How Invoice Skarsgård’s Thriller Locked Pulled Off That Wild SUV Shot [Exclusive]

In the brand new B-movie “Locked,” Invoice Skarsgård performs a down-on-his-luck man named Eddie who breaks right into a luxurious SUV in an try and make some cash to help his household. Sadly for Eddie, the proprietor of that SUV is a deranged maniac named William (Anthony Hopkins), who remotely locks Eddie inside and tortures him over the course of a number of days in an try and attempt to train him a lesson about proper and fallacious. An enormous proportion of the movie takes place inside this car as we’re trapped there with Eddie, and within the fallacious palms, exploring such a small area over the course of a whole film may get very boring, in a short time.

Fortunately, director David Yarovesky (“Brightburn”) is aware of the way to preserve issues visually attention-grabbing. In a current interview (which you’ll hear in full beneath), he instructed me all about how he and his collaborators caught to 2 distinct cinematic languages over the course of the movie: Outdoors the car, the hand-held digital camera strikes in a method befitting a grounded indie movie, reflective of Eddie’s hard-scrabble life. However inside, we’re in William’s world, and the digital camera actions are loads smoother and extra deliberate and methodical to signify the quantity of management he has over this bonkers entice he is set.

The latter type is finest embodied within the shot the place Eddie first breaks into the automobile. The digital camera circles across the car a number of occasions as Eddie searches by way of it, in search of something of worth, and tracks him as he tries to kick the home windows out after he realizes he is locked in. The digital camera strikes in such a method that it might have needed to slice by way of the bodily physique of the SUV with the intention to obtain because it spins round, so I requested Yarovesky if he achieved the shot by taking pictures the scene in a car that had its high half eliminated after which changing it and every part exterior the home windows utilizing visible results in post-production.

Nope. Seems the actual reply is far more sensible — and consequently, a lot cooler.

To facilitate the digital camera circling round Eddie (who was initially going to be performed by Glen Powell!) as he entered the SUV, manufacturing designer Grant Armstrong discovered the way to construct a sensible model of the car that would do issues the viewers would by no means discover. This is how Yarovesky defined it:

“We constructed the set on a platform with rails constructed into the platform. The set’s in segments. Each piece of the automobile can simply slide on the rails simply. You would simply, with one hand, slide it backwards and forwards. However they needed to develop a locking mechanism, so not solely may it slide, nevertheless it is available in and locks down so Invoice can hit it or attempt to escape of it. So the entire thing, every bit, it will possibly explode like this [mimics an explosion outward] or are available in like this [mimics the opposite action]. So what you are seeing occur is, one piece at a time, a piece of the automobile slides away because the digital camera is available in and goes again in order that you do not see it. And so forth, and so forth, and we’re simply rotating, 360 levels round, and simply spinning and watching the occasions play out on this tense, methodical shot.”

Is “Locked” my favourite film of 2025? No. However that degree of creativity and a spotlight to element resulted in a real “how on earth did they do this?” second for me, and I respect the heck out of those filmmakers for going the additional mile to create an immersive expertise for the viewers — and doing it virtually as a substitute of taking the lazy method out.

My colleague BJ Colangelo and I spoke about “Locked,” which is predicated on a 2019 Argentinian thriller known as “4×4,” on at this time’s episode of the /Movie Each day podcast, which additionally comprises my full interview with David Yarovesky. Pay attention in right here:

You possibly can subscribe to /Movie Each day on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and ship your suggestions, questions, feedback, considerations, and mailbag matters to us at bpearson@slashfilm.com. Please go away your identify and common geographic location in case we point out your e-mail on the air.

In the brand new B-movie “Locked,” Invoice Skarsgård performs a down-on-his-luck man named Eddie who breaks right into a luxurious SUV in an try and make some cash to help his household. Sadly for Eddie, the proprietor of that SUV is a deranged maniac named William (Anthony Hopkins), who remotely locks Eddie inside and tortures him over the course of a number of days in an try and attempt to train him a lesson about proper and fallacious. An enormous proportion of the movie takes place inside this car as we’re trapped there with Eddie, and within the fallacious palms, exploring such a small area over the course of a whole film may get very boring, in a short time.

Fortunately, director David Yarovesky (“Brightburn”) is aware of the way to preserve issues visually attention-grabbing. In a current interview (which you’ll hear in full beneath), he instructed me all about how he and his collaborators caught to 2 distinct cinematic languages over the course of the movie: Outdoors the car, the hand-held digital camera strikes in a method befitting a grounded indie movie, reflective of Eddie’s hard-scrabble life. However inside, we’re in William’s world, and the digital camera actions are loads smoother and extra deliberate and methodical to signify the quantity of management he has over this bonkers entice he is set.

The latter type is finest embodied within the shot the place Eddie first breaks into the automobile. The digital camera circles across the car a number of occasions as Eddie searches by way of it, in search of something of worth, and tracks him as he tries to kick the home windows out after he realizes he is locked in. The digital camera strikes in such a method that it might have needed to slice by way of the bodily physique of the SUV with the intention to obtain because it spins round, so I requested Yarovesky if he achieved the shot by taking pictures the scene in a car that had its high half eliminated after which changing it and every part exterior the home windows utilizing visible results in post-production.

Nope. Seems the actual reply is far more sensible — and consequently, a lot cooler.

To facilitate the digital camera circling round Eddie (who was initially going to be performed by Glen Powell!) as he entered the SUV, manufacturing designer Grant Armstrong discovered the way to construct a sensible model of the car that would do issues the viewers would by no means discover. This is how Yarovesky defined it:

“We constructed the set on a platform with rails constructed into the platform. The set’s in segments. Each piece of the automobile can simply slide on the rails simply. You would simply, with one hand, slide it backwards and forwards. However they needed to develop a locking mechanism, so not solely may it slide, nevertheless it is available in and locks down so Invoice can hit it or attempt to escape of it. So the entire thing, every bit, it will possibly explode like this [mimics an explosion outward] or are available in like this [mimics the opposite action]. So what you are seeing occur is, one piece at a time, a piece of the automobile slides away because the digital camera is available in and goes again in order that you do not see it. And so forth, and so forth, and we’re simply rotating, 360 levels round, and simply spinning and watching the occasions play out on this tense, methodical shot.”

Is “Locked” my favourite film of 2025? No. However that degree of creativity and a spotlight to element resulted in a real “how on earth did they do this?” second for me, and I respect the heck out of those filmmakers for going the additional mile to create an immersive expertise for the viewers — and doing it virtually as a substitute of taking the lazy method out.

My colleague BJ Colangelo and I spoke about “Locked,” which is predicated on a 2019 Argentinian thriller known as “4×4,” on at this time’s episode of the /Movie Each day podcast, which additionally comprises my full interview with David Yarovesky. Pay attention in right here:

You possibly can subscribe to /Movie Each day on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, and ship your suggestions, questions, feedback, considerations, and mailbag matters to us at bpearson@slashfilm.com. Please go away your identify and common geographic location in case we point out your e-mail on the air.