The Vault (2017 film)

The Vault
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Dan Bush
Written by	Dan Bush Conal Byrne
Produced by	Tom Butterfield Alex Cutler Luke Daniels Alan Pao
Starring	Francesca Eastwood Taryn Manning Scott Haze Q'orianka Kilcher Clifton Collins Jr. James Franco
Cinematography	Andrew Shulkind
Edited by	Dan Bush Ed Marx
Music by	Shaun Drew
Production companies	Redwire Pictures Content Media Culmination Productions Casadelic Pictures Jeff Rice Films LB Entertainment Imprint Entertainment Psychopia Pictures
Distributed by	FilmRise
Release date	September 1, 2017 (2017-09-01)
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$5,728

The Vault is a 2017 American thriller film directed by Dan Bush and written by Dan Bush and Conal Byrne. The film stars Francesca Eastwood, Taryn Manning, Scott Haze, Q'orianka Kilcher, Clifton Collins Jr. and James Franco. The film was released on September 1, 2017, by FilmRise.

Plot

The opening credits show a montage of newspaper articles, detailing a bank robbery that ended with several hostages being killed, while the song 'Crimson and Clover' plays.

In a bank, Detective Tom Iger is making a deposit and flirting with the head teller, Susan. Police sirens can be heard outside going past, and Detective Iger tells Susan that there is a fire nearby. Meanwhile, the bank manager is interviewing Leah Dillon, who pretends to be interested in a teller position. The bank manager tells Leah that they have difficulty employing bank tellers, and when Leah asks why, the bank manager explains that the staff believe the bank is haunted. Vee Dillon, Leah's sister, enters the bank and starts to make a scene with a bank teller, Mary, complaining that her checks have bounced. Detective Iger, having left the bank, walks past three firemen oblivious of the fact that they are actually the bank robbers. The three firemen enter the bank and together with Leah and Vee take everyone hostage, putting numbered sacks over their heads. One of the bank managers tries to escape and is accidentally shot in the knee. The Police Officer inside the bank tries to call for help on his Police radio. Detective Iger hears the call, and decides to check it out. While walking back to check on the bank he hears another, anonymous call on his radio about the robbery.

Getting into the main vault but finding only around $70,000, the robbers start to argue among themselves about what to do next. Leah attempts to get everyone to leave but Vee stops her. The assistant manager (James Franco) says he will tell them where $6 million is stored, as long as they don't hurt anyone. He tells them the money is in the basement vault which is a part of the old bank and hands them the key to the access door. Vee takes the key and heads to the basement with Kramer.

It is revealed that the robbers had set fire to a warehouse to draw the police away. Kramer proceeds to open the old vault with his tools but then the lights start to flicker. By now police are stationed outside the bank, and Leah is confused as to how they knew about the heist. In the upstairs vault, Michael is watching over the hostages but rages when they all start talking at once to him. After a short silence, Susan pleads to be taken the toilet. Michael takes her there and she tries to connect with him, telling him he is a decent man. He washes his hands, showing that one of his fingers appears to have been cut off, and is still bleeding. Michael tells Susan that he owes people a lot of money and his sisters are helping him rob the bank. Leah sees him bringing Susan back and argues with him.

Michael goes down to another part of the basement to cut a hole in the water pipe which will be their escape route out of the bank. Cyrus takes over guarding the hostages in the upstairs vault.

Kramer successfully breaks open the vault but suddenly sees what looks like a hostage in front of him, with a dirty sack over their head. He shouts for them to go back upstairs but they don't move. He reaches down to his tools to find a weapon but when he looks up again, the number of figures in front of him has doubled, and then doubles again as he glances away, seeing a man in a white mask behind him. He is then pulled inside the old vault while Leah and Vee watch from the security monitors upstairs, but they can only see Kramer, there is no one else on the screen. Thinking there are more people in the bank, Leah ask Cyrus to count the hostages that are gathered inside the safety deposit vault. The lights start to flicker again and the vault door closes with Cyrus and the hostages inside. Kramer is seen being held down and stabbed while Cyrus is overcome by unknown hostages upstairs that look similar to the ones that attacked Kramer. As Cyrus is attacked, the man in the white mask appears and grabs his gun, forcing it into Cyrus's mouth. Vee tries to head for the door to the basement but it slams in front of her. Leah tries to open the vault door but cannot open it. When the vault door opens again, Leah goes in but Cyrus is nowhere in sight.

Michael finds Kramer in a chair with his eyes apparently removed and watches as Kramer drills himself in the head.

Vee goes downstairs to look for Kramer and Michael, eventually leading her to enter the vault.

Leah suspects Susan is the one who contacted the police, she brings Susan to a room to question her. Susan says it wasn't her and Leah demands to know what's going on. Susan tells her they are not alone, there is something in the old bank in the basement. Susan tells Leah about the robbery in 1982 where a robber in a white mask apparently "snapped" under the pressure and killed some hostages, forced some to kill each other and then burned them alive in the old vault. The masked man was never caught or found. Leah doesn't believe her story and gets angry, she grabs a table lamp and breaks the light bulb, bringing it to Susan's face and threatening to hurt her when Michael shows up. Michael tells Leah that Kramer is dead. Vee turns up with a bag of money. Leah tells Vee that Kramer is dead and the police know they are here. Leah is shocked to find the bills Vee brought up are all from 1982.

Leah and Vee have another argument until Leah notices red laser dots appearing on Vee's chest, realising that they are about to be shot by the Police outside. Shots from outside break the window as Leah throws Vee to the ground and saves her life. Leah realises the situation is spiralling out of control. An outgoing call indicator on an office telephone catches Leah's attention, she picks it up and listens to the same robbery message that Detective Iger had heard earlier.

Michael finishes cutting the water pipe and he hears someone crying for help. He finds a woman in distress but quickly runs away when she turns into a hideous burned body and tries to reach out for him. Vee heads downstairs to look for Michael and finds Cyrus's body with his head blown off. Leah heads outside and releases one of the hostages. She asks the Detective who made the phone call to the police. He answers that the message came from the radio, they never received any phone calls. Leah goes back inside to the telephone and listens to the same message being repeated, suddenly recognising the voice.

Vee finds Michael pouring gasoline on the floor, he tells her to use the water pipe to get out of the bank. She heads out to her escape. Michael begins setting the place on fire to cover their escape route which triggers the fire alarm. Leah lets the hostages go, grabs the bag of money and proceeds to go downstairs despite the warning from the bank police. A SWAT team rushes in and fires at Leah but she makes it through the access door, falling down the stairs and hurting her leg. Leah reaches the water pipe when she hears Michael calling her. She goes to look for him and enters the old vault. The vault door starts to close, trapping her with the unknown hostages but Michael comes just in time to rescue her. He tells her to get to the water pipe while he tries to slow down the unknown hostages.

While Leah puts on the fireman's gear she is attacked by the masked man and more unknown hostages appear besides him. Michael distracts them and sets the place on fire, sacrificing himself, allowing Leah to escape through the pipe.

The next day, Leah is driving along a dirt road above the city with the radio broadcasting details of the armed robbery and arson. The report states that the robbers are believed to have died in the fire. She meets up with Vee who asks about the money and Michael. They hug each other knowing Michael had died for them.

During the ensuing police interview of the hostages, Detective Iger tries to find out why they know nothing about the bank employee who helped the robbers. Susan says she knows all the employees inside the bank for ten years and she was also wondering who the last hostage was, because Detective Iger only identified six hostages even though there were seven hostages in total. Susan looks at the investigation wall and points to a picture of the assistant manager, and Detective Iger says that it is impossible, because those pictures are from the 1982 robbery. It is revealed that the assistant manager was one of the victims in the 1982 robbery incident, he had called the Police to report the robbery but was shot by the robber. It was the same call that Leah heard on the telephone, and the one that Detective Iger had also heard.

Back to Leah and Vee, Leah starts the car but nothing happens. Vee offers to look at the engine, and pops the hood. While Leah tries to start the car the radio begins to play the song 'Crimson and Clover'. Failing to start the engine, Vee puts the hood down and Leah sees the masked man standing behind her sister. He grabs Vee and the screen goes black.

Cast

• Francesca Eastwood as Leah Dillon
• Taryn Manning as Vee Dillon
• Scott Haze as Michael Dillon
• Q'orianka Kilcher as Susan Cromwell
• Clifton Collins Jr. as Detective Iger
• James Franco as The Assistant Manager/Ed Maas
• Keith Loneker as Cyrus
• Jeff Gum as James Aiken
• Jill Jane Clements as Mary
• Michael Milford as Kramer
• Aleksander Vayshelboym as Ben
• Debbie Sherman as Lauren
• Lee Broda as Nancy
• Anthony DiRocco as Mark Fishman
• Dmitry Paniotto as Max
• Adina Galupa as Rebecca
• Beatrice Hernandez as Pamela
• Cristin Azure as Baghead Samantha
• Rebecca Ray as Samantha
• John D. Hickman as Marty
• Robin Martino as Baghead Rebecca
• Keenan Rogers as Baghead Thomas

Release

On November 5, 2016, FilmRise acquired distribution rights to the film. The film was released on September 1, 2017, by FilmRise.

Reception

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 14% based on reviews from 14 critics.

External links

• The Vault at IMDb