After her divorce, Meg Altman (Jodie Foster) and her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) move into an old-fashioned house with one very modern addition: a "panic room" which is virtually impossible to break into, designed for refuge during a home invasion. In their first night in the house a trio of thieves do break in and Meg and Sarah rush into the panic room. However, the intruders are looking for something inside the panic room, and given the recent move the room's hotline to the police hasn't been hooked up yet. Worse, Sarah is diabetic and the room doesn't contain any sugar.

Central Park West (btw West 86th and 87th Streets) Manhattan.

Meg Altman's Brownstone, 38 West 94th Street and Columbus Avenue, Manhattan.

The Mall, Central Park, Manhattan.

otsoNY Comments: The house was built on a soundstage on a Raleigh Studios lot. The set was designed by production designer Arthur Max, and it cost $6 million to build. The panic room was 6 feet (1.8 m) by 14 feet (4.3 m). Three versions of the room were built so Fincher could film scenes from multiple angles. A 3D computer model of the set on the soundstage was designed. Fincher, who had done pre-visualization for Fight Club, used the model to design shots and decide their sequence. The computer model also enabled the camera to have total freedom to travel inside the house. The crew applied photogrammetry, a form of mapping still images over the surface of computer-generated 'sets.

otsoNY Comments: Koepp was inspired by news coverage in 2000 about how safe rooms were becoming prevalent among the wealthy living in urban areas.