The gap between the rich and the poor has never felt wider, and 2025’s Locked takes a claustrophobic approach at visualizing that divide. While solidly acted, the David Yarovesky thriller – set predominantly inside a luxury SUV – stalls out instead of accelerates. And its message? Well, let’s just say it meanders more than a runaway car with its brakes cut.

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In Locked, a down-on-his-luck father named Eddie (Bill Skarsgard) is desperate for some cash to get his car fixed. After seemingly running out of options, Eddie thinks his fortune has taken a turn when he stumbles upon a high-end vehicle left alone in a parking lot. It’s not exactly secluded – there are people walking around and other cars parked nearby – but he figures it will be easy enough to break into the car, grab something shiny, and pawn it for some quick cash.

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Eddie’s get-rich-quick dream turns into an absolute nightmare when he finds he is locked inside the SUV; the fancy car becoming a gold-plated prison from which he can’t escape. After trying in vain to get the attention of passers-by, Eddie realized the vehicle is both soundproof and impossible to see inside. His fate now lies in the hands of William (Anthony Hopkins), the well-off owner of the car who, fed up with people constantly breaking into his SUV, has set a trap as a form of twisted vigilante justice. The problem is that the punishment far outweighs the crime, and any semblance of a metaphorical class warfare is lost when William’s quest for payback becomes unnecessarily cruel.

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Keeping the film down to one singular location (inside the car) would’ve upped the intensity greatly (think Buried with Ryan Reynolds) so the director’s choice to take the story out of the car several times is disappointing. It deflates the tension just as it starts to hit its peak. There are also some moments of duality and common ground between the two leads (for example, both being fathers) that could have led to a meaningful mea culpa. Instead, opportunities for character development are forgone for a villain who just seems needlessly sadistic. Hopkins and Skarsgård bring their typical A-game, and I have no complaints about their performances. Still, much of Locked feels like a missed opportunity for something that could have been more impactful.