Cellular (2004)

Cellular is a 2004 American action thriller film directed by David R. Ellis. The film stars Chris Evans, Jason Statham, Kim Basinger and William H. Macy, with Noah Emmerich, Richard Burgi, Valerie Cruz and Jessica Biel. The screenplay was written by Chris Morgan, based on a story by Larry Cohen.[2] The film was released on September 10, 2004. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $57 million.

Plot.

Science teacher Jessica Martin lives with her husband Craig and their son Ricky Martin. After taking Ricky to the bus stop, intruders break into her house, slay her housekeeper, kidnap and confine her in an attic, and smash the landline. Jessica manages to use the wires of the broken phone to contact a random number. Ryan is hanging out at Santa Monica Pier with his friend Chad when he comes across his ex, Chloe, who dumped him. Hoping to get back with her, he offers to help with the fundraiser being held there; he gets Chad to hand out the fliers until he returns with the t-shirts. On his way, Ryan gets a call on his cellphone, from Jessica who tells him she’s been kidnapped and the phone is shattered. Although Ryan thinks it’s a prank, Jessica gets him to go to the police, where he reports it to Sergeant Bob Mooney. A fight between officers and gang members breaks out, Mooney intervenes and tells him to report the kidnapping on the fourth floor. However, Ryan can’t find anyone on the way up, and will lose the call due to poor cell service if he continues up. Ethan, the leader of the kidnappers, asks Jessica for Craig’s location.

When she refuses to cooperate, he leaves to get Ricky. Overhearing them, Ryan realizes the kidnapping is real, hurries to Ricky’s school, only to see the boy kidnapped. Hijacking a security officer’s car, he gives chase, but loses them. As his phone battery is running low, he takes a gun in the car and uses it to buy a charger. Checking on the kidnapping claim, Mooney visits Jessica’s. Meeting Dana Bayback, the kidnappers’ sole female accomplice posing as Jessica, leading him to believe it is a false alarm. With Ricky in tow, Ethan returns and asks Jessica where Craig is hiding. Jessica, fearing the kidnappers will kill them all once Craig is found, attacks him, but is overpowered and confesses it is a bar at LAX. Before he departs, a woman playing loud music in her car pulls up next to Ryan, but he silences his phone before Ethan realises. A cross-connection between cell lines forces Ryan to take a nearby lawyer’s car and his cell to maintain the connection.

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At the airport, he plants the gun on one of the kidnappers, triggering the alarm. When security intervenes, they show they are police officers for the LAPD and then detain Craig. Mooney sees a newsflash of Ryan holding up a store for the charger (and the car and phone jacking) and calls Jessica’s house, realizing the voice on the answering machine is different from that of the woman he met. The kidnappers escort Craig to his bank safe deposit box to retrieve a bag, but Ryan intercepts it. While Ethan chases him, he drops and breaks the lawyer’s cellphone. When he opens Craig’s bag, he sees a video camera with a disturbing video of LAPD Detectives Ethan, Mad Dog, Dimitri, Dana Bayback, Deason, and Mooney’s friend Jack Tanner, robbing, torturing, and murdering two drug dealers, exposing them all as dirty cops.

Production.

Larry Cohen, screenwriter of the 2002 thriller film Phone Booth, conceived of Cellular while working for Sony Pictures. Cohen’s original screenplay mimicked Phone Booth in its theme of a “narcissistically obsessed society” enamored with cell phones. Its story followed a 30- or 40-year-old man named Theo Novak who obtains a call from a woman named Lenore, who tells him that she and her husband have been abducted in a safehouse by a group of bank robbers. It is then revealed that Novak is an art thief who becomes wracked with guilt after unsuccessfully rescuing a friend from committing suicide in the past; he agrees to make a detour from a criminal undertaking and rescue Lenore. During the rescue Novak is unsuccessful, but later discovers a conspiracy involving Lenore and her accomplices over another crime they are involved with—ultimately, Novak gains the upper hand, killing Lenore and her accomplices and obtains their loot in the process, which leaves him therefore a wealthy man.

Sony Pictures’ then Vice President Lauren Lloyd was drawn to Cohen’s script and thought of pitching it to fellow executives, but was unsuccessful in doing so. She then left Sony to produce the project independently. Lloyd sent the script to her colleague producer Dean Devlin and pledged to develop it together. Aiming for a story straightforward and devoid of bitterness and cynicism present in Cohen’s version, the pair hired screenwriter Chris Morgan. Morgan had been passionate about crafting “a story about how an everyday person can become heroic when faced with a certain set of trying circumstances”, and he incorporated that in Cellular. In an attempt to segue the script’s predominant action and thriller elements with situational comedy, as well as appeal to young audiences, Morgan took inspiration from the comical attributes of the fictional character Indiana Jones:

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Home media, Box office.

Cellular was released on VHS and DVD on January 18, 2005. The film was later released on Blu-ray on July 17, 2012 by New Line Home Entertainment. Cellular grossed $32 million in the U.S. and Canada and $25.7 million in international markets, for a total of $57.7 million worldwide.

Cast:

Chris Evans as Ryan
Kim Basinger as Jessica Kate Martin
Jason Statham as Detective Ethan Greer
William H. Macy as Sergeant Robert “Bob” Mooney
Noah Emmerich as Detective Jack Tanner
Richard Burgi as Craig Martin
Valerie Cruz as Detective Dana Bayback
Jessica Biel as Chloe
Eric Christian Olsen as Chad
Adam Taylor Gordon as Ricky Martin
Caroline Aaron as Marilyn Mooney
Matt McColm as Detective Deason
Eric Etebari as Detective Dimitri
Brendan Kelly as Mad Dog

Cellular (2004) Biography, Plot, Production, Home media, Box office,