FAQ

Because psychologically he has grown attached to and comfortable with it, being that it is the only environment he has ever known.

Room is based on the 2010 novel of the same name by Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue, who also wrote the screenplay.

There's a scene with Old Nick and Ma where Old Nick mentions he's been laid off for 6 months. Ma asks what he's going to do since he won't be able to pay the mortgage on the house. If the bank forecloses then Jack and Ma would be found, so Old Nick would need to get rid of them. After that scene Ma tells Jack the truth about his situation and starts to plan their escape. Ma does state that she tried to escape sometime after she first became captive in Room. When Old Nick made Room, he incorporated an electronic lock with a passcode and added a padlock on the outside. She tells Jack that she almost escaped after using the top of the toilet to knock Old Nick unconscious. Unfortunately, she was too late and the door was closed. Throughout Jack's life, all he has known is Room. Ma wanted to protect him the horrors of reality and wasn't sure if he would be able to understand the situation. Ma figured that 5 was a good age to tell Jack the truth and help trick Old Nick into a final escape.

In "Anatomy of a Scene" for The New York Times, director Lenny Abrahamson spoke about how he dealt with the practical challenges of shooting in a small space: We're shooting in a tiny space, this ten-by-ten space. But what's interesting is, you can have that constraint disappear for the audience. So through this whole scene, we're shooting on long-ish lenses, throwing the backgrounds out of focus, keeping it about them (the characters), and the place disappears. When you want to bring the place back, you shoot wider, see two corners, realize just how tiny it is.

The character of Ma had to be expanded from the novel because she is always on screen, whereas the novel is exclusively from Jack's POV. Donoghue and director Lenny Abrahamson knew that Ma would be a huge part of the success of the film. Abrahamson told The Telegraph that they chose Larson because "Brie has this very special quality, which is that she can go to these very dark and emotionally raw places, but she does it with such simplicity and grace There's no showboating. There is just a truthfulness and an honesty about the performance." Larson prepared for the role by researching the physiological and psychological effects of being stuck in one place for seven years.