A criminal breaks into an SUV to steal a car stereo. When he tries to get out, he can’t open the doors. Someone outside has complete control of the vehicle.

Release date: 4 April 2019 (Argentina)
Director: Mariano Cohn
Language: Spanish
Budget: 30 lakhs EUR
Cinematography: Kiko de la Rica
Distributed by: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Ciro (Peter Lanzani) is walking in a neighborhood in Buenos Aires when he sees an SUV model car that catches his interest. He breaks into it, begins taking anything including the stereo, and defiles the car by peeing and passing gas. When he tries to get out, however, he cannot open the doors. He frantically tries to get out, ripping the door panels off but cuts his arm when reaching for the lock mechanism, the floor having reinforced steel, and when he tries his gun to shoot at the front windshield the bullet bounces off and the ricochet hits him in the thigh. He tries calling for help but his cellphone dies.

Ciro uses his shirt as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, things get worse when he suffers from the heat being trapped forcing him to finish off the last of his Pepsi bottle. He sees a woman fixing her makeup using the car door window but when Ciro screams for help she does not hear him. Nighttime comes and Ciro is plagued by thirst, trying to lick the door windows for the water covering it.

Morning comes and Ciro reinstalls the stereo to play music, helping to keep his sanity. The stereo stops playing, a number calls the car with the caller ID saying ‘ME’. It is the owner of the car, Enrique, (Dady Brieva) a doctor specializing in obstetrics. He tells Ciro that the security system he built into the car, which he calls 4×4, has cut the electric power within the car at the moment Ciro broke in, the car is completely bulletproof, soundproofed and polarized; so no one will hear or see him crying for help, the only thing not secured is the gas tank but Enrique teases it’s been rigged with an explosive so if Ciro disobeys he’ll blow Ciro up.

Enrique asks Ciro questions and talks about his personal life to him. He reveals that he is a widower, has a daughter and grandchild, and is suffering from terminal cancer with only a few months left to live. Ciro doesn’t care about Enrique and demands to be set free, while threatening to kill Enrique and his family if he doesn’t. Enrique hangs up and turns on the A/C to its strongest level, freezing Ciro to point of his lips turning blue from near hypothermia. Ciro also has to deal with his leg becoming infected from the gunshot wound and has no water or food.

Ciro continues to try and escape but the reinforced doors are too strong for him to penetrate with a tire iron. Ciro finds hope when a thief tries to break into the car, but his hopes are broken when the neighbors see what happens, assaults the thief, and calls the police to arrest him.

Enrique calls again to talk more about himself and turns off the A/C. Ciro becomes more frustrated as he wants water, but Enrique seems to enjoy messing with Ciro with his conversations. Eventually, he becomes weaker and delirious, he talks about how the world is run by the rich, and the poor trampled by them. Saying he won’t obey their rules which is why he steals like his father and grandfather before him and won’t obey the rules even if a gun was pointed at his head. Later his skin starts turning yellow, dehydrated, and starving takes its toll as well. Enrique calls and after Ciro answers a question with an answer he likes he tells him there is a washer hose hidden in the back with water to drink. Ciro finds it and fills his empty bottle, but instead of rationing the water, his dehydration causes him to gorge on it completely.

Days pass and Ciro’s sanity begins to drain. He tries to distract himself by drawing on the car interior, eating paper from the car’s manual, and urinating in a bottle to drink his urine to stay hydrated. After another call from Enrique asking for Ciro’s information, he tells Ciro that there is a chocolate bar hidden in the brake panel in the car for complying with his demands.

Enrique calls the next day, he says he has visited Ciro’s home seeing his wife Irina and his son Lionel. Enrique lied about Ciro’s whereabouts, claiming he works for the lottery and Ciro won $100,000 which Enrique gives to Irina to help move out of their apartment and buy a house. Ciro is in tears that Enrique had gone to his family asking what he did to Enrique to deserve his predicament. Enrique starts teasing Ciro that he has Ciro’s criminal record recounting his crimes from shooting brothers whose car shop Ciro robbed, beating a bus driver to death for stopping Ciro from robbing his passengers, finally that he stole a woman’s car and purse alongside a friend and had accidentally run into an innocent bystander. Ciro denies responsibility for his actions claiming it was their fault for either pulling a knife on him or stopping him from stealing. Enrique says Ciro doesn’t deserve his family for his crimes and hangs up.

Ciro makes a call to his wife and son after having charged his phone battery in the sunlight for days. He apologies for messing up again before the phone dies. At night after hitting the start button many times the car finally starts up, he drives in reverse and finally escapes. Suffering from his injuries he limps to a gas station where he takes bottles of water and a hamburger to eat. When the cashier alerts the security guard that Ciro hasn’t paid for his food Ciro shoots him dead for disturbing him eating.

Ciro awakes realizing it was all a dream and soon he sees Enrique standing in front of him having made one last call. Enrique tries to take Ciro away to punish him more but Ciro manages to escape – only to be subdued once more in his weakened state. A police officer intervenes and the situation escalates to a public standoff with Enrique holding Ciro hostage. The police call in retired negotiator Julio Amadeo to talk to Enrique, but Enrique gets half the community on his side when he talks about how no one cares for people like him or the neighborhood when things go bad and Enrique is forced to handle things himself when the government won’t step in.

With half the neighborhood siding for Enrique to kill Ciro and the other to let Ciro free, Julio finally convinces Enrique to surrender and release Ciro. Enrique gets into his car and detonates the explosive device, killing himself and possible bystanders in the crossfire. Ciro looks on sad-faced in the back of a police car finally having been freed from captivity but now has been arrested for his mistake. The media talks about Enrique and the event that transpired, having christened him the ‘Samurai Doctor’ for his strong convictions in seeing himself in the right, everyone talks about the changes that would have to make for the community to prevent further ordeal and get support from the government. Ciro is mentioned, he has received medical treatment and awaits trial for what took place.

Categorized in: