Buried

Ryan Reynolds plays Paul Conroy, a US Contractor in Iraq. After an attack on his convoy, he awakens in a coffin with no idea how he got there. He has only a cell phone and a lighter, and starts to make frantic calls as he tries to remember what had happened to him and why this is happening to him now.

Buried premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2010 and has generated mainly positive reviews.

Tropes used in Buried include:

• Buried Alive: The premise of the entire movie.
• Chiaroscuro: No sunlight penetrates the coffin, and the artificial light sources make harsh shadows.
• Daydream Surprise: Paul finally gets bathed in light as a team of soldiers unbury him and crack the coffin open, only for the movie to cut back to Paul, still staring at the wooden boards above him and daydreaming.
• Did Not Do the Research: Or they just didn't care. A man sealed in a mostly-airtight coffin would not last an hour. Also, add in panicked breathing, and you cut your air supply in half. Then add in use of a zippo, and setting a snake on fire. Goodbye, air.
  • While Desert Cobras do live underground, it is unlikely they would be able to bury through six feet of sand given that they do not even have eyelids. Snakes that actually burrow are typically blind and do not have eyes.
    • To be fair, one of the characters says that Paul could not be underground more than a couple of feet, meaning not the typical six feet under, due to the fact that he still has cell service.
• Downer Ending
• Enclosed Space: It doesn't get any more enclosed than the coffin.
• Fingore
• 555: Averted. Several full phone numbers are mentioned over the course of the film, none of them including 555.
• Flash Back: surprisingly averted, while most of the viewers expect to see some flashbacks to mix up a bit the constant scenes with just the wooden box and Ryan in it, the movie never actually leaves the box.
• The Hero Dies
• He Who Must Not Be Seen: Everyone except Paul.
• Hope Spot: A particularly nasty one. Mixes with Downer Ending. Dan calls Paul just as his coffin is almost completely filled with dirt and tells him that they've found him. Paul's wife, Linda, calls and he switches over to tell her they've found him. They exchange "I love yous", then he switches back to Dan. On the other line, you hear the soldiers digging, desperately trying to get Paul out. At the last second, Dan apologizes and tells Paul that they've been led to the wrong person just as the coffin fills up completely. Cue credits.
  • The Hope Spot is two-fold. The body they find is that of a man that Dan earlier tells Paul that he saved months ago. Since he had to lie just to give one example of a successful rescue, Dan has presumably never saved anyone before. What little hope for rescue Paul had throughout the film was based on a lie.
• Humiliation Conga: And it never stops for poor Paul.
• It Got Worse: And it doesn't get any better.
• Logical Fallacies: Lighting the snake on fire, when he's already running out of oxygen.
• Minimalist Cast: Ryan Reynolds is the only actor shown. Save for one character seen in a video on a cell phone, there's no one else in the film.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The trailers promoted this as being similar to the Saw movies. It is nothing like it at all, and is closer to an art film.
• Nightmare Fuel: Especially if you're claustrophobic.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat
• Orange-Blue Contrast: Literally the only lights come from a lighter and an old flashlight giving off yellow/orange light and a cellphone and glowstick giving off blue/green light. Combine the two together as occurs in several shots and you get this.
• Plot Induced Stupidity: Several cases. Paul's kidnappers initially not telling him about the bag at the foot of the coffin (and indeed placing it in such a difficult place to begin with), despite obviously wanting him to use it. Also, leaving Paul a zippo (which would burn up oxygen, cutting Paul's life expectancy short and leaving the kidnappers less time to get their ransom), when they also left him a torch. Also the silver hip flask which, in normal circumstances, would also most likely be looted .
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog
• Small Secluded World: Almost nothing gets in or out of the coffin, not even the camera.