Review: No Escape

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Internet

No Escape (aka Escape from Absolom)
Directed by Martin Campbell
Columbia Tristar; Pacific Western; Platinum Pictures;
Allied Filmmakers; Unearthed Classics; MVD Visual
118 minutes, 1994 / 2022
www.unearthedfilms.com
www.MVDvisual.com

Doncha just love it when a (relatively) older film is a science fiction that predicts the actual year you are in? Released back in 1994, this film takes place in the far future of 2022 (by coincidence, also the year that the leading actor, Ray Liotta, died). Oh, yeah, 2022 is also the year in which Soylent Green (1973) takes place. Gee, I wonder what that year will be like, and how accurate the storyline will be. Will there be an idiot 45th President? Will there be threats of a civil war by some numbnuts in red hats and blue shirts? Hmmmm. I will start watching, and we can see. Odds are, I will be discussing not only the film, but its depiction of the year in which it takes place.

First of all, this film is a sausage-fest. Yeah, there are no women in the film at all, just macho dudes living a Lord of the Flies meets Mad Max: The Road Warrior (1981) life. Y’see, it takes place in a penile – er – I mean penal colony. In the opening placard, it states that all prisons are now privatized, something Obama fought against, and his ruling was overturned by the following Republican administration. This film is getting closer to reality in the first two seconds, though the computers we see are still somewhat cathode-looking as opposed to flat-screens.

Right at the opening credits, in Benghazi (yeah, I know), Libya, Special Forces Capt. J.T. Robbins (Liotta) kills his commanding officer and is sent to the remote, desert enclosed Leviticus Maximum Security Penitentiary, run by Warden (Michael Lerner). He gets there by super-cool monorail, similar in means to the AirTrain JFK that cuts through Queens, NY, to get to the airport. The prison is in the middle of a desert that is reminiscent of Dune (1984; 2000; 2021) landscape.

Ray Liotta

Thanks to a major infraction, Robbins is sent to the remote island of Absolom, where he is a stranger in a strange land. It is lush and beautiful (filmed in New South Wales, Australia), but he will learn he is a tough guy in an unfamiliar world run by convicts, much like Snake Plisskin in Escape from New York (1981), but without Adrianne Barbeau. Robbins is captured by “the Outsiders,” a grungy group led by sociopath Walter Marek (Stuart Wilson), who at first underestimates our anti-hero. This society is close to a Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) situation, where only the strong survive, and somehow Marek has the only gun (spears and arrows are the weapon of the day). They have stalled in tribalism and cannibalism when necessary.

After a fun Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) moment, thanks to Marek miscalculating Robbins’ prowess, Robbins escapes into the woods with the entire pack in pursuit. The chase scene through the jungle reminds me a bit of Apocalypto, even though it came out years later in 2006.

After a fall into a river that puts Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) to shame, he ends up in “the Insiders” camp. The viewer can tell this is a good place because of the swell of violins in the soundtrack music. It is run by benevolent The Father (Lance Henriksen) and his Head of Security, Hawkins (Ernie Hudson, who is fighting the Outsiders rather than busting ghosts although, apparently, is still wearing gray clothing). Here, life is communal, with farming and metallurgy to show progress.

If I may digress here for a second, and I am almost done with the exposition (and believe me, there’s a lot of action going on I am not mentioning), you may have noticed that I have been referencing many other films. Well, that is because there is some much built on those other releases, and it is fun to ping-pong back and forth between this and the others. There is even a Spartacus (1960) moment. Sure, there is some originality in this, and Liotta is a great Mad Max/Plisskin substitute, but there was a basic formula to these films (as is true with many releases, especially nowadays) at that time, and it mostly proved effective, though this one cost $20 million, and made $15 million back.

Injured, the angry, non-joiner, anti-authority Robbins is bound to adjust to the Insiders’ life, and even though I am only 30 minutes in, starting Act 2, I am willing to bet a dollar that at some point, the 600 Outsiders and the 100 Insiders will do battle, with Special Forces Robbins leading the defense.

You really can tell this is a big budget extravaganza (though they ran out of cash near the end), relative to the many films I am used to reviewing these days. Along with the stunning sets (especially the Insider’s camp), the action in Act 2 is larger than the entire budget of many other films. This is not telling anyone anything that is not obvious. In fact, one of the raids reminds me of the renegades attacking the fort, mid-The Road Warrior.

Liotta, Stuart Wilson

You will find a lot of Mel Gibson references in this review, a man I personally despise, but beyond that, The Road Warrior is a film I can watch over and over. And there is certainly a Mad Max moment when Robins tells The Father that himself knows how to help, in the same way Max boasts (rightfully), “You wanna get out of here, you talk to me.”

I believe part of the reason why this film has so many fans and has achieved cult level love, is that is really is action packed, with many scenes of action. Liotta does well as an action hero (he wanted to find out what it was like to be one, and he succeeded), as does his underling/comic relief Casey (Kevin Dillon). A nod should also go to Wilson, who plays the evil yet gallant and highly talkative Sherriff of Nottingham or Hans Gruber type character. As for Henriksen, well, the man makes you forget he’s acting, and while Liotta is superb as always, Henriksen still managed to hold his own, if not more so; why is he not on the poster instead of Dillon, who is okay, but he’s no Lance. The SFX, all practical, are a lot of fun, with explosions, and some surprisingly gory deaths. The make-up and wardrobe are done by the same person who did The Road Warrior, and it shows (meant as a compliment).

There are many anachronistic moments here and there, such as how did the Insiders get all the crossbows? Bow and arrows I can understand, but that is a technology that cannot bd found on an isolated island. And what do they eat? Okay, the Outsiders delve into cannibalism, but you see some turkeys and pigs being harvested in the Insiders’ camp. Where did they come from? It is clear both camps eat rats. And where did the Outsiders get their body armor? They do not have the technology nor the source material where they are stranded. But I’m willing to give up some suspension of disbelief, because It is a fun film. But I’m still aware

Lance Henriksen (left), Ernie Hudson (right)

As for extras, at nearly 2 hours, as much fun as the film was, I was glad there was no full-length commentary. What we do have is still a plethora of material. To begin with, there is “Welcome to the Future: The Sci-Fi Worlds of Gale Anne Hurd” (17 min), a new for this Blu-ray interview with producer Hurd, who worked for Roger Corman on films like Humanoids from the Deep (1980), Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), for which she hired James Cameron, and then on to such now-classics of the likes of The Terminator (1984) and Aliens (1986). Obviously, she also produced No Escape. A storied career, and an interesting monologue, and lots of clips.

“Survival of the Fittest: Directing No Escape”(13 min), a new interview with filmmaker Martin Campbell, who would go on to direct the likes of James Bond’s Goldeneye (1995) and Casino Royale (2006), as well as Green Lantern (2011). He has a decent sense of humor, and his stories are fun to which to listen. “Penal Colony: Writing No Escape”(7 min), is a new interview/monologue with co-writer Joel Gross. Which is okay for a one-time listen.

For older material, there is vintage featurettes, starting with “Making of Escape from Absolom” (21 min), the shooting title of the film. It includes on-set interviews with most of the major cast and crew, and is informative about the production. Actually, I enjoyed this one more than the previous three interviews. There is a second Making Of featurette (6 min) that seems to be untitled. It is very similar to the previous one, also shot on set, but is much shorter.

Lastly, there is the “Alternate Intro” (2 min), which is extremely similar to the one used in the film, just less “stylized.” Honestly, either one would have worked. Last are the original theatrical trailer, TV spots, and a photo gallery.

With one last reference, the big surprise for me is that, in some ways, this is a Christmas movie in the same way as Die Hard (1988).

IMDB listing HERE