YMMV / Panic Room

• Catharsis Factor: Burnham returning to pick up the gun and save Meg and the others by firing it straight through the back of Raoul's noggin.
• Complete Monster: Raoul is one of three robbers who invades the new home of a mother and her daughter, and from the start he proves himself to be far more cruel and murderous than both his comrades. He has no reservations about killing people or even children to get the bearer bonds stored in the safe room. He turns up the gas so Meg and Sarah almost suffocate and doesn't care that his associate Junior almost burned to death as a result. When Junior tries to cut his losses and leave, Raoul shoots him in the head, then shoots the corpse again out of spite. He threatens to kill Burnham too if he doesn't go through with the job. He beats Meg's ex-husband Stephen almost to death to get them to leave the safe room, and then intends to kill their daughter if she tells the police. After they beat Raoul up it gets personal, as he prefers to murder the whole family rather than escape with the money.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Burnham follows Meg's instructions in order to be able to properly give Sarah the shot and save her life. Sarah then makes it a point to look at his name rage and address him by name while thanking him too. Not long after that, Burnham picks Sarah up so she doesn't walk on the broken glass too.
  • After coming back to shoot Raoul in the head before he can kill Meg, Burnham then turns to Sarah and tells her: "You're gonna be okay now."
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • David Fincher on the DVD commentary complimenting young Kristen Stewart, saying she'd never "have child star issues" and that "she'll probably never end up on E! Entertainment Television." He was basically right about the former, but the latter... in fairness, he couldn't have known about Twilight and Robert Pattinson (not to mention the whole Snow White & the Huntsman thing).
  • Kristen Stewart playing as the daughter of Jodie Foster aka Clarice Sterling from Silence of the Lambs, given that Still Alice has her play the daughter of Julianne Moore who plays Sterling in Hannibal.
• Magnificent Bastard: Burnham is a private security expert who joins a small group of robbers to pay for the legal costs incurred by his custody dispute with his ex-wife. When the new residents hole themselves up in the panic room, Burnham leads a cat and mouse game against them, frequently proving himself more resourceful and strategic than his fellow criminals in outsmarting Meg and Sarah, while also figuring out that the ringleader Junior tried to screw him over and threatening retribution. Burnham eventually devises a Disguised Hostage Gambit to allow the robbers access to the room, also medicating Sarah when she almost goes into a diabetes-induced coma. Burnham almost escapes with millions of dollars in bearer bonds when his conscience makes him go back to save the Altman family from his crazed partner Raoul.
• Moral Event Horizon: For some, it's when Raoul murders Junior in cold blood. For others, it's when he beats Stephen to within an inch of his life.
• Retroactive Recognition: Kristen Stewart as Sarah.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Sarah can easily be mistaken for a boy early in the movie, due to her short haircut, voice and gender-neutral wardrobe, but the confusion is usually cleared up when her name is finally spoken. Notably, these would become distinguishing traits of Kristen Stewart herself to the public.
• The Woobie: Meg, Sarah, and Burnham.
  • Stephen especially when he's beaten to near death by Raoul.

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