My Movie Collection

Mike Enslin (Cusack) is a skeptic and author who debunks supernatural occurrences after the untimely death of his daughter Katie. After his latest successful book, he receives an anonymous postcard of the Dolphin Hotel in New York City bearing the message "don't enter 1408." Viewing this as a challenge, Enslin attempts to book a reservation in room 1408, but the hotel will not rent him the room. However, after being informed by Mike's agent (Shaloub) that the Fair Housing Act requires hotels to rent unoccupied rooms the Dolphin reluctantly reserves room 1408 for Enslin.

Arriving at the Dolphin, Mike is pulled aside by the hotel's manager Gerald Olin (Jackson), who warns him that no one has lasted more than an hour in 1408. Olin offers Enslin an upgrade to the penthouse suite, access to documents regarding the deaths in 1408, and an $800 bottle of cognac. Mike accepts the documents and the cognac but insists on staying in the room, frustrating Olin. The manager gives him the key, warning him that "It's an EVIL fucking room."

Once inside the room, Mike pulls out his Mini Cassette recorder and dictates on the unremarkability of 1408. As he examines the room, the radio suddenly starts blaring We've Only Just Begun by The Carpenters. Later, Enslin is startled again as the clock radio begins to play the same song. When he rips the clock's electrical cord from the wall the display flickers and changes to read "60:00", then starts counting down from 60 minutes. Suddenly, Mike is unable to hear anything, apart from a tinnitus-like ringing in his ears, and opens the window to check his hearing; the window slams down, cutting a large gash in the top of his hand. His hearing quickly returns and he bandages his hand using a bandana from his bag. Wishing to go to a hospital, Mike attempts to leave the room; however his key breaks off in the door, trapping him inside 1408.

Enslin begins to see and hear things, including visions of his daughter's time in the hospital shortly before her death, but he initially dismisses them as hallucinations. Among one of these strange visions is a face to face encounter with his own father. He makes several attempts to free himself from the room such as crawling through the air vents, where he is seen being chased by a hideous apparition, or trying to crawl outside on the ledge to the next room, but all end in failure. He manages to contact his estranged wife Lily (Mary McCormack) via video chat, but the conversation ends abruptly when the sprinkler system shorts out his laptop. All the while the room temperature drops, eventually to subzero temperatures. With his laptop now working Mike contacts Lily again, but a doppelgänger of him hijacks the conversation, urging Lily to come the hotel immediately and enter room 1408. The room begins to shake violently and the interior cracks and explodes as water fills the room, pulling Mike under the surface.

Mike wakes up in a hospital near his home in L.A., Lily at his bedside. She tells him that he was hospitalized after sustaining a concussion from a surfing accident depicted earlier in the film. This reprieve is short-lived, however, when at the post office a construction crew made up of hotel staff and guests begin to destroy the interior, revealing the walls and floor of 1408 underneath, now fire gutted, and finding himself still trapped in the room. There is a small inscription on the wall visible from the window, reading Burn Me Alive. Mike then encounters his dead daughter, alive, but dying again, and crumbling to dust as the clock radio's countdown approaches zero; when it finally reaches zero the room changes back to its original, undamaged appearance.

The clock radio resets for another 60 minutes and the phone rings; when Mike answers, the friendly female voice of the hotel operator informs him that he can relive the hour "again and again" or choose to take advantage of their "express checkout system." A hangman's knot appears in the bedroom and Mike has a vision of him hanging himself; he tells the operator that he will not be checking out that way. The phone rings again, and the operator reminds him that his wife will be arriving in 5 minutes and will be sent right up to his room. He responds he is done arguing and is going to end this.

Turning the cognac into a Molotov Cocktail Mike sets the room on fire, causing the hotel to be evacuated. Lily is stopped from entering the hotel, but tells the firefighters that Mike is in 1408. Mike throws an ashtray through the room's windows, intentionally causing a backdraft to overtake the room just seconds before firefighters batter down the door. They get him out and, though burned, Mike is told that he will be all right. Mike attempts to tell the firefighters not to enter the room, as it is 'evil'. A short while later, a smiling Olin is seen in his office, smoking a cigar and praising Mike for surviving.

Mike recovers in a New York hospital, Lily at his bedside. He swears that he saw Katie, but Lily refuses to believe him. After his recovery Mike moves back in with Lily, beginning work on a new, non-horror novel. While sorting through a box of items from his night in 1408 Mike comes across his Mini Cassette recorder. After some difficulty he manages to get the tape to play; it begins with Mike's dictation of 1408's appearance, but cuts in with audio from his interaction with the apparition of his daughter. Lily freezes in shock as she hears her dead daughter's voice coming from the hand-held, and the film closes on Mike meeting her shocked stare with one of grim vindication.