# Locke (film)
**Locke** is a 2013 British drama film written and directed by [Steven Knight](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-knight), starring [Tom Hardy](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-hardy) as Ivan Locke, a construction manager whose life unravels during a single real-time night drive from [Birmingham](https://www.edgepedia.org/birmingham) to London. Hardy is the only actor who appears on screen; the other characters, including his wife, his colleague, and the woman giving birth to his child, are heard only over the car's speakerphone.[1](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/locke-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zotqzodg) • [2](https://time.com/77116/locke-movie-review-tom-hardy/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Written and directed by | Steven Knight, his second feature after *Redemption*; produced by Paul Webster and Guy Heeley for Shoebox Films[3](https://www.screendaily.com/im-globals-anthem-unveils-tom-hardy-thriller-locke/5051595.article) • [4](https://www.screenhub.com.au/news/reviews/locke-244301-1400738/) |
| On-screen cast | Tom Hardy alone; voice cast includes Ruth Wilson, Olivia Colman, Andrew Scott, Tom Holland, Ben Daniels, Alice Lowe, and Ben Milner[1](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/locke-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zotqzodg) |
| Running time | 84 minutes (BBFC cinema version 84m 47s), played in real time[1](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/locke-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zotqzodg) • [5](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/242295/en/interview/404596/) |
| Production | Shot over eight nights in February 2013, almost entirely inside a BMW SUV towed on a trailer around road circuits near London[6](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2014-apr-24-la-et-mn-locke-20140425-story.html) |
| Premiere and release | World premiere at the 70th Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2013, out of competition; UK release 18 April 2014 (Lionsgate), US release 25 April 2014 (A24)[7](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/locke) • [8](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/6853/) • [9](https://a24films.com/films/locke/) |
| Reception | Metascore of 83 from 37 critic reviews (89% positive); Hardy won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Actor[10](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/locke/) • [7](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/locke) |
| Awards | Steven Knight won the British Independent Film Award for Best Screenplay, beating *Philomena* and *Le Week-End*; Hardy was nominated for BIFA Best Actor[11](https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Steven-Knight-s-SUV-driven-Locke-set-amid-grip-5425747.php) |
## Spoilers
### Premise
Ivan Locke is a construction supervisor who, on the eve of the largest concrete pour in Europe, a pour for a 55-story tower he calls "my building," drives through the night to London to be present at the birth of his child, conceived during a one-night stand with Bethan (voiced by [Olivia Colman](https://www.edgepedia.org/olivia-colman)), a coworker seven months earlier.[8](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/6853/) • [2](https://time.com/77116/locke-movie-review-tom-hardy/) Over the course of the drive he manages three simultaneous crises by phone: he calms Bethan's pre-birth anxieties, confesses the affair to his wife Katrina ([Ruth Wilson](https://www.edgepedia.org/ruth-wilson)) with his sons Eddie ([Tom Holland](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-holland)) and Sean (Ben Milner) waiting at home, and supervises the concrete work remotely through his subordinate Donal (Andrew Scott) while his boss Gareth (Ben Daniels) fires him for going absent.[2](https://time.com/77116/locke-movie-review-tom-hardy/) • [11](https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Steven-Knight-s-SUV-driven-Locke-set-amid-grip-5425747.php)
By the end of the film, as producer [Paul Webster](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-webster) summarized it, Locke has lost the home, wife, children, and job he held at the start.[12](https://www.screendaily.com/venice/venice-making-locke-under-the-radar/5059826.article) Hardy chose to play Ivan with a Welsh accent, saying the character had to "be really normal because this is an everyday man's crisis."
## Production
**A compressed schedule.** Knight wrote the screenplay in about two and a half weeks over the Christmas holiday after pitching the concept to Hardy in November 2012; the two had met to discuss a different film, and by February 2013 they were shooting.[13](https://lincolnfilmsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/02/Locke.pdf) • [14](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/tom-hardy-continues-his-drive-to-stardom-in-steven-knights-experimental-locke/2014/05/01/2b7c477e-cfba-11e3-a6b1-45c4dffb85a6_story.html) The shoot took place over eight nights in February 2013, in a window between Hardy's work on *Mad Max: Fury Road* in Namibia and *The Drop* in New York.[6](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2014-apr-24-la-et-mn-locke-20140425-story.html)
**How it was filmed.** A BMW SUV was towed on a trailer around three circuits of roadway near London, with cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos running three RED Epic cameras on Hardy, who read his lines from a teleprompter as floodlights forced him to focus on the script.[6](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2014-apr-24-la-et-mn-locke-20140425-story.html) • [14](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/tom-hardy-continues-his-drive-to-stardom-in-steven-knights-experimental-locke/2014/05/01/2b7c477e-cfba-11e3-a6b1-45c4dffb85a6_story.html) The cameras recorded for 37 minutes before their memory cards needed replacing, and the film was Zambarloukos's first shot digitally.[15](https://www.female.com.au/tom-hardy-locke.htm) The production performed the script straight through twice a night, giving Knight and editor Justine Wright 16 complete versions of the story to cut from.[6](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2014-apr-24-la-et-mn-locke-20140425-story.html)
**Live phone calls.** Rather than recording the supporting parts separately, Knight seated the voice cast in a nearby hotel conference room with microphones connected to the car, so every call happened in true real time. "They would sit there every night from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. and on a cue from me, because I was on a truck with the car, they'd do their phone call," Knight said.[11](https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Steven-Knight-s-SUV-driven-Locke-set-amid-grip-5425747.php) Knight later joked about the result: "It's one long continuity error. The whole thing."
The project was assembled quietly. [IM Global](https://www.edgepedia.org/im-global)'s specialty label Anthem fully financed the film, announced to buyers at the European Film Market in February 2013, and there was no press launch; production was confirmed only the week it began.[3](https://www.screendaily.com/im-globals-anthem-unveils-tom-hardy-thriller-locke/5051595.article) • [12](https://www.screendaily.com/venice/venice-making-locke-under-the-radar/5059826.article)
## Reception
*Locke* premiered out of competition at Venice on 2 September 2013 and played in the Spotlight section at Sundance the following January, where it made its US premiere.[7](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/locke) • [11](https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Steven-Knight-s-SUV-driven-Locke-set-amid-grip-5425747.php) Critics responded strongly: Metacritic recorded a score of 83 from 37 reviews, with 33 positive and 4 mixed and none negative, and European Screen reports 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.[10](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/locke/) • [7](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/locke) Reviewers repeatedly framed the film as a successful experiment in restraint. The *Washington Post* called it "so distilled, such a pure example of cinematic storytelling, that it almost feels abstract," and the *Hollywood Reporter* praised "the technical execution of this bold minimalist experiment."[10](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/locke/) Dissenting reviews, including a 4/10 from *The Guardian* and a 5/10 from the *A.V. Club*, which called it "a glorified acting exercise," found the premise gimmick-like.[16](https://thecritics.uk/film/locke)
**Awards.** Knight won the British Independent Film Award for Best Screenplay, and Hardy was nominated for BIFA Best Actor and won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Actor.[11](https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Steven-Knight-s-SUV-driven-Locke-set-amid-grip-5425747.php) • [7](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/locke) Justine Wright's editing was recognized with a European Film Award nomination for Best Film Editing, and the [National Board of Review](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-board-of-review) named *Locke* one of its Top Ten Independent Films.[17](https://nick-davis.com/locke13.html)
**Box office.** The film cost about $2 million to make and earned roughly $1.8 million worldwide, a figure *Marie Claire* cited in listing it among underrated films.[18](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/news/a14009/most-underrated-films-of-all-time/) • [16](https://thecritics.uk/film/locke)
## Themes and place in the road movie
Knight has described the film as an experiment in making an ordinary man's crisis carry the weight of drama: "It's not assassinations or Jason Bourne, it's just their own life."[11](https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Steven-Knight-s-SUV-driven-Locke-set-amid-grip-5425747.php) Scholars of the road movie have noted how far *Locke* departs from the genre's conventions. Where American and European road movies build stories from detours, roadside stops, and picked-up strangers, *Locke* uses none of these components; it takes place entirely within the vehicle as a real-time film of confinement, and its subject is hyper-attention and multitasking in an era of mobile communication devices.[19](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/gdc/gdcebookspublic/20/19/66/77/67/2019667767/2019667767.pdf)
The one-person-on-the-phone premise has a precedent Knight's reviewers traced to [Jean Cocteau](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-cocteau)'s one-act play *The Human Voice*, which [Anna Magnani](https://www.edgepedia.org/anna-magnani) performed in [Roberto Rossellini](https://www.edgepedia.org/roberto-rossellini)'s 1948 film version.[2](https://time.com/77116/locke-movie-review-tom-hardy/) Critics also compared Ivan to Halvard Solness, the builder of Henrik Ibsen's *The Master Builder*, a man trying to reconcile work and family.[2](https://time.com/77116/locke-movie-review-tom-hardy/) Knight himself located the idea while reviewing footage from *Redemption*, noticing that everything he shot from a car at night looked beautiful: "it could be a car and (that car) could be a theater, and you put an actor in that theater and you have a play."
## References
1. [Locke, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/locke-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0zotqzodg)
2. [Richard Corliss, "Locke: Trapped in a Car, and Tom Hardy's the Driver," Time (25 April 2014)](https://time.com/77116/locke-movie-review-tom-hardy/)
3. [Jeremy Kay, "IM Global's Anthem unveils Tom Hardy thriller Locke," Screen Daily (7 February 2013)](https://www.screendaily.com/im-globals-anthem-unveils-tom-hardy-thriller-locke/5051595.article)
4. [Locke review, ScreenHub](https://www.screenhub.com.au/news/reviews/locke-244301-1400738/)
5. [Locke, Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/242295/en/interview/404596/)
6. [Kenneth Turan, "Less is so much more in suspense drama 'Locke'," Los Angeles Times (April 2014)](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2014-apr-24-la-et-mn-locke-20140425-story.html)
7. [Locke, European Screen](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/locke)
8. [Locke, Independent Cinema Office](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/6853/)
9. [Locke, A24 Films](https://a24films.com/films/locke/)
10. [Locke Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/locke/)
11. [Pam Grady, "Steven Knight's SUV-driven 'Locke' set amid grip of technology," San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate (23 April 2014)](https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Steven-Knight-s-SUV-driven-Locke-set-amid-grip-5425747.php)
12. [Wendy Mitchell, "Venice: Making Locke under the radar," Screen Daily (2 September 2013)](https://www.screendaily.com/venice/venice-making-locke-under-the-radar/5059826.article)
13. [Lincoln Film Society notes on Locke, including a Variety interview with Steven Knight and Tom Hardy (April 2014)](https://lincolnfilmsociety.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2015/02/Locke.pdf)
14. [Christopher Kompanek, "Tom Hardy continues his drive to stardom in Steven Knight's experimental 'Locke'," The Washington Post (1 May 2014)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/tom-hardy-continues-his-drive-to-stardom-in-steven-knights-experimental-locke/2014/05/01/2b7c477e-cfba-11e3-a6b1-45c4dffb85a6_story.html)
15. [Tom Hardy Locke, Female.com.au](https://www.female.com.au/tom-hardy-locke.htm)
16. [Locke (2013): 37 reviews, The Critics UK](https://thecritics.uk/film/locke)
17. [Nick Davis, Locke (2013)](https://nick-davis.com/locke13.html)
18. [The 38 Most Underrated Films of All Time, Marie Claire (2022)](https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/news/a14009/most-underrated-films-of-all-time/)
19. [Cinema of Confinement (book chapter discussing Locke), Library of Congress digitized copy](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/gdc/gdcebookspublic/20/19/66/77/67/2019667767/2019667767.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2010 to 2014*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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