Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Ray Breslin is the world's foremost authority on structural security. After analyzing every high security prison and learning a vast array of survival skills so he can design escape-proof prisons, his skills are put to the test. He's framed and incarcerated in a master prison he designed himself. He needs to escape and find the person who put him behind bars.
Escape Plan is a solid mid-tier action thriller buoyed largely by the novelty of pairing Stallone and Schwarzenegger in a proper co-lead vehicle for the first time. The plot has a reasonably clever premise — the escape-artist imprisoned in his own design — but executes it with fairly predictable beats and a telegraphed villain reveal. Stallone and Schwarzenegger have genuine chemistry and are entertaining, though neither stretches dramatically. Cinematography is functional and workmanlike, set largely in dim, grey corridors with little visual flair. Novelty is limited beyond the star pairing; the prison-escape genre offers nothing structurally new here. The ending wraps up tidily but without much surprise or punch, feeling rushed and overly convenient.