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

Denis opens the door of the airplane and bails out. In the next shot, the door is closed.

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Quotes

Ricky Barnes: I will give you anything you want.
Denis: You can't give me what I want.

User Reviews

Deserved a better release

The Escapist is one of those films that has little going for it at first sight: a constantly underachieving director and a bland leading man in yet another of that seemingly endless post-Lock, Stock stream of British crime movies. That it didn't even get a theatrical release but went straight to cable TV and DVD lowers expectations even further. Johnny Lee Miller, the blandest of the Trainspotting cast, initially looks like a bad choice for leading man, his hopeless delivery of the opening voice-over monologue boding particularly ill. The awkward stylistic devices in first ten minutes as his nice middle class guy loses his pregnant wife to Andy Serkis' escaped psychopath don't do the film many favours either, although it does help get the exposition quickly out of the way. From then on it turns into a particularly ingenious revenge thriller, with Miller's initial blandness working in his favour as he becomes increasingly convincingly unpleasant.

Rather than go the Charles Bronson/Jodie Foster route and roam the streets with a gun in search of catharsis, Miller decides instead to go right to the heart of the problem and get sent to prison, where he soon finds himself on "The Magic Roundabout" as his constant escape attempts see his 7-day sentence grow into two years as he works his way up from minimum security to the vividly realised Hellish maximum security island prison where Serkis is serving a 20-year sentence. Naturally, things don't go according to plan… There's enough novelty in the premise and plot twists to drive the film, with Gillies McKinnon keeping things at a lean 100 minutes and drawing out an excellent supporting performance from Gary Lewis as the hardened con who befriends but never fully trust Miller. Andy Serkis is channelling Keith Allen in a particularly bad mood and doing it with élan, though Jodhi May really doesn't get much to do as his sister-in-law but act as his conscience and another potential victim in a couple of scenes. It's not a world-beater by any means, just a pleasingly efficient little thriller that deserved more attention than it got and is well worth a look if it crosses your path. Just bear with it past those awkward opening scenes.