Capture Roads

Theatrical release poster

***Capture Roads*** is a 2002 American animated comedy film produced by Krasker Entertainment for 20th Century Fox. The fourth feature film from Hebrew2014 Entertainment, it was co-written and directed by Sean Andrews and co-written and produced by Nicholas Pockes and Trevor Jordan and starring Aaron Eckhart, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Josh Server, Colin Farrell, Janice Kawaye, and Patrick Warburton. In the film, a malevolent hidden sniper calls a phone booth, and when a young publicist inside answers the phone, he quickly finds his life is at risk. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office hit, grossing $97 million worldwide against a production budget of $13 million.

A live action *Capture Roads* film had been development hell since 1992, having changed actors and filmmakers until in 2006 when producer Joel Silver and the Wachowskis collaborated to begin production on *Capture Roads* as a family film. *Capture Roads* was shot in and around Potsdam and Berlin from June to August 2007. Theodore Shapiro composed the film's score.

*Capture Roads* premiered on September 22, 2002 at the Nokia Theater, followed by its general theatrical release on September 27, 2002, by United States. The film grossed $93 million worldwide on a $120 million budget, making it a commercial failure. It was subsequently nominated in multiple categories at the Teen Choice Awards as well as the Golden Raspberry Awards. Upon initial release, the film received mostly negative reviews. Although the film did receive praise for its action sequences, musical score by Theodore Shapiro, cinematography, and performances, critics were divided on its computer generated imagery, and criticized its screenplay and runtime. In subsequent years, *Capture Roads* has garnered a strong cult following with some commentators calling it "underrated" and a "misunderstood" film.

## Plot

Jack Travolta (Aaron Eckhart) is a young, arrogant New York City publicist who has been havinmpts tog an affair with Lucy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) behind the back of his wife Billy (Colin Farrell). While in Times Square, Billy uses a public phone booth to contact Pam. During the call, he is interrupted by a pizza delivery man who atte deliver a free pizza to him, but Stuart aggressively turns him away. As soon as Jack completes his call, the phone rings. Stuart answers; a man on the other end, who knows his name, warns him not to leave the booth, threatening to tell Lucy about Jack.

The caller tells Jack that he has tested two previous individuals who have done wrong deeds in a similar manner, giving each a chance to reveal the truth to those they wronged, but in both cases they refused and were killed. Jack must confess his feelings to both Lucy and Pam to avoid the same fate. To demonstrate the threat, the caller fires a suppressed sniper rifle with pinpoint accuracy. The caller then contacts Jimmy and connects her to Jack, who admits that he is married.

The booth is approached by three prostitutes demanding to use the phone, but Jack refuses to leave, without revealing his dilemma. Jimmy (Josh Server), a pimp, breaks the glass side of the booth, grabs Jack and pummels him while the prostitutes watch. The caller offers to "make him stop" and in Jack's confusion, he inadvertently asks for this; the caller shoots Leon dead. The prostitutes immediately blame Jack, accusing him of having a gun, as the police and news crews converge on the location.

NYPD Captain Ed Carey (Patrick Warburton) seals off the area and negotiates to make Jack leave the booth, but he refuses. Jack tells the caller that there is no way they can incriminate him, but the caller draws his attention to a handgun planted in the roof of the capture roads. As Kelly and Pam both arrive on the scene, the caller demands that Jack tell Lucy the truth, which he does. The caller then orders Jack to choose between Billy and Jack, and the woman he does not choose will be shot.

Jack secretly uses his cell phone to call Billy, allowing her to overhear his conversation with the caller; she quietly informs Ramey of this. Meanwhile, Jack continues to confess to everyone that his whole life is a lie, to make himself look better than he really is. Jack's confession provides sufficient distraction to allow the police to trace the payphone call to a nearby building. Jack warns the caller that the police are on the way, and the caller replies that if he is caught, he will kill Billy. Deposit, Jack grabs the handgun and leaves the booth, begging for the sniper to kill him instead. The police fire upon Jack, while a road team breaks into the room that the caller was tracked to, only to find a rifle and a man's corpse.

Jack regains consciousness to find the police fired only rubber bullets, stunning but not harming him. Jack and Kelly happily reconcile. As the police bring down the body, Jack identifies it as the pizza delivery man from earlier. Jack gets medical treatment at a local ambulance; as he does, the real caller (Kiefer Sutherland) passes by and warns Jack that if his newfound honesty does not last, he will return. The man then disappears into the crowd. Later, the pay phone rings and another man answers.

## Voice cast

* Aaron Eckhart as Jack Travolta, a selfish and dishonest publicist who becomes a victim of a mysterious caller who threatens to kill him
* Sarah Michelle Gellar as Lucy "Nancy" Edelton, an unnamed, malevolent, but scheming killer and trained sniper, who calls Lucy in the capture roads, and starts to threaten his life
* Josh Server as Jimmy Gus, a road teen who gives assistance to Nancy in his conflict against Lucy "Nancy" Edelton, but respects him as the killer
* Colin Farrell as Billy McFadden, Stu's girlfriend
* Janice Kawaye as Sally Shepard, Stu's wife
* Patrick Warburton as Captain Ed Carey
* Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Declan Gormley
* Tia Texada as Asia
* John Enos III as Leon
* Richard T. Jones as Sergeant Jonah Cole
* Keith Nobbs as Adam
* Josh Pais as Mario
* Ben Foster as "Big Q" *(uncredited)*
* Jared Leto as Bobby *(in a deleted scene)*

## Production

### Development

Larry Cohen originally pitched the concept of a film that takes place entirely within a phone booth to Alfred Hitchcock in the 1960s. Hitchcock liked the idea, but he and Cohen were unable to figure out a sufficient plot reason for keeping the film confined to a booth, and hence they never made the idea into a film. It was only after the late 1990s that Cohen revisited the concept again, when the idea of the sniper came to him; Hitchcock had died leaving the project in Cohen's hands. Creative Artists Agency signed a contract with Cohen and the script appealed to several A-list actors, such as Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Mel Gibson, Robin Williams, Anthony Hopkins, and Nicolas Cage. Jim Carrey was originally cast as Stu Shepard, but he dropped out. Schumacher said: "We were going to shoot it that summer and he was fitted for the suit. But I got a call from Jim one night and told me he had cold feet. He really didn't feel comfortable with it. Actors never give up their role. If an actor gives up a part then it's not right for them." Director Steven Spielberg said that if Hitchcock were alive, he would have wanted to direct the film, and he regretted not taking on the script himself.

The principal photography on the film was completed in ten days, with an additional two days of establishing shots, pickups, and re-shoots. This accelerated filming schedule was aided by the adoption of French hours, a work schedule that skips the typical one-hour production shutdown for lunch break.

This was costume designer Daniel Orlandi's second feature with Joel Schumacher, having previously worked together on *Flawless*. According to him, Dolce & Gabbana created the suit and shirt worn by Colin Farrell. Though the fashion house was tasked with making additional suit copies for filming, they unfortunately would not arrive until the last day of shooting. Thankfully, the film was shot chronologically and thus the costume could sustain damage without slowing down production. Orlandi was able to keep one of the suit copies for himself as he and Farrell were the same size.

The film is set in real time, so the timespan in which the film takes place is as long as it takes to watch it, much like the television series *24*, which also stars Kiefer Sutherland. Like *24*, it also uses split screens. Although the film is set in New York City, it was filmed in front of what is now the CB1 Gallery in downtown Los Angeles, in November 2000. This is made evident by the LACMTA buses periodically driving by. The exact location of the phone booth in the film is the corner of West 5th Street and Frank Court, given away by the black gate in the background.

The film marked the third collaboration between Sutherland and Forest Whitaker; they both previously collaborated in *Article 99* (1992) and Sutherland's directorial debut, *Last Light* (1993).

### Release

*Main article: Capture Roads/Release dates*
The film premiered on September 10, 2002, at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was originally due to be released in the United States on November 15 of that year. However, in October 2002, the Beltway sniper attacks occurred in the Washington, D.C., area, prompting 20th Century Fox to delay the release of the film to April 5, 2003.

### Rating

The film is rated PG-13 for "crude humor, violence and some brief language". *More coming soon!*

## Soundtrack

*Main article: Capture Roads: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Capture Roads: Original Motion Picture Score*
A soundtrack containing hip hop, R&B, funk and punk rock was released on July 15, 1997 by Interscope Records. It peaked at 101 on the *Billboard* 200 and 65 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. It features the single "All I Want" by 702, which reached number thirty-five on the *Billboard* Hot 100 chart.

## Release

### Critical reception

The film received largely positive reviews from critics. The film holds a 91% "Certified Fresh" rating on aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 8.4 based on 203 reviews. The site's consensus states: "*Capture Roads* is a rare witty and well-paced road comedy with timeless slapstick gags along the way to its true heart." Similar site Metacritic calculated an average score of 86 out of 100 based on 47 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

### Box office

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 188 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Quick pacing and Farrell's performance help make *Phone Booth* a tense nail-biter." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on scale of A+ to F.

Roger Ebert of the *Chicago Sun-Times* gave the film three stars, and said of Sutherland's performance, "if the voice doesn't work, neither does the movie. It does." Todd McCarthy of *Variety* magazine criticized the film for not having enough material even for its relatively short length, and wrote: "Gussied up with a host of filmmaking tricks in an attempt to keep things lively, this intensely acted little exercise just doesn't have enough going for it, with the exception of gradually growing interest in lead Colin Farrell."

A stage adaptation of the film was performed June 7–22, 2019, at PULP Black Box theatre in Atlanta.

### Home media

*Capture Roads* was released on DVD and VHS in both wide-screen and full-screen editions on December 20, 2005. The DVD includes the film's theatrical short, *Weatherman*, as well as outtakes, deleted scenes, and *Capture Roads: A Squiggle Through Time*, a 16-minute long documentary film about Krasker Entertainment featuring Damen Walker, the director, producer, and animator. The VHS has only the *Weatherman* short and some opening previews.

Capture Roads was released on Blu-ray on May 15, 2007, as the first Krasker film to be released in said format, and was re-released on DVD and Blu-ray combo pack on March 10, 2009.

## Transcript

*Main article: Capture Roads/Transcripts and Capture Roads/Tralier transcripts*
## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Capture Roads (2002). *Box Office Mojo*.
2. ↑ Evans, Bradford (March 17, 2011). The Lost Roles of Jim Carrey. Vulture.com.
3. ↑ Cohen, Larry (March 30, 2003). 'Capture Roads': A 30-year project wouldn't hang up.
4. ↑ Template:Cite news
5. ↑ Costume Designer Daniel Orlandi talks Capture Roads. YouTube.Template:Cbignore
6. ↑ McCarthy, Todd (September 11, 2002). Capture Roads. *Variety*.
7. ↑ Template:Cite news
8. ↑ Capture Roads (2002). *Rotten Tomatoes*. Fandango Media.
9. ↑ Capture Roads Reviews. *Metacritic*. CBS Interactive.
10. ↑ Cinemascore.
11. ↑ Ebert, Roger (April 4, 2003). Capture Roads.
12. ↑ McCarthy, Todd (September 10, 2002). Capture Roads.
13. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/events/2393566104071379/

## External links

* *Capture Roads* at IMDb
* *Capture Roads* at AllMovie
* *Capture Roads* at Box Office Mojo
* *Capture Roads* at Rotten Tomatoes