
He coaches his assistant Donal through preparing the pour despite some major setbacks, and has imaginary conversations with his dead father, whom he envisions (unseen onscreen) as a passenger in the car he berates his father for abandoning Locke's family, and vows he will not repeat that mistake.

During these calls, he is sacked from his job, banned from his house by his wife, and asked by his older son to please return home.


Over the course of the one and a half-hour drive from Birmingham to London, Locke holds a total of 36 phone calls with: his boss Gareth his junior Donal Katrina, wife of 15 years, to confess his infidelity his sons, Eddie and Sean, who call him separately with updates on the football match he originally planned to watch, and (eventually) the worrisome breakdown of their mother St Mary's maternity unit medical personnel, Sister Margaret then Halil Gullu, who are working with Bethan through some troubling complications the council head, Cassidy, and local police authority, PC Davids, required for the road closures needed to allow the 225+ concrete trucks to properly access the site and with Bethan to reassure her during her labour. Locke never forgave his father for abandoning him as a child, and he is determined not to make the same mistake, even though he has no relationship with, nor any particular feelings for, Bethan. Despite his job responsibilities and although his wife and sons are eagerly awaiting his arrival home to watch a football match, Locke decides to drive to London to be with Bethan during childbirth. The evening before he must supervise a large concrete pour in Birmingham (the largest non-nuclear facility, non-military concrete pour in European history), construction foreman Ivan Locke learns that Bethan, a colleague from a job in Croydon with whom he had a one-night stand seven months before (which resulted in her becoming pregnant), has gone into premature labour. Locke received critical acclaim, particularly for Hardy's performance, which won him the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor. The film had a limited release in the United Kingdom beginning on 18 April 2014, and grossed $5.1 million worldwide. The film premiered at the 70th Venice Film Festival on 2 September 2013. The film stars Tom Hardy in the title role, the only character seen on screen, as he carries on a number of speakerphone conversations with characters voiced by Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Ben Daniels, Tom Holland and Bill Milner. Locke is a 2013 psychological drama film written and directed by Steven Knight.
