Escape Room (2019 film)

Escape Room
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Adam Robitel
Screenplay by	Bragi F. Schut Maria Melnik
Story by	Bragi F. Schut
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz Ori Marmur
Starring	Taylor Russell Logan Miller Deborah Ann Woll Tyler Labine Jay Ellis Nik Dodani
Cinematography	Marc Spicer
Edited by	Steve Mirkovich
Music by	Brian Tyler John Carey
Production companies	Columbia Pictures Original Film
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date	January 4, 2019 (2019-01-04) (United States)
Running time	100 minutes
Countries	United States Canada
Language	English
Budget	$9 million
Box office	$126.9 million

Escape Room is a 2019 psychological horror film directed by Adam Robitel and written by Bragi F. Schut and Maria Melnik. The film stars Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine, Jay Ellis, and Nik Dodani, and follows a group of people who are sent to navigate a series of escape rooms, only to discover that their fates are tied to whether or not they can beat them in time.

Development of the film began in August 2017, then under the title The Maze, and the casting process commenced. Filming took place in South Africa in late 2017 through January 2018.

Escape Room was released in the United States on January 4, 2019, by Sony Pictures Entertainment, and was a box office success, grossing over $126 million worldwide and becoming the seventh highest-grossing film of 2019. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the atmosphere and cast, but criticized the familiar plot and its failure to take full advantage of its premise. A sequel is scheduled to be released in April 2020.

Plot

Six players are invited to the Minos Escape Room facility in Chicago, Illinois for a team-based escape room challenge with a $10,000 prize. On arrival, their electronic devices are confiscated and they are escorted into a waiting room. When Ben (Logan Miller), a stockboy, attempts to leave, it is revealed that the waiting room is part of the challenge. Zoey (Taylor Russell), a physics student, accidentally activates a trap that causes the room to grow increasingly hot. The players realize that the escape room traps are lethal. The team manages to escape the waiting room, but Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll), a war veteran, experiences a traumatic flashback reminding her of an IED attack she survived.

The team ends up inside a locked wood cabin. Clues involving "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" remind Ben of a drunk driving accident he survived. The next area involves a frozen lake. Danny (Nik Dodani), an escape room fan, tries to retrieve a clue from the centre of the lake but it collapses beneath him and he drowns. Jason (Jay Ellis), a trader, has a flashback of being in freezing water after a boating accident.

The next room is an upside-down billiards bar whose floor gradually falls away over time. The team struggles to find the key to the exit while keeping their footing on the collapsing floor. Zoey experiences a flashback about her mother's death in a plane accident. Amanda retrieves the key from a safe but drops it on the floor just as the floor is about to fall away completely. Realizing that losing the key would doom her teammates, Amanda throws it to them rather than saving herself, and falls to her death.

The next room is a hospital ward. The players realize the six beds are identical to ones they were treated in after surviving the fatal incidents from their flashbacks. They realize aspects of the game were modeled on their lives. A TV broadcast states that the group has five minutes until the room will be filled with poison gas. Jason accidentally kills Mike (Tyler Labine), a former miner, while working out how to escape the room. Eventually they open the door, but Zoey believes the game is rigged and remains behind to die while Jason and Ben carry on.

Jason and Ben enter a psychedelic-themed room. Ben argues with Jason about Mike and Zoey's deaths. Jason reveals that he survived his boat accident by killing his roommate. While exploring the room, they find a message that states they have been drugged with an LSD-like drug and suggests they find an antidote before attempting to leave. They discover there is only one dose of antidote. They fight over it until Ben kills Jason, uses the antidote and exits into the final stage of the escape room.

Ben survives the final room and goes to the building's roof. He finds the escape facility's control room and the Game Master responsible for it. A screen shows Ben as the only survivor. The Game Master explains that this is not the first iteration of the game, there is always a theme connecting the players, and that external viewers make bets on the outcome. He then attempts to kill Ben to prevent the game's secrets from being revealed. Zoey arrives and defends Ben with a gun taken from incapacitated security personnel. She reveals she survived the toxic gas with an oxygen apparatus. Ben and Zoey work together to kill the Game Master and escape.

As Ben recovers in the hospital, Zoey tells the police what happened. The police find no evidence at the escape room facility and dismiss Zoey's story. Determined to prevent the Minos Escape Room company from getting away with the cover-up, six months later, Zoey convinces Ben to fly with her to the company's headquarters in New York City. The company is planning to turn their flight into another deadly escape room.

Cast

• Taylor Russell as Zoey Davis
• Logan Miller as Ben Miller
• Deborah Ann Woll as Amanda Harper
• Tyler Labine as Mike Nolan
• Jay Ellis as Jason Walker
• Nik Dodani as Danny Khan
• Kenneth Fok as Detective Li
• Yorick van Wageningen as the Gamemaster

Production

On August 9, 2017, it was announced that the film, then titled The Maze, had commenced casting. It was set to shoot in South Africa in late 2017. In January 2018, director Robitel told Syfy that production had wrapped and that the film would be released in September 2018.

Release

In May 2018, it was announced that the film had been retitled Escape Room, and that it would be released on November 30, 2018. A month later, the film was pushed back to February 1, 2019, and later was rescheduled for January 4, 2019.

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 recently died in the Koszalin escape room fire.

Reception

Box office

As of March 5, 2019, Escape Room has grossed $56.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $70.5 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $126.9 million, against a production budget of $9 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $10–14 million from 2,717 theaters in its opening weekend. 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 holdover Aquaman. The film made $8.9 million in its second weekend, dropping 51% and finishing fifth.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 48% based on 126 reviews, and an average rating of 5.1/10. 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." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 24 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Sequel

On February 25, 2019, a sequel was announced as being in active development, with Adam Robitel set to return to direct along with screenwriter Bragi F. Schut and producer Neal H. Moritz. It is scheduled for release on April 17, 2020.

External links

• Escape Room at IMDb
• Escape Room at Rotten Tomatoes