10 Great Escape Scenes

When we watch a film, we want to go on a ride. When we care about a character, and they become trapped in a situation, we want to see them escape, and the ride comes from the suspense of the question, “But how? A truly great escape scene begins with the fear, worry and doubt that our protagonist won’t be able getaway safely or at all. The following scenes deal with physical, emotional, and figurative escape and all manage to keep us on our toes wondering, “How will they do it?”

10. Leon: The Professional (1994)

Leon (Jean Reno) becomes a true hero when he helps the young Mathilda (Natalie Portman) escape from the snipers coming for them both. He tells her to grab an axe from the hallway, and they dive into an empty apartment room. As sniper shots burst through the walls and windows, Mathilda jumps behind a couch. Leon then whacks a hole into the wall with the axe and guides her into it, telling her, “I love you Mathilda,” just before the police launch a bomb into the room. Leon survives, posing as an ESU officer, but only a moment later uses a grenade to take out the entire building and the band of dirty cops. Although Leon is killed, he has saved Mathilda and given her freedom from her corrupt childhood.

9. Stand by Me (1986)

One of the greatest coming-of-age films of our time follows four boys on their journey to find both the body of a missing boy in town and their capacity for courage. After an emotionally and physically demanding expedition, the boys finally discover the mangled body of Ray Brower and decide to take him back into town. Just as they celebrate their rescue, Ace (Kiefer Sutherland), the leader of the older gang in town, shows up. He has been tracking the body too and demands the four boys hand over their find. When the boys refuse, Ace pulls a knife on them and goes to slice Chris’s (River Phoenix) throat. Then, Gordy (Will Wheaton) fires a shot from a gun Chris brought along. As the young, fragile Gordy peers over the top of the weapon, he tells Ace, “I’ll kill you. I swear to God…Suck my fat one you cheap dime store hood.” Ace and his gang retreat. Gordy and his friends have escaped a potentially brutal beating from the gang and have saved the body. In a way, the boys escape not only Ace, but they’ve also escaped many of the fears they had before they began their journey.

8. Hotel Rwanda (2004)

Many times a character can’t escape by just physical means; they must use their words. Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) and his family have been experiencing the growing chaos in the relationship between the Hutu and Tutsi people, causing a brutal political uprising. One day a Rwandan officer threatens to shoot Paul and a large group of his neighbors, and he must think quickly in order to help everyone escape. He tells the officer to “name a price” and take money instead of their lives. Paul hands over fifty thousand francs for his wife and children. He collects money from the crowd of huddled people and pleads, “I will give you a hundred thousand francs for all of them.” He calmly persuades the officer to let him run into the hotel to retrieve the money. The people are herded into Paul’s van and when he returns with the cash, the officer lets them all go. By remaining composed, catering towards the greed of the officer and acting efficiently, Paul helps everyone escape and saves many lives.

7. The Lion King (1994)

A wonderfully crafted escape scene comes in the form of animation. Scar (Jeremy Irons), brother to the king Mufasa (James Earl Jones), has his eyes on the throne. He crafts a plan to have both Simba (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), the prince, and Mufasa killed. One day Simba wanders down to the valley and suddenly hears the ground rumbling. Thousands of wildebeests run over the mountain, creating a stampede likely to crush Simba. As the young prince runs for his life, Scar hurries to tell Mufasa of his son’s danger. Mufassa goes to rescue Simba and places him up on a rock out of danger, but he cannot save himself. As Mufasa hangs from a cliff above the stampede, he pleads with Scar to help him, who replies “Long live the king” as he lets go of his brother’s paws. Although Mufasa is killed, Simba escapes and therefore Scar will not become king. This scene is both heart-wrenching and begins the emotional journey of Simba from young, wounded cub to fearless King.

6. Misery (1990)

Stephen King is the master of the thriller, and subsequently the escape. In Misery it’s the escape of romantic novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) from his “Number one fan,” Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates). After rescuing him from a car crash, she takes him back to her remote home in the mountains and for weeks Paul is held captive. One night Paul asks Annie for a cigarette, match, and Dom Perignon champagne. He sits down at the typewriter to finish his novel and when Annie returns, he lights the manuscript on fire, launching her into a panic. When she bends down to put out the fire, he slams the typewriter over her head. The next few minutes consist of some head smashing, eye gouging and fight-to-the-death wrestling on the dining room floor. As Paul crawls his way to the front door, he manages to hit Annie in the face with a metal horse figurine, knocking her out cold. After watching the torturous events Paul endures throughout the film and the failed attempts to escape Annie’s wrath, it’s very satisfying when she is finally defeated and Paul is free. No wonder “I’m your number one fan” is a line that still brings terror to the fawned upon.

5. Shanghai Noon (2000)

After Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) and Roy O’Bannan (Owen Wilson) start a bar brawl, they’re thrown in jail. Two enemies, stuck in a small cell…the movie has to continue, so we know somehow they manage to escape. Chon tells Roy that Princess Pei Pei (Lucy Lui) was kidnapped from the Forbidden City and that he was sent by the emperor to bring her back. One hundred thousand pieces of gold have been arranged to retrieve the princess and this motivates Roy to help Chon. They decide to try and escape the jail. Chon urinates on a shirt, ties it around the jail bars and using a stick, he bends the metal. They both crawl through and before they make it through the second set of bars, the herd of cattle outside rips off the back of the jail. As the sheriff panics and runs to the cell, Chon and Roy attack him, stealing his guns. Then, a beautiful woman appears with two horses, it’s Chon’s wife. The men escape both the literal jail cell as well as their relationship as enemies, moving forward from this point as comrades.

4. Blue Valentine (2010)

We often think escape scenes are suspenseful, fast paced, and about physical situations, but many times the highest stakes occur in emotional circumstances. Cindy (Michelle Williams) wants a divorce from Dean (Ryan Gosling). She wants to escape from their marriage. They are both in the kitchen when she tells him, “We’re not good together, we’re not good anymore” and that she can’t be with Dean. Dean repeatedly apologizes saying, “Tell me how I should be. Tell me, and I’ll do it!” He’s emotionally making it very difficult for Cindy to leave him. He reminds her of their daughter and how the divorce could ruin her upbringing. Cindy isn’t able to physically leave either when Dean goes to embrace her. She quietly keeps saying, “No.” Eventually, she loosens from his arms and tells him to give her “space.” It’s a wonderful example of the struggle we all go through at some point, escaping a situation or person who you love.

3. Pulp Fiction (1994)

Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) and Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), both bad-asses and enemies, are trapped in a pawnshop’s basement. They are chained to chairs, mouths gagged, and it’s quite clear that they’re going to be brutally raped. When Marcellus is taken in the back room by a dirty cop, Zed (Peter Greene), Butch manages to slip free, knock out the gimp, and heads for the door. But when he hears the screams of Marcellus coming from the other room, he decides to delay his escape and go back for him, a samurai sword being his weapon of choice. He returns, killing the pawn shop owner and freeing Marcellus to grab a rifle, who then shoots Zed in the groin. When Butch goes to leave he asks, “Are we good” and Marcellus replies that they are, but for him to leave so he can go to work on the perverted cop. Both Butch and Marcellus escape, on good terms, justice is served to the rapists and lucky for Butch: Zed left his motorcycle up for grabs.

2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

One of the most famous escapes of all time: Andy Dufresne’s (Tim Robbins) escape from Shawshank prison. We spend an entire film knowing he’s planning to escape, but wondering how he’ll ever manage to pull it off. The night of the escape, Andy stands looking at his poster of Rita Hayworth; behind it is a tunnel he has spent years carving into the wall. After crawling through the tunnel, he finds a sewer main and using a rock, he hits the pipe simultaneously with each crack of thunder, eventually bursting it. Crawling 500 yards through excrement, he finally makes it out of the prison. As he stands in the rain, arms open with redemption, we’re relieved and certain that he’s pulled off the escape.

1. Jurassic Park (1993)

Who can forget the famous “Raptors in the Kitchen” scene from Jurassic Park? It has everything you need for the ultimate escape scene. First off, children are the ones in danger. Tim (Joseph Mazzella) and Lex (Ariana Richards) have managed to find shelter in the park’s main kitchen and just when they feel safe, raptors open the door, smelling humans. They’re trapped in a room with only two doors and therefore two ways out. Shots of the raptors’ sharp, long toenails and vicious teeth serve to up the anti, and as the children crawl around the maze of metal cabinets, they distract the raptors by tapping the floor with cooking utensils and then running in the opposite direction. Eventually, Lex and Tim manage to make it to the door, slamming it and locking the raptors back inside. The scene is suspenseful, terrifying and our kids make it out alive: a well-done scene, Spielberg.