“Locked” (2025) follows Eddie Barrish (Bill Skarsgård) as he hustles to make a quick buck, but when he breaks into a luxury SUV, he gets more than he bargained for. William (Anthony Hopkins, who was eighty-six years old at the time of filming), the car owner, is a vigilante with some twisted ideas about justice. In a battle of wills, who will win? This film is an English language adaptation of the Argentinian film “4X4” (2019)—as in four-wheel drive, which was already remade once in Brazil, “A Jaula” (2022), which means the cage.
Skarsgård in good guys roles (“Barbarian,” “Boy Kills World,” “The Crow”) is always less interesting than when he is getting his Lon Cheney/villain on (“It,” “John Wick: Chapter 4,” “Nosferatu”). At least, his good guy roles tend to require shirtless scenes, and in “Locked,” there is at least one scene where he strips to his underwear so if you have a crush on Skarsgård, the plot may not matter. He is back in a pink hoodie, tattoos and a bad dye job as a dad desperate to make money to get his van repaired so he can stop disappointing his daughter, Sarah (Ashley Cartwright). With his status as a dad of an adorable kid established, Eddie further solidifies his likeability when he shows kindness to a dog in a car, a not so subtle portend for what he is about to endure when he breaks into a Dolus SUV.
The SUV, which is modeled after a Land Rover Defender, is practically another character in “Locked.” Too bad Eddie does not know Latin because if he knew that Dolus, the car’s manufacturer, means deception, he may have passed up the seemingly easy mark. Emblazoned with a winged logo centered with an image of a chunkier art deco bastardization of Lady Justice with a scale and sword, it will serve as Eddie’s prison cell for the duration of the film. With Hopkins voice coming out of the digital dashboard, it is as if KITT and Christine had a baby. Yes, a vengeful human being is operating it, but it evokes fears about machines and smart technology, including self-driving cars, rising and hurting human beings. All the features that make it a desirable product also make it a terrifying weapon in the wrong hands.
Those hands belong to none other than William, and casting Hopkins in the role could only be topped if Mads Mikkelsen, who also played Hannibal Lecter, was available, but then everyone would want him on screen more, which would counter the premise that hinges on a car turning on its thief. Hopkins is off screen for the majority of “Locked,” and it would be interesting to know if he interacted in real time with Skarsgård or recorded his parts then appeared on set one day. Either way, Hopkins nails it but feels underutilized because Barrish often disassociates from William’s endless lecturing. William is not an innately interesting character and is a bit of a cliché. By throwing out references to clint Eastwood and Batman, writer Michael Arlen Ross anticipates detractors, but that effort would have been better devoted to making William better than the one nightmarish, creative Boomer who is good with technology. If he was truly sympathetic instead of the standard two-dimensional affluent, evil man kicking people while they were down, then there may be a story.
While “Locked” is mostly predictable, the escalation of Eddie’s predicament would have been unexpected if the preview did not give most of it away so try to avoid it if you can. There is no telling how far William will go, and he crosses a lot of lines that make him utterly repugnant and unredeemable. It may have been more interesting to start the film showing if Eddie was his first victim or one in a long line of unsolved attacks.
After the first twenty something minutes, “Locked” feels as if it peaked too early, and there is no way for William to survive. The philosophical debate about justice and morality is just a veneer of respectability for the movie to cloak itself in to elevate the torture porn. The narrative’s momentum is not a film about the overt theme of the haves versus the have nots, but the effort to transform Eddie into a good father instead of a guy who fobs off his responsibilities on his ex because she is innately better at the kid stuff. His time in the vehicle is to teach him how to turn his roving street smarts into an energy that will overcome any obstacle to parenthood.
Director David Yarovesky, who directed “Brightburn” (2019), does a good job in tight quarters revolving the camera around Eddie to increase the tension as he realizes that he is trapped. Also, the extreme close ups and slow mo of body parts getting broken or ripped hammers home the pain. The transition from the car’s interior to the exterior is seamless with no visible cuts to reflect the difference in diegetic sound and lighting in one shot. The screener had a subliminal message, or an error embedded in this image so reach out if the theatrical showing has the same. There are some heavy-handed moments when a father teaches his daughter to ride a bike in the parking lot. While initially the montages of the graffiti lined city, trash filled streets and homeless camps are a great way of establishing the desperate down-in-the-dumps dystopia of Eddie’s existence, it gets to be a bit much after the opening sequence. Also there are moments when the parking lot seems empty then in the next shot, there are pedestrians and nearby stores with healthy foot traffic.
When Eddie and William eventually are face-to-face, there is the awkward problem of logistics. A virile thirty something man versus a man in his eighties will transform Eddie into a monster or escalate “Locked” into the height of absurdity. Once again, the last act goes on a bit too long. Have you ever gotten stuck in a room with a young man who just discovered the joys of philosophy after taking his first class or discovered that reading is fun. It is about as enjoyable as that, and it is the only time that the film becomes as indiscernible as the night scenes in “Game of Thrones.”
Imagine if “Inside” (2023) took place in a car instead of an upscale apartment, remove all the artsy fartsy elements and put it through the commercialization grinder, and you will know what to expect from this movie. “Locked” is an economical film with a handful of talented actors, limited location and lots of sadistic tricks up its sleeve, but as a viewer, you will begin to relate to Eddie’s plight and wonder when the movie will let you escape. It is a solid concept, but ultimately forgettable. If you want to watch a nasty bit of work, check it out, but it is not so outrageous as to knock it out of mainstream fare.
