Buried (film)

In 2006, Paul Conroy, an American civilian working in Iraq, awakes to find himself buried in a wooden coffin with only a Zippo lighter and a BlackBerry phone at hand. As he gradually begins to piece together what has happened to him, he recalls that he and several others were ambushed by terrorists, passing out after being hit by a rock. He receives a call from his kidnapper, Jabir, demanding that he pay a ransom of $5 million or he will be left in the coffin to die.

Conroy calls the State Department, which tells him that due to the government policy of not negotiating with terrorists, it will not pay the ransom but will try to rescue him. They connect him with Dan Brenner, head of the Hostage Working Group, who tells Conroy they are working to find him. Jabir calls Conroy again and demands he film a ransom video, threatening to execute one of his colleagues who survived the attack. Conroy insists that no one will pay $5 million, so Jabir drops the amount to $1 million. Despite his compliance in making the video, the kidnappers execute his colleague anyway and send him video of the killing. Shortly afterward, distant explosions shake the area, which damage his coffin, causing it to slowly fill with sand. Conroy continues sporadic phone calls with Brenner, skeptical of his promises of help. Brenner informs Conroy that a man named Mark White was rescued from a similar situation three weeks prior and is now home safe with his family.

Conroy receives a phone call from his employers, who inform him that he has been terminated from his job due to an alleged prohibited relationship with a colleague. Because of this, he and his family will not be entitled to any benefits or pension earned with the company. Brenner calls saying that the explosions that damaged his coffin earlier were in fact F-16 bombings and that his kidnappers may have been killed. Conroy begins to lose hope and makes a last will and testament in video form, leaving his son his clothes and his wife his personal savings. Jabir calls demanding Conroy video record himself cutting off a finger, threatening Conroy's family back home if he refuses. Conroy complies with this demand.

Shortly after filming the video, Conroy’s cell phone rings, and he begins to hear digging and distorted voices. The voices become clearer, saying to open the coffin, and the coffin opens. It is abruptly made clear that this wasn’t real, but only Conroy hallucinating.

Brenner calls and tells Conroy an insurgent has given details of where to find a man buried alive, and that they are driving out to rescue him. Conroy then receives a tearful call from his wife Linda, and he assures her that he is going to be okay. As sand continues to fill the coffin to dangerous levels, giving Conroy seconds left to live, Brenner calls and tells him that he and the rescue team have arrived at the burial site. Through the phone, digging is heard, but Conroy cannot hear any digging around him. The team digs up a coffin and opens it, but it is revealed that the insurgent led them to Mark White's coffin, the man Brenner claimed had been rescued. The film ends with Brenner profusely apologizing to Conroy as the sand finally fills the coffin and he suffocates.

• Ryan Reynolds as Paul Conroy
• José Luis García Pérez (voice) as Jabir
• Robert Paterson (voice) as Dan Brenner
• Stephen Tobolowsky (voice) as Alan Davenport
• Cade Dundish (voice) as Shane Conroy
• Samantha Mathis (voice) as Linda Conroy
• Ivana Miño (voice) as Pamela Lutti
• Warner Loughlin (voice) as Maryanne Conroy / Donna Mitchell / number lady
• Erik Palladino (voice) as Special Agent Harris

The film was produced by Barcelona-based Versus Entertainment, in association with The Safran Company and Dark Trick Films.^[1] It was shot in Barcelona over 16 days.^[7][8]

Lead actor Ryan Reynolds stated that he suffered from claustrophobia while filming‍— much like the character he plays. The coffin he was in was gradually filled with sand as filming went on such that he was actually buried while shooting the film's climactic moments. Ryan described the last day of shooting as "unlike anything I experienced in my life, and I never ever want to experience that again." The production crew had a team of paramedics waiting on standby.

Director Rodrigo Cortés' inspirations included the Alfred Hitchcock films Rope and Lifeboat.^[7]

Buried premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 23 January 2010. Shortly after, Lionsgate acquired North American distribution rights to the film after a bidding war with other distributors including Fox Searchlight Pictures; the deal was initially estimated at $3.2 million, reports stated that the price would ultimately come to $10 million including Lionsgate's marketing commitments.^[8][9]

The film received a limited theatrical release in the United States on 24 September 2010 and a wider release two weeks later on 8 October. The film's first trailer premiered with A Nightmare on Elm Street. The second trailer premiered at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, and was attached with select prints of Dinner for Schmucks, Resident Evil: Afterlife, The Expendables and The Last Exorcism. Buried was released theatrically in Spain on 1 October 2010 by Warner Bros. Pictures.^[10][11]

The film won the Best European Feature Film of the Year award at the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival in September 2010.^[12] It was presented at the Deauville American Film Festival, in competition, and the Toronto International Film Festival,^[13] out of competition, in September 2010.

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 87% based on 157 reviews with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Wringing a seemingly impossible amount of gripping drama out of its claustrophobic premise, Buried is a nerve-wracking showcase for Ryan Reynolds' talent."^[14] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[15]

Film critic Roger Ebert awarded the film three and a half out of four stars and wrote that "Rodrigo Cortés, the Spanish filmmaker behind this diabolical, Hitchcock-influenced narrative stunt, makes merry mischief with camera angles and lighting".^[16] Scott Mantz of Access Hollywood called it "a brilliantly twisted suspense thriller that would have made Alfred Hitchcock proud."^[17] Chris Tilly at IGN gave the film a perfect 10 out of 10.^[18]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone awarded the film two out of four stars, commenting: "Ninety minutes of being buried alive with Ryan Reynolds: Didn't we all suffer that in The Proposal?"^[19]

• Survival film, about the film genre, with a list of related films
• List of Spanish films of 2010