Buried

Paul Conroy, a U.S. truck driver in Iraq, wakes up to find himself buried alive inside a wooden coffin. He has only a lighter and a cell phone, and every breath feels harder as minutes slip by. Through a stream of calls, messages, and brief clues, he fights to reach help and understand who is holding him. He improvises with whatever the confined space will allow, testing the limits of his nerve and ingenuity. The narrative sticks to his claustrophobic world, ratcheting up tension with each passing moment while the surface world remains tantalizingly close yet out of reach. The sounds of soil shifting and distant voices haunt him, shaping each decision. Courage defines his stubborn, singular struggle to live.

Directed by Rodrigo Cortes from Chris Sparling's original script, Buried is a lean survival thriller released in 2010. The film confines action to a single coffin set, designed to maximize pressure and pace, with minimal exteriors and practical effects throughout.

Box office: Buried grossed $19,152,480 worldwide, a strong return on its budget of $1,987,650. The numbers reflect solid per screen performance and word of mouth that fueled its expansion in select markets. It expanded in limited release across theaters worldwide.

Buried stands as a standout example of high tension in a single location. Reynolds carries the film with minimal dialogue and a controlled performance, helping to popularize the micro-budget survival thriller and influencing later claustrophobic thrillers that rely on sound, pacing, and character rather than spectacle, and sparked imitators worldwide.

Critics praised its taut setup and Ryan Reynolds' restrained turn, noting how the film probes isolation, mortality, and rescue. The compact premise invites reflection on how pressure magnifies human intent and resilience, and it remains a reference point for minimalistic, nerve shredding suspense and shaping future thrillers in its wake.