Escape Room (2019 film)
American psychological horror film From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Escape Room is a 2019 American psychological horror film[4] directed by Adam Robitel from a screenplay by Bragi F. Schut and Maria Melnik, based on a story conceived by Schut. The film stars Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine, Nik Dodani, Jay Ellis, and Yorick van Wageningen, and follows a group of people who are sent to navigate a series of deadly escape rooms.
| Escape Room | |
|---|---|
.png) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Adam Robitel |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Bragi F. Schut |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Marc Spicer |
| Edited by | Steven Mirkovich |
| Music by |
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Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release date |
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Running time | 100 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States[2] |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $9 million[3] |
| Box office | $155.7 million[3] |
Development of the film began in August 2017, then under the title The Maze, and the casting process commenced. Schut and Melnik were hired to write the screenplay, and Robitel was confirmed to be directing. Filming took place in South Africa in late 2017 through January 2018. Brian Tyler and Jon Carey were hired to compose the film's score, with Tyler also conducting.
Escape Room was released in the United States on January 4, 2019 by Columbia Pictures (via Sony Pictures Releasing). It grossed over $155 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its atmosphere, cast, and production design, but criticized the familiar plot and its failure to take full advantage of its premise. It was followed by the sequel Escape Room: Tournament of Champions in 2021.[5][6]
Plot
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A young man falls through the ceiling into a parlor, and after he tries to open the door out, the far wall begins moving inwards to crush him. He is able to find clues to solve the puzzle on the door, but it doesn't open, and the wall does not stop.
Six people from varied backgrounds in Chicago are presented with a puzzle cube: Zoey, a physics student; Jason, a wealthy daytrader; Ben, a stockboy and the young man from the cold open; Mike, a truck driver; Amanda, an Iraq War veteran; and Danny, an escape room enthusiast. When they solve the puzzle, they are invited to take part in an escape room from Minos with a $10,000 prize.
The participants arrive at the Minos office in a nondescript building, and when Ben tries to leave the waiting room to smoke, the door handle falls off, revealing that they are already playing. They escape the first room, a giant oven, without incident; Danny asserts that they were never in any actual danger, but the other players are unconvinced.
In the next room, which is winter cabin themed, Danny falls through ice and drowns, confirming that the rooms are lethal. Amanda falls to her death in the following room, an upside-down billiards bar where parts of the floor periodically fall into a deep shaft below.
The next room, designed with a hospital theme, reminds the players of their experiences being sole survivors of various disasters - Mike survived a mine cave-in, Zoey survived a plane crash, Danny survived when his family died of carbon monoxide poisoning, Amanda survived an IED blast, Jason survived a shipwreck in frigid weather, and Ben survived a car accident where his friends died. Zoey realizes that the purpose of the game is to determine which player is the luckiest and begins destroying security cameras to avoid playing along.
Jason accidentally shocks Mike to death in an attempt to escape before the room fills with toxic gas; Zoey refuses to leave after the exit opens, and is left behind. In a room with optical illusions, strobe lights and transdermal drugs coating the surfaces, Ben accidentally kills Jason over the drugs' antidote and falls into the parlor from the opening.
He is able to escape this final room via the fireplace, and then meets the Gamemaster, who controls the game. The Gamemaster explains that the Puzzle Maker crafts the rooms, and each year they lure in players with something in common – college athletes, savants, etc. – and wealthy viewers bet on the results. The Gamemaster tries to kill Ben, but Zoey intervenes, having used an oxygen mask in the hospital room to survive until the room was unlocked by cleaning staff. Together they kill the Gamemaster and escape.
As Ben recovers, Zoey returns to the building with a detective. The police do not believe their story, as all evidence of the game has disappeared and the transdermal drugs are detected in Ben's system. While looking at graffiti on the wall, Zoey notices the words "No Way Out" and realizes they are an anagram for "Wootan Yu", a name that appeared in several places throughout the escape rooms, suggesting that the game is not over.
Six months later, Zoey meets up with Ben and shows him newspaper articles that passed off the other players' deaths as accidents. When he suggests she move on, she refuses, revealing clues that point to an unlisted building in Manhattan and planning to confront Minos directly. He agrees to go with her.
On an airplane in distress, flight attendants are able to solve a puzzle to access the cockpit, but they are too late to save the plane from crashing into a hill. On impact, it is revealed that this is an elaborate test simulation for a new scenario crafted by the Puzzle Maker to further play with Zoey and Ben.
Cast
- Taylor Russell as Zoey Davis, a young college student
- Logan Miller as Ben Miller, a stockboy at a grocery store
- Deborah Ann Woll as Amanda Harper, an Iraq War veteran with PTSD
- Tyler Labine as Mike Nolan, a middle-aged truck driver from Wilmette, Illinois
- Nik Dodani as Danny Khan, an experienced escape room enthusiast
- Jay Ellis as Jason Walker, a stock trader
- Yorick van Wageningen as the Gamemaster
Additionally, Cornelius Geaney Jr. appears as Zoey's professor while Jessica Sutton portrays her roommate, Allison. Russell Crous portrays Charlie, Jason's assistant; Bart Fouche portrays Gary, Ben's boss; Kenneth Fok portrays Detective Li; and Jamie-Lee Money portrays Rosa, a fake flight attendant who works for Minos. Director Adam Robitel also has a minor role in the film as a character named Gabe.
Production
On August 9, 2017, it was announced that the film, then titled The Maze, had commenced casting, based on an original story created by screenwriter Bragi F. Schut.[7] It was set to shoot in South Africa in late 2017.[8] In January 2018, director Robitel told Syfy that production had wrapped and that the film would be released in September 2018,[9] before the film was delayed multiple times to an eventual early 2019 release.
Brian Tyler and John Carey composed the score for the film. The soundtrack was released by Sony Music Entertainment, and includes the full score and a remix of the film's main theme by Madsonik and Kill the Noise, used in the closing credits.
Robitel originally planned the film to end with one of the survivors returning home but decided to change the ending to make the antagonists appear more menacing in anticipation of the sequel.[10]
Release
In May 2018, it was announced that the film was originally going to be released on November 30, 2018.[11] A month later, the film was pushed back two months from its original release date of November 30, 2018, to February 1, 2019,[12] and later was moved up from February 1, 2019, to January 4, 2019.[13]
In Poland, United International Pictures announced that the film's release in the country would be delayed out of respect for the five teenagers who had died in the ToNiePokój escape room fire, which actually occurred on the day of the film's U.S. release.[14]
Reception
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Box office
Escape Room grossed $57 million in the United States and Canada, and $98.7 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $155.7 million, against a production budget of $9 million.[3] Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit of the film to be $46.6 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.[15]
In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $10–14 million from 2,717 theaters in its opening weekend.[4] It made $7.7 million on its first day, including $2.3 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $18.2 million, surpassing expectations and finishing second, behind Aquaman.[16] The film made $8.9 million in its second weekend, dropping 51% and finishing fifth.[17]
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 51% based on 164 reviews, and an average rating of 5.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Escape Room fails to unlock much of the potential in its premise, but what's left is still tense and thrilling enough to offer a passing diversion for suspense fans."[18] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[19] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[16]
Sandy Schaelfer from Screen Rant gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, writing that "Escape Room is an entertainingly cheesy and surprisingly innovative B-movie, but suffers when it turns its attention to setting up future sequels."[20]
Sequel
In February 2019, a sequel, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, was announced as being in active development, with Robitel set to return to direct along with screenwriter Schut and producer Moritz. In October 2019, Collider reported that original cast members Russell and Miller would reprise their roles in the sequel.[21] It was released on July 16, 2021.
References
External links
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