If someone were to propose a high-stakes drama movie where the action happens only in a moving vehicle, you might wonder whether they’re talking about Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock trying to prevent a bus from exploding in “Speed” (1994). Or you may think they’re speaking of Liam Neeson’s train-centric “The Commuter” (2018). If you add the fact that the protagonist talks on the phone for almost the entire movie, you might think of Colin Farrell’s “Phone Booth” (2002), but the protagonist isn’t moving that much in that film. It’s not “Speed,” “The Commuter,” or “Phone Booth,” the Tom Hardy movie you can watch for free on YouTube, but “Locke,” a small-budget 2013 British drama that saw a limited release, yet is still easily one of the highlights of Hardy’s career.
The film has an incredible cast, with Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Tom Holland (before becoming Sony and Marvel’s new Spider-Man superhero), and Ben Daniels helping Hardy shine. It’s Hardy who carries the entire film as his character is the only one we see. The entirety of “Locke” follows Ivan Locke, dealing with a series of life-altering events over 36 hands-free phone calls throughout the drive to London.
This is a well-established Hardy that we’re looking at. By the time “Locke” came out, Hardy had already appeared in Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” (2010) and “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012). He played Bane in the latter, the famous Batman villain. Put differently, if you watched “Locke” in theaters, you may have gone to see it because Hardy was in it.
What happens in Locke
Whether you saw the film in theaters or not, you have a chance to watch it again for free on the YouTube Movies & TV channel, though you can expect ads along the way. Still, that may be a great idea, especially if you’re scrolling aimlessly on streaming services for something interesting. “Locke” will keep you anxious to see what happens next, as you’re trying to predict what the character will do.
Writer/director Steven Knight puts us in the car with Locke from the start, talking on the phone. We don’t get to see where he left, and it’ll be a while until we find out where he’s headed. What we know is that some sort of emergency situation has appeared in his life, and he’s forced to either flee his previous life or just handle a potentially disruptive development. What’s clear is that Ivan Locke has something to hide.
But Hardy isn’t playing a criminal on the run or some spy forced out of hiding to complete a life-and-death mission. Ivan Locke is a regular man, working a regular job (construction manager), and a regular family (wife and two kids). He also has a problem that some people may also categorize as ordinary. Locke had a one-night stand while on a job, and the events of the night are directly tied to that decision, threatening everything about his otherwise regular life. He is racing to deal with it, while handling the need to come clean to his wife, and ensuring his work won’t suffer in the morning. Without spoiling the film’s plot, Locke’s employment is worth mentioning. He should be managing one of Europe’s biggest concrete pours the next day, but he’s decided not to be there.
Why they made Locke
“Locke” grossed nearly $5.20 million at the box office, about double its budget. That’s a box office success, albeit a limited one. Also, Hardy won a Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Actor for the Ivan Locke role, but these figures indicate that not many people may have seen the film in theaters, despite how good it is. The film’s Rotten Tomatoes rating is 91%, with the Popcornmeter sitting at 72%. On IMDb, the film has a 7.1/10 average rating.
Seeing “Locke” for free on YouTube in 2026 is worth considering for another reason. The film shows what was possible with movies in 2013. Specifically, you’ll want to pay attention to the camera work in a car setting at night. Hardy appears in almost all scenes, and they’re all filmed in low-light settings. Knight was interested in recording digital video at night and wondered whether he could make an entire movie about a character in a car. That’s how “Locke” happened, with the writer/director telling The L.A. Times that he wanted to make a movie about the “most ordinary man in the world,” placed in an unusual setting.
Knight and his team towed a BMW car around London, shooting the film over eight nights. The car has no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto functionality; however, hands-free calls are placed through the vehicle’s own infotainment system. The 36 calls were real, as the rest of the cast was making them in real time from a hotel. Hardy had a teleprompter to feed him lines during the process. Each night, the entire team would film the movie twice, which meant the editing team had 16 versions of each scene to choose the best takes.