Panic Button – 2011 | 90 mins | Thriller, Horror | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Panic Button is a perfect example of low-budget filmmaking as director Chris Crow borrows plot elements of everything from Agatha Christie to Saw, and for budgetary purposes confines events to the claustrophobic interior of a jet plane. The film gradually cranks up the tension and effectively plays on the public’s paranoia of the internet, social networking sites and concerns over privacy. The cast drawn mostly from TV soaps and modest British movies aren’t particularly likeable characters and acquit themselves competently. Panic Button may be derivative and not without flaws but it’s an effective and thought-provoking thriller.

Four young people win a weekend trip to New York, courtesy of their favourite social-networking website – All2gethr.com. As they board the private jet, they are asked to relinquish their mobile phones and take part in the in-flight entertainment – a new online gaming experience. But this is no ordinary game.

So, we have pretty, vulnerable single-mum Jo (Scarlett Alice Johnson) boarding a private plane with mysterious hacker Max (Jack Gordon), the cocky blokeish Dave (Michael Jibson) and the pretender Gwen (Elen Rhys). Trapped at 30,000 feet, their personalities are stripped bare and they are forced to play for their lives and the lives of their loved ones by their invisible captor, who seems to know all their most intimate secrets. With no escape and no one to trust, they are about to learn that putting your life on-line can have deadly offline consequences.