- published: 24 Mar 2009
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Oxygen is 1999 film, directed and written by Richard Shepard. The film follows a troubled and (unbeknownst to her husband) masochistic cop, Madeline Foster (played by Maura Tierney) as she pursues a kidnapper who calls himself Harry Houdini (Adrien Brody). The film bears a resemblance to the 1958 film Macabre.
"Harry Houdini" (Adrien Brody) has kidnapped and buried alive a rich businessman's wife. He demands $1 million in cash from the woman's husband in return for the release of the location of her burial site before she runs out of oxygen. He also states that if police involvement is initiated, he will ensure she is never found alive. As expected, however, police involvement is initiated and Detective Madeline Foster (Maura Tierney) is assigned with the task of finding the buried woman as soon as possible, together with catching Houdini.
It is quickly realized though that Houdini, in fact, wanted the police to get involved so he could commit a second kidnapping - that of Foster. When Houdini is finally caught as the result of a car chase involving him and Detective Foster, he embroils her into his terrifying psychological world as she attempts to get him to reveal the location of his buried victim. When Foster's initial interrogation of Houdini proves unsuccessful, the FBI are assigned to take over the case, although they do not have any more luck. In a plot twist, it is revealed that Houdini has already committed a murder, that of his accomplice. He now has nothing to lose and the police realize the death of the buried woman would not be as significant as first thought.
Oxygen ( /ˈɒksɨdʒɨn/ OK-si-jin) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς (oxys) ("acid", literally "sharp", referring to the sour taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) ("producer", literally "begetter"), because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition. At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dioxygen, a very pale blue, odorless, tasteless diatomic gas with the formula O2.
Oxygen is a member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table and is a highly reactive nonmetallic element that readily forms compounds (notably oxides) with almost all other elements. Oxygen is a strong oxidizing agent and has the second-highest electronegativity of all the elements (only fluorine has a higher electronegativity). By mass, oxygen is the third-most abundant element in the universe, after hydrogen and helium and the most abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust, making up almost half of the crust's mass. Free oxygen is too chemically reactive to appear on Earth without the photosynthetic action of living organisms, which use the energy of sunlight to produce elemental oxygen from water. Elemental O2 only began to accumulate in the atmosphere after the evolutionary appearance of these organisms, roughly 2.5 billion years ago. Diatomic oxygen gas constitutes 20.8% of the volume of air.
25 year old Aryan Mathur is a very closed off and introvert person due to a lifetime of emotional turmoil, distress and a dark secret that haunts him. Aryan's older brother Sameer has been a father figure to Aryan whilst their father, Suresh Mathur, has been locked away in prison for the past 10 years on charges of murder for killing the town's priest. Suresh's arrest has a huge impact on his family, Aryan is unable to express his emotions and becomes more of a recluse, Sameer becomes the man of the house and Suresh's wife, Madhu Mathur, a woman who was controlled by her religion and her husband, has grown stronger as a woman and more independent in her husband's absence. Suresh is released early after an appeal and a reduction of charges from murder to manslaughter, however it's quickly apparent that his arrest and early release are just the beginning of the Mathur family's problems. Suresh has become an angry man over the last 10 years and lashes out at his family. He believes in outdated traditions and culture and as an Indian man he feels he should rule his household and his family. Suresh soon learns that his family have changed, his wife has lost all faith in her religion and now has her own life, Sameer is no longer the angry and rebellious boy he once was, and to Suresh's shock, Aryan is still the same quiet and strange boy he was as a child. Life after prison for Suresh is hard as he must adjust to a changed world in which he is hated by a community and family that once loved and respected him. Aryan's emotional distress and pain is all due to a dark secret involving the priest and his murder. His only outlet of his pain and suffering is his paintings. Aryan uses his paintings to express his hurt and eventual happiness when he meets 23 year old aspiring journalist Elle. Elle is given the difficult task of investigating the Mathur family and the effect the murder has had on them all. However, she discovers that it's not going to be easy to get the Mathur family to talk and it isn't until a chance meeting with Aryan that she begins to get the answers she wants. Elle unexpectedly finds herself being drawn to Aryan and she and Aryan begin a relationship neither of them saw coming, a relationship which makes Elle realise what is important in life and gives Aryan something he has been missing for a long time; happiness. Aryan's happiness is short lived as Elle tries her hardest to be with a resisting Aryan completely, Rajen the priest's son is on the warpath to make Aryan's life hell, Suresh continues to take out his anger and frustration out on Aryan, and Aryan must watch as his father tries to destroy his family and once again gain control of his mother. Aryan must try and cope with all of his problems, the search for a happy life and the dark secret he has kept since he was a child, which he hopes nobody will ever find out.
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