AlthoughOwen Wilsonhad toyed with the genre in Behind Enemy Lines, he was still very much a comedy and drama man, meaning the movie was also a change of gears for him.
But audiences loved it, with No Escape making more than $50 million at the global box office, from a reported budget of just $5 million. So if you are wondering what so appealed to fans of the genre, here’s the movie’s plot, plus detail of what inspired it.
What is No Escape about? Prime Video movie explained
No Escape stars Owen Wilson as Jack Dwyer, an engineer who relocates to an unnamed country in Southeast Asia, together with his wife Annie (Lake Bell) and two daughters. When they arrive at the airport, they run into a British traveler called Hammond (Pierce Brosnan). Who will become important in a moment…
Mere hours after settling into their hotel, armed rebels kill the country’s Prime Minister, kicking off riots, and an attempted coup. This means all hell breaks loose, and Owen Wilson has to go intoLiam Neeson/Taken mode to protect his family.
And while Jack Dwyer doesn’t have a similarly particular set of skills, he does get help from Hammond, who appears to be an operative for the British government, allowing Brosnan to channel his James Bond persona as he helps to save the day.
“Right before we got to Thailand, a coup overthrew the Prime Minister,” says John. “There’d been no previous warning. There was a feeling of anxiety in the air. So I started thinking about that. If it went badly, what would I do?”
No Escape is currently available on Amazon Prime Video.
Chris Tilly is the TV & Movies Editor at Dexerto. He has a BA in English Literature, an MA in Newspaper Journalism, and over the last 20 years, he’s worked for the likes of Time Out, IGN, and Fandom. Chris loves Star Wars, Marvel, DC, sci-fi, and especially horror, while he knows maybe too much about Alan Partridge. You can email him here: chris.tilly@dexerto.com.
