Escape Plan (2013)

Film Title: Escape Plan
Released: October 18, 2013
Directed by: Mikael Håfström
Written by: Miles Chapman & Jason Keller (as Arnell Jesko) based on a story by Miles Chapman
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwazenegger & Jim Caviezel

Plot: A man who has made a business of testing prison security systems by breaking out of them is double-crossed on a job and has to find his way out of the most secure prison on earth.

IMDb: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 49/100
My Score: 3/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

The 2013 film Escape Plan stars Sylvester Stallone as security analyst Ray Breslin, a man so good at designing secure installations that his handbook on the subject is considered the bible by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He is paid millions of dollars by individuals wishing to test their systems, a service he performs by being incarcerated in their facilities and breaking out of them. When he is double-crossed on a high-risk job for the CIA, he has to escape from the most secret and secure prison ever conceived called the Tomb. To complete his plan, he enlists help from some fellow inmates (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Faran Tahir) while trying to survive the viciousness of the warden (Jim Caviezel) and his head guard (Vinnie Jones). The story was a actually a bit more convoluted than I was expecting, with some decent twists and turns I didn't see coming. Mostly a mystery/thriller whose action component doesn't really show up until the final act, Escape Plan is the first film in which the two action titans Stallone and Schwazenegger have starred opposite each other for an entire film. Although they both appeared in The Expendables and The Expendables 2 before this one, Schwazenegger's roles were considerably smaller than Stallone's. It was nice to see the two of them share the screen for so long, reminiscent of Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro in the John Avnet movie Righteous Kill. But much like Avnet's film, it may be remembered only for the casting choice. If that happens, I think it would be a shame since the film has more to offer than just the actors assembled, which is pretty admittedly pretty impressive and includes Sam Neill, Amy Ryan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Graham Beckel.