* AmicableExes: Downplayed with Meg and Stephen. When Sarah starts CallingTheOldManOut, Meg tells her not to talk about her father like that, but agrees that the woman he cheated with is a bitch. When she calls him for help in the middle of the night, he immediately comes to her aid and does whatever he can to protect them even after being severely beaten by the burglars.
20	* AmusingInjuries: Averted. [[spoiler: Junior getting set on fire]] is portrayed realistically and painfully, as is the instance when [[spoiler: the panic room door closes on Raoul's hand, costing him two fingers]], although his [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl reaction]] might add an element BlackComedy to it.
21	* AntiVillain: Burnham. It's revealed that the only reason he took the job was because he needed the money to afford a custody lawyer. In addition, [[NeverHurtAnInnocent he refuses to harm anyone]] and is [[EveryoneHasStandards horrified at the lengths his fellow burglars are willing to go to]].
22	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Burnham to Junior:
23	-->'''Burnham:''' This is what I do; if some idiot with a sledgehammer could break in, do you really think I'd still have a job?
24	* ArtisticLicenseChemistry: The [[spoiler: propane gas the burglars pour into the panic room (which is then lit by Meg)]] would fall to the ground instead of sticking to the ceiling as it does in the movie.
25	* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Averted, BUT can [[RealityIsUnrealistic be interpreted as one if you are unfamiliar with Type 1 Diabetes]]. The daughter has diabetes, and when in the panic room they try to find food to give her (which would heighten her blood sugar level) as her blood sugar drops; when they can't find any they give her a shot instead. Many unfamiliar with diabetes think this is an INSULIN shot (which is used to lower the blood sugar). However, she is injected with a hormone called glucagon, which is used to quickly raise a diabetic's blood sugar - so the portrayal is accurate, but can easily be taken as a mistake if you are unfamiliar with diabetes.
26	* AxCrazy: Raoul. The man carries a gun and isn't afraid of using it... and shooting people in the head is the more merciful thing he does throughout the film.
27	* BigBadWannabe: Junior. He tries to be a criminal mastermind, but the idiot pulls off a barrage of poor decisions, starting with not being able to figure out the exact amount of time he had to pull off the heist and ending [[spoiler:with hiring a maniac looking for a reason to kill people... which he gave him by telling him that they were pulling out.]]
28	* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Just as it looks as though Raoul is going to murder Meg while Sarah watches helplessly, Burnham, who was previously making a getaway with the money, returns and shoots Raoul in the head, after deciding that he can't just let Meg and Sarah die.]]
29	* BigFancyHouse: Meg buys the ridiculously huge house for just herself and her daughter to stick it to her rich ex-husband for a messy divorce. It even has an elevator!
30	* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Pearlstine's, even though Junior is the only one to appear onscreen. Old Sidney Pearlstine kept half of his money hidden in a panic room, his kids started suing each other as soon as he disappeared and Junior (one of his grandchildren) tries to break into the house and steal the money.
31	* BluffingTheAuthorities: Meg has to do it when two policemen ring her bell under orders from the burglars, who have Sarah hostage.
32	* BookDumb: Lydia has a moment like this:
33	-->'''Meg:''' Ever read any [[Creator/EdgarAllanPoe Poe]]?\
34	'''Lydia:''' No, but I loved [[{{Music/Poe}} her last album]].
35	* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:How Junior and Raoul meet their ends.]]
36	* [[BottleEpisode Bottle Movie]]: Aside from a very brief prologue and epilogue, the movie takes place over one night and within the house.
37	* BullyingADragon: Junior keeps berating AxCrazy Raoul over and over again. [[spoiler: Raoul finally ends the bullying with a headshot.]]
38	* TheCameo: Creator/NicoleKidman as Stephen's new woman, who answers the phone when Meg calls for help; Kidman was originally cast as Meg but had to withdraw from production after a knee injury filming ''Film/MoulinRouge''.
39	-->'''Meg''': Put him on the phone, bitch!\
40	'''Girlfriend''': ''[to Stephen, annoyed]'' It's your fucking wife.
41	** Andrew Kevin Walker, who had worked on Fincher's last few scripts, plays the drowsy neighbour whom the captives try to signal with a flashlight.
42	* TheCavalryArrivesLate: [[spoiler:The police arrives after the big fight. All they have to do is to arrest Burnham who was fleeing.]]
43	* CellPhonesAreUseless: Meg makes a dash into the bedroom and grabs her cell phone, but the steel-plated walls of the panic room are too thick to get a signal, turning the place into a dead zone.
44	* ChekhovsArmory: The opening scene is Meg being walked through the house's layout, including the panic room and its many features and resources, all of which are used to familiarize the audience with everything at hand before they're put to use for the rest of the movie.
45	* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:The sledgehammer used by Raoul to smash the ceiling later gets utilised by Meg to smash the security cameras, lights, and mirrors, and to use as a weapon.]]
46	* {{Claustrophobia}}: Meg has to deal with her fear of small spaces while being locked inside the panic room.
47	* ClosedCircle: Meg and Sarah are trapped in the panic room, and the thieves won't leave until they get the money inside. [[spoiler:Later, the situation gets inverted: when Meg attempts to get Sarah's diabetes shots, Burnham and Raoul get inside and lock Meg out. However, Meg also has a gun, and there's only one way out of the room.]]
48	* ClusterFBomb: A fair bit of Junior and Raoul's dialogue. Especially when the latter is ''really'' mad.
49	* ColdBloodedTorture: [[spoiler:Raoul's treatment of Stephen.]]
50	* ComicTrio: Although they aren't exactly comedic, the burglars fit the role nicely. Junior's the navigator, Raoul is the driver and Burnham's in the backseat.
51	* ConscienceMakesYouGoBack: [[spoiler:Burnham has the bonds and is leaving the house, but can't bring himself to leave Meg, Sarah and Stephen to die, so he returns and shoots Raoul down.]]
52	* CoverInnocentEyesAndEars: Meg shields Sarah's eyes from [[spoiler:Junior being killed by Raoul]] and cradles Sarah's head, with Meg's hand on Sarah's ears, when [[spoiler: Stephen is being assaulted]].
53	* CovertDistressCode: The cops ask Meg for one if she's being held against her will after the late-night distress call to her husband was cut short. [[spoiler: Meg insists she's fine, but her behavior is unconvincing just enough for the cops to call in [=SWAT=] once the conversation is over.]]
54	* CrimeAfterCrime: The burglary was supposed to be an easy "get in, take the money, get out" when [[StupidCrooks Junior]] originally planned it and recruited [[TheEvilGenius Burnham]] on that basis and brings in [[PsychoForHire Raoul]] without telling Burnham. He miscalculated when the house would be re-sold, so he didn't expect to find Meg and Sarah there. Worse still, they fortify themselves inside the panic room, which is where the money belonging to the previous owner is stored. The burglars commit even more crimes in their attempt to get it, including trying to gas Meg and Sarah, threatening Sarah when they find themselves locked in the room with Meg's daughter, [[spoiler:torturing Meg's ex-husband Stephen and forcing her to watch]], and ultimately [[spoiler:Raoul stops caring about the money entirely and attempts to murder the entire family.]]
55	* CurseCutShort: Invoked. The panic room has cameras around the house, but not audio. When Burnham silently informs Meg and Sarah that he knows they don't have a phone line -- rendering their previous threat of having called the cops moot -- we then hear Junior say "You're full of sh--" before it cuts to a panic room shot of him swearing silently on camera.
56	* CutPhoneLines: The thieves cut the main phone lines of the house to prevent Meg and her daughter from calling out, while the phone in the titular room is on a different line but hasn't been installed yet. However, Junior simply cut the cord of the kitchen phone, not the entire line. Meg manages to jury rig the panic room's phone into the main line and get a call for help out before the thieves disconnect the lines for real.
57	* DeadpanSnarker:
58	** Evan, the guy showing Meg around the house at the beginning.
59	** Being a smartass is also one of Sarah's defining character traits from the start of the film.
60	** Even Raoul gets in the act, when he's still TheStoic.
61	--->Junior smashes a mirror in frustation\
62	'''Raoul''': That's seven years' bad luck.
63	* TheDeterminator: Raoul. [[spoiler: Despite having his fingers crushed, getting shot and shot at, taking a sledgehammer to the face, falling over a railing and hitting the floor, breaking some bones, and getting stabbed by Sarah, he still attempts to kill Meg, until Burnham steps in.]]
64	* DidntThinkThisThrough: On top of [[StupidCrooks all the other mistakes he made]], Junior tells his fellow burglars that there is 3 million in the safe despite knowing it to be 22 million. It's not stated how much he promised Burnham for his services (he would have probably been content with just covering the legal costs of his custody dispute), but he promised Raoul a paltry 100k for being his hired muscle before the latter negotiates it up to 1/3 of whatever they find. There is no conceivable way he could have kept the loot's true value hidden from them if they succeeded, ensuring that [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal they will turn on him when they do]].
65	-->'''Burnham:''' You tried to fuck us?! Are you stupid?! What did you think was gonna happen, me and Raoul were just going to wait in the other room while you grabbed your share?
66	* DidntWantAnAdventure: A villain variation; the house was supposed to be empty when the burglars came.
67	* DiseaseByAnyOtherName: While it’s never stated outright that Sarah has Diabetes, there are enough context clues to make it easy to figure out if you know what it is.
68	* DisguisedHostageGambit: Burnham and Raoul are able to lure Meg out of the panic room by disguising Raoul as her husband Stephen (whom they've taken captive and already tortured) and Stephen as Raoul.
69	* EarnYourHappyEnding: In a rare turn from a David Fincher film, [[spoiler:Raoul and Junior are killed, Burnham redeems himself (albeit at the cost of the bearer bonds and is now going to jail) and Meg, Stephen and Sarah survive. Meg and Sarah then start to look for a new house.]]
70	* EnclosedSpace: Meg and Sarah are trapped in the panic room to hide from the burglars. The burglars can't simply take what they want and leave because the loot they're after is stored in the panic room occupied by the pair. They also barricade the rest of the building to keep the new owners from escaping.
71	* EpicTrackingShot: From one floor down to another, through keyholes and coffeemakers.
72	* EstablishingCharacterMoment:
73	** Junior has a one of these, when he discovers to his chagrin that Meg and Sarah are already in the house, he explains that when the realtors told him how many days it would be before they moved in, he assumed they meant business days.
74	** Burnham gets one right after when he chastises Junior for his lack of foresight in planning the burglary.
75	** [[spoiler:Raoul's completely casual murder of Junior. Burnham is understandably horrified.]]
76	* EveryoneKnowsMorse: Sarah learned "SOS" from ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'', and attempts to signal a neighbour by flashing it through a vent. [[spoiler:It doesn't work.]]
77	* EvilDuo: Burnham ''thought'' he and Junior were going to be this; Junior would have the plan, Burnham the expertise. Junior didn't tell him he was going to bring backup in the form of Raoul.
78	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Most of the film unfolds over a single night.
79	* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Raoul has his right eye [[MoeGreeneSpecial blown out]] from behind by [[HeelFaceTurn Burnham]]]].
80	* {{Fingore}}: Raoul loses at least two of his fingers and most likely has the rest of them broken when the panic room door slams shut on them, after he had his hand positioned out of range of the door sensors. Once the loot is scored, we see Raoul pick them up while leaving the panic room.
81	* FromNobodyToNightmare: Raoul is a bus driver from Flatbush, and winds up [[spoiler: necessitating a SWAT team to come after him.]]
82	* GeniusBruiser: Burnham is the biggest guy on screen (though he doesn't actually do much fighting), and he is also by far the most intelligent; he shows a level of competence in various fields and a resourcefulness equal to Meg's.
83	* GladIThoughtOfIt: When Burnham and Raoul begin to hatch their plan with the propane gas, Junior chimes in from the sidelines, "I was just thinking we should do something like this!"
84	* GutPunch: See [[spoiler:Raoul]]'s EstablishingCharacterMoment.
85	* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Burnham, who goes back to save Meg and Sarah from Raoul.]]
86	* HopeSpot: Several - one of which being when Meg and Sarah think they might have managed to alert one of their neighbors to their plight... [[spoiler:and he simply closes his bedroom blinds in annoyance, believing their signal to be a faulty light.]]
87	* HowlOfSorrow: Meg lets out a howl of despair and rage when [[spoiler:Raoul starts to severely beat Stephen, while all she can do is watch helplessly.]]
88	* IHaveNoIdeaWhatImDoing: Meg's response when trying to wire the panic room phone into the main line.
89	* IdiotPlot:
90	** Burnham builds a door that can be stopped by laser sensors but not by force.
91	** After realizing that the house isn't empty, two of the robbers make no attempt to hide their faces with some improvised masks.
92	** Meg stretches her arm as far into the propane as possible before setting it on fire.
93	** While the robbers rush to unplug the phone line, Meg doesn't tell Stephen's girlfriend about the robbers, but instead disputes with her about getting Stephen on the phone.
94	** Meg and Sarah could have sent text messages and hung the cell phone outside the ventilation pipe by the phone cord or a stripe of cloth, where the cell phone has service.
95	** The robbers stop watching the panic room door. Then they realize that that was a mistake. Then they repeat the same mistake.
96	** When the robbers stop watching the panic room door for the second time, Meg could have left the room, dialed the police on the cell phone, and whispered. Neither Meg nor the robbers realize this.
97	** When Sarah is about to die and only the robbers can save her, Meg disobeys their order to leave the gun, and says "fuck you" to the camera. To the robbers who recently lashed out and [[spoiler:killed Junior]].
98	* ImpliedDeathThreat: When Junior tries to cut his losses and leave, Burnham warns him that he will split the money with Raoul and that if he sends the cops after them in response, they "will know who to look for". [[spoiler:Although it appears that Burnham was bluffing, as he's pretty shocked when Raoul simply shoots Junior on the spot.]]
99	* {{Irony}}: The fact that a panic room Burnham built is keeping him and his crew from accomplishing their burglary. This is not lost on him.
100	* TheKeyIsBehindTheLock: The movie's premise is basically this, but one bit highlights this in particular. When trying to lure out Meg and Sarah by filtering propane gas into the panic room, Burnham warns Raoul not to crank the gas too high. When Junior scoffs that the worst that can happen is that Meg and Sarah pass out, Burnham asks him how they plan to get into the room if the occupants are passed out.
101	* LadyLooksLikeADude: Sarah.
102	* LampshadeHanging: When Meg [[spoiler: smashes all the cameras in the house, leaving the burglars blind in the panic room]], Raoul says what's been on the audience's mind for the past hour:
103	-->'''Raoul''': Why didn't ''we'' think of that?
104	** When Raoul gets verbose about threatening Junior's life in a way people don't utilize in real life, Junior mocks his "Elmore Leonard bullshit".
105	* LargeHam: Jared Leto as Junior.
106	* LaymansTerms: When Sarah is testing the elevator:
107	-->'''Evan''': Could the little one please stop doing that?\
108	'''Lydia''': [[SuddenlyShouting KID! NO ELEVATOR!]]
109	* LimaSyndrome: Two of the housebreakers [[AccidentalKidnapping accidentally end up taking hostages]] when the supposedly empty house was occupied earlier than expected, and then find themselves locked in the panic room with a girl about to slip into a hypoglycemic coma. One of them is an AxCrazy murderer who talks about needing to kill her since she's seen his face, but the other one does everything he can to prevent her getting hurt. [[spoiler: In the end, he gives up his opportunity to escape with the loot so that he can rescue the girl and her mother (who had come pretty close to killing him a couple of times) from his deranged accomplice]].
110	* LittleMissSnarker: Sarah.
111	* MalevolentMaskedMen: Raoul wears a ski mask throughout most of the film, until he removes it in order to [[spoiler:put it on Stephen and trick Meg.]]
112	* MamaBear: Meg will do anything to protect Sarah, even threatening to kill Burnham and Raoul if [[spoiler:they let Sarah die]].
113	** [[spoiler: Sarah attempts to return the favor, stabbing Raoul repeatedly with a handful of hypodermic needles when he attacks Meg]].
114	* MinimalistCast: There are ten named characters, only six of whom stick around longer than one scene.
115	* MockGuffin: Subverted [[spoiler:at first, the safe appears to be empty]].
116	* MsFanservice: Meg spends most of the movie in a low-cut tank top.
117	* NeverHurtAnInnocent: Burnham, who refuses to take physical action ("I told you, I don't hurt people") and intervenes when Junior's and Raoul's tactics get out of hand.
118	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Meg's decision to temporarily leave the panic room to get her cell phone from under her bed would have gone smoothly...had she not decided to [[WithCatLikeTread run out like a bat out of hell]] and clumsily reach for her phone in a... panic. [[spoiler: She inadvertently knocks over a bed lamp and alerts the burglars, giving them just enough time to interfere with Meg and Sarah's plan to call for help at the last second]].
119	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler: Burnham changes his mind about splitting with the bonds and goes back to stop Raoul from hurting Meg and Sarah, arriving just in time to shoot Raoul dead as he's about to murder Meg. He gets apprehended by the [[TheCavalryArrivesLate late-arriving police]] soon after and is forced to let the bonds scatter to the wind for his troubles.]]
120	* NoNameGiven: The three burglars are never referred to by their full names, only going by one name each.
121	* NobodyPoops: Averted. Meg is shown going to the toilet in the middle of the night and her urinating is audible. There's also a conspicuous toilet in the panic room, although no one uses it.
122	* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:Stephen]] is assumed dead by Meg, until she discovers that, although badly injured, he's still alive.
123	* ObviouslyNotFine: [[spoiler: How the cops determine Meg is in serious jeopardy. Meg is ''just'' insistent enough that she's fine and her call to her husband was a sad ex-wife call, and the time and circumstances ''just'' suspicious enough that the cops take her behavior as this trope, and immediately send for [=SWAT=] without letting Meg know they're doing so to prevent the situation from escalating.]]
124	* OhCrap:
125	** Meg, when she notices the three intruders on the panic room's security feeds.
126	** Later, Burnham has such a reaction when he can hear [[spoiler:Meg trying to ignite the gas]].
127	---> '''Burnham:''' Turn the gas off. ''[...]'' Turn the gas off ''right now''.
128	** Sarah has a similar reaction when she realizes what her mom is about to do.
129	---> '''Sarah:''' ''Oh my God.''
130	* TheOner: A long pan from Meg fitfully dozing down to Burnham trying the front door, then across to him trying the back door and finally right up to the ceiling where he breaks through the skylight.
131	* OnlySaneMan: Burnham.
132	* PapaWolf: Stephen Altman. He doesn't have the opportunity to do much after [[spoiler: Raoul captures, tortures and beats him]], but he gets points for [[spoiler:calling the police in the first place and for shooting at Raoul]].
133	* PetTheDog: Junior does toss some money at Raoul and Burnham after deciding to give up and go home (albeit in a somewhat condescending fashion). Burnham also treats Sarah out of her system shock, even though Raoul is more than happy to leverage her health for their escape, including her death if necessary.
134	* PoliceAreUseless: Played with and ultimately subverted: [[spoiler: Meg calls 911, only to be put on hold. She then calls Stephen for help, only for the burglars to cut the cord, but not before Stephen gets suspicious and calls the police himself. They show up and confront Meg at the front door (who has to try to act normal as the burglars are holding her daughter hostage), and do indeed notice that something is horribly wrong. They later return with the [[SWATTeam NYC Emergency Service Unit]]]].
135	* POVCam: When Meg gets Raoul's gun and points it at the panic room, ready for the bad guys to emerge, there's a shot from her point of view looking down the length of the gun.
136	* PrecisionFStrike:
137	** An exchange between the robbers before the heist:
138	-->'''Burnham:''' Who is that?\
139	'''Junior:''' This is Raoul.\
140	'''Burnham:''' Who the ''fuck'' is Raoul?
141	** Meg is so bad at this her twelve-year-old daughter has to tell her how, and even then she screws it up. On the other hand...
142	** ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: ... she manages this quite well when talking to Stephen's new paramour.
143	-->'''Meg:''' Put him on the phone, bitch!
144	** Sarah gets one early in the movie when Meg is still feeling down about their family situation.
145	-->'''Sarah''': Fuck him.\
146	'''Meg''': Don't.\
147	'''Sarah''': Fuck her, too.\
148	'''Meg''': I agree, but don't.
149	* ProtectThisHouse: The whole premise of the movie, with no deviation from the house and its' exterior.
150	* PunchClockVillain: Burnham. And, unlike Junior and Raoul, he refuses to hurt people.
151	* RapeAsDrama: Early in the movie, Meg and Sarah are in the panic room looking at the intruders on the closed-circuit TV, Sarah asks why the men are there. Meg replied that the robbers may want to rob them or ... something else. She trails off without finishing the thought, but it's clear that (as she doesn't think there's much of particular value in the house), she is worried about being raped. Later, after [[spoiler: Sarah has ended up locked in the panic room with the burglars]] the first thing Meg says after being reunited is "Did they hurt you? Did they touch you?" in a tone of voice that clearly shows how terrified she was that this might have happened.
152	* RevengeBeforeReason: [[spoiler:During the climax, Raoul, rather than escape the house with the bearer bonds along with Burnham, decides to stay behind and try to murder Meg, Sarah and Stephen for causing him so much trouble, in spite of his numerous horrible injuries. This comes back to bite him when Burnham decides he can't just leave the Altmans to die.]]
153	* RiddleForTheAges: Why Junior thought it was a good idea to hire Raoul is anyone's guess, since he had all the help he needed from Burnham and would have been content with leaving him enough to cover his court fees.
154	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Writer David Koepp got the idea for the film from an article in The New York Times about "safe rooms" and getting stuck inside an elevator in his own brownstone.
155	* RuleOfCool: The [[InSceneTitleText three dimensional opening credits]] that look like they're floating above various shots of the New York City skyline.
156	* SayingTooMuch: While discussing splitting the money, [[spoiler:Junior casually notes that he'll be walking away with $800,000-900,000 from the inheritance anyway if he simply [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere gives up and goes home]]. The others realize that, with almost a dozen other grandchildren also standing to inherit and Junior's likely being a black sheep of the family, there's ''way'' more in the panic room safe than he initially let on (about 3 million).]]
157	* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Raoul after [[spoiler:getting the panic room door slammed shut on his hand]].
158	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere:
159	** Burnham wants to leave as soon as he discovers that there are people in the apartment, but Junior talks him into staying. From there it becomes CrimeAfterCrime. [[spoiler:After Raoul kills Junior he forced Burnham to finish the job under threat of his life.]]
160	** Junior. It is debatable whether [[spoiler: Raoul]] would have actually let him leave anyway, [[TooDumbToLive but muttering loudly to yourself information that shows you've been lying to your fellow criminals is not a good idea.]]
161	* ShoutOut: When Meg asks Sarah where she learned S.O.S, she replies "Film/{{Titanic\|1997}}."
162	* ShowerOfAngst: Downplayed; Meg, still broken over her husband leaving her, weeps in the bathtub and downs a glass of wine.
163	* SirSwearsALot: Junior and Raoul.
164	* SmugSnake: Junior, despite being the ostensible leader of the burglars, lacks the brutality of Raoul or the intelligence of Burnham. He constantly underestimates the resourcefulness of the house's owners and overestimates his own brilliance. [[spoiler:It results in his death when Raoul realizes that he tried to rip him and Burnham off.]]
165	* TheSociopath: Raoul.
166	* SoftSpokenSadist: Raoul, unless he's genuinely angry.
167	* SpannerInTheWorks: One of the main reasons why this film even started. Junior miscalculated when the house would be sold resulted in Meg and Sarah moving in at the exact night the robbery was going to take place, which ends up with the women locked in the panic room... where the money turns out to be.
168	** Raoul wasn't even supposed to be in the robbery at all, according to Burnham, which makes him a liability especially when it's revealed he brought a gun in what was originally a break-in of an empty house. [[spoiler:Things go from BadToWorse when he kills Junior and forces Burnham to finish the robbery.]]
169	* TheStoic: Raoul... [[NotSoStoic at first]].
170	* StupidCrooks: This trope is Junior all over. The reason why they are breaking into the home on that specific night is because he knew, when he was putting the plan together, that he had fourteen days to break in before the house was sold, but he thought that it was fourteen ''business'' days, not ''actual'' days. He also is stupid enough to mutter TooMuchInformation too loudly around his goons, letting Burnham figure out that they are being stiffed on their cut. [[spoiler:And while he made a good call by hiring [[HyperCompetentSidekick Burnham]], he didn't know that Raoul was a PsychoForHire looking for a reason to kill. [[TooDumbToLive This one costs him his life]].]]
171	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: As the source of drama and tension, no less:
172	** There's a phone in the panic room, but as they just moved in, it's not set up yet.
173	** The panic room has an emergency stash of food, but with essentials that can't help Sarah get her blood sugar up. Even the gum is sugar-free.
174	** Sarah tries to flash a SOS signal with a flashlight to their neighbor; the neighbor just shuts the blinds on the blinking light.
175	** Junior is tasked with disconnecting the phone line, and rips out the main cord in the kitchen as movie characters do. It takes more than that to actually disable the line, as he finds out the hard way.
176	** The burglars are able to cut the phone line before Meg can tell Stephen what's happening. [[spoiler: But getting a panicked call in the middle of the night from his ex-wife is enough for him to call the cops and go to the house himself even without Meg filling him in on what's happening.]]
177	** With Sarah's life hanging in the balance, Meg [[BluffingTheAuthorities bluffs the cops away]] by saying her call to her ex-husband was an embarrassing drink-and-dial. The cops aren't convinced and ask her for a CovertDistressCode if she's being held hostage, to which Meg laughs off. [[spoiler: Meg's behavior is flimsy enough for the cops to take it as a QuietCryForHelp and return in short order with a SWAT team.]]
178	** During the climax, [[spoiler: Stephen tries to shoot Raoul, but even with a big target in front of him, his immobilized, injured hand makes it impossible to get off an accurate shot.]]
179	* SuspiciousSkiMask: [[PsychoForHire Raoul]] wears one during the home invasion. In fact, out of the three home invaders, he is the only one who wears a mask at all. Highlighting his professionalism and experience compared to [[TokenGoodTeammate Burnham]] and [[StupidCrooks Junior]].
180	* TechnicolorFire: [[spoiler:The propane fire Meg ignites is bright blue.]]
181	* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: [[spoiler:Shooting Junior well and truly dead doesn't stop Raoul from putting another bullet into his head, just because he ''can''.]]
182	* TriggerHappy: Raoul, although Junior clearly doesn't know just how much of a psychopathic lunatic he really is [[spoiler:until it's too late.]]
183	* TwoFaced: When [[spoiler:Junior gets set on fire]], he ends up with considerable burns on the right side of his face and arm.
184	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Twice.
185	** First with the burglars' plan to [[spoiler: swap clothes with Stephan to lure Meg out of the safe room]]. This goes off as well as planned.
186	** Second with Meg's plan to [[spoiler:lure the burglars' out and to a specific place of her choosing so they'll be trapped between Stephan armed with the gun and her armed with the sledgehammer]]. While it goes mostly to plan, the predictable happens mainly because [[spoiler:Stephan's not able to aim well due to his injuries, and a sledgehammer is a really difficult weapon for a small-framed woman to wield effectively]].
187	* VillainBall: The thieves lampshade their idiocy when [[spoiler:Meg destroys the cameras when she is trapped outside of the room and they inside, hiding her and allowing her to set up ambushes. They note they should have done that too]].
188	* VillainHasAPoint: Junior initially intended to pay Raoul a 100,000 fee for helping him steal 3 million dollars. After all the trouble they have to go through when Meg and Sarah barricade themselves inside the panic room, he demands an equal share of a three-way split. [[spoiler:However, when it turns out Junior is ''still'' fleecing him and the money in the room is closer to 20 million, he shoots Junior.]]
189	* VillainousBreakdown: Raoul starts to go off the deep end after [[spoiler:having his fingers severed and mangled]], but doesn't fully lose it until Meg [[spoiler:whacks him in the head with a sledgehammer, knocking him down the stairs and presumably breaking several more bones]], opting to try and murder the Altmans instead of [[spoiler:getting out with the bearer bonds.]]
190	* WhoAreYou: Burnham asks Raoul this when he learns he brought a gun to the burglary.
191	-->'''Burnham''': Who are you?\
192	'''Raoul''': I'm Raoul.
193	* WhyDidntIThinkOfThat: When Raoul sees [[spoiler:Meg taking out the cameras with the robbers' sledgehammer]], he reacts, "Why the hell didn't ''we'' do that?"
194	* WouldHurtAChild: Raoul implies that he plans to kill Sarah, and at one point outright threatens to do it. [[spoiler:He also punches her across the room in the final fight.]]
195	* WrongGenreSavvy: [[StarterVillain Junior]] believes he's the DiabolicalMastermind, that [[DragonInChief Raoul]] is the DumbMuscle and [[TokenGoodTeammate Burnham]] is TheSmartGuy. Turns out, he was only right about the ''last'' one. Junior even points out that Raoul talks like an Elmore Leonard character and he should cut it out because it's not an intimidating way of talking in RealLife... kind of forgetting what [[MurderIsTheBestSolution noir villains like to do]].
196	* XanatosSpeedChess: Meg and Burnham are quite well matched in this regard, and engage in a lot of this as they try to outmaneuver each other.

Context Film / PanicRoom