Lockout

Lockout
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Mather Stephen St. Leger
Produced by	Marc Libert Leila Smith
Written by	Luc Besson Stephen St. Leger James Mather
Starring	Guy Pearce Maggie Grace Vincent Regan Joseph Gilgun Lennie James Peter Stormare
Music by	Alexandre Azaria
Cinematography	James Mather
Editing by	Camille Delamarre Eamonn Power
Studio	EuropaCorp Canal+ Ciné+
Distributed by	Open Road Films FilmDistrict
Release date(s)	April 13, 2012 (2012-04-13) [1]
Running time	95 minutes[2]
Country	‹See Tfd› France
Language	English
Budget	$20 million[3]
Box office	$22,622,536[4]

Lockout (also known as MS One: Maximum Security) is a 2012 French science fiction action film directed by James Mather and Stephen St. Leger, and written by Mather, Leger, and Luc Besson. The film stars Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun, Lennie James, and Peter Stormare. Lockout follows 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).

Principal photography took place in Belgrade, Serbia. It was released on April 13, 2012 in North America.

Plot

2079. Washington, D.C.

CIA agent Snow (Guy Pearce) is captured by Secret Service director Scott Langral (Peter Stormare), who has security footage of Snow killing infiltrated CIA agent Frank Armstrong, who was investigating a mole that is selling governmental secrets. Snow claims he's innocent, and later directs his friend, Secret Service agent Harry Shaw (Lennie James), to find Snow's contact and friend, Mace (Tim Plester), and find the location of a briefcase containing the information that Armstrong had acquired about the mole.

Meanwhile, Emilie Warnock (Maggie Grace), daughter of President Warnock (Peter Hudson), travels to M.S. One, a maximum security penitentiary in Space, where convicts are kept in suspended animation, to investigate claims that the statis might affect prisoners' minds, leading to psychopathy and dementia, and that they're being experimented on by the government. One of the prisoners, Hydell (Joseph Gilgun), is awakened so Emilie can interrogate him, but he steals a gun from Emilie's bodyguard Hock (Jacky Ido) and escapes. Hydell releases all the prisoners and starts a riot, led by his brother Alex (Vincent Regan). Emilie and her associates are captured, and Alex decides to kill one of them to prove their point. Hydell quickly kills the Warden before he is able to tell Alex something important, and Alex begins to grow impatient with Hydell's excessive sadism.

Hydell destroys all the ships aboard M.S. One against Alex's orders, preventing the Secret Service from sending a team to rescue the hostages. Langral then decides to send Snow alone to rescue only Emilie and leave with her in an emergency shuttle on Level 3. Snow is initially reluctant, but accepts the mission after Shaw tells him that Mace is in M.S. One, and could help Snow prove his innocence. Snow heads there, hidden in a spaceship transporting a hostage negotiator.

During their meeting, the negotiator, knowing that Emilie had her leg wounded, attempts to convince Alex to release an injured female hostage as a sign of good will. Alex agrees to surrender Emilie, but Hydell shoots Emilie's friend Kathryin (Anne-Solenne Hatte) so Alex is forced to deliver her instead. Realizing Hydell has become obsessed with Emilie, Langral tells Snow to infiltrated the prison, but he's spotted by Alex's men. Realizing what has happened, Alex kills the negotiator. He soon realizes that Emilie is the President's daughter, and decides to isolate her from Hydell, but she manages to escape with Hock's help and they hide in a storage room, damaging the electronic lock in order to prevent Alex's men from reaching them. However, this causes their oxygen supply to slowly run out. Hock sacrifices himself in order to leave more air for Emilie.

Snow is guided by Shaw through the air ducts, and manages to enter the storage room and rescue Emilie before Alex's men break the door down. Realizing Snow is being guided, Alex cuts his communication link with Shaw. Meanwhile, Snow takes Emilie to the medical bay, where he treats her wounds and changes her appearance so they can blend in with the other prisoners. They quickly find Mace, but learn that the statis has caused him dementia. Their cover is blown by Alex, who reveals that Emilie is the President's daughter and orders the convicts to capture them.

Snow, Emilie and Mace attempt to reach the escape pod through the inferior levels, but a satellite crashes against M.S. One, separating Mace from them. He utters the words "Lullaby" and "I see you, I foresee you" to Snow before the room in which he's in depressurizes, killing him. Although Emilie claims she knows the briefcase's location and promises to lead Snow there if he helps her rescue the hostages, Snow takes her to Level 3, only to learn that the pod only has one seat. Realizing he was sent there to die, Snow sends Emilie on her way and stays behind, but she climbs out of the ship before it departs. Unbeknownst to them, the crash has shifted M.S. One out of its orbit, and it'll soon enter Earth's atmosphere, where all inside will be burned alive in re-entry.

Hydell approaches Emilie through the comms and requests that she reveals her location in exchange for the hostages' lives. She tells him she's in Level 3, but he murders the hostages anyway, forcing Snow and Emilie to run to another part of the station in order to escape from him. They discover a second medical bay where the prisoners were being illegally used as test subjects. Alex finds them there and captures Emilie after overpowering Snow and leaving him for dead. Upon learning Hydell has killed all the hostages, Alex beats him and contacts the President, threatening to allow Hydell to rape Emilie if they're not released. However, Langral relives the President of his duty by claiming he's emotionally compromised and orders an air strike to destroy M.S. One.

Hydell prepares to rape Emilie, but Alex stops him. Infuriated, Hydell stabs Alex dead. He returns to Emilie, but Snow stops him, and escapes with Emilie as Hydell and the others chase them. Meanwhile, a bomb is planted on M.S. One. With Shaw's guidance, Snow and Emilie find skydiving suits and jump out of M.S. One as the bomb explodes, killing Hydell and all the others.

The suits allow Snow and Emilie to re-enter Earth's atmosphere and parachute to safety in New York City. Emilie is taken to the hospital, while Snow is arrested. At her bed, Emily realizes Mace had actually given them the code "ICUI4CU", which opens the briefcase, hidden in a locker in a subway station with the word "Lullaby" spray painted on it. Emilie then finds evidence the footage of Snow killing Armstrong was forged and delivers the briefcase to Shaw during a meeting with Snow. Shaw opens it, but finds nothing, only to notice that Emilie hadn't told him the code. Realizing Shaw is the mole, Langral arrests him and releases Snow.

Snow retrieves the lighter that Armstrong had given him before dying, only to realize that the microchip with the true evidence and the secrets that Shaw had stolen is hidden inside. Snow decides to keep it for himself in case he needs to use it as leverage, and is then approached by Emilie, who has learned his first name is Marion. She thanks him for saving her life and they begin a romantic relationship.

Cast

• Guy Pearce as Snow:

A former government agent wrongly convicted of espionage against the United States.^[5] 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 regime to increase his muscle mass, as he believed it was important that Snow look like a serious action hero.^[6]

• Maggie Grace as Emilie Warnock:

Daughter of The President of the United States.^[5] 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.^[7][8] She was drawn to the role partly because of Besson, with whom she has 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."^[7]

• 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."^[9]

• Lennie James as Harry Shaw:

A Secret Service agent.^[10]

• Vincent Regan as Alex:

A prisoner and leader of the prison revolt.^[10]

• Joseph Gilgun as Hydell:

Alex's psychotic brother and fellow prisoner.^[10]

The cast also includes Tim Plester as Mace; Anne-Solenne Hatte as Kathryn; Mark Tankersley as Barnes; and Yan Dron, Patrick Cauderlier, Milorad Kapor, and Bojan Peric in unspecified roles.

Development

Principal photography was scheduled to begin on September 7, 2010,^[11] in the Serbian capital city Belgrade.^[7][12] Much of the filming utilized Green screens, rather than practical sets.^[7][12] 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."^[8]

Luc Besson produced the film. Besson also co-wrote the script with James Mather and Stephen St. Leger. Leger directed the film.^[13]

FilmDistrict purchased the distribution rights to the film for a limited amount.^[14] In December 2011, FilmDistrict reached a deal to distribute its 2012 films including Lockout through Open Road Films for a fee.^[14][15]

Release

The film was released on April 13, 2012, in North America and Canada.^[4]

Box office

The film grossed $14,326,864 in the United States and Canada, and $8,295,672 from markets elsewhere for a total gross of $22,622,536.^[4]

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.^[4][16] Pre-release tracking of the film had estimated that its opening weekend gross would be between $6–8 million.^[14] 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.^[16]

Critical reception

Lockout received generally mixed to negative reviews. The film earned a score of 48 out of 100 from 32 critics on review aggregate website Metacritic,^[17] indicating "mixed or average" reviews. It also garnered 36% 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."^[18] CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B-" on an A+ to F scale.^[19]

References

External links

• Official website
• Lockout at AllRovi
• Lockout at the Internet Movie Database
• Lockout at Rotten Tomatoes
• Lockout at Box Office Mojo

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