Score: 4/5
“No Escape” is easily one of the most stressful movies in theatres right now, as the film jumps right into the action.
However, the abrupt start is nothing to shy away from because the movie’s result is a solid, raw, underrated survival flick worth watching.
The movie tells the story of Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson), a man who is moving to an unnamed Asian country to start his family’s life all over again after his engineering company goes belly up.
During the flight to Asia, they meet Hammond (Pierce Brosnan). Hammond is a grizzled man who has scars all over the place that show how many tough situations he has been in. Hammond and his friend who goes by the name Kenny Rogers (Sahajak Boonthanakit) gives the family a ride to the hotel the new company is housing them in.
After arriving at the hotel, Dwyer and his family are greeted by a banner with Dwyer’s face on it.
Within a few hours of their arrival, an uprising starts due to the dissatisfaction with the company that has bankrupt the country, resulting in the prime minister’s death. After slaughtering everyone in the rebel army’s way, it uses the same banner with Dwyer’s face on it as a wanted poster to carry around. The Dwyers fight for their lives as they keep trying, to no avail, to seek sanctuary anywhere they can in the warzone.
“No Escape” is a movie that takes an American family on a fight for their lives over the course of one day in a foreign country.
The movie does a great job of displaying the raw struggle to survive when there is no hope in sight. There are no cliché revenge moments where one of the daughters or wife gets caught, nor does the family kill people left and right.
When the scene comes where Dwyer has to kill someone, the audience can tell that the last thing he wants to do is end a man’s life. In fact, the only person Dwyer kills is the one rebel trying to have them captured.
The movie generates a sense of realism in how the family reacts to situations.
They do not become expert marksmen at the drop of a hat, or display survival skills that pop up out of nowhere. They use what they have at their disposal to try to survive in the most basic way possible.
The film creates an eerie environment as soon as the family arrives at the hotel. None of the luxuries in the hotel work: The TV has no channels and the phone does not work, adding to the family’s uneasiness from being in a new country.
“No Escape” captures the randomness of riots without having unnecessary, gory violence unless it is necessary. The animalistic nature of the riots mowing down everyone in their path gives the audience a sense of hopelessness for the family, which actually has it questioning if the family will survive at all.
The film is a heart-racing experience from beginning to end. The realism and emotions drawn out of the audience throughout the story make the movie worth seeing.