History Film / PhoneBooth

* BlackAndGrayMorality: The situation is portrayed this way by The Caller. Stu is indeed a bad person, a jerk and a dishonest man planning to cheat on his wife behind her back with a woman he lied to about not being married. However, the Caller is miles worse in terms of being a danger, since he targets not only {{Asshole Victim}}s he thinks deserve to die, but also threatens to murder Stu's wife just to shake Stu up and [[spoiler:kills an innocent pizza guy]]. Such things could stem from him genuinely believing that all people "cause harm", but it's still going too far. And as much of a jerk as Stu is, getting shot to death in the middle of the street for cheating on his wife is a very disproportionate punishment. Note that we the audience know nothing about Stu except what The Caller tells us about him and how he behaves in a situation that very few people would be able to handle in a way that makes them look pleasant.

* DeadpanSnarker: The Caller, albeit of a much more crueler and more sinister variety than usual. It fits nicely with his sadism and open enjoyment of Stu's suffering.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Mocked by The Caller when he admonishes Stu for profanity. The Caller, despite being ruthless with possibly shooting people for being in the wrong place (why might be hinted as being tired of peoples' general lies, such as when, at one point, he points out possible signs of cheating in Stu's benign-acting wife), did retaliate against a couple of serious criminals who apparently had chances to come clean.

* HannibalLecture: Just about everything the Caller says. It's what makes up most of the movie, him being generally easy to compare to Dr. Lecter himself.

* ICanSeeYou

* BeleagueredAssistant: Stu has one in Adam although he's slightly nicer to him than others. By the end, Stu outright tells him he is too good to be a publicist.

* {{Gainaxing}}: Felicia the hooker when yelling at Stu, in a rare live action example.

* DeadpanSnarker: The Caller, albeit of a much more crueler and more sinister variety than usual.

* TheSpook: Nothing is known about the Caller. What little personal information he tells Stu is quickly admitted to be lies made up for his own amusement.

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Zigzagged with The Caller. He sees himself as bringing justice to those who deserve it but it's clear he also enjoys killing and the psychological torment he inflicts on his targets, and targets Stu is more out of a personal dislike than because he's a truly evil person. He gives his victims a chance to redeem themselves and seems to genuinely want them to take it but is quite content to murder them if they don't [[spoiler: and initially refuses to let Stu go even after he breaks down and admits to everything the Caller wanted him to. When Stu accuses him of never intending to let him go regardless of what he did, he never outright denies it.]] He is also willing to harm and frame innocent people for his murders, such as the pizza delivery guy, in pursuit of his goals, saying that everyone has caused harm to others so that no one is truly an innocent bystander. Best summed up [[spoiler: his final appearance where he seems genuinely happy that Stu has improved and wishes him well but also menacingly reminds him that he'll be back if he falls back into his old habits and makes it clear he won't be as merciful the next time.]]

One of the selling points of the movie during previews was that it is set in RealTime, often using SplitScreen techniques to show things going on at the same time. This came on the heels of ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24's]]'' initial success on TV (coincidentally, both works feature Kiefer Sutherland in a major role).

* BaldBlackLeaderGuy: Captain Ed Ramey, who while not technically bald is close enough to count.

''Phone Booth'' is a 2003 suspense film directed by Creator/JoelSchumacher about a publicist, Stu Shepard (Creator/ColinFarrell), who finds himself held hostage in a phone booth in full view of the New York City public by a sniper (voiced by Creator/KieferSutherland) who has uncovered him plotting an affair with Pamela [=McFadden=] (Creator/KatieHolmes), and wants him to change his ways. To prove his seriousness, the voice on the other end snipes a bystander who's hassling Stu to get out of the booth.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: The situation is portrayed this way by The Caller. Stu is indeed a bad person, a jerk and a dishonest man cheating on his wife behind her back. However, the Caller is miles worse in terms of being a danger, since he targets not only {{Asshole Victim}}s he thinks deserve to die, but also [[spoiler:killed the pizza guy]], and even threatens to murder Stu's wife, at least to shake Stu up. Such things could stem from him, with Stu's calm and non-hostile wife as an example with her dressing up to potentially attract other men, believing that people generally "cause harm", but it's still going too far. And as much of a jerk as Stu is, getting shot to death in the middle of the street for cheating on his wife is a very disproportionate punishment. Note that we the audience know nothing about Stu except what The Caller tells us about him and how he behaves in a situation that very few people would be able to handle in a way that makes them look pleasant.

* BreakTheHaughty: A main theme of the film.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Invoked and averted by The Caller. He mentions being both a Vietnam War veteran who was abandoned by his country afterwards and a victim of child abuse. He quickly admits to lying about both.

* DrivenToSuicide: After a while, the Caller grows tired of Stu and urges him to finish himself off, though Stu does not do so. [[spoiler:Later subverted with the pizza guy.]]

* EvilerThanThou: While Stu is not exactly a good man, who cheats his wife and lies to all his clients, the Caller is a sadist, sick KnightTemplar who is also willing to kill relatively innocent bystanders if he feels the need.

* {{Jerkass}}: Stu is sleeping around on his wife, and is a smug jerk pretending to be a bigshot to his employees.

** Leon the pimp and the "escorts".
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Stu gradually reveals himself as this by the end.

* KarmicDeath: The Caller considers his actions this.
* KickTheDog: The Caller gets Stu to spotlight and possibly insult Captain Ed Ramey on his failed marriage just because he found him annoying and doesn’t sympathize with him at all.

* NobleDemon: The Caller might be a sociopathic and sadist SerialKiller but he's shown to be genuine willing to let his targets live if they confess their misdeeds. [[spoiler: Which he does with Stu at the end after he finally admits all his wrong doings and decides to be a better man than he was.]]
* NoHeroToHisValet: Inverted; Stu is careless enough to be considered as a massive jerk to his assistant Adam, but Adam still looks up to him.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Zigzagged with The Caller. He sees himself as bringing justice to those who deserve it but it's clear he also enjoys or at least is too used to killing and the psychological torment he inflicts and targets Stu is more out of a personal dislike than because he's a truly evil person. He gives his victims a chance to redeem themselves and seems to genuinely want them to take it but is quite content to murder them if they don't. He is also willing to harm and frame more innocent people, such as the pizza delivery guy, in pursuit of his goals - though you can say his belief that most everyone's got harm to deal when Stu asks what his wife has to do with the ordeal. Best summed up [[spoiler: his final appearance where he seems genuinely happy that Stu has improved and wishes him well but also menacingly reminds him that he'll be back if he falls back into his old habits and makes it clear he won't be as merciful the next time.]]

* RedemptionEarnsLife: See below.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Stu finally admits his wrongdoings to his wife and all of the passers-by, and is shot shortly after. [[SubvertedTrope Then it is revealed that it was a rubber bullet, and he's perfectly fine]].]]

* TheSpook: Nothing is known about the Caller.

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The Caller turns out to be [[spoiler:the pizza delivery guy, an episodic character from the beginning of the movie.]] [[spoiler:Subverted: turns out that the pizza guy was set up as the culprit by the real Caller.]]

* UnnaturallyBlueLighting: The whole film has a very obvious blue sheen to it. This was probably meant in part to hide the aforementioned CaliforniaDoubling (see above).

* WeddingRingRemoval: Stu takes off his wedding ring just before calling Pam, who he intends to have an affair with. [[spoiler:He puts it back on near the end of the film.]]

* BlackAndGrayMorality: The situation is portrayed this way by The Caller. Stu is portrayed as a somewhat bad person, a jerk and a dishonest man cheating on his wife behind her back. The Caller is miles worse in terms of being a danger, since he targets not only {{Asshole Victim}}s he thinks deserve to die, but also [[spoiler:killed the pizza guy]], and even threatens to murder Stu's wife, at least to shake Stu up. Such things could stem from him, with Stu's calm and non-hostile wife as an example with her dressing up to potentially attract other men, believing that people generally "cause harm", but it's still goes too far. And as much of a jerk as Stu is, getting shot to death in the middle of the street for cheating on his wife is a very disproportionate punishment. Note that we the audience know nothing about Stu except what The Caller tells us about him and how he behaves in a situation that very few people would be able to handle in a way that made them look nice.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Played with and subverted. The Caller [[UnreliableNarrator pretends to be suffering from PTSD]] from his experiences as a rifleman in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. When Stu tries to use this to calm him down, he just laughs and admits he made the whole thing up, and points out how old he'd have to be to be a Vietnam veteran (though it might be hard to tell from only a voice as to being "50" at least in the film's release year).

* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: [[spoiler: The Caller looks like a perfectly ordinary person who is able to easily blend into a crowd and disappear.]]

* {{Gainaxing}}: Fellicia the hooker when yelling at Stu, in a rare live action example.

* HighConcept: "Man trapped in phone booth by unseen sniper" - in essence.

* BaldOfAwesome: Sgt. Cole

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: The Caller finds some of Stu's insulting comments funny and openly laughs at them, particularly to Leon's girls.
* AintTooProudToBeg: Stu can transition from cocksure confidence to sympathetic weeping in a matter of seconds.

* AssholeVictim: The Caller's previous victims and Stu himself (at least in the Caller's opinion). [[spoiler:The pimp]] wasn't exactly a saint either as he attacked Stu with a baseball bat with little provocation, and probably would've acted exactly the same to Stu even if Stu had been polite to him.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: The situation is portrayed this way by The Caller. Stu is portrayed as a bad person, a jerk and a dishonest man cheating on his wife behind her back. The Caller is miles worse, since he targets not only {{Asshole Victim}}s he thinks deserve to die, but also [[spoiler:killed the pizza guy]], and even threatens to murder Stu's wife. And as much of a jerk as Stu is, getting shot to death in the middle of the street for cheating on his wife is a very disproportionate punishment. Note that we the audience know nothing about Stu except what The Caller tells us about him and how he behaves in a situation that very few people would be able to handle in a way that made them look nice.

-->"A 30-calibre bolt-action 700 with a Carbon One modification and a state-of-the-art Hensoldt tactical scope. And it's staring straight at you."

* DisproportionateRetribution: The penalty for planning to cheat on your wife (and being a prick) is death. Stu even lampshades this near the end of the film.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Mocked by The Caller when he admonishes Stu for profanity.

* EvilerThanThou: While Stu is not exactly a good man, who cheats his wife and lies to all his clients, the Caller is a sadist, sick KnightTemplar who is also willing to kill innocent bystanders.

* FauxAffablyEvil: The Caller's demeanor is pleasant, but is clearly malevolent, with deity-level feelings of grandiosity.

* HannibalLecture: Just about everything the Caller says. It's what makes up most of the movie.

* IfItBleedsItLeads: Referenced by The Caller twice. He points out a tourist with a video camera who would love to film a bloody police shootout and sell it to a TV program. He later mentions the arrival of reporters for Channels 2 and 5.

** The Caller, over the course of the film he threatens to kill several innocent people, [[spoiler:killed Leon and the pizza delivery guy]], made Stu insult Captain Ed Ramey on his failed marriage either ForTheEvulz or because ItAmusedMe, among other things.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Stu survives the ordeal and reconnects with his wife, but the Caller himself escapes in the end. He inconspicuously visits a medicated Stu just before leaving, threatening to kill him if he doesn't remain a newly upstanding man, and even tells him ''he doesn't have to thank him'' for everything he did for Stu. He takes his disassembled sniper rifle with him, hinting he'll do all of it again somewhere else. Sure enough, [[HereWeGoAgain another phone booth starts to ring...]]]]

* KickTheDog: The Caller gets Stu to insult Captain Ed Ramey on his failed marriage just because he found him annoying and doesn’t sympathize with him at all.

* KnightTemplar: The Caller. His targets are usually unrepentant criminals like a child pornographer and a businessman who made off with a collapsed company's profits, leaving his employees and investors to rot. His target in the film, however, isn't ''any'' type of criminal, but simply {{Jerkass}} Stu Shepard, who is having an affair and pretending to be a big shot; not exactly what you would call ''pure evil''. Also, the sniper's methods to get criminals, real or imaginary, to confess, including targeting their loved ones, are quite questionable, to say the least. In the end, [[spoiler: Stu confesses to his deeds, and the sniper decides to spare his life and those of his loved ones...though it's hinted that the sniper is going to check up on Stu once in a while to make sure that Stu ''keeps'' his promise of not being a douche.]]

* AMillionIsAStatistic: "Thousands die every day, but you put one dead body in the middle of a busy street and it makes people crazy."

* NiceToTheWaiter: Played straight - Stu is charming to anyone who'll do him a favour or anyone he's trying to impress, but a jerk to the pizza guy and his own assistant.

* NoHeroToHisValet: Inverted; Stu is a massive jerk to his assistant Adam, but Adam still looks up to him.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Zigzagged with The Caller. He sees himself as bringing justice to those who deserve it but it's clear he also enjoys killing and the psychological torment he inflicts and targets Stu more out of a personal dislike than because he's a truly evil person. He gives his victims a chance to redeem themselves and seems to genuinely want them to take it but is quite content to murder them if they don't. He is also willing to harm and frame innocent people, such as the pizza delivery guy, in pursuit of his goals. Best summed up [[spoiler: his final appearance where he seems genuinely happy that Stu has improved and wishes him well but also menacingly reminds him that he'll be back if he falls back into his old habits and makes it clear he won't be as merciful the next time.]]

* PrecisionFStrike:

* RedemptionRejection: Invoked by The Caller. He gives each of his targets a chance to repent and admit to their crimes. If they don't, he kills them.

* ShellShockedVeteran: Played with and subverted. The Caller [[UnreliableNarrator pretends to be suffering from PTSD]] from his experiences as a rifleman in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. When Stu tries to use this to calm him down, he just laughs and admits he made the whole thing up, and points out how old he'd have to be to be a Vietnam veteran.
* ShootHimHeHasAWallet: Repeatedly discussed and played with. The Caller tells Stu not to do anything that could be interpreted as a hostile action in front of the police, noting that "you can be shot forty-one times just for pulling out your wallet" (referencing the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadou_Diallo_shooting Amadou Diallo shooting]]). Stu almost does this accidentally when he tries to take his cellphone and cigarettes out of his pocket to prove that he doesn't have a gun. Eventually, the Caller tries to invoke this trope to get Stu to commit inadvertent SuicideByCop.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Stu carries himself like a big shot but he's nowhere near as powerful or influential as he'd like to claim and is forced to admit as much.

* ChekhovsGunman: The pizza delivery guy, [[spoiler:but this turns out to be a subversion.]] Less literally, Leon can be seen during the opening, rubbing a hooker's belly.

* SerialKiller: The Caller killed other men before catching up with Stu.

* SmallNameBigEgo@ Stu carries himself like a big shot but he's nowhere near as powerful or influential as he'd like to claim and is forced to admit as much.

* BegoneBribe: Stu dismisses others by offering them money or valuable items on more than one occasion. The Caller reminds him of this later and comments on how it shows Stu's disrespect towards other people.

* DeadpanSnarker: The Caller

* EvilSoundsDeep: The Caller has Kiefer Sutherland's famously deep, menacing voice.

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Zigzagged with The Caller. He clearly sees himself as asserting justice to those who deserve it but it's clear he also enjoys killing and the psychological torment he inflicts and targets Stu more out of a personal dislike can because he's a truly evil person. He is also willing to harm and frame innocent people, such as the pizza delivery guy, in pursuit of his goals. Best summed up [[spoiler: his final appearance where he seems genuinely happy that Stu has improved and wishes him well but also menacingly reminds him that he'll be back if he falls back into his old habits and makes it clear he won't be as merciful the next time.]]

* SplitScreen

* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: Zigzagged with The Caller. He clearly sees himself as asserting justice to those who deserve it but it's clear he also enjoys killing and the psychological torment he inflicts and targets Stu more out of a personal dislike can because he truly deserves it. He is also willing to harm and frame innocent people, such as the pizza delivery guy, in pursuit of his goals. Best summed up [[spoiler: his final appearance where he seems genuinely happy that Stu has improved and wishes him well but also menacingly reminds him that he'll be back if he falls back into his old habits and makes it clear he won't be as merciful the next time.]]

* EvilSoundsDeep: Kiefer Sutherland's voice seems to get more gravelly as the film goes on.

''Phone Booth'' is a 2003 suspense film directed by Creator/JoelSchumacher about a publicist, Stu Shepard (Creator/ColinFarrell), who finds himself held hostage in a PhoneBooth in full view of the New York City public by a sniper (voiced by Creator/KieferSutherland) who has uncovered him plotting an affair with Pamela [=McFadden=] (Creator/KatieHolmes), and wants him to change his ways. To prove his seriousness, the voice on the other end snipes a bystander who's hassling Stu to get out of the booth.

* PhoneBooth: This film might be the most triumphant example of it yet.