The film stars Thora Birch, Desmond Harrington, Daniel Brocklebank, Laurence Fox, Keira Knightley, and Embeth Davidtz.

[3] The film was shot at Bray Studios and various locations around southern England, including Downside School in Somerset.

Private school student Liz resurfaces, disheveled and bloody, after disappearing 18 days prior along with her peers Mike, Geoff, and Frankie.

Liz recounts how her friend Martin arranged for the four to spend the weekend in an abandoned underground nuclear fallout shelter to avoid a school field trip.

Despite Phillipa's initial protestations, she agrees to Liz's request to go back to the bunker, hoping to invoke her memory.

After discovering that both he and Geoff had slept with Frankie, she spontaneously decided to lock the door, isolating them and allowing her to become closer to Mike.

This increases her dehydration, tears the lining of her stomach, and puts a great strain on her heart (which is weakened by bulimia) leading to cardiac arrest and death.

Liz suggests a suicide pact whereupon Mike professes his love for her; this prompts her to climb the ladder to the shelter's entrance and unlock the door.

After Liz finishes recounting the story, Phillipa asks her to make an official statement corroborating Martin's version of events.

[5] Michael Thomson, in a review for the BBC, said the film was a "dark, grisly adventure" influenced by William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, with the hole substituting for the island setting.