Escape Plan

Mikael Håfström’s 2013 film follows a security consultant who has himself locked inside a prison to audit it; this time the door stays shut. The project began as a spec script called The Tomb and became Escape Plan only in April 2013. Stallone and Schwarzenegger had shared the screen in the Expendables pictures, but there as part of an ensemble; this is the first time the two carried a film as equal leads. Schwarzenegger’s diversion, a raving sermon aimed at the guards, is performed in German. The engine room brawl was shot aboard a real bulk carrier, the RICAN. The box office split oddly: North America returned 25.1 million dollars while China alone produced 40.9 million, so the film did more business in one foreign territory than at home. Two sequels followed, both straight to video, with Stallone carrying Ray Breslin in each. The real puzzle is not the mechanics of getting out but where on earth the facility sits. The glass cells deny the audience any bearings either, and that is the point: no plan is possible until the geography is known. A good fit if you want the location reveal to be the payoff and the two stars to genuinely split the running time. Not for anyone who wants the surveillance scheme to survive close engineering scrutiny.