 Poster. | |
| Written by | Stephen Saint Leger James Mather |
| Directed by | Stephen Saint Leger James Mather |
| Produced by | Luc Besson Leila Smith |
| Starring | Guy Pearce Maggie Grace |
| Music by | Alexandre Azaria |
| Cinematography by | James Mather |
| Editing by | Camille Delamarre Eamonn Power |
| Studio | EuropaCorp Canal+ |
| Distributed by | Open Road Films FilmDistrict |
| Release Date | April 18, 2012 (France) |
| Rated | PG-13/Unrated |
| Run time | 95 minutes |
| Budget | $20 million |
| Grossed | $32,204,030 |
Lockout (also known as MS One: Maximum Security) is a 2012 English-language French science fiction action film directed by James Mather and Stephen Saint Leger, and written by Mather, Saint Leger, and Luc Besson. The film stars Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun, Lennie James, and Peter Stormare.
Lockout follows Marion Snow (Pearce), a man framed for a crime he did not commit, who is offered his freedom in exchange for rescuing the President's daughter Emilie (Grace) from the orbital prison MS One, which has been overtaken by its inmates, led by Alex (Regan) and the psychotic Hydell (Gilgun). It is similar in premise to Escape from New York.
It recieved mixed reviews upon its release but made a considerable profit at the box office.
Plot[]
In 2079, CIA agent Snow (Guy Pearce) is arrested for the murder of undercover agent Frank Armstrong (Miodrag Stevanovic) who had uncovered evidence of an agent selling state secrets about the space program. Secret Service director Scott Langral (Peter Stormare) threatens to have Snow incarcerated on the maximum security space penitentiary MS One where prisoners are kept in stasis for their sentence. Snow's agent friend Harry Shaw (Lennie James) tries to locate Snow's contact Mace who knows where Frank's briefcase containing the secret information is hidden.
Meanwhile, Emilie Warnock, (Maggie Grace) daughter of US President Warnock, arrives at MS One to investigate claims that stasis might affect prisoners' minds, leading to psychopathy and dementia. Hydell (Joseph Gilgun), a prisoner, is awakened for questioning, but manages to escape. He releases all of the prisoners and starts a riot, led by his brother Alex (Vincent Regan). Emilie and others are captured. Shaw convinces Langral to send Snow to rescue Emilie rather than risk her life in a siege. Snow is initially reluctant, but agrees after Shaw tells him that Mace is on MS One, and could help Snow prove his innocence. Snow secretly infiltrates MS One. Alex realizes Emilie is the President's daughter and goes to secure her. Emilie manages to escape with her bodyguard Hock and hide in a secure room. A problem with the oxygen supply forces Hock to commit suicide to give Emilie more time.
Snow breaks into the room and rescues Emilie. Snow changes Emilie's hair to conceal her gender and appearance after the prison is alerted to her true identity, allowing them to walk through the prison population. They find Mace (Tim Plester), but the stasis has given him dementia and made him incoherent. Snow and Emilie bring Mace with them as they attempt to reach the escape pod. Without the maintenance of the staff, the prison has begun to fall out of its orbit and crashes into the International Space Station. The collision causes a breach and Mace is killed. Snow brings Emilie to the pod but discovers it has only one seat, and that he has been sent there to die. He sends Emilie on her way, but she allows the pod to launch without her, believing that the remaining hostages will be otherwise killed. Hydell contacts Emilie and threatens the hostages unless she reveals her location. When she does so, he kills all of the hostages anyway.
As Snow and Emilie flee, they discover evidence that the prisoners were being illegally used as test subjects. Alex finds the pair and captures Emilie after shooting Snow and leaving him for dead. When Alex learns that Hydell has killed all of the hostages, he beats Hydell and contacts the President threatening to allow Hydell and the prison population to rape Emilie if they are not released. The President refuses to allow a siege and risk Emilie, causing Langral to temporarily relieve him of his command. Langral orders the destruction of MS One. Hydell tries to rape Emilie as promised, but is stopped by Alex. Infuriated, he kills Alex. Emilie fights back and Hydell attempts to stab her, but he is incapacitated by Snow. Snow and Emilie flee from the prisoners and Hydell. Meanwhile Langral's men plant a bomb on the prison. Snow and Emilie use space suits and jump from the ship as it detonates, destroying the prison. The suits allow the pair to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and land safely in New York City; Snow is arrested.
Emilie later realizes that Mace's seemingly incoherent rambling was the location of and password needed to access Frank's briefcase. Armed with the briefcase, Snow meets with Shaw. Shaw immediately unlocks it to see the evidence, but finds it empty. Snow notes that he had not given the unlock code to Shaw, and Shaw is revealed as the mole and arrested. Snow is released and his possessions returned, including a lighter given to him by Frank before his death. Snow finds a memory card containing the real secret information hidden within it. Emilie meets Snow and teases him, having learned his first name is Marion. The pair walk away together.
Cast[]
- Guy Pearce as Marion Snow: A former government agent wrongly convicted of espionage against the United States. After meeting with him for the first time, the directors commented that he was too skinny, but Pearce promised that he would "buff up." Pearce undertook a high-protein diet and weightlifting regimen to increase his muscle mass, as he believed it was important that Snow look like a serious action hero.
- Maggie Grace as Emilie Warnock: Daughter of the President of the United States. Grace intended to perform as many of her own stunts as possible, and was required to learn stunt, combat, and wire work before filming began. She was drawn to the role partly because of Besson, with whom she had worked twice previously, and because she saw the character as a "kick-ass" woman. Describing Emilie, Grace said she is a "capable young woman who knows how to negotiate her role as someone in a position of responsibility. She certainly has a strong world compass and she responds amazingly well under pressure. True, she's not exactly trained for the situation she finds herself in, but that's OK. There's still a strength about her in spite of that."
- Vincent Regan as Alex: A prisoner and leader of the prison revolt.
- Joseph Gilgun as Hydell: Alex's psychotic brother and fellow prisoner.
- Lennie James as Harry Shaw: A CIA agent.
- Peter Stormare as Scott Langral: The Chief of the Secret Service. Describing what drew him to the role, Stormare commented "the part was nice because it was like 'Wow, he's eluding me all the time. What is he up to? Is he really a bad guy or a good guy? What side is he on?' You never find out, which is kind of cool."
The cast also includes Jacky Ido as Hock, Emilie's bodyguard; Tim Plester as Mace, Snow's contact; Mark Tankersley as Barnes, the prison Warden; Anne-Solenne Hatte as Kathryn, Emilie's aide and friend; Peter Hudson as President Jeff Warnock, Emilie's father; and Miodrag Stevanovic as Frank Armstrong, a CIA agent.
Development[]
Principal photography was scheduled to begin on 7 September 2010, in the Serbian capital city Belgrade. Much of the filming used green screens, rather than practical sets. The intended scenes were storyboarded in Dublin, Ireland to aid the actors in visualizing how the green screen scenes would appear after the completion of the CGI in post-production. Speaking about the experience, Grace stated: "You just have to suspend the voice in your head because you feel so silly reacting to nothing there. Having whole conversations with people that aren’t there. I felt a little crazy the first time around."
Luc Besson produced the film. Besson also co-wrote the script with directors James Mather and Stephen Saint Leger, the directors.
FilmDistrict purchased the distribution rights to the film for a limited amount. In December 2011, FilmDistrict reached a deal to distribute its 2012 films including Lockout through Open Road Films for a fee.
Release[]
The film was released on 13 April 2012, in North America.
Box office[]
The film grossed $14,326,864 in the United States and Canada, and $17,877,166 from markets elsewhere for a total gross of $32,204,030.
Lockout opened to $6.23 million from 2,308 theaters in the United States and Canada – an average of $2,700 per theater – making it the number 9 film for the weekend. Pre-release tracking of the film had estimated that its opening weekend gross would be between $6–8 million. The film drew a large male audience, with men making up 65% of those in attendance and an even split between those under and over the age of 25.
Critical reception[]
Although Guy Pearce's role was generally well received, critical reception of the film itself ranged from mixed to negative. The film earned a score of 48 out of 100 from 32 critics on review aggregate website Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. It also garnered 38% approval from 114 critics on Rotten Tomatoes – an average score of 5 out of 10 – whose consensus reads: "Guy Pearce does the best he can with what he's given, but Lockout is ultimately too derivative and shallow to build on the many sci-fi thrillers it borrows from." CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B−" on an A+ to F scale.
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C grade, writing: "Lockout floats like space junk in the final frontier." Boxoffice reported the film was, "A sleek, slick and shameless rip-off of John Carpenter's Snake Plissken films Escape from New York and Escape from L.A."
External Links[]
- Lockout at the Internet Movie Database
- Lockout at Wikipedia