P2 is a 2007 American psychological horror film directed by Franck Khalfoun, in his directorial debut, co-written by Khalfoun and producers Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur, and starring Rachel Nichols and Wes Bentley. Its plot follows a young businesswoman who becomes trapped in an underground parking garage in midtown Manhattan on Christmas Eve, where she is pursued by a socially awkward, psychopathic security guard who is obsessed with her.
Following the release of their film High Tension (2003), Aja and his co-writer on that film, Levasseur, developed the screenplay for P2 alongside Khalfoun, inspired by a series of real-life attacks on women that were reported in Paris parking garages. Filming began in late-2006 in Toronto, with the majority of the shoot taking place in a real, operating parking garage.
P2 was released theatrically in the United States in November 2007, and was the first feature film distributed by Summit Entertainment. The film was a critical and commercial failure, averaging less than $1,000 per cinema during its opening weekend. The film went on to gross $7.7 million internationally. Rotten Tomatoes describes it as “full of gore, but low on suspense
Plot
Angela Bridges is a young and beautiful businesswoman who works in a Midtown Manhattan office block and gets stuck working late on Christmas Eve, before leaving to attend a family party. When she reaches the second underground parking level (P2) beneath the office block, she discovers that her car will not start. After receiving assistance from a socially awkward security guard named Thomas Barclay and turning down his offer to spend Christmas with him, she calls for a taxi and waits in the lobby. When the taxi arrives, she discovers she is locked in the lobby and runs back into the parking garage. The taxi leaves without her and the lights soon shut down. Angela, guided by the light on her cell phone, wanders around the deserted parking lot. Thomas, who is revealed to be psychotic, drugs her with chloroform and takes her to his office.
Later, Angela awakens in a haze inside Thomas’ office, having been changed into a white dress and high-heels by Thomas and her foot chained to the table. Thomas tells her that he loves her, despite her “many sins”, having obsessively watched and recorded her for some time through the CCTV in the office block. Despite Angela’s pleas and threats, Thomas continues to hold her against her will, even forcing her to call her family and lie about an illness so that no one will come looking for her. Angela tries to escape, but cannot due to Thomas’ Rottweiler named Rocky, and is also confined to handcuffs by Thomas.
Taking Angela to another level of the parking lot, Thomas reveals her co-worker Jim Harper tied to an office chair. Thomas delusively believes Jim is a terrible person after he witnessed him drunkenly grope Angela at an office party, and refuses to listen to or believe Angela’s pleas that Jim apologized for his drunken action earlier. Thomas instructs Angela to get back at Jim by hitting him with a flashlight, but ultimately beats Jim himself, and then sadistically rams him into the wall with his car multiple times, killing him. Amidst the murder, Angela is able to escape barefoot after ditching her high heels.
While Thomas hides the evidence, Angela finds a safe place to hide and manages to get her handcuffed hands in front of her. She rushes back to Thomas’ office to retrieve her cell phone, finding key cards and a spot near the locked gate that has reception, but after dialing 911, she drops her phone on the other side of the gate. She uses a key card to get to the elevators, with Thomas right behind. While in the elevator, Angela calls for help from the panel of the elevator. She hears a voice that appears to be an operator but later turns out to be Thomas, who delusively says that she will come around to love him back and flushes her out by flooding the elevator with a fire hose from a higher floor. Amidst the flooding, the body of Karl Donson, another security guard, drops down and hits her.
While hiding in the parking lot, Angela is tormented by Thomas, who declares he has no intention of letting her leave the garage and plays Elvis Presley‘s “Blue Christmas” over the intercom. She breaks open an emergency fire axe and begins to destroy the cameras one by one while making her way to his office, prepared to fight. On entering, she finds a video playing of Thomas himself molesting her body while she was drugged, enraging Angela as she fully learns that Thomas is the very thing he claimed Jim was. Thomas sneaks up behind her, knocks her out with a taser, and hides her in the trunk of a car, just as two police officers arrive in response to a reported disturbance. Angela wakes up and breaks out, but realizes she is too late as she sees the police car drive off. Thomas releases Rocky, who chases Angela and bites her leg, although she manages to kill Rocky; this act causes Thomas to become enraged and continue pursuing Angela, now determined to harm her for killing Rocky.
Angela finds keys in a car rental office and tries to escape by car, but is side-swiped by Thomas in another vehicle, leading to a game of chicken, which Angela wins, though in the heat of the chase, she flips the vehicle. Thomas opens the door and prepares to grab her while again claiming he will help her, but Angela, who was actually feigning unconsciousness to get Thomas close to her, manages to stab him in the eye and choke him with her handcuffs, while finally denouncing Thomas for his hypocrisy and sadistic actions. She takes his keys to free herself, cuffs him to the car just before he comes to, and begins to leave while taking his taser. Thomas, now powerless and trapped, desperately starts pleading with her, saying he’s always alone and begging her to give him a chance to be friends, but when Angela doesn’t respond to his pleas, he angrily insults her, unwittingly exposing what he really thinks of her. In retaliation, Angela points the taser at a stream of gasoline leaking from the car, and sarcastically wishes a now-horrified Thomas a merry Christmas before using the taser to ignite the gasoline, engulfing a screaming Thomas in the flames and causing the car to explode, killing him.
Finally free, Angela (who is now wet, bloody, and injured) opens the garage gate and limps out into a cold and desolate Manhattan Christmas morning just as the fire department, paramedics, and police can be heard arriving.
Cast
- Rachel Nichols as Angela Bridges
- Wes Bentley as Thomas Barclay
- Simon Reynolds as Jim Harper
- Philip Akin as Karl Donson
- Stephanie Moore as Lorraine Bridges
- Miranda Edwards as Jody McKlennan
- Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Doug Tran Phu (Man in Elevator)
- Grace Lynn Kung as Kim Phu (Woman in Elevator)
- Bathsheba Garnett as Homeless Woman
- Philip Williams as Cop #1
- Arnold Pinnock as Cop #2
- Franck Khalfoun as Newsman
