Inside Trailer: Willem Dafoe's Thieving Ways Get Him Locked In A Penthouse

Like many of us in the 2020s, Willem Dafoe is no stranger to being stranded in a single location. His crusty old lighthouse keeper in "The Lighthouse" spent the whole movie marooned on an island with Robert Pattinson. (Not a bad way to spend 109 minutes ... for him, since Pattinson's character had to endure his flatulence.) "Inside" sees Dafoe going it alone as an art thief who gets trapped in a New York penthouse after it locks down, panic-room-style, right in the middle of his heist. 

He's on literal lockdown, you see. This is "The Penthouse" instead of "The Lighthouse." Unfortunately, the refrigerator is not well-stocked, and there's no running water, either. Other than art worth millions, his only friends — and food — are the fish, which makes his character's name, Nemo, rather ironic (not to mention the fact that Dafoe is reportedly a pescatarian in real life).

In the last few years, Dafoe has shown up in supporting roles in a number of good films like "Nightmare Alley," "Spider-Man: No Way Home," and "The Northman," but it looks like "Inside" will put the four-time Oscar-nominated star of "Platoon," "Shadow of the Vampire," "The Florida Project," and "At Eternity's Gate" out in front and have the whole movie resting on his shoulders.

Check out the trailer for "Inside" below.

With all the talk of art in this trailer, you have to wonder if perhaps Dafoe's character has himself become part of a living art installation. In voiceover, Nemo confesses that as a kid, his first thought of what to save if his house was on fire would have been his sketchbook, AC/DC albums, and cat, rather than his parents and sister. The movie seems to be putting him in a situation where he's forced to grapple with that mentality and live in an environment that's sealed off hermetically from other people in favor of art and animals.

In other words, he's living the sort of cabin-feverish life that we remote workers have found ourselves in during the pandemic. Welcome to the 2020s! Let's just hope Nemo doesn't go mad in isolation.

Here's the official synopsis for "Inside" from Focus Features:

"Inside" tells the story of Nemo, an art thief trapped in a New York penthouse after his heist doesn't go as planned. Locked inside with nothing but priceless works of art, he must use all his cunning and invention to survive.

Written by Ben Hopkins and directed by Vasilis Katsoupis, "Inside" is coming to theaters on March 10, 2023.