Phone Booth (film)

Phone Booth
Phone Booth film poster
Directed by	Joel Schumacher
Produced by	Gil Netter, David Zucker
Written by	Larry Cohen
Starring	Colin Farrell Kiefer Sutherland Forest Whitaker Radha Mitchell Katie Holmes
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	April 4, 2003
Running time	81 minutes
Language	English
Budget	US$ 10,000,000
Gross revenue	US$ 97,837,138
IMDb

Phone Booth is a 2003 morality thriller about a man who is trapped in a telephone booth by a sniper. It stars Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Radha Mitchell and Katie Holmes, and was directed by Joel Schumacher. The music was composed by Harry Gregson-Williams. The film was originally scheduled to be released on November 15th of 2002, but was delayed until April 4, 2003 due to the Beltway sniper attacks.

Filming

The principal photography on the film was completed in 10 days, with an additional 2 days of establishing shots, pick-ups and re-shoots. The film is set in real-time, so the timespan in which the film takes place is as long as it takes to watch it, much like the television series 24, which also stars Kiefer Sutherland. Like 24, it also uses split screens (and is also produced by 20th Century Fox).

Even though the film is set in New York City, it was filmed in downtown Los Angeles (at Fifth Street, between Broadway Street and Spring Street). This is made evident by the LACMTA buses periodically driving by.

Larry Cohen originally pitched the concept of a film that takes place entirely within a phone booth to Alfred Hitchcock in the 1960s. Hitchcock liked the idea, but he and Cohen were unable to figure out a plot reason for keeping the film confined to a booth and hence Hitchcock never made the idea into a film. Cohen picked the idea up again in the late 1990s when the idea of the sniper came to him.

Plot

Stu Shepard is an arrogant publicist, who is contemplating cheating on his wife Kelly (Mitchell). After work he calls Pam, a young actress, from a phone booth. When a pizza delivery man tries to deliver a pizza to the booth Stu rudely dismisses him. After the phone call with Pam, the phone rings and Stu answers it.

The caller is a man who says that he should've accepted the pizza, and also that he should not leave the booth. The man doesn't tell Stu his identity, only that he loves to watch him. The man says that he'll say hi to his wife Kelly for him, then hangs up. The man soon calls back to tell Stu that he must tell Kelly and Pam the truth; that he's cheating. The man calls Pam and puts Stu on speaker phone, and tells her that Stu is married, that he doesn't want anything with Pam except to sleep with her. He then tells Stu to call his wife and tell her the truth. Angrily, Stu does so.

Before he tells Kelly the truth, Stu is distracted by three prostitutes who want to use the phone. He becomes so confused that he finally hangs up on his wife and yells to the dancers. As the three girls leave, the man calls and tells Stu that if he hangs up, he will shoot him. Stu doesn't believe him, but is convinced when the man cocks his gun. Stu gets scared, warning him that if he shoots the cops will arrive. However, the sniper proves him to be wrong by shooting a toy robot next to the booth without anyone noticing because he has a silencer.

The situation escalates when the prostitutes and their pimp, Leon, approach the booth and ask Stu to leave, but the terrified Stu refuses. The impasse between the two escalates to the point of Leon breaking into the booth with a bat and attacking Stu. The sniper tells Stu he can help and Stu says "yes", thinking he is answering another question. Leon is shot dead by the sniper; shortly after the police arrive and Stu is instantly the suspect. He doubts that they will find any evidence to suggest his guilt to the murder, but finds out the sniper had hidden a gun in the phone booth. Captain Ed Ramey tries to negotiate with Stu but he says he cannot get off the call and he is talking to his psychiatrist. Multiple news vans arrive and begin filming the situation.

Kelly arrives and the sniper makes Stu confess to her about his infidelity. The man asks Stu to choose between Pam and Kelly, threatening to kill one of them. Stu pleads and manages to secretly inform Captain Ramey of the sniper's presence using his cellphone. Stu confesses his bad character to the crowd, much to the satisfaction of the sniper.

Captain Ramey (Forest Whittaker) outside the booth nagotiating with Stu (Colin Farrel)

The police finally track down the sniper by tracing the call the sniper made to Kelly, and Ramey tells Stu through a cryptic message that they have done so. Stu triumphantly informs the sniper that the cops are coming to kill him and the sniper chooses to take Kelly with him, but Stu takes the planted gun, runs out of the booth and yells "it's me you want!". A cop shoots him with a rubber bullet at the same time as the police officers reach the hotel room where the sniper is. There they find a dead body with his throat cut, who Stu recognizes as the pizza delivery guy.

Stu is recovering under morphine in an ambulance minutes later. A man carrying a large briefcase walks up to him, says that he regrets killing the pizza deliverer, and warns Stu that if his new-found honesty does not last, he'll be hearing from him again. He walks away and smiles as he passes the phone booth.

Cast

The Caller (Kiefer Sutherland) after having talked to Stu in the ambulance.

• Colin Farrell - Stu Shepard
• Kiefer Sutherland - The Caller
• Forest Whitaker - Captain Ed Ramey
• Radha Mitchell - Kelly Shepard
• Katie Holmes - Pamela McFadden
• Paula Jai Parker - Felicia
• Arian Ash - Corky
• Tia Texada - Asia
• John Enos III - Leon
• Richard T. Jones - Sergeant Cole
• Keith Nobbs - Adam
• Dell Yount - Pizza Guy

Box office

References

1. ^ "Phone Booth (2003)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=phonebooth.htm. Retrieved on 2008-04-06. 

External links

• Phone Booth at the Internet Movie Database
• Phone Booth at Rotten Tomatoes
• Phone Booth at Box Office Mojo