Tower Block (film)
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''Tower Block'' is a 2012 British
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
directed by James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson as their directorial debut, and written by James Moran. The film stars Sheridan Smith, Jack O'Connell, Ralph Brown, and Russell Tovey and entails residents of a block of flats targeted by an unseen sniper after witnessing the murder of a teenager. ''Tower Block'' was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 21 September 2012 and was also the closing film at the 2012 FrightFest Film Festival.


Plot

One night in London, the 15-year-old Jimmy (Ralph Laurila) runs through a housing estate begging passersby for help. Everyone ignores him. He enters the condemned Tower Block 31 and finds his way to the top floor, which is the only floor that is still inhabited as the tenants wait to be rehoused. He bangs on doors as the two masked men who have been chasing him appear. The only person who helps him is office worker Becky ( Sheridan Smith), but she is beaten to the ground and he is dragged away. The next morning Detective Constable Devlin ( Steven Cree) conducts door-to-door enquiries about the previous night's murder, as the boy's body has been found. Nobody will speak to him; not even Becky, who claims her injuries are the result of a
mugging Mugging (sometimes called personal robbery or street robbery) is a form of robbery and street crime that occurs in public places, often urban areas at night. It involves a confrontation with a threat of violence. Muggers steal money or person ...
. Three months later, Becky wakes up in her flat next to her colleague Ryan ( Jamie Thomas King), with whom she has had a one-night stand following an office party. As they have breakfast, Ryan is suddenly shot in the head through the window. Becky flees into the hallway, along with the other residents, as all the flats have been targeted: young couple Amy (
Loui Batley Louie Anne Batley (born 9 June 1987) is a British actress, singer, and dancer. She is best known for her role as Sarah Barnes in the Channel 4 soap opera ''Hollyoaks''. Early life Louie Anne Batley was born in Chorley on 9 June 1987. She attende ...
) and Jeff ( Michael Legge); Carol ( Julie Graham) and her teenaged computer game addict son Daniel ( Harry McEntire);
chav "Chav" (), also "charver", "scally" and "roadman" in parts of England, is a British term, usually used in a pejorative way. The term is used to describe an anti-social lower-class youth dressed in sportswear. * * * * Julie Burchill descri ...
vy single mother Jenny ( Montserrat Lombard); middle-aged former soldier Neville ( Ralph Brown) and his wife Violet ( Jill Baker); small-time drug dealers Gary ( Nabil Elouahabi) and Mark ( Kane Robinson); lonely alcoholic Paul ( Russell Tovey); and the violent petty criminal Kurtis ( Jack O'Connell), who extorts protection money from his neighbours. Amy, Jeff, and Mark are wounded. As well as Ryan, Carol's husband, Brian, and Jenny's two young children have already been killed by the sniper. Amy too soon succumbs to her injuries despite the best efforts of Violet, who is a first aider. The phones and internet have stopped working. The walls and doors are covered by homemade posters bearing three
emoticons An emoticon (, , rarely , ), short for emotion icon, is a pictorial representation of a facial expression using characters—usually punctuation marks, numbers and letters—to express a person's feelings, mood or reaction, without needin ...
. Daniel, who has learned about such things from computer games, says that the sniper knows what he is doing and is using a high-powered military-grade rifle. The fire escape is exposed to the sniper's gunfire, so they force open the lift door. It is boobytrapped with a
shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, peppergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which discharges numerous small ...
, however, which kills Jeff. Becky, Kurtis, and Paul climb down the lift shaft, but discover the ground-floor exit door has been blocked with a
skip Skip or Skips may refer to: Acronyms * SKIP (Skeletal muscle and kidney enriched inositol phosphatase), a human gene * Simple Key-Management for Internet Protocol * SKIP of New York (Sick Kids need Involved People), a non-profit agency aiding ...
and return to the top floor. Jenny suggests the emoticons symbolise the
three wise monkeys The are a Japanese pictorial Maxim (philosophy), maxim, embodying the proverbial principle "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". The three monkeys are * , covering his eyes * , covering his ears * , covering his mouth. Lafcadio Hearn re ...
and that the sniper is targeting them because they let Jimmy be killed and refused to speak to the police about it. She then walks into her flat to be shot dead alongside her children. The largest of the posters has been stuck on the door of the flat occupied by Gary and Mark. Kurtis forces them to admit that they were the two masked men who chased and beat Jimmy because he had withheld money from them after they used him as a drug courier; they claim they did not mean to kill him. Nevertheless, Kurtis forces them into the flat where the sniper kills both of them. Believing they can now leave because Jimmy's killers are dead, Carol runs down the fire escape, followed by Daniel. The sniper lets them reach the ground and then kills both of them. It is now obvious that he intends to execute all of them for refusing to help the police. The survivors have now been trapped for two days. They hatch a plan to tie all the building's
fire hose A fire hose (or firehose) is a high-pressure hose that carries water or other fire retardant (such as foam) to a fire to extinguish it. Outdoors, it attaches either to a fire engine, fire hydrant, or a portable fire pump. Indoors, it can p ...
s together and for one of them to climb down to the ground from the roof on the far side, where the sniper cannot see. Paul volunteers to go. Violet opens the door to the roof and is killed by another shotgun boobytrap. Becky, Kurtis, and Paul climb to the roof and secure the hoses, and Paul begins to climb down. The sniper, however, shoots the top of the hose until it breaks, and Paul falls to his death. Becky and Kurtis barely manage to get back inside. As a final act of desperation, the three survivors set fire to the top floor, hoping someone will see the fire and alert the emergency services. They then climb down the lift shaft. Kurtis falls and breaks his leg. Property developer Kevin ( Christopher Fulford) and his assistant Eddie (Tony Jayawardena) arrive and spot the flames, but before they can call the fire brigade, the gunman shoots them both at close range. He then enters the building after throwing in a
smoke grenade A smoke grenade is a canister-type grenade used as a signaling device, target or landing zone marking device, or as a screening device for unit movements. Smoke grenades are generally more complex and emit a far larger amount of smoke than sm ...
. Becky sneaks out and finds a nail gun in Kevin's
pick-up truck Pickup(s), pick-up, or pick up may refer to: Film * ''Pick-Up'' (1933 film), a crime film starring Sylvia Sidney and George Raft * ''Pickup'' (1951 film), an American film noir directed by Hugo Haas * ''Pick-Up'' (1975 film), an exploitation f ...
. Using this the three survivors manage to subdue the gunman and remove his mask, only to discover it is DC Devlin, who has cracked after endless lack of assistance in the cases he is investigating. After a struggle, Becky kills him with the nail gun and the survivors walk outside with the sound of approaching sirens.


Cast

* Sheridan Smith as Becky * Jack O'Connell as Kurtis * Ralph Brown as Neville * Russell Tovey as Paul * Jill Baker as Violet *
Loui Batley Louie Anne Batley (born 9 June 1987) is a British actress, singer, and dancer. She is best known for her role as Sarah Barnes in the Channel 4 soap opera ''Hollyoaks''. Early life Louie Anne Batley was born in Chorley on 9 June 1987. She attende ...
as Amy * Steven Cree as DC Devlin * Nabil Elouahabi as Gary * Christopher Fulford as Kevin * Julie Graham as Carol *Tony Jayawardena as Eddie * Jamie Thomas King as Ryan *Ralph Laurila as Jimmy * Michael Legge as Jeff * Montserrat Lombard as Jenny *Jordan Long as Ormond * Harry McEntire as Daniel * Kane Robinson as Mark *James Weber Brown as Brian *Caroline Artiss as Liz


Critical reception

The film-critics aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
reports a rating of 47% based on 17 reviews, with a
weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
score of 5/10. Simon Crook of ''
Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
'' rated the film 3 out of 5, stating, "An unusual, scuzzy setting for a thriller that delivers with brutal simplicity",
Sky Cinema Sky Cinema is a British subscription film service owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). In the United Kingdom, Sky Cinema channels currently broadcast on the Sky satellite and Virgin Media cable platforms, and in addition Sky Cinema ...
also giving it 3 out of 5, and Phelim O'Neill of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' 2 out of 5, who wrote that: "It's not a bad idea for a movie, but what we get is undercooked, with poor logic and even poorer pacing conspiring to prevent any much-needed tension to build." Jordan Mintzer of ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' wrote from the
Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
: "Making up for its high concept/low brainpower scenario with some nifty action sequences and energetic performances, this rather promising directorial debut from duo James Nunn and Ronnie Thompson should foreclose at genre fests and ancillary outings worldwide." Allan Hunter for the ''
Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...
'' "It doesn't sound like a great premise but this is surprisingly taut and involving thanks to some resourceful film-making and eye-catching acting." Film4's Terry Mulcahy stated that, "Despite its relative simplicity, ''Tower Block'' packs a punch that's best experienced fresh - so steer clear of spoilers!" heDD Magazine reviewed the film, stating that it is, "Easily the best British film for 2012", with the ''
Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'', '' Starburst'', and Box Office Buzz giving it 4 out of 4 stars, with Box Office Buzz stating that it is a "brutal ride of suspense and tension."


References


External links

* *{{Rotten Tomatoes, tower_block_2012 2012 films 2012 crime thriller films 2012 directorial debut films 2010s British films 2010s English-language films British crime thriller films English-language crime thriller films Films shot in London Plaion