All still images via film-grab.com
This is the first installment of our new series, where our participating contributors pick one scene from any particular film that made them tense and nervous.
**WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS**
My pick for a scene only comes due to the fact that I recently viewed the movie. Let's face it, we all have to take advantage when ideas basically fly by the seat of their pants. To the film! Denis Villeneuve's amazing 2013 mystery/crime thriller Prisoners is one of my favorite movies of all time. And it also contains a scene that was completely nerve-wracking the first time I viewed it that same year. That shall be my pick for this particular piece. Let's get down to business.
**SECOND SPOILERS WARNING**
In a nutshell, Prisoners is a film about two little girls that went missing. Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) is assigned to the case and has made some strides in the case. Of course, no thanks to one of the girls' father, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman), who decides to completely mistrust the police and take matters into his own hands by physically torturing the mentally challenged suspect (who was previously ruled out), Alex Jones (Paul Dano), into talking about abducting the girls (he didn't). Won't give away much more than that.
The scene in question is, I think, the third to last scene of the film. After Detective Loki rescues Keller's daughter, he finds out she had been injected with a poisonous shot that is about to kill her. The ensuing sequence of 2 minutes and 14.1 seconds was essentially some of the most heart-pounding cinema I've ever seen. It felt LONGER than that the first time I saw it.
Loki is driving as fast as he can. We see his face is covered in blood. He was shot and the bullet grazed the side of his forehead, midway between his hairline and his eyebrow (his right side). The hematoma of the shot seems to be extended to his right eye, thus impeding his vision. Add to that the puddle of blood draping said eye. Between that and having to keep tabs on the dying girl in the backseat, he is driving on a rainy night with blurred vision. Villeneuve's direction of this scene is sublime, aided by the masterful photography of Roger Deakins.
The contrast of lighting and the persistent rain and fast cutting absolutely conveys the tension of trying to make this drive to the nearest hospital. Cut to shots of the car running through red lights and barely evading other cars. His vision becomes more blurry and the camera shifts focus constantly to let the viewer into Loki's point of view.
There comes a point where your heart absolutely reaches the top of your throat. As Like continues to wipe the running blood off his eye and squints to aid his failing vision, the scene cuts to a closeup of the windshield where the focus is on the raindrops on it, and whatever is outside of the window is COMPLETELY OUT OF FOCUS. The first time I saw this, I was bouncing and slapping the side out the chair, repeatedly yelling: "Come on, come on, come on!". That last show I described scared me stiff. On rewatches, it still makes me uneasy. You imagine driving and only seeing that and you can be sure that what comes next is a loud crash.
But there wasn't. Cut to Loki looking up and cut again to a red light out of focus and then focusing to reveal the sign reading EMERGENCY. Imagine the smile and sigh of relief over here. The scene ends with Loki running frantically into the hospital with young Anna hollering for help.
This scene is only overshadowed by the final scene, which is the complete opposite tonally. But the punch it packs is just as powerful as that tense and heart-pounding ride to the hospital.
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