This Blu-ray will be available in North America on October 18th from Unearthed Classics and MVD Visual.
Back in the 1990s, a couple of executives from Sony Pictures left the company and decided to form their own outfit. They named themselves Savoy Pictures and focused on producing mid-budgeted films. Despite making and releasing some impressive projects like Serial Mom and A Simple Plan, most underperformed and they soon went under. One of the films that didn’t attract a big audience was No Escape (1994) aka Escape from Absolom for those who live in international markets. It’s too bad that it didn’t find a following (the generic title may have been a factor), because the end result was an above-average and genuinely entertaining action thriller with an impressive cast.
This movie has languished in obscurity for some time, but is finally making its Blu-ray debut in North American courtesy of Unearthed Classics and MVD Visual. And, as hoped for, it’s an excellent transfer that far outshines any previous release on DVD or VHS. In addition to the excellent picture, there are some fun extras that detail how the unusual film got made.
The story is set in the future, specifically the year 2022. It seems that the world isn’t a pleasant place and corporations now run penitentiaries for profit, brutalizing the incarcerated. After Capt. J.T. Robbins (Ray Liotta) shoots his commanding officer for forcing him to wipe out civilians under false pretenses, the protagonist is locked away in one of the world’s harshest prisons. He meets the Warden (Michael Lerner), who unwisely sets out to try and make an example of him for other prisoners. After being embarrassed, he shuttles Robbins off to a remote island in the middle of the ocean. This is where the worst of the worst are stranded and left to fend among themselves.
Robbins immediately encounters a cannibalistic gang called The Outsiders, led by Marek (Stuart Wilson). After that run-in, he finds a kinder group who have tried to start their own community. These people are led by The Father (Lance Henricksen) and include Hawkins (Ernie Hudson), Casey (Kevin Dillon) and Stephano (Kevin J. O’Connor). Robbins wants to be left alone to find his way off the island, but finds himself being asked to help protect the village from The Outsiders.
There are a few dodgy visual effects early on, but once Robbins finds his way to the prison island, the film turns into a figurative and literal blast. Liotta is a dynamic lead as a tortured and cut-off hero suffering from PTSD, while all of the supporting cast members make distinctive impressions. Most prisoners in the community have done something they regret and the screenplay attempts to detail the various backstories and motivations for attempting to better themselves. There is far more character development here than in many other pictures of its ilk. And despite its dark subject matter, humor is often interlaced into the violence. Like all of the best action pictures, antagonist Marek is incredibly charismatic, offering plenty of memorable quips as he does downright horrible things to those around him.
Director Martin Campbell handles the action with a lot of pizazz and the fight/battle scenes use almost entirely practical effects. There are some big explosions during the elaborate battles and equally impressive stunts. This reviewer’s favorites include a fall off a cliff and a climactic plunge into a marsh with some sharp implements. The locations, set and costumes are quite striking as well. The movie was shot in Australia and the elaborate wooden marsh village is marvelous to behold. In today’s filmmaking era it would all be created in a computer, so these real wooden structures (some are several stories tall) make a strong visual impact.
No Escape is a remarkably polished and effective action film that takes plenty of interesting twists and offers more relatable characters than one might initially expect. It should have been a much bigger hit than it was back in the day. One assumes that marketing issues (again, the title is terrible) and weary reviewers who had seen too many action films during this period probably may have hurt the movie’s chances at success.
As mentioned, it’s nice to finally see a high-definition version of the movie so that the Aussie locales and sets can really be enjoyed in the best way possible. And the extras are just as enlightening. They include a making-of from the title of its original release, as well as a trailer, TV spots, stills and an opening with the alternate title for the film. This is all nicely presented, but it’s the audio interviews included that really give some great details on how everything came together. We don’t see the individuals (this was likely all recorded during COVID lockdown), but appropriate clips and images are included throughout the discussions.
The movie was adapted from a novel called Penal Colony by Richard Herley, and screenwriter Joel Gross discusses how he was hired to turn it into a filmable script. He goes into depth on the process (he reads the novel in its entirety and then rereads making notes and starting to figure out how to condense the material into a three-act structure). It’s an interesting interview.
There is also a segment with extraordinary producer Gale Anne Hurd, who recounts her beginnings working for Roger Corman and getting her start specializing in making science-fiction, horror and fantasy films. She goes over the numerous projects that she worked on brought to life, sharing brief thoughts and movies like Battle Beyond the Stars, The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss and Tremors (she has also produced Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Raising Cain, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Relic, Dante’s Peak, Armageddon, Hulk, The Incredible Hulk and many more). Hurd also discusses how she discovered and hired director Martin Campbell, who only had a few credits to his name, and their collaboration. She also discusses how dangerous it was shooting in the wilds of Australia and the various poisonous lifeforms living around the set.
There is also a new talk with Campbell himself. After finding acclaim with the 1988 thriller Criminal Law, the filmmaker had suffered a setback with this follow-up and ended up being hired by Hurd to direct the well-regarded 1991 fantasy cable film, Cast a Deadly Spell. He reminisces about having reservations about No Escape, wanting more humor in the script and eventually being convinced to accept the job by the producer. He also discusses shooting the movie in Australia, his experiences on set and what he enjoys about the finished product. Perhaps the funniest story involves the invention of the film’s climax. According to Campbell, he was told that there was no more money to shoot the scripted finale. The panicked director had to come up with a quick but impressive way to satisfy viewers and an offhand joke from the director of photography inspired him to create an effective and surprising final twist.
Campbell also admits that he was initially disappointed that the box office for the film was poor, but notes that it was his first action film and an important project that changed his life. One of the few who did see the picture were the producers of the James Bond films. They loved it and immediately hired him to direct GoldenEye the following year. From that point forward, his impressive credits have included The Mask of Zorro, The Legend of Zorro, Casino Royale, The Foreigner and the recent (and underrated) feature The Protégé.
No Escape is a thoroughly entertaining and exciting action movie that helped launch the career of a filmmaker renowned for thrilling audiences. The Blu-ray itself is excellent. This is the best presentation that the film has ever received and the informative extras add plenty of fun factoids to the history of the film. Action film fans will appreciate this movie and are advised to pick up the disc.