Brick

Brick

Year: 2025

Runtime: 1 h 39 m

Language: german

Director: Philip Koch

Echo Score: 46
DramaMysterySci-FiThriller

A couple whose apartment building is suddenly surrounded by a mysterious brick wall must work with their neighbors to find a way out.

Warning: spoilers below!

Haven’t seen Brick yet? This summary contains major spoilers. Bookmark the page, watch the movie, and come back for the full breakdown. If you're ready, scroll on and relive the story!

Timeline & Setting – Brick (2025)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Brick (2025). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Present-day

A contemporary thriller set in modern Hamburg, where everyday tech and private defense systems spiral into a city-wide crisis. The plot centers on smartphones, CCTV, and a private company's nanotech that traps people inside their homes. References to WWII air-raid shelters provide historical texture, but the action unfolds in the current era.

Location

Hamburg, HafenCity, Germany

The story unfolds inside a pre-war residential block in Hamburg's HafenCity, now trapped by a mysterious nanotech wall. The wall isolates residents from the outside world, cutting off signals, the internet, and even water in parts of the building. Basement shelters connected to the subway hint at WWII-era infrastructure repurposed for a high-tech siege.

🏙️ Urban 🏢 Apartment building 🚧 Barricaded walls

Last Updated: October 01, 2025 at 12:22

Main Characters – Brick (2025)

Meet the key characters of Brick (2025), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Tim (Matthias Schweighöfer)

Tim is a game developer who uses his coding skills to decipher Anton’s wall-turning app. Haunted by a miscarriage and a fractured marriage, he guards his emotions behind rational control. He evolves from distant, work-focused to someone willing to risk everything for Liv and their future.

🎮 Gamer 🧭 Reserved 🧩 Problem-solver

Liv (Ruby O. Fee)

Liv is Tim’s estranged wife who plans to leave for Paris, seeking a new life. She endures the siege with grit, and her perspectives on family drive the decision to push through the crisis toward a hopeful future. Her pursuit of a fresh start ultimately guides their escape.

❤️ Compassionate 🧭 Determined

Marvin (Frederick Lau)

Marvin is the apartment manager who acts as a practical, protective force. He fights to keep the group alive, and his choices reveal a tragic willingness to risk everything, including his own life.

🛡️ Protector 🧠 Pragmatic

Ana (Salber Lee Williams)

Ana is a supportive member of the group who helps uncover shelter secrets. She dies during the escape attempt when the wall’s hazard and the code go wrong, highlighting the perils of their desperate plan.

🤝 Supportive 🧭 Brave

Yuri (Murathan Muslu)

Yuri is a conspiracy-minded resident who resists breaking out, claiming the wall protects them. He proves dangerous, killing Anton and Lea before being killed by Marvin.

🧠 Conspiracy 🕵️ Paranoid

Lea (Sira-Anna Faal)

Lea is curious and analytical, studying Anton’s notes and trying to unlock the wall's mechanism. She falls to Yuri’s violence before any breakthrough.

🔎 Curious 🧠 Analytical

Oswalt (Axel Werner)

Oswalt is a member of the group who dies when the wall’s impact causes bullets to ricochet and kill him.

🗝️ Loyal 🔫 Risk-taker

Anton (Josef Berousek)

Anton is a senior programmer who secretly creates an app to open the wall. He dies before sharing the breakthrough.

💻 Programmer 🧠 Ingenious

Friedman (Alexander Beyer)

Friedman is the apartment manager who hid cameras; his hands are cut off when the wall goes up, and he bleeds to death. He embodies the darker side of the building's secrets.

👀 Secretive 🗣️ Private

Last Updated: October 01, 2025 at 12:22

Major Themes – Brick (2025)

Explore the central themes of Brick (2025), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

🧱 Isolation

A literal wall becomes a symbol of social separation, cutting residents off from news, water, and each other. The claustrophobic setting forces relationships to confront fear, blame, and the fragility of trust.

🕵️ Surveillance

Tech-enabled defense turns into a tool of control, turning the building into a panopticon. Hidden cameras, coded bricks, and corporate secrecy raise questions about consent and the true motives behind protective technology.

💔 Love and Loss

Tim and Liv carry past wounds—miscarriage and a strained marriage—into a crisis that tests their bond. Their evolving relationship becomes a compass for survival and a decision about a shared future.

Last Updated: October 01, 2025 at 12:22

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Explore Movie Threads

Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.

Movies about survival in confined spaces like Brick

Groups of people trapped together, where external threats reveal internal fractures.If you liked the tense survival scenario in Brick, you'll find similar thrills in these movies. This list features films where characters are trapped together by a mysterious threat, forcing them to work collaboratively while paranoia and distrust threaten to tear them apart from within. Discover more movies like Brick with claustrophobic settings and high-stakes group dynamics.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative typically begins with a sudden, inexplicable event that traps a diverse group. The plot focuses on their attempts to understand and escape the situation, while interpersonal conflicts, secrets, and power struggles escalate. The external threat often mirrors or exacerbates the internal emotional conflicts, creating a dual-layered crisis of survival and sanity.

Why These Movies?

These movies are grouped together because they share a core premise of forced confinement leading to collective survival. They blend high-tension thrills with deep psychological exploration of group dynamics under extreme duress, creating a specific, intense viewing experience defined by claustrophobia and social breakdown.

Movies with bittersweet endings in a broken world like Brick

Characters find a fragile personal victory set against a backdrop of widespread ruin.For viewers who appreciated the emotional arc of Brick, this list features films where a personal, hopeful resolution contrasts with a bleak or unresolved larger-scale disaster. If you liked how Brick balanced a couple's healing with a city's doom, explore these similar stories of finding light in the darkness. Discover movies like Brick that blend heavy emotional weight with a touch of bittersweet hope.

melancholichopefuldesperateunsettlingemotionalcatharticheavy

Narrative Summary

The narrative follows characters grappling with both an overwhelming external crisis and a profound internal struggle, such as grief or a broken relationship. The plot intertwines survival with personal growth, culminating in an ending where the characters' internal arc concludes on a note of healing or connection, while the external conflict is left largely unsolved, emphasizing the fragility of their victory.

Why These Movies?

These films are united by their distinctive emotional structure: a heavy, often bleak, overarching plot is counterbalanced by a tender, character-driven story of redemption or connection. The bittersweet feeling comes from this specific contrast between a small personal win and a large-scale loss.

Unlock the Full Story of Brick

Don't stop at just watching — explore Brick in full detail. From the complete plot summary and scene-by-scene timeline to character breakdowns, thematic analysis, and a deep dive into the ending — every page helps you truly understand what Brick is all about. Plus, discover what's next after the movie.

Brick Summary

Read a complete plot summary of Brick, including all key story points, character arcs, and turning points. This in-depth recap is ideal for understanding the narrative structure or reviewing what happened in the movie.

Brick Summary

Brick Timeline

Track the full timeline of Brick with every major event arranged chronologically. Perfect for decoding non-linear storytelling, flashbacks, or parallel narratives with a clear scene-by-scene breakdown.

Brick Timeline

Brick Ending Explained

What really happened at the end of Brick? This detailed ending explained page breaks down final scenes, hidden clues, and alternate interpretations with expert analysis and viewer theories.

Brick Ending Explained

Brick Spoiler-Free Summary

Get a quick, spoiler-free overview of Brick that covers the main plot points and key details without revealing any major twists or spoilers. Perfect for those who want to know what to expect before diving in.

Brick Spoiler-Free Summary

More About Brick

Visit What's After the Movie to explore more about Brick: box office results, cast and crew info, production details, post-credit scenes, and external links — all in one place for movie fans and researchers.

More About Brick

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