''Oxygen'' is a 1999 film, directed and written by

Richard Shepard Richard Shepard (born 1965) is an American film and television director and screenwriter. Biography Shepard was born in New York City, New York. Shepard's father was from an Austro-Hungarian-Jewish background and his mother was of Armenian desc ...

. The film follows a troubled cop, Madeline Foster (played by

Maura Tierney Maura Therese Tierney (born February 3, 1965) is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is best known for her roles as Lisa Miller on the sitcom ''NewsRadio'' (1995–1999), Abby Lockhart on the medical drama '' ER'' (1999–2009), ...

) as she pursues a kidnapper who calls himself

Harry Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...

(

Adrien Brody Adrien Nicholas Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor. He received widespread recognition and acclaim after starring as Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's '' The Pianist'' (2002), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Acto ...

). The film was shot on location in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Plot

"Harry Houdini" (

) has kidnapped and buried alive a rich businessman's wife. He demands $1 million in cash from the woman's husband in return for the release of the location of her burial site before she runs out of oxygen. He also states that if police involvement is initiated, he will ensure she is never found alive. As expected, however, police involvement is initiated and Detective Madeline Foster (

) is assigned with the task of finding the buried woman and catching Houdini. It is quickly realized though that Houdini, in fact, wanted the police to get involved so he could commit a second kidnapping - that of Foster. When Houdini is finally caught as the result of a car chase involving him and Detective Foster, she attempts to get him to reveal the location of his buried victim. When Foster's initial interrogation of Houdini proves unsuccessful, the FBI are assigned to take over the case, although they do not have any more luck. In a plot twist, it is revealed that Houdini has already committed a murder, that of his accomplice. He now has nothing to lose and the police realize the death of the buried woman would not be as significant as first thought. However, Houdini offers them a final lifeline - if he is allowed to talk to Foster, alone, he will allow his victim to be recovered alive. The police, now just puppets in Houdini's plan, agree to his request. Troubled, Foster begins to reveal her darker side to Houdini and he sees a kindred spirit in her. Soon after, it is revealed that Houdini was in fact a painter in the police department, and outlined the entire building in a very detailed map. Just as Foster is revealing the truth, Houdini takes her to the place where he buried the first woman. Foster escapes her hold, and releases the woman and takes Houdini's gun, then pushes him inside the coffin. As he taunts Foster, she shoots him rather than burying him.

Popular culture

Exhibits

The House of Houdini The House of Houdini is a museum and performance venue located at 11, Dísz Square, within the walls of the Buda Castle in Budapest, Hungary. The museum houses the only collection of original Houdini artifacts in Europe. History The museum's col ...

is a museum and performance venue located at 11, Dísz square in the

Buda Castle Buda Castle ( hu, Budavári Palota, german: link=no, Burgpalast) is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian Kings in Budapest. It was first completed in 1265, although the massive Baroque palace today occupying most of the si ...

in Budapest, Hungary. In addition to housing the largest collection of original

Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...

artifacts in Europe, it includes original props from the latest "HOUDINI" film ''Oxygen'' (1999).

Other media

The deathcore bands

Job for a Cowboy Job for a Cowboy is an American death metal band from Glendale, Arizona. Formed in 2003, the band's debut album ''Genesis'' was released in 2007, peaking at No. 54 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and selling 13,000 copies in its first we ...

and Killwhitneydead have both released songs that feature a sound sample from this film where the woman is being buried. Job for a Cowboy included the sample in their track "Catharsis for the Buried" which appears as an intro for their ''Doom'' EP (2005). Killwhitneydead included the sample (among others from this film) on their song "I Already Have Enough Friends (Take Two)" (2004).

Reception

The film aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gave the film a score of 77%.

References

External links

* {{Richard Shepard 1999 films 1999 crime thriller films 1990s psychological thriller films Films shot in New York City Films set in New York City American crime thriller films Films scored by Rolfe Kent Films directed by Richard Shepard 1990s English-language films 1990s American films