Red Road

Red Road

Year: 2007

Runtime: 113 min

Language: English

Director: Andrea Arnold

DramaMysteryThriller

In the underbelly of Glasgow, surveillance operative Jackie becomes increasingly preoccupied with Clyde, a former convict. Her routine observations evolve into a deliberate pursuit as she engineers a meeting. As their paths converge, Jackie’s actions expose a tangled story of longing, a quest for atonement, and the ambiguous nature of right and wrong, all set against a backdrop of hidden truths and intense psychological suspense.

Warning: spoilers below!

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Timeline & Setting – Red Road (2007)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Red Road (2007). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Location

Glasgow, Red Road Flats

Set in Glasgow, the film centers on the Red Road Flats, a stark high-rise public housing estate that serves as the backdrop for a story about surveillance and obsession. The location underscores a bleak, industrial atmosphere where CCTV is omnipresent. The Red Road Flats are a recognizable landmark in the city, emblematic of social housing and urban isolation.

🏙️ Urban 🕵️ Surveillance 🧱 Brutalist architecture

Last Updated: November 22, 2025 at 15:25

Main Characters – Red Road (2007)

Meet the key characters of Red Road (2007), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Jackie Morrison

A Glasgow CCTV operator who becomes consumed with Clyde Henderson after spotting him on monitors. Her obsession drives her to manipulate events and attempt to frame him, motivated by personal trauma and a desire for control.

🕵️ Obsession 👁️ Surveillance 🧭 Morality

Clyde Henderson

An ex-prisoner released on good behaviour who becomes the object of Jackie's fixation. He has a complicated past, including a history with a daughter he has lost touch with, and becomes entangled in a central conflict that culminates in a dramatic revelation.

🗝️ Ex-convict 🧩 Complexity ⚖️ Justice

Stevie

Clyde's fellow ex-con and flatmate who hosts gatherings at his apartment. He serves as a social connection point for Clyde and a backdrop to the events surrounding the central relationship.

🎭 Supporting 🧱 Urban life

Husband (deceased)

Jackie's husband, dead in a car accident that becomes a pivotal element of her motive and the story's emotional engine.

💔 Loss 🕯️ Tragedy

Daughter (deceased)

Jackie's daughter, also killed in the same car accident that ties Clyde to Jackie's personal tragedy.

💔 Loss 🕊️ Grief

Last Updated: November 22, 2025 at 15:25

Major Themes – Red Road (2007)

Explore the central themes of Red Road (2007), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

👁️ Surveillance

The film uses Jackie's CCTV surveillance to probe how watching conditions both the watcher and the watched. Her obsessive tracking of Clyde turns intimate vulnerabilities into leverage, showing how information can be weaponized. The atmosphere emphasizes paranoia and the erosion of privacy in a surveilled urban setting. Surveillance itself becomes a central character that drives the plot.

💔 Trauma

Jackie's past trauma, including the loss of her husband and daughter, fuels her actions and justifies escalating risk. The narrative centers on how grief can distort judgment and justify morally ambiguous choices. The revelation that Clyde is connected to her family tragedy reframes the chase as a cycle of blame and guilt. The car accident that severed her family acts as a catalyst for the film's emotional intensity.

🤫 Truth & Deception

Deception drives the central conflict: Jackie fabricates a rape accusation to trap Clyde, then wrestles with the moral cost of her lie. The film probes how individuals justify harmful acts in pursuit of closure or revenge. When the truth about the past comes to light, the characters confront the limits of forgiveness and the enduring impact of past violence.

Last Updated: November 22, 2025 at 15:25

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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.

Thrillers about obsessive surveillance like Red Road

Where watching becomes an obsession, blurring the lines between observer and participant.If you liked the voyeuristic tension and moral ambiguity of Red Road, this thread features other movies where characters use surveillance to cross ethical boundaries. These films explore the psychological cost of obsession and the blurred lines between justice and revenge, offering similar slow-burn thrillers with heavy emotional weight.

voyeuristictenseunsettlingobsessiveclaustrophobicmorally ambiguouspsychological

Narrative Summary

The narrative typically begins with a detached observer—a security guard, a neighbor, an investigator—who becomes dangerously fixated on a subject. As they delve deeper, their professional or personal distance collapses, drawing them directly into the conflict. The story escalates through a series of unethical choices, leading to a confrontation that forces a reckoning with their own motives and the damage they've caused.

Why These Movies?

Movies in this thread share a core premise of watching as a central, active plot device. They are united by a dark, tense tone, a slow-burn pacing that builds psychological unease, and a deep exploration of themes like obsession, guilt, and the corruption that comes from wielding power over others unseen.

Movies about grief and revenge like Red Road

Stories where profound loss fuels a quest for vengeance that leads to a painful reckoning.For viewers who appreciated the heavy emotional core of grief and the complex quest for atonement in Red Road, this collection features similar dramas and thrillers. These movies follow protagonists driven by loss, exploring the bleak and psychologically traumatic path of revenge that leads to a bittersweet or ambiguous resolution.

grievingsombertenseunsettlingheavypsychological traumabittersweet

Narrative Summary

The narrative is triggered by a catastrophic personal loss that sends the protagonist into a tailspin. Their grief manifests as a relentless, often self-destructive, mission to confront the person they hold responsible. The plot unfolds as a psychological unraveling, where the line between victim and aggressor blurs, leading to an ending that acknowledges the shared humanity and pain of all involved, without providing easy answers.

Why These Movies?

These films are grouped by their central emotional engine: a deep, debilitating grief that propels the entire story. They share a heavy emotional weight, a dark tone, and a focus on the psychological trauma of loss. The pacing is often slow and deliberate, mirroring the character's tortured process, and endings tend toward the bittersweet or bleak, reflecting the irreversible nature of their trauma.

Unlock the Full Story of Red Road

Don't stop at just watching — explore Red Road 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 Red Road is all about. Plus, discover what's next after the movie.

Red Road Summary

Read a complete plot summary of Red Road, 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.

Red Road Summary

Red Road Timeline

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

Red Road Timeline

Red Road Spoiler-Free Summary

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Red Road Spoiler-Free Summary

More About Red Road

Visit What's After the Movie to explore more about Red Road: 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 Red Road

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