The Kingsway tramway subway also features in the film. A scene near the end is shot in the bascule chamber beneath Tower Bridge in London it is exactly the same location where Wyatt's brother-in-law Boris Starling set the climax of his 2006 novel Visibility. Much of The Escapist was shot in Dublin's Kilmainham Gaol. In an interview with Trevor Groth, Wyatt said "The structure of the film's plot was inspired by a well known short story written in the 19th century by Ambrose Bierce called An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." The role of Frank Perry was written specifically for Brian Cox. Brother of Rizza, drug addled and the source of much conflict. A newly arrived prisoner and Frank's cellmate. The prison's reigning bare-knuckle boxing champion. Stephen Farrelly (credited as Sheamus O'Shaunessy) as Two Ton.Perry's right-hand man and closest friend. A ruthless convict who rules over the other inmates. He is a lifer and has long accepted that he will never see the outside again.
A solid and phlegmatic character, he holds his own, but neither attracts nor creates any trouble. The escape scenes were Perry's hallucinations as he was dying, and he sacrificed himself to cause distraction, allowing the other prisoners to escape. The story snaps back to within the prison where Perry is offering himself to be killed by Rizza for failing to bring Lacey to him for punishment. Perry nears freedom, as he climbs towards a London Underground exit. When Perry receives the bad news that his daughter has died his plans change. But when Perry's new cellmate James Lacey ( Dominic Cooper) gets noticed by Tony (the brother of the powerful inmate Rizza), things get more complicated and lead to Tony's death. He plans an escape with help from Lenny Drake ( Joseph Fiennes), Brodie ( Liam Cunningham) and Viv Batista ( Seu Jorge). When Perry receives his first letter in fourteen years that his cherished daughter is a drug addict and near death following an overdose, he starts to think about escaping. The film runs two narratives simultaneously, preparation of the escape and the escape itself.įrank Perry ( Brian Cox) is a lifer and has long accepted that he will never see the outside again.