Tom Hardy Takes You for a Ride in the New 'Locke' Trailer

Everyone loves a good mystery, and the new trailer for the buzzworthy drama “Locke" starring Tom Hardy raises a lot of intriguing questions. Chief among them: "Where is he driving to?" "What is he running away from?" and "Did they really make an entire film about one man in a car?"

We can answer the last one. Yes, this is a story about a man in a car, but one that is uniquely and expertly crafted and has already received critical praise out of its film festival appearances.

Where the first UK trailer hits you instantly with a darker more suspenseful and foreboding tone, writer/director Steven Knight (“Eastern Promises,” “Dirty Pretty Things”) allows for slightly more time for the tension to build here. There are different bits of dialogue that keep you guessing, along with the selective light from cars and street lights, which helps play up a different aspect of the mystery in an entirely visual way. We meet Ivan Locke (Hardy) while he is on the road to an unknown destination and learn very quickly via phone conversations with his family and colleagues that Locke’s drive is causing a lot of problems for everyone.

When we spoke with Knight over the phone recently, the director admitted that crafting the trailers and various marketing materials proved to be particularly challenging because you can’t give away any of the twists, the audience needs to discover them on their own.

"It’s a complex one because we don’t want to give away the reason for the journey because we want that to be a surprise," Knight said. "We don’t want to mislead anyone to believe that it’s a crime caper or a murder mystery. It’s not."

[Related: Tom Hardy Is a Multilayered Man of Mystery in New ‘Locke’ Poster]

The Oscar-nominated screenwriter went on to say that he wants the trailer to sell the intrigue and the intimacy of the experience — that we, the audience, are with Locke in the car for the entirety of the film, and we want to be.

"One of the greatest comments I’ve been getting after screenings of the film is, ‘It’s a man in a car, but…’ and it’s that ‘but’ that comes after, which is great," Knight said. "In other words, yes it is what it is, but it’s more than that, and that is what I hope the trailer conveys."

“Locke" opens in limited release on April 25.