Plot

Paul is a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq. After an attack by a group of Iraqis he wakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone it's a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap.

Waking groggy in pitch darkness, Paul Conroy, an American truck driver working in Iraq in 2006, slowly realizes he is trapped inside a wooden coffin, buried alive. With his cigarette lighter, he can see the trap he is in, and he quickly realizes that there's not enough air for him to live long. He finds within the coffin a working cellphone, which allows him contact with the outside world. But the outside world proves not to be very helpful at finding a man buried in a box in the middle of the Iraqi desert. Paul must rely on his best resource--himself.—Jim Beaver <[email protected]>

American Paul Conroy is in Iraq working as a truck driver for contractor Creston Rowland & Thomas (CRT). His is the last truck in a convoy that is attacked by unknown forces. Being knocked on the head probably by a rock is the last thing he remembers before he awakens, gagged, his wrists bound, and he locked and buried in an old fashioned handmade wooden coffin. After he is able to remove the gag and the wrist constraints, he finds in the coffin a lighter which provides some illumination, a pen and most importantly a smart phone with approximately sixty percent battery life. The phone, set to some Arabic script which he does not understand, was placed there as a means of communication with his unknown captors, who are demanding a ransom of $5 million by 21:00, which is in a few hours. Paul uses the phone to try to contact someone, anyone, who he thinks can help him, including his wife back in Michigan, the US State Department and CRT, which is not as easy for him as he would like. Over time, he is able to find other items in the coffin, again placed there purposefully by his captors, for other things they ask him to do. Some of these items may become useful for Paul in his survival. Beyond his captors, there are other obstacles to Paul making it out alive, some obvious such as lack of air, the phone dying and the box not being reinforced, but there are some other obstacles and dangers, perhaps the most fearful to him being some people on the other end of the phone.—Huggo

Paul Conroy awakes to find himself in a wooden box, buried underground. He is a civilian contractor and truck-driver in Iraq. His convoy was ambushed and he was taken captive and buried alive. He has a limited amount of air, giving him a limited time to find a way out. All he has to aid him in this task is his cigarette lighter, a torch, a mobile phone and his will to live.—grantss

In 2006, Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds), an American civilian working in Iraq, awakes to find himself buried in a wooden coffin with only a Zippo lighter, a pen, and a BlackBerry phone at hand. As he gradually begins to piece together what has happened to him, he recalls that he and several others were ambushed by terrorists, passing out after being hit by a rock. After calling 911 in Youngstown, Ohio, the FBI in Chicago (as they don't believe his story and poke holes in it) and his employer (none of whom help him), he receives a call from his kidnapper, Jabir (José Luis García Pérez), demanding that he pay a ransom of $5 million, or he will be left in the coffin to die. Along with the script Paul is to read, Paul also finds a malfunctioning flashlight, a glow stick, a flask with alcohol, and a pocketknife.

Conroy calls the State Department (he gets a number from a female friend of his wife (whom he is unable to contact as she is not picking the phone)), which tells him that due to the government policy of not negotiating with terrorists, it will not pay the ransom but will try to rescue him. Conroy's employer already called the state department (based on the message Conroy left them) and briefed them on the situation. They connect him with Dan Brenner (Robert Pattinson), head of the Hostage Working Group, who tells Conroy they are working to find him, to conserve the Blackberry's battery life, and implores him not to make the video that Jabir has demanded (Brenner doesn't want this turning into an international incident while Conroy thinks Brenner is just protecting his own ass by not getting the press involved). Brenner informs Conroy that a man named Mark White was rescued from a similar situation three weeks prior and is now home safe with his family. Paul calls his mother, who is in a nursing home, but she barely remembers him due to severe dementia.

Jabir calls Conroy again and demands he film a ransom video, sending a photo of his colleague, Pamela (Ivana Miño), gagged with a gun to her head. Conroy insists that no one will pay $5 million, so Jabir drops the amount to $1 million. Conroy finds a live snake in the coffin, which he is able to kill. After switching the language on the Blackberry to English, he finds the Blackberry's number, which he relays to his wife Linda (Samantha Mathis) in a voicemail. Conroy records the video; however, the kidnappers execute Pamela anyway and send him video of the murder. He calls Brenner, who is upset with him for making the video, which is now being played on all major networks and has received numerous views on YouTube.

Shortly afterward, distant explosions shake the area, which damage his coffin, causing it to slowly fill with sand. His employer's legal counsel calls him, asking him not to speak with anyone in order to keep the situation "contained". His employer then begins to record the call and informs him that he has been retroactively terminated from his job earlier that same day (conveniently before his capture) due to an alleged prohibited relationship with Pamela. Because of this, his company will not only not take any responsibility for his capture, and he and his family will not be entitled to any benefits or pension earned with the company.

Brenner calls saying that the explosions that damaged his coffin earlier were in fact F-16 bombings and that his kidnappers may have been killed. Conroy begins to lose hope and makes a last will and testament in video form, leaving his wife his personal savings and his son his clothes. Jabir calls demanding Conroy video record himself cutting off a finger, threatening Conroy's family back home by revealing their home address. Conroy complies with this demand. Shortly after filming the video, his cell phone rings, and Conroy begins to hear digging and distorted voices. The voices become clearer, saying to open the coffin, and the coffin opens. It abruptly becomes obvious that he hallucinated the encounter.

Brenner calls and tells Conroy an insurgent has given details of where to find a man buried alive, and that they are driving out to rescue him. Conroy then receives a tearful call from his wife Linda, and he assures her that he is going to be okay. As sand continues to fill the coffin to dangerous levels, giving Conroy seconds left to live, Brenner calls and tells him that he and the rescue team have arrived at the burial site. Through the phone, digging is heard, but Conroy cannot hear any digging around him. The team digs up a coffin and opens it, but it is revealed that the insurgent led them to Mark White's coffin, the man Brenner claimed had been rescued. Knowing that he's not going to be saved, Paul tries to calm himself down and accepts his fate. The film ends with Brenner profusely apologizing to Conroy as the sand finally fills the coffin and he suffocates as the light goes out, and the screen goes black. In a post-credits scene, a lighter illuminates the name "Mark White" on the lid of the coffin, written by Paul earlier.