In a virtuoso performance as the only character on screen throughout the film, English actor Tom Hardy (the new Mad Max) plays Ivan Locke, a Welsh construction site manager seen driving the night before one of Europe's biggest-ever concrete pours, for a new skyscraper. But something important has come up, which means this dedicated, meticulous, well-liked family man is leaving it all behind. Locke cares enough about the job to be giving detailed instructions on the phone to Irish offsider Donal (played off-screen by Andrew Scott), but his mind is on trying to bring order to an increasingly chaotic life as he drives. Part of the enjoyment of the film is gradually learning why Locke is taking such drastic action. Without giving away any details, he needs to have momentous conversations with wife Katrina (Ruth Wilson), son Eddie (Tom Holland) and furious boss Gareth (Ben Daniels), among others. Writer-director Steven Knight, best known for the scripts for Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises, conceived Locke as an audacious cinematic experiment – one character in a car, driving as events unfold in virtually real time. In a restrained, subtle performance, Hardy manages to be sympathetic in an unsympathetic situation without histrionics. As the title suggests, this minimalist drama tests English philosopher John Locke's rationalist idea that humans are essentially selfish.