The Escapist (2002)

The skilled pilot Denis Hopkins lives with his pregnant wife Valerie and has a comfortable lifestyle. When the gang of criminals headed by the sadistic Ricky Barnes breaks in his seaside ... See full summary »

Director:

Gillies MacKinnon

Writer:

Nick Perry

Stars:

Jonny Lee Miller, Andy Serkis, Gary Lewis

Cast

Credited cast:
Jonny Lee Miller	...	Denis Hopkins
Andy Serkis	...	Ricky Barnes
Gary Lewis	...	Ron
Jodhi May	...	Christine
Paloma Baeza	...	Valerie Hopkins
Vas Blackwood	...	Vin
Philip Barantini	...	Joey
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Barry Barnes	...	D.I. Simm
Michael Bates	...	Spaz
Gerry Behan	...	Guard 1
Des Braiden	...	Magistrate
Paul Burke	...	Prison Officer
Barry Cassin	...	Judge
Richard Dormer	...	Denis' Brief
Phelim Drew	...	Duty Medical Registrer

Storyline

The skilled pilot Denis Hopkins lives with his pregnant wife Valerie and has a comfortable lifestyle. When the gang of criminals headed by the sadistic Ricky Barnes breaks in his seaside house, Denis offers whatever the criminals want to protect his beloved wife but the evil Ricky kills Valerie. The baby is saved, and later the murderer is arrested and sent to the maximum security prison of Sullen Voe. Denis, moved by the purpose of avenging the death of Valerie, gives the baby and his house to his sister-in-law Christine. Then Denis breaks into a police car and is arrested, but he does not reveal his true name and is called John "What" by the prisoners and guards. Denis attempts to escape, forcing his transfer to Sullen Voe. When he reaches the prison, Ricky sets up a confrontation, but things do not happen the way Denis expected.

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Plot Keywords:

revenge | prison escape

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Taglines:

He can escape from anything... except his past.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and violence

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

February 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bijeg osvetnika

Company Credits

Production Co:

Jolyon Symonds Productions Ltd., Little Bird Productions, Sky Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Did You Know?

Goofs

The main character Dennis sharpens a spoon in his cell into a weapon by rubbing the end of the (stainless steel) spoon on what is clearly (aluminum) checker plate. As aluminum is a much softer metal than steel, the checker plate would be worn away and it would be impossible to file down the spoon in this way.

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Quotes

Denis: A man kills the person you love without reason. You try to remember something he said to make sense of what he did, but there's nothing there. I don't know what I expected to feel, not victory - none of this could bring Valerie back. I hadn't thought of any future beyond killing Ricky Barnes. They say an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.

User Reviews

Good, worth a look if there's nothing good at Blockbuster

With this being a film I'd never heard of and seemingly being low-budget and British I was expecting it to be pretty poor but it was actually a decent hour and a half. Jonny Lee Miller and Andy Serkis are both good in their roles, Serkis particularly playing psycho Ricky Barnes a little too convincingly. The story is pretty basic but manages to keep you interested in the progression throughout. Better than a lot of mainstream big budget fare and certainly better than the TV special standard I was expecting. Good choice at Blockbuster if there is nothing else that stands out.