Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you an action,
horror film from 2019, titled Escape Room. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
The interior of a cozy, old-timey room can be seen. Suddenly, someone drops from the roof and
runs toward a wall with a 10 number puzzle, requiring a 4 digit code to get through.
One of the walls starts moving in toward him and he panics as he looks for clues.
He thinks he's found it in a book, but then he falls on the ground. He interprets the clue on
4 paintings in the room, but the wall is coming closer. The code he enters doesn't work so he
starts panicking even more, screaming that there's no way out. His leg gets crushed by the wall.
Three days earlier, Zoey can be seen walking to school. She's in class when the professor
asks about the quantum zeno effect. She's written down the answer in her notebook,
but struggles to get her hand up to answer. The bell rings and the professor dismisses the class,
but calls Zoey over to talk to her. He tells her that her paper was great and he tries to
help her get out of her shell, by asking her to do one thing that scares her over the break.
A motorcycle arrives in a business area, then we see Jason talking on the phone in his office,
closing a business deal. His assistant tells him he has another call, which Jason thinks is
about a client giving him a gift. He's right and feels great about it. Ben is labeling groceries
in the back of a store, when his boss comes in. He asks him for a new job position, but
he doesn't want to give it to him. His boss tells him to stop drinking if he wants to move forward.
Back at Jason's office, a gift arrives for him in the form of a black box,
that looks like it can't be easily opened. Jason thinks his client sent it to him. Zoey
goes back to her room and talks to her roommate, who isn't impressed by her nerdy rant and leaves.
She's anxious and trying to calm herself, when it looks like her mirror is shaking. She experiences
something like airplane turbulence, when suddenly she wakes from a nightmare, her roommate asking
if she's ok. Before Zoey's roommate leaves for the holidays she finds a package in front of
their room addressed to her and gives it to her, saying it's from her professor. The same black
box is in her package too. Ben gets to work early and sees one of the black boxes waiting for him.
He tries to open it, by hitting it and throwing it, when it suddenly opens by itself and he
continues the process. Meanwhile, Zoey also tries to open the box and she figures it out quite fast.
Simultaneously, Jason watches YouTube videos to help him open the box.
The three of them succeed in opening the box when a piece of paper comes out of it.
It's a voucher for a Minos Escape room, which if escaped would win them 10 thousand dollars.
The next day, Ben is waiting in front of the Minos building, smoking, when a car parks behind him.
Amanda comes out and they have a small exchange, when she eyes him about smoking. She walks inside
and gives the guard her ID as well as her phone. Before she walks into the elevator,
he thanks her for her service in the army. Danny walks into the elevator with her, last minute. He
takes out a phone which he has sneaked in. Amanda walks into the waiting room first, where Mike,
Jason and Zoey are already sitting. She goes to the reception desk, but the rest tell her not to
bother. Danny walks in second to her, as Mike is ranting about a childhood pet with heterochromia.
Jason and Danny have an exchange about the scar on Jason's hand, and Amanda asks Zoey if they know
each other, because she seems familiar to her. Ben walks in last and greets everyone. Amanda reads
a newspaper about a fire and gets anxious. Danny tells the rest that he has been to 93 escape rooms
before. Jason messes with him about that, but Mike tells Danny that his nephew is just like him and
that he was the one that suggested he tries the Minos Room. Amanda says she's only there for the
money. Danny explains to the rest how the Rooms usually work and Zoey asks how the game starts.
He tells her that they have to wait for the Games Master to take them to the Escape Room.
Ben stands up to smoke another cigarette, but the door knob breaks off when he touches it.
Mike goes over to try and fix it, but Danny thinks that they already are in the Escape Room.
He comes over to the door and sees the oven dial. He says that it's probably a combination lock,
so he tells everyone to look for clues. Everyone searches around the room. Zoey sees a mug with an
airplane and Amanda finds the name Dr Wootan Yu, thinking it might be a clue. Mike picks up a copy
of Fahrenheit 451 and finds a screwdriver hidden inside of it. Zoey thinks that 451 might be the
combination to the lock and inputs it in the door. Suddenly, the celling starts glaring red. They
realize it's actually throwing off heat too. Zoey tries to turn off the dial, but it's stuck. Danny
says that they can ask for a hint, so Amanda goes to ask at the reception. Jason finds a globe with
a boat, which throws him off for a second, but then sees the lock on the window. Ben wants to
break the window with a fire extinguisher, but when he sees that it's fake he throws it away.
The four columns in the room start heating up too. Everyone is freaking out, except Danny and
Zoey finds a key in the extinguisher. She opens the window and they see that the receptionist
is actually a manikin. Suddenly, the phone rings and they all expect Jason to pick up.
The message is automated, saying they should follow the rules. When he drops the phone,
the window shutters go up and more heaters appear. Zoey and Amanda go to get some water because
Amanda is having an anxiety attack. Zoey sees the burns on her neck. The men are looking for clues,
but have no idea what to do as the room is getting hotter. Zoey sees another clue about the coasters
on the table, she runs over to it and presses one of them which opens an exit in the ducts.
The exit opens a little, so they all have to press the coasters simultaneously to open it completely.
Jason goes in the duct and finds a way out. He needs the screwdriver that Mike has,
so Amanda switches places with him and lets him through. Jason opens the other exit. The others
send Amanda next through the vent, while they hold the coasters with both hands. Zoey gets another
idea about the puzzle. She fills a glass of water and places it on the coaster, pressing it down.
Meanwhile, Amanda panics as she's crawling through the duct. She has a flashback from her
time in Afghanistan. Zoey hears her scream and the rest tell her to go after Amanda.
Danny and Ben fill the glasses with water, but they're half a glass short. They argue and a
burner comes down in the room. Ben pours his liquor in the glass and the exit opens. They
escape in the last second as the room burns. They jump through the fireplace into the next room.
Danny is still excited thinking all of it is still a safe game, but Amanda thinks that it
was all real and wants to get out. Jason finds another lock and Danny tries to convince Amanda
not to call the police. He still gives her the phone, but there's no signal. Meanwhile Zoey
and Jason are looking for clues and he finds the first key to one of the locks on the door.
Then he finds the second lock on the door, which needs a 7 letter word to open.
They all try to figure out the words, when Ben sees animal skulls on the wall.
He has a flashback in which he's driving drunk with his friends and sings Christmas songs.
He tells the others to try with Rudolph and it works. Jason opens the door and they start
walking outside of the house, but Zoey and Ben stay back. When the two of them exit the house
and it locks behind them. The next room looks like it's actually outside and it's really cold.
Danny hits his head on the walls of the room, which are giant monitors. He falls on the ice
and it sounds like it's cracking. Danny is still convinced that the room is safe.
Freezing air starts shooting through the vents. He tells the rest to look for clues again.
Jason is the one to find the door. Zoey sees the phrase "true north is a lie" etched on a sled.
Simultaneously, Mike finds a fishing rod on a tree and Ben is trying to light a cigarette. Amanda
finds one coat and says that they'll share it, then gives it to Zoey. Ben falls into a fishing
hole and Danny says that there might be a clue in the water. Suddenly Mike brings over the fishing
rod. While the rest of them are trying to figure out the puzzle, Zoey finds a compass in the coat
pocket. She follows it north, but remembers what she read on the sled and goes the other way.
Zoey finds another clue in the mouth of a stuffed bear and comes back to the group as Ben walks off
to smoke his cigarette away from them. Zoey attaches the clue, which is a magnet, to the
fishing line and Mike drops it inside again. Jason asks for the coat. Mike gets something on the rod,
but it's really heavy. They pull out a frozen cube with the key inside.
Jason asks for Ben's lighter and he throws it at them, prompting Danny to get it. When he gets the
lighter and turns around, he falls into the water and under the ice. The others see him and try to
break the ice to get him. Eventually they loose sight of him and he drowns. Jason gives Amanda the
coat, saying she was right that the game is real. Mike and the group attack Ben, thinking that it's
his fault that Danny fell. They think he's the Games Master. He starts insulting all of them,
but Jason stops him and tells them that it's more important to survive. Then he tells them
that they should use their body heat to get the key out of the ice. The temperature drops
in the room. Jason has a flashback of himself on a boat with his friend wearing a red coat.
Mike faints, but Jason gets they key out. They find the door and it opens behind them.
As they start moving toward it, the ice breaks and they jump inside in the last moment again.
The next room is a bar where everything is upside down. The room starts moving up and when it stops
the phone rings. Mike walks under the phone and it drops in his hand. There's a deafening noise and
then music starts playing. Jason sees the door to the other room, but it's missing a doorknob.
Mike notices the eight ball from the pool table missing and starts moving to look for clues, when
the noise reappears and Ben stops him from falling over because a piece of the floor falls off.
Amanda climbs the bar and finds a lock box with four numbers. Zoey finds a sliding puzzle on the
adjacent wall and climbs over the hole to it. Mike climbs over to her side too and helps her
up. As she's solving the puzzle, another part of the floor falls off, almost taking Jason with it.
Ben jumps over to the puzzle side and Zoey finally solves it. They figure out how to read
it and get a four digit code, but it doesn't work when Amanda inputs it in the lockbox.
Another part of the floor falls and Mike and Ben grab on to the puzzle, but they're too heavy
for it and it starts tipping over. Mike is too afraid to climb off, so Zoey does it and falls
on the floor, hitting her head. They all call to her to get up, when she has a flashback of an
airplane accident she was in, calling to her mom. Jason wakes her up and gets her back on the wall.
Zoey tells Amanda to try the code in reverse and it works. She finds the doorknob inside the
lockbox. Another part of the floor falls off. Amanda jumps over to the pool table trying to
get to the other side, but drops the knob on the last part of the floor. As she drops down as well,
the noise starts again so she throws the knob to Jason and grabs onto the phone, swinging over the
hole. She slips and falls. Jason opens the door and Mike follows him. Ben gets Zoey to go into
the other room and stays with her to calm her. The next room looks like a hospital. They all
begin looking through it, when they realize all of the hospital beds look familiar.
Those are their beds when they were in the hospital. Zoey checks one of the other beds and
sees that it's Amanda's. She was the sole survivor in an explosion. Zoey tells her own story as well.
She was the sole survivor of a plane crash. Jason was the sole survivor of a boating accident.
His story is that his friend lost his mind because of hypothermia and swam off. Ben shares that he as
well was the only survivor in a car crash and Mike the only survivor in a mining accident.
He has a flashback of the mine, as he tells them that his brother died in that accident.
They start connecting all of their accidents to everything that was in the rooms. Zoey finds
Danny's documents, he was a sole survivor in an accident as well. She thinks that the game is
one of survival, to see who is the luckiest of the lucky. The TV starts playing and it shows a
countdown to get out of the room. The three men start looking for ways to get out of the room.
They find ex-rays as clues, which Ben figures out are actually sign language and they mean EKG.
Zoey starts smashing the cameras, thinking that if they keep watching them, the group won't be
able to win. Jason finds the poison that will be released in the room when the countdown stops,
then finds the EKG machine, saying that the right heartbeat will open the doors.
First he tries with Ben's heart rate, but when it doesn't work, he convinces Mike to try it as
well. His heart rate is high, but not high enough. Jason wants to shock him to get his
heart rate higher and manages to convince him to do that too. He gets his rate up,
but ends up killing him. Ben is trying to revive Mike, as the poison starts filling the room and
Zoey is still breaking the cameras. Jason attaches the EKG to himself and gets his rate low enough.
The door opens. Jason goes out, but Zoey doesn't want to go. Ben follows Jason out
through the vents and the door closes. Zoey is suffocating and crawling toward an oxygen mask.
Jason and Ben make it to the other room and they start arguing. Ben accuses him that he
not only killed Mike, but his friend on the boat as well. Jason tells him that surviving is
a choice and continues to look for clues, finding a hatch. They both grab on the hatch and open it.
Suddenly, they start hallucinating. There was poison on the handle and the puzzle on
the hatch tells them to find an antidote. Ben finds the antidote, but there's only one dose.
Jason jumps him and they fight for it. Ben ends up killing Jason and injects himself with the
antidote. Ben jumps into the other room. It's the same one from the beginning of the film.
Meanwhile, the cleaning crew walks inside the hospital room and they think they've found two
bodies. They find the oxygen mask hanging from the celling, when suddenly Zoey wakes
up and knocks them both over. She grabs a gun from one of them and leaves the room.
Simultaneously, Ben is at the other room, after he's messed up the code. He gets into
the fireplace as the wall closes in and manages to escape the room. When he walks inside,
a disembodied voice starts talking to him, telling him that his money were on Jason. The Games Master
appears telling him that he's won. Ben antagonizes him, but he just starts explaining what the point
of the game is. The customers of the game are actually the most powerful people on the planet
and they want entertainment with real stakes. The man tells Ben that he didn't think it was possible
for him to win as he gives him a cigarette. Then he tries to kill him, but Ben suddenly stabs him
with the piece of wood that was stuck in his leg. The monitor shows that Zoey and the man are both
still in play, then she comes out shooting at him. The man tackles her and almost kills her,
when Ben knocks him over and then shoots him. The both of them walk out of the building.
One day later, Ben is in the hospital and is in a stable state. Zoey is seen sitting by his side. A
detective comes in the room and asks her to come with him. He takes her to the Minos building,
which is surrounded by officers. When they walk inside, nothing of the rooms
remain. The detective doesn't believe what she's telling him about the escape rooms,
because they haven't found any evidence. She sees the words "no way out" and realizes that it's an
anagram for "dr wootan yu". But the detective doesn't care and tells her they need to leave.
Six months later, Ben and Zoey are having coffee. She shows him a file she's put together about the
rest of their group and how their deaths were made to look like accidents. He tells
her that she needs to let it go, but she continues explaining what she has found out about the game.
Zoey had deciphered the logo and found out that it was the coordinates to a building in Manhattan.
She's even bought the two of them plane tickets to get there. Ben doesn't like her plan,
but ultimately agrees to go with her. A plane whooshes through the air with
one engine on fire. A stewardess is looking for a clue and finds it in a bag. The tool doesn't open
the cockpit door, but opens to another riddle. As the two stewards try to figure it out, a third one
tells the passenger to brace for impact. The other two figure out the code and go inside the cockpit,
only to find the pilots dead. The stewardess tries to pilot the plane, but it crashes.
Suddenly, two people appear and it becomes obvious that the plane accident was a simulation.
A disembodied voice tells one of the people from
the simulation that Zoey's and Ben's tickets were intercepted and that the game continues.