Escape Room (film)

Six people from varied backgrounds are presented with a puzzle cube: Zoey, a physics student; Jason, a wealthy daytrader; Ben, a stockboy; Mike, a truck driver; Amanda, an Iraq War veteran; and Danny, an escape room enthusiast. When they solve the puzzle, they are invited to take part in an escape room with a $10,000 prize. The participants arrive at an office block and gather in a waiting room waiting, but no one comes to greet them.

When Ben tries to leave, the door handle falls off, revealing that the challenge has begun. The room turns out to be a giant oven that begins to heat up. The players discover an escape passage and climb out before the room is filled with fire. Next, they find themselves in a winter cabin. They escape the cabin and step out into an icy room where the temperature is dropping. They eventually find the key, but Danny falls through the ice and drowns, confirming that they are dealing with potentially fatal rooms rather than just an elaborate game. Some players notice reminders of traumatic events in their past: A song Ben heard before almost dying in a car crash and a red coat Jason wore when he escaped a shipwreck. The remaining five players enter an upside-down billiards bar, where parts of the floor periodically fall into a deep shaft below. In helping the others escape, Amanda plummets to her death.

The next room is a hospital ward with six beds, each representing a player. It is revealed that all six players were each sole survivors of various disasters: Mike escaped a mine cave-in, Zoey survived a plane crash, Danny survived when his family died of carbon monoxide poisoning, Amanda survived an IED blast, Jason survived a shipwreck in frigid weather, and Ben survived a car accident where his friends died. Zoey realizes that the purpose of the game is to determine which player is the luckiest of all. Jason discovers that the room is about to be filled with poisonous gas. Zoey refuses to continue playing and instead destroys the room's surveillance cameras. A clip about a heart surgeon called "Dr. Wootan Yu" suggests that someone needs to record a certain heart rate to escape. Mike has the highest heart rate, but not high enough to work. Jason suggests using the defibrillator on Mike. Mike is unwilling at first, but Jason manipulates him to participate. Jason accidentally kills Mike with a shock. He then solves the puzzle as the gas is released. Jason and Ben escape, but Zoey refuses to follow and disappears into the gas.

Jason and Ben enter a room with optical illusions and strobe lights. While drugged with a hallucinogen, they fight over an antidote. Ben kills Jason and injects himself with the antidote. He then falls into the last room, where a wall moves inwards to crush him. In the hospital room, employees enter in hazmat gear to dispose of the dead bodies. Zoey appears and attacks them. Ben solves the last room and meets the Gamemaster, who controls the game that the Puzzle Maker designed. The Gamemaster explains that each year they lure in players with something in common – college athletes, savants, etc. – and wealthy viewers bet on the result, with the current game luring in sole survivors of previous disasters. The Gamemaster tries to kill Ben, but Zoey intervenes, and together they kill the Gamemaster.

As Ben recovers, Zoey returns to the building with a detective. The police do not believe Zoey, as all evidence of the game has disappeared. They do not believe Ben either, as he was found to have drugs in his system. While looking at the graffiti on the wall, Zoey notices the words "No Way Out", an anagram for "Wootan Yu", suggesting the game is not over. Six months later, Zoey meets up with Ben and shows him newspaper articles that passed off the other players' deaths as everyday accidents. When Ben suggests Zoey should move on, she refuses. She reveals clues to Ben that point to an unlisted building in Manhattan. Ben agrees to go with her. However, the Puzzle Maker is already preparing to make their flight a new deadly game of survival.

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

On August 9, 2017, it was announced that the film, then titled The Maze, had commenced casting.[7] It was set to shoot in South Africa in late 2017.[8] In January 2018, director Robitel told Syfy that production had wrapped and that the film would be released in September 2018,[9] before the film was delayed multiple times to an eventual early 2019 release.

Brian Tyler and John Carey composed the score for the film. The soundtrack was released by Sony Music Entertainment, and includes the full score and a remix of the film's main theme by Madsonik and Kill the Noise, used in the closing credits.

In May 2018, it was announced that the film was originally going to be released on November 30, 2018.[10] A month later, the film was pushed back two months from its original release date of November 30, 2018 to February 1, 2019,[11] and later was moved up from February 1, 2019 to January 4, 2019.[12]

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.[13]

In February 2019, a sequel, Escape Room 2, was announced as being in active development, with Robitel set to return to direct along with screenwriter Schut and producer Moritz. In October 2019, Collider reported that original cast members Russell and Miller would reprise their roles in the sequel.[20] It is scheduled to be released in 2022.[5][6]

• Escape Room at IMDb 
• Escape Room at Rotten Tomatoes