Spoilers can never find parking.

A thriller does not need a convoluted premise to be engaging. Sometimes the simplest of plots can take you in if executed properly. Of course it helps if you have a high caliber actor or two. This is one of those films that happens mostly in a single location of sorts. It might work better if you know very little and not see the trailer, but let’s face facts. Risking your time and money for a film without a glimpse is not a wise investment these days, so better read ahead. Start your engines.

(Credit: The Avenue)

Locked (2025) is directed by David Yarovesky with a screenplay written by Michael Arlen Ross, based on the film by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat. Eddie (Bill Skarsgård) is down on his luck. He can’t get his van back until he pays for the repairs and has already disappointed his ex-wife and young daughter. So he’s quick to fall into petty theft here and there and keeps looking for unlock cars for anything he can sell. His luck takes him to a luxury SUV parked in public that happens to be unlocked.

That’s where I wish I could stop but we all know we have to go ahead a bit further. Eddie doesn’t find anything in the car to sell, so with no luck he’s about to get out when he realizes the door doesn’t open. What’s more, someone is calling… And after trying in vain to break out, he answers the call. Here’s where we meet the voice of William (Anthony Hopkins), owner of this specially modified vehicular prison. What began as just another crime has now escalated to sequestering the street-wise thief in a prison on wheels. William is on a mission to make someone, anyone and everyone pay for a past tragedy.

It works well. It does require some suspension of disbelief, but nothing too outlandish given what technology can do. The film does touches lightly on the subject of morality vs justice as well as class warfare. Of course the urgency is never on resolving such concepts but devising a way out for Eddie. We do get a satisfying ending that may or not please every viewer but at least it’s no more than one.

Recommended with reservations. It’s not an overly convoluted plot, but it’s a satisfying thriller. It’s very well executed with a solid performance by Bill Skarsgård. It seems it wants to be more, with light commentary on economic disparity and the issues of law enforcement, but it doesn’t go that deep. Worth a watch.

That will do for now.