Great Escapes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kurt Russell

Carpenter does an excellent job in converting Manhattan into what could best be described as a convict theme park that the authorities have completely given up controlling. The action scenes are well choreographed, though the dialogue and characters look like they have been ripped right out of Saturday morning's cartoon capers. Kurt Russell, who has described the character of Snake as his favourite, was not the studio's first choice for the role.

The first option was Tommy Lee Jones. Nick Nolte and Jeff Bridges were also sought but they turned the roles down. Russell would go on to figure in another prison breakout eight years later with Sylvester Stallone in "Tango and Cash" (1989).

Answer: Stalag 17

Escape attempts fail, fellow inmates are being killed and the prisoner's plans seem to be discovered before they're even put into place. The prisoners suspect they have a spy in their midst and suspicion falls on Sefton, an anti-social wheeler and dealer who trades openly with the Germans and is uncannily successful in accruing supplies. Best described as grimly humorous, this taut drama is one of the best films Wilder has bought to the screen and Holden's portrayal of the self-centred POW hits the mark perfectly. The film has often been quoted as being the inspiration for the television series 'Hogan's Heroes' (1965-71), however, this is incorrect.

The creators of the television series were sued over the matter but won the court case.

Answer: Laurel and Hardy

This is one of those silent movie era classics that sees our intrepid duo tunnel out of prison only to find that they have dug their way directly into the warden's office (Well, here's a another nice mess you've gotten me into Stanley). They steal some clothes and pretend that they're commercial painters, however, they get mistaken as prison inspectors.

Then, in an ironic twist, they end up doing a tour of the jail they had taken great pains to get out of.

Answer: Mathematics

Each room is a cube within a giant cube. Each cube has six doors which lead into other rooms. Some are booby trapped, some are not. All of them are numbered. None of the six prisoners know how they got there or why they were chosen though, eventually, it is revealed that each possess some sort of skill that will help with their escape. One of the crew, Leaven, is a mathematician who begins to identify a pattern within the numbers. She begins to talk about prime numbers, which is fine, but when she begins to preach about prime powers, prime factorizations and Cartesian coordinates it all begins to sound Greek to me.
The main characters in this movie; Quentin, Holloway, Kazan, Rennes, Alderson, Leaven and Worth are all named after prisons around the world.
The film is part of the Canadian Film Centre's 'First Feature Project' programme and is directed by Vincenzo Natali.

Answer: Face/Off

John Woo gets an $80 million budget to highlight a remarkable medical procedure that allows doctors to complete a face transplant between the two lead actors. This means that John Travolta's good guy, Sean Archer, gets to look like Nicholas Cage's bad guy, Castor Troy and vice versa. Castor Troy is considered to be an evil genius and a massive threat to society so he can only be confined in a place where he could never escape. Only it's not Castor Troy who's jailed, it is Sean Archer wearing Castor Troy's face while the real Castor Troy is running around causing mayhem looking like Sean Archer ... are you lost yet?
The little tricks that directors will play; to highlight the isolation of the prison in which Cage is held the name, 'erewhon', was created from an anagram of 'nowhere'. There's also a bit of continued by-play from Nicholas Cage with a beige Volvo in this movie. When Nicholas Cage's character escapes the prison and reaches land, he steals a beige Volvo. In a prior movie "The Rock" (1996) Cage's character indicates that he owns a beige Volvo and in "Con Air" (1997) he drops a dead body from a plane that lands on (you guessed it) a beige Volvo.
As an aside, Cage's movie, "The Rock", is something of a reverse prison break where the criminals actually break into Alcatraz.

Answer: Burt Lancaster

Crowded into Westgate Prison, the inmates are constantly manipulated and subjected to brutal punishment by a sadistic warden. Lancaster's Collins needs to break out to be with his wife who has been diagnosed with cancer and is refusing an operation unless he's at her side.

He endures solitary confinement, murder attempts and an informant while contriving an escape during a drainpipe work detail. The final scene is unforgettable, showcasing a violent riot and a chilling observation by the prison's medical officer, Dr Watson.

Whilst Lancaster puts in a fine performance he is overshadowed by Hume Cronyn as the prison's chief of security, Captain Munsey, in a role that is so far removed from his placid retirement home resident, Joe Finlay, in "Cocoon" (1985).

Answer: A Man Escaped

Bordering on being an arthouse film it is minimalist in that the majority of the action in this movie is focussed on Lieutenant Fontaine's (Leterrier) cell. Bresson uses this brilliantly to highlight the loneliness of his hero and how deep he needs to look inwardly to maintain his spirit against the spectre of death that hovers above him. Bresson's career spanned only thirteen films but such was his impact he is often called the patron saint of French cinema. "Triple Agent" is a 2004 film directed by Eric Rohmer, "La Grande Illusion" is Jean Renoir's 1937 anti-war masterpiece set during World War I and "The Royal Chase" is a 1969 drama directed by Leterrier.

Answer: Chicken Run

"Chicken Run" (2000) is filmed using an animation technique called stop motion and tells the story of a group of chickens who go to great lengths to escape from their coop before they are put through a pie making machine. The chicken's final plan involves secretly building a plane and, unlike the appropriately named 'Colditz Cock' that was never flown by the British prisoners of war, they succeed in flying the coop.

The film featured the voices of Julia Sawalha and Mel Gibson and earned in excess of $200 million at the box office. The chooks are housed in 'Hut 17' which is an acknowledgement to the great World War II escape drama "Stalag 17" (1953).

Answer: I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang

This represents one of the classic prison breakouts. It would set the standard for a string of similar movies that followed in its wake. It had it all; an innocent man wrongly jailed, a brutal prison system, sledge hammers and chain gangs, the breakout, the chase, the headstrong pursuer, the dark swamps and the baying bloodhounds.

He falls for a ruse and is captured. He escapes again. The final shot fade out where Muni's character slips into the shadows is acknowledged as one of cinema's great closing scenes. The US Library of Congress selected the film in 1991 to be preserved because of its 'aesthetic, cultural and historical significance'.

Answer: Escape from Alcatraz

Possibly one of Eastwood's most under-rated performances, it was also his last collaboration with director Don Siegel. As an escape movie it is separated from its contemporaries by the great attention paid to the details that lead up to the breakout, which is based on a true story. Siegel manages the tension with such subtlety and effect that he keeps you on edge until the end which, sadly, is somewhat of an anti-climax.

Whilst the bodies of Frank Morris and his co-escapees, the Anglin brothers, were never found, the crew from the television series "Mythbusters" (2003) did prove that the escape was plausible using the same materials that Ward had access to.