Cellular (film)

Jessica Martin (Kim Basinger) is a high school biology teacher who lives with her husband Craig (Richard Burgi), a realtor, and their son Ricky (Adam Taylor Gordon). One day, after taking Ricky to the bus stop for school, she is kidnapped by a group of five people who break into her house, kill her housekeeper, confine her in the attic of their safe house, and smash the landline telephone hanging on one of the beams in the attic to prevent her from contacting anyone. Jessica, however, manages to use the wires of the broken phone to contact a random number.

Meanwhile, a carefree young man named Ryan (Chris Evans) is hanging out at Santa Monica Pier with his friend Chad (Eric Christian Olsen) when he comes across his ex-girlfriend, Chloe (Jessica Biel), who had previously dumped Ryan for being too irresponsible, self-centered, and completely childish. Hoping to get back together with Chloe, Ryan offers to hand out fliers for the pier's concert and pick up four boxes of t-shirts from Office Depot; initially, Ryan has Chad hand out the fliers until he returns with the t-shirts. On his way, Ryan gets a call on his cellphone, a Nokia 6600, from Jessica who informs him of her kidnapping situation.

Although Ryan takes it as a prank call, Jessica persuades him to go to the police station, where he reports to Sergeant Bob Mooney (William H. Macy). When a fight between several police officers and apprehended gang members breaks out, Mooney is forced to intervene and tells Ryan to report the kidnapping to the robbery-homicide division. Ethan (Jason Statham), the gang leader, asks Jessica for the location of Craig, and when Jessica refuses to provide information Ethan wants, he leaves to get Ricky. Overhearing them, Ryan realizes that the kidnapping is real and gets to Ricky's school, only to see the boy kidnapped. He hijacks a security officer's car and gives chase. As his phone battery is running out, he takes the gun in the car and holds up a store to "buy" a charger.

Deciding to check on Ryan's kidnapping claim, Mooney visits Jessica's house. He meets Dana Bayback (Valerie Cruz), the kidnappers' sole female, posing as Jessica, leading Mooney to believe the claim is a false alarm. With Ricky in tow, Ethan returns and asks Jessica about a place her husband Craig is hiding, "The Left Field". Jessica, fearing the kidnappers will kill her and her family once Craig is found, attacks Ethan, but is overpowered and confesses that it is a bar at the Los Angeles International Airport. Before Ethan departs, a woman (Lin Shaye) playing loud music in her car pulls up next to Ryan, but Ryan quickly silences his phone before Ethan can get suspicious.

A cross-connection between phone lines causes Ryan to rob a nearby lawyer (Rick Hoffman)'s cellphone and car to maintain connection. At the airport, Ryan plants the gun on one of the kidnappers, triggering the alarm. When security intervenes, the kidnappers are revealed to be police officers and they proceed to apprehend Craig. While at a day spa with his wife, Mooney views a news report of Ryan holding up the store for the charger (and stealing the lawyer's phone and car) and calls Jessica's home. He notices the voice on the answering machine is different from that of the woman he met (who has an accent).

The kidnappers escort Craig to his safe deposit box at a bank to retrieve a bag, but Ryan intervenes and flees with the bag, only to drop the lawyer's cellphone while being chased by the kidnappers. When Ryan opens Craig's bag, he finds Craig's video camera, on which Craig unintentionally filmed LAPD Detectives Ethan, Mad Dog (Brendan Kelly), Dimitri (Eric Etebari), Bayback, Deason (Matt McColm), and Mooney's friend Jack Tanner (Noah Emmerich), robbing and murdering two drug dealers, exposing them as dirty cops.

Ryan steals the lawyer's car from the impound lot and retrieves his own cellphone. Mooney returns to the Martin residence, where he kills Bayback in self-defense when she shoots at him. Back at the safe house, Mad Dog learns that Jessica has been trying to contact help and attempts to kill her, but Jessica purposely cuts his brachial artery, causing him to bleed to death in seconds. Before Jessica and Ricky can escape, they are caught by Ethan's gang, but before they can be executed with Craig, Ryan contacts Ethan and makes a deal: the videotape in exchange for the Martin family at Santa Monica Pier.

At the pier, Ryan disguises himself and refuses to give them the camera until the Martins are freed, but is found by Mooney and Tanner when Chloe inadvertently exposes him. Tanner sends Mooney away for medical attention, abducts Ryan and brings him to Ethan. Ethan destroys the videotape, and Tanner radios Deason to execute the Martins (although Deason decides to wait until they return to the safe house to execute them and avoid suspicion); however, Mooney overhears the transmission, overpowers Dimitri and handcuffs him before returning to the pier. Ryan escapes to a boathouse, following a distraction by Chad, where Tanner and Ethan chase after him. Ryan knocks out Tanner, but is overpowered by Ethan before Mooney shows up. After a brief chase, Ryan notices Ethan has circled behind Mooney and calls Ethan's cell phone. The phone's ringtone exposes Ethan's position, and Mooney shoots him.

Jessica stuns Deason by strangling him with her handcuff chain in the van, then frees her husband and son; however, Deason recovers and attempts to kill them when Ryan intervenes and slams his head in the car door. While Ryan and Mooney are being treated by medics, Tanner is also exposed, because Ryan had copied the video recording onto his cellphone. Jessica finally meets Ryan, the man who risked his life to save her family, and Ryan humorously asks her to never call him again.

Larry Cohen, screenwriter of the 2002 thriller film Phone Booth, conceived of Cellular while working for Sony Pictures.[3] Cohen's original screenplay mimicked Phone Booth in its theme of a "narcissistically obsessed society" enamored with cell phones.[4] 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.[4]

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.[3] 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.[3] Aiming for a story straightforward and devoid of bitterness and cynicism present in Cohen's version, the pair hired screenwriter Chris Morgan.[3][4] 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.[3] 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:

I'm a big fan of situational humor and I feel like comedy plays best when it's the right thing at the right time and not just somebody trying to make a joke. For example, in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana Jones is faced with fighting the swordsman and he just pulls out a gun and shoots him. That’s not really a joke, but it got a huge laugh. That's the kind of humor we tried to work.[3]

The soundtrack for the movie was composed by John Ottman and released on October 5, 2004 via La-La Land Records label.[5][6]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Cellular (film)

• Official website at the Wayback Machine (archived November 7, 2007)
• Cellular at IMDb
• Cellular title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Cellular at Box Office Mojo
• Cellular at AllMovie
• Cellular at the TCM Movie Database
• Cellular at the American Film Institute Catalog