Panic (2000 film)

Panic is a 2000 American movie, starring William H. Macy, Neve Campbell, Donald Sutherland and John Ritter.

Plot

Alex (Macy), a sad-eyed mournful man, goes into psychotherapy disclosing that he is a hit man. He also tells the doctor (Ritter) after a few sessions that he is attracted to a young woman he has met in the waiting room. She is Sarah (Campbell), 23, quick, edgy, and perhaps attracted to him as well. But he is married, the dutiful father of a young precocious boy, so Sarah brushes him off. In flashbacks we see him get his start as a killer, at his father's prompting since it is the family business. Dad gives Alex his next assignment: to kill the therapist. Alex keeps returning to Sarah, calling her, stopping by her apartment, as he decides what to do about the hit, his father, his marriage and his malaise.

Cast

Panic

Panic is a sudden sensation of fear which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reaction. Panic may occur singularly in individuals or manifest suddenly in large groups as mass panic (closely related to herd behavior).

Etymology

The word derives from antiquity and is a tribute to the ancient God, Pan. One of the many gods in the mythology of ancient Greece: Pan was the god of shepherds and of woods and pastures. The Greeks believed that he often wandered peacefully through the woods, playing a pipe, but when accidentally awakened from his noontime nap he could give a great shout that would cause flocks to stampede. From this aspect of Pan's nature Greek authors derived the word panikon, “sudden fear,” the ultimate source of the English word: "panic".

Effects

2000 in film

The year 2000 in film involved some significant events. The top grosser worldwide was Mission: Impossible II. Domestically in North America, Gladiator won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor (Russell Crowe).

There were also several popular action films, including X-Men and Shanghai Noon. In the comedy realm, there was Me, Myself & Irene and Meet the Parents.

Dinosaur was the most expensive film of 2000 and a box-office success.

Highest-grossing films

Events

Award ceremonies

Awards

2000 Wide-release films

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Films released in 2000

#

A-D

A

2000

2000 (MM) was a century leap year starting on Saturday (dominical letter BA) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2000th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 1000th and last year of the 2nd millennium, the 100th and last year of the 20th century, and the 1st year of the 2000s decade.

2000 was designated as:

Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium due to a tendency of grouping the years according to decimal values, as if year zero were counted. According to the Gregorian Calendar, these distinctions fall to the year 2001 because the 1st century was retroactively said to start with year AD 1. Since the calendar does not have year zero, its first millennium spanned from years 1 to 1000 inclusively and its second millennium from years 1001 to 2000 (See more at Millennium).

The year 2000 is sometimes abbreviated as "Y2K" (the "Y" stands for "year", and the "K" stands for "kilo" which means "thousand"). The year 2000 was the subject of Y2K concerns, which are fears that computers would not shift from 1999 to 2000 correctly. However, by the end of 1999, many companies had already converted to new, or upgraded, existing software. Some even obtained Y2K certification. As a result of massive effort, relatively few problems occurred.

Film

A film, also called a movie, motion picture or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession. A film is created by photographing actual scenes with a motion picture camera; by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques; by means of CGI and computer animation; or by a combination of some or all of these techniques and other visual effects. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to the industry of films and filmmaking or to the art of filmmaking itself. The contemporary definition of cinema is the art of simulating experiences to communicate ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty or atmosphere by the means of recorded or programmed moving images along with other sensory stimulations.

The process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry.