Rewatchables Reference

• The robbers showing up – discovering there are people in the house, the 'business days' exchange.
• Jodie getting her phone – the slow-motion sequence searching under the covers.
• Leto accidentally reveals how much money is really in the safe.
• The switcheroo – getting two criminals into the panic room while the daughter is having a diabetic seizure.
• Chris: The propane tank / gas scene – running propane into the panic room and the explosion.
• The opening title sequence / graphics showing New York buildings.

• Jared Leto's performance – his cornrows, and especially his death scene.
• How the diabetes subplot is handled – subtle, no heavy-handed exposition.
• Kristen Stewart's performance as a child actor.
• Dwight Yoakam as Raoul.

• The propane gas scene – Foster would realistically blow up in the enclosed space.
• The husband character gets overly punished – absolutely destroyed physically just for leaving his wife.
• 'I can't go to prison, man, I'm not built for that shit' – hackiest moment.
• The cops/emergency services scenes – 911 puts her on hold; police don't press hard enough.

• Nicole Kidman was originally cast as Meg Altman.
• Hayden Panettiere was originally cast in the Kristen Stewart role.
• Maynard James Keenan (Tool) was offered the role of Raoul before Dwight Yoakam.

• Paul Schulze as the cop – 'Father Phil from The Sopranos.'
• Ian Buchanan as the realtor – soap opera actor from General Hospital.

Jared Leto – 'just dials it up.'

• Stephen Altman (ex-husband): Anthony Hopkins (Bill's pick); Michael Douglas (Chris's pick).
• Raoul: Ted Levine (Bill's pick); Tom Sizemore (Sean's pick). Also discussed Henry Rollins, William Fichtner, Val Kilmer, Wes Studi.

• Kristen Stewart grew more than three inches during filming.
• The house is at 38 West 94th Street, NYC.
• The four-story brownstone set took 15 weeks and $6 million to build.
• 'Panic Room' was not on Blu-ray until its 20th anniversary week (March 2022).
• $48 million budget, $197 million worldwide gross.
• David Koepp's script sold for $4 million (a record).

• Fincher: No.
• Foster: No (Silence of the Lambs).
• Kristen Stewart: No.
• Jared Leto: No.
• Panic rooms (as a movie concept): Yes.
• Forest Whitaker: No.

• Foster doesn't get her phone when all burglars are downstairs – she has surveillance cameras.
• Multiple opportunities to open the panic room door and call 911 with cell service.
• 911 puts her on hold.
• Drunk divorced mom goes from barely able to pee to splicing phone lines and running 4.0 forty-yard dashes within an hour.
• Raoul falls down two floors of stairs and gets up fresh – Michael Myers energy.
• Whitaker wears his security company uniform to commit the robbery.
• Why not stock the panic room with diabetes supplies and a working cell phone?

Bill: If your daughter has diabetes and you have a panic room, stock it with insulin and orange juice.

• Initially exciting but ultimately no for a direct adaptation – 'this is exactly the amount of time I want to spend with these people.'
• Ideas floated: 'Panic Rooms' anthology (10 different panic rooms); same panic room across 100 years of history.

Is this the best Kristen Stewart has ever been in a movie?

• Bill: Raoul's ski mask.
• Chris: The panic room itself / the bearer bonds.
• Sean: The propane tank.

David Fincher – unanimous. '99 other people make this movie, it's totally forgettable.' Fincher elevated a B-movie premise to an A-movie through sheer craft.