Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a horror, drama, fantasy film from 2019, titled Down. Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care. Jennifer is one of the last people left in the office on a Friday night. She's going to catch a plane to New York for the extended weekend to see her ex-fiancée for Valentine's day so she writes him an email.
She doesn't want to be late for her flight, so she grabs a bunch of candy and leaves the office. Simultaneously, Guy is getting ready to leave work as well. They both end up waiting for the elevator at the same time.
Jennifer gets on the 49th floor and he joins her on the 42nd. Guy immediately starts chatting with her and joking. She replies but doesn't seem interested in having a conversation.
Guy shows her an etching on the wall when the elevator suddenly stops. He tries the keys and the alarm button, but nothing works even though the electricity in the elevator seems to still be on. Guy tries opening the door, though that doesn't work either.
They try waiving to the fully operational camera and still no one responds to their calls. To make matters worse, none of their phones has service because they are 4 stories underground. Jennifer wonders where the security for the building is, worried that she'll miss her flight.
Fifteen minutes later, they try calling for help and banging on the door, but no one can hear them. Guy gets the idea that there might be an escape hatch so she awkwardly climbs on his shoulders and they check the elevator ceiling. She hurt her hand a little banging on it, so he puts her down.
One hour later, Jennifer realizes that she'll never catch her flight and even though Guy jokes to lighten the mood, she just curses everything and everyone out. They finally introduce each other and continue with the banter that Guy had started the moment he stepped on the elevator. Since Jennifer doesn't have any water in her thermos Guy offers her his bottle, but they joke that they should pop open the wine he had on him instead.
Both of them realize that they have bottle openers in their bag and laugh about it. They don't open the wine, but she does accept his water. As a consolation prize for not having any actual food, Jennifer gives Guy some of the candy.
She thinks they should save their rations though because they might end up stuck in the elevator until Tuesday. Four hours later, Jennifer has to pee and she desperately tries to hold it in because she's too embarrassed to do it in front of Guy. He tells her to go in the corner over his coat and when she says no, Guy suggests she relieves herself in her thermos.
She makes him close his eyes and cover his ears. Guy also begins to sing and she finally pees. After that, she adds to the drawing on the elevator wall.
Sometime later, they play a game and begin talking about more personal things. Guy tells her that he has no one that'll be looking for him because he's too obsessed with his job. Jennifer says she's the same.
She tells him that she wanted to surprise someone in New York, but that he probably didn't even want her to come. Guy figures that it's about time that they open the wine and hands it to her. They drink to not being dead yet.
Much later, they're keeping occupied by drawing each other and getting closer. Guy confesses that he'd actually seen her before in the office building, he just didn't share that because he didn't want to sound like a stalker and make her feel uncomfortable. She doesn't take it as bad as he thought she would, in fact, she laughs about it.
They finish their drawings and show them to each other. Her portrait of him is more on the jokey side while he's is more serious. Jennifer apologizes and takes a photo of the drawing, saying she'll make it her profile picture if they survive.
Next, they talk about food and since they're both hungry, she asks Guy to change the subject. He lists off different things and she chooses to talk about making love, gets up, and turns her camera on him, asking about the dirtiest place he's made love before. Guy's a little shy, so she shares her story first.
Jennifer tells him a story about one of her ex-boyfriends in college and the time they slept together in a library. When it's Guy's turn, he still doesn't feel like sharing his story because he thinks he doesn't have an interesting one. Jennifer tells him to make up one.
Guy tells a story about a hot girl that wanted to be with him during a work picnic. He says that they got drunk, got in the car and she begins to undress while he's driving. Guy gets weird and uncomfortable again, telling Jennifer that he got aroused and he had to stop.
He apologizes because he thinks he crossed a line, but she says that it's cool. Guy approaches her awkwardly and kisses her, then begins to undress her. They make love in the elevator.
After, Guy tells her that he could fall in love with her, but she gets away from him. Jennifer tells him that she wants to get back together with her ex. That was the reason why she wanted to go to New York and surprise him, to patch things up and make everything better.
Unlike Guy, she thinks that even though their encounter was fun, they should just keep it casual because what she has with her ex is real. Jennifer is honest with him about how she feels and what her previous relationship was like. Guy, on the other hand, thinks that they connected and that her ex doesn't deserve her.
She gets mad because she clearly still loves him and tells Guy that when they get out of the elevator they'll just go back to their separate lives. Guy keeps insisting that they were meant to be together and he begins to cry because he feels alienated even though they're locked in a box together. Suddenly, something flips in him and Jennifer can feel it happen.
Guy begins to tell her the truth about who he is. He lied to her about where he worked and about his name too. The man tells her that he didn't just notice her, but that he actually saw her every single day at work.
He takes out his phone and shows Jennifer security photos he has on it of her, listing out the times and dates when it was. The guy even has a video of her getting into the elevator that night. Jennifer is afraid.
He tells her that he's actually the building's security guard and gets angry when he explains that no one ever notices people like him. She didn't even recognize him even though he works at the front desk. He thinks that he knows her more than her ex and tells her that he planned everything that happened that night.
The man takes out a key and unblocks the elevator. Jennifer can't believe what he did to her and says that she'll call the cops and that he'll rot in jail. He doesn't like that so he grabs her and they begin to struggle.
Flailing her legs during the fight, Jennifer breaks the elevator key. They continue to fight and she knocks him out with her shoe. Jennifer is afraid that she killed him so she approaches him to check when he suddenly jumps up and knocks her down.
They both remain unconscious in the elevator. After a while, Jennifer wakes to find the man conscious already. She asks him why he did it.
His reasoning is that he wanted to get her away from everything so that they could connect on a human level. He says that they didn't just have a date but an entire relationship in the weekend stuck in the elevator. Jennifer thinks that he's not going to get away with it because someone will surely come to get them out.
Unfortunately, she finds out that the guy has taken all the shifts for that weekend and the two other guards won't be coming in until the extended weekend is over on Tuesday. Jennifer asks what he'll do and he says that he would rather kill her than go back to prison. He says that he never forced her to do anything, but Jennifer tells him that he kidnaped her.
That sends him into a rage spiral. When he calms down he opens the present that Jennifer had bought for her ex-fiancée. He finds a shirt and a box in the bag.
The guy puts the shirt on and tells Jennifer to open the rest of the present. Jennifer opens the box to reveal cigars, complete with the necessary tools, like the cigar scissors and lighter. He lights a cigar and taunts Jennifer further, even saying that she could've gotten her ex back with all the nice gifts.
In a gust of irony, he wishes her a happy valentines day. Sometime later, the guy apologizes to Jennifer for scaring her and asks her if they can reconcile. He asks for another chance and tells her that she doesn't have to answer right away, but to think about it.
The guy comments on the travel ad that's playing in the elevator, saying that the people in the video look happy together. He tells Jennifer that he'll take her to the resort from the ad one day. He's bothered by the neon light in the elevator that isn't working so he breaks it with Jennifer's thermos.
The guy realizes that the light bulbs under the ceiling panels must get replaced sometime. He thinks that he can get that panel off and get out of the elevator thought there. As he breaks it open with the thermos, Jennifer stands up next to him.
He asks Jennifer to give him a boost to get up there, promising that hell come back for her. However, Jennifer thinks it would be easier if he gives her a boost because she doesn't have enough strength to do it. He doubts that she'll want to come back for him and she'll call the cops.
Jennifer tells him everything that he wants to hear and convinces him to give her the boost. She gets on his shoulders and pulls out of the elevator. The guy tells her where the ladder and the door are, happy that they finally managed to escape.
Jennifer turns around and gives him the middle finger, pissing him off. As she climbs the ladder, he finds a way to get out of the elevator too. The guy binds two pieces of clothing together and throws them over the elevator beam.
Jennifer is already moving towards the door as he starts climbing up. He tells her that she'd better run because now she's going to die. Jennifer gets close to the door when he already reaches the level she's on and follows her.
She opens the door and screams for help, then he suddenly garbs her and hurls both of them back in the elevator. They both fall unconscious. Jennifer wakes up first and sees the fire sprinklers, conceiving a new plan to get herself out.
She tries to activate the fire alarms by lighting a cigar, but when she doesn't manage that she starts a small fire. As the elevator fills with smoke the guy wakes up and she punches him, breaking his nose. Jennifer succeeds in restraining him with a piece of clothing.
He tells her that the fire alarm won't come on, but that they'll just get soaked and electrocuted. Jennifer threatens to seriously hurt him and makes him confess to everything that he's done to her. She turns her camera on and shoots herself explaining what she knows about what happened.
Jennifer turns the camera on him and asks for his real name. He says he's called John Deakins. John confesses that he got them stuck in the elevator on purpose.
He even etched the drawing on the wall. That Friday he used the key to stop the elevator while she wasn't looking. Jennifer makes him admit to trapping her in the elevator.
John admits to trapping and kidnapping her. She keeps questioning him, so he confesses to the camera everything that he did to her, from hitting her head on the ground to throwing her against the wall. Jennifer asks why and John says that he just wanted a date with her.
If he had asked her out normally, she would have turned him down. John tells her who he was before he became a security guard. He was an accountant that worked for a big firm and was a real hotshot.
John tells her that the story about the girl in the car was true, but that it ended differently than what he implied. He ended up missing an exit and drove straight into a ravine. The car flipped seven times until it was stopped by a tree.
The girl was dead on impact. John got only six months in jail because he had the resources to keep himself out. When he got out, the only job he could get was as a security guard.
After a few months, he wanted to be himself again and feel it for a little while. Jennifer still doesn't understand why he chose her. He says that it's because she's great.
Monday arrives and they're still trapped. One of the other security guards Eddie takes his new girlfriend to the building to show her the roof. When they walk inside he looks for John and when he doesn't find him, he checks the security monitors.
Eddie sees John and Jennifer are stuck in the elevator, waking them both up. Jennifer begs him to get them out of there. He tells her that he'll come down and get them out, while his girlfriend falls asleep on the couch.
Eddie gets to the elevator and pulls the doors open with a crowbar. Jennifer wants to get out, but he tells her that he needs to open the doors completely first and moves away. Suddenly, John knocks her out.
He tells Eddie that he's there and he gives John his keys. John tells him that it's not working and Eddie says he'll climb in to help them. He gets stuck in the elevator and sees that something has happened inside when John turns on the elevator and cuts him in half.
He knocks Jennifer out again, then takes her to his car and puts her in the trunk. John goes back into the building and disposes of Eddie's body and his clothes. He cleans himself up and puts on his uniform, sliding a cigar into his pocket.
When John gets to the front desk, he deletes all of the videos from the security cameras. Eddie's girlfriend wakes up and John kills her too, then drops her in the shaft as well. John gets to his car and takes Jennifer to a secluded location to dispose of her.
He pours gasoline into a dumpster to prepare. Before he opens the trunk, John tells Jennifer that he still likes her and it's unfortunate they couldn't be together. Jennifer pretends that she's dead and when John goes over to the dumpster she hits him over the head, gets in the car, and starts driving.
At one point she stops when she finds the lit cigar in the tray. Jennifer starts backing up the car and rams into a terrified John. She comes out and sees that he's in the dumpster.
Jennifer relights the cigar and walks away, then she flicks the lit bud into the dumpster, burning John alive.
