How suspense is created through editing in the “Room” Escape Scene

(2015, Lenny Abrahamson, Written by Emma Donoghue, Performances by Jacob Tremblay and Brie Larson)

Room is the story of a mother kidnapped and trapped in a shed in a man’s back garden. The mother who for most of the film is just referred to as “Ma” has been trapped inside the shed she simply calls “Room” for 8 years. Whilst inside Room she is raped on numerous occasions by the man who we do not know the real name of, but is named “Old Nick” by Ma. After 3 years inside Room she gives birth to a son, this son is Jack. Shortly after Jack’s 5th birthday, Ma devises a plan to get out of Room, or at the very least, get Jack out of Room. Ma wraps Jack in the rug on the floor. When Old Nick visits Room in the morning she tells him that Jack fell ill and passed away overnight. She tells him to take Jack to the hospital and what follows is a four minute sequence of Jack escaping from Room and Old Nick.

This four minute sequence follows Jack’s journey from the moment he first leaves the room to what is essentially his second birth, where he sees the real world for the first time, where he is set free. Throughout the sequence the focus cycles between 3 points of view. These are Jack, Old Nick and the world that Jack will soon be born into. Each of these focuses have largely different editing styles.

As the sequence begins, we start off with a close shot of Jack enclosed in the rug. We start off with a shot of him looking out of the rug, bearing in mind that this is the first time he has ever seen the real world before. We then see a shot of his own point of view, it starts of as blurry but soon clears as Jack adjusts to the light of the outside world and this allows us to see what Jack is seeing and what he must be feeling in this moment as he sees reality for the first time, something which for his whole life he believed was something created for tv. We then cut back to Jack as he braces himself when lifted by Old Nick. The first moment of suspense is then created, We see a shot of the outside world as Old Nick carries Jack inside of the rug past the shed which has been holding him for so long, just before he exits through the gate Old Nick pauses for a moment and looks around him, he considers burying Jack in the garden which creates a moment of shock and suspense for the viewer as from our point of view we know that Jack is still alive. When Old Nick pauses we then cut right back to Jack who opens his eyes adding to the suspense. 

After pausing for about 10 seconds we get the first shot from Old Nick’s perspective. We see what could possibly be perceived as hurt or sadness on his face, the first time he shows any emotion at all in the film due to the fact that biologically this is his own son who he believes has passed away, in this moment he may realise what has become of him as he just considered burying his son in his own garden. This soon disappears however as after this brief pause the emotion is wiped off his face and he goes back to carelessly throwing Jack into the truck. 

We then have wide shots of the truck driving down the roads, cross cutting in between extreme close shots of Jack inside the rug. These extreme close up shots make the viewer feel claustrophobic and that combined with the use of shots of Jack’s point of view really put us into his perspective and make us feel how he must be feeling. Just before Jack exits the rug we are given another short sequence of extreme close up shots and point of view shots with a line of Ma’s dialogue, spoken earlier on in the film, where she gives Jack instructions on how to escape once he is out of the room, “Truck, wiggle out, jump, run, somebody.” This is not only a stylistic choice to show that Jack is thinking of the instructions before escaping, it is also there to serve a purpose for the audience, we as the viewer have suddenly heard Ma’s voice again, reminding us that even when Jack manages to escape, Ma will still be stuck in Room and there is a large chance Jack may never see her again. This simple bit of reused dialogue creates a large amount of suspense and it is done so disguised as a way to convey Jack’s thoughts to the audience.

After cutting back to the shot of the truck we see Jack struggle to lift the rug and wiggle out. There is a 30 second sequence of the rug shuffling about in the back of the pick-up truck with one brief cut to Old Nick who has a neutral look on his face. As the sequence comes to a close we go back to Jack and we see his eyes widen, we are then taken back inside of Jack’s perspective where we start to see small dots of the sky and the trees above, the light pushes through the rug and this is the beginning of Jack’s rebirth into the real world. As Jack comes out of the rug he appears in total shock, as the camera cuts to a shot of him, this is the first time throughout this sequence that we see his whole face, we then cut once again to his personal point of view and this time his view is not blurred and distorted but crystal clear. We see the bright blue sky and the neighbourhood that surrounds it. For a brief moment here the suspense is gone as Jack takes in the views of a world just a few days prior he believed to be the work of fiction. The camera slowly zooms into a close up of Jack’s eyes, but this time he is free, no longer enclosed in a small space. This is true in both the small picture of this sequence, he is no longer enclosed into the large rug, and in the larger picture of the whole film, he is no longer trapped in a small 10ft x 10ft shed. 

The mood changes again as the music starts to speed up and Jack sits up, he realises that the plan is not yet complete, his mind likely goes back to Ma’s line of dialogue. All that is left is to jump and run. As Jack stands up in the back of the pick-up, we see him turn around. We go back to his point of view as he looks into through the back window at Old Nick, who is still oblivious to what is happening behind him. We then cut back to Jack who peaks over the edge of the truck, he remembers that the next instruction was to jump but he waits until the truck is at a full stop. Once Jack starts to jump out of the truck, Old Nick realises what is happening and the suspense begins to build up again as the scene once again cross cuts back and forth between Jack frantically trying to get away to Old Nick chasing him in anger with Jack falling over. The suspense reaches its maximum as Jack gets up off the ground and starts running, with Old Nick closely following him. The music is brought down to silence and we are just left to the sounds of Jack’s rapidly beating heart and his heavy breathing. This moment of stress for the viewer comes to an end as Jack accidentally runs into a dog walker, this puts the viewer into a sense of security knowing that Old Nick can’t harm Jack if there are other people nearby. 

This moment completes the plan that Ma set out earlier on in the film, and that Jack recalled when in the truck. Jack got in the truck, wriggled out of the rug, jumped out, ran away and found someone. Each of these points have a clear mark throughout this escape sequence and they each have their own level of suspense created purely through the use of different cross-cuts and the pace in which shots change.