whoopdido

I love movies where the main characters are confined to a relatively small space. I'm not talking about a movie like say Glengarry Glenn Ross where the story just takes place in pretty much the same location for the whole movie but the characters would be free to go anywhere they wanted. I'm talking about movies where the characters are pyhsically confined to a relatively small space and they can't really go anywhere. Movies like The Thing, Alien, Identity and Shutter Island would fit this description. Even a move like Cube would fit. I know I'm missing some others. Basically I'm looking for movies where the main characters are UNABLE to leave a certain location vs movies that just happen to have a small number of set pieces. Anybody have some good suggestions?

OldBoy

TheMovieman

Airplane
Dawn of the Dead (either version) - Not a small space, but the zombies sure as hell limit their movements
Die Hard - I know it's a building, but you've got one man up against a team of terrorists, so again, limited movements

GoldenJCJ

I actually had to go outside for some fresh air after watching Das Boot. It's the most claustrophobic movie I've ever seen.

Dan

Albino Alligator (1996) - directed by Kevin Spacey
The Hole (2001)
Saw (2004)
Kitchen Party (1997)*

all of these, of course, have cutaway scenes to the outside world, but for the most part, the main characters are stuck in their respective locations.

*this is the only one where they are free to leave, I guess. Still a good fun movie, though.

RichC2

A good chunk of The Descent.

whoopdido

Die Hard is a good example. I've seen it a million times but it's still a great movie. Submarine movies are obvious choices (I actually haven't seen Das Boot yet) as are spaceship movies like Alien, which I already mentioned, but Event Horizon would also fit this description.

whoopdido

God I hated The Descent. Total gimmick in my opinion that just used cheap scare tactics. I honestly didn't even get a sense of confinement. No offense if you liked it. I know a lot of people did.

Nick Martin

Since Alien is mentioned, I'd easily put Aliens in this category.

Watched it on Blu-ray last week, no lights on, blinds down, volume up, and it really added to the atmosphere of the film. Small group of people whittled down in a series of closed-off areas. It's definitely a claustrophobic film.

whoopdido

Yup. Most of Aliens is exactly what I'm looking for. There are a few parts of Aliens that get too "big" for what I'm describing here if that makes any sense. Still a great movie that's one of my favorites though.

MLBFan24

Phone Booth
The Negotiator

Charlie Goose

Devil

gp1086

In addition to some of the suggestions already, the following is not an exhaustive list, but I liked each. In alphabetical order.

127 Hours (2010)
Frozen (2010)
Moon (2009)
Panic Room (2002)
Paranormal Activity series (2009-2011)
Phone Booth (2002)
The Shining (1980)

Honorable mention to Apollo 13 (1995) and Deep Blue Sea (1999)

riotinmyskull

lifeboat

TGM

Cube
Cube 2
Cube Zero

woofman

The Descent.

This movie more than most others really made me extremely uncomfortable during specific scenes. I won't spoil it but one scene in particular is when one of the characters is having "issues" moving through a tunnel, god just shoot me if I ever got stuck in that predicament.

RichC2

It was a genre horror flick, which is usually cheap scare tactics. I felt a good sense of claustrophobia during the initial descent into the caverns. After that it seemed to open up a whole lot, and once the creatures fully appeared it sort of devolved into standard B-movie. But IMO, the first half was pretty successful.

Love the movie but know many that didn't.

davidh777

I would have closed the thread after Das Boot, but like the other suggestions including Lifeboat and Panic Room

Mr. Flix

They've been mentioned already, but the first half of The Descent and all of Buried made me squirm with claustrophobia.

Drexl

12 Angry Men might qualify. They can't really leave until they come to a verdict, although they do step out for breaks.

NIMH Rat

Titanic
The Killing Room
The Truman Show

Groucho

Spoiler for The Vanishing:

taa455

Another vote for 127 Hours.

JMLEWIS1

Another vote for the vanishing.....the foreign (Dutch?) version is even freakier than the english...the car in cujo is also pretty claustrophobic

The Cow

Speed (for the point of the flick)