Escape from Absolom

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Movie
German title Escape from Absolom
Original title No escape
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1994
length 118 minutes
Age rating FSK 18 ( indexed )
Rod
Director Martin Campbell
script Michael Gaylin ,
Joel Gross
production Gale Anne Hurd
music Graeme Revell
camera Phil Meheux
cut Terry Rawlings
occupation

Escape from Absolom is an American action - thriller from 1994 directed by Martin Campbell with Ray Liotta in the lead role. It was based on the novel The Penal Colony by Richard Herley and describes the fiction of a possible future sanctions system for criminals . The film opened in German cinemas on July 14, 1994.

action

The world's crime in 2022 has become so rampant that the now privatized penal system has grown into a thriving industry. Former soldier JT Robbins is serving a sentence for the murder of his superior general. Because of his rebellious behavior, the sadistic prison director transfers him to the Absolom maximum security prison .

"Absolom" is a lonely island in the ocean, guarded by a satellite surveillance system and protected by armed units that prevent any escape. The director lets the most dangerous criminals illegally fight for bare survival on the lowest standard of living. These have split into two camps: the outsiders , brutal thugs and cannibals under the leadership of the ruthless Walter Marek , and the peaceful insiders , who have built a fortified village under the leadership of their father , the leader.

Robbins is caught by the Outsiders shortly after being released on the island and taken to their camp. To the amusement of the men, Marek Robbins has a life and death arena duel against one of his strongest men. Despite massive disadvantages, Robbins can clearly win the fight. Marek is stunned and offers Robbins to work for him. With a clever deception, Robbins succeeds in disarming Marek and humiliating him in front of his troops by throwing him into the water basin. Robbins takes the chance to escape and takes Marek's high-tech weapon with him.

During the subsequent hunt through the jungle, Robbins can kill several Outsiders, but he injures his leg. Marek and his men finally place him at a high waterfall and hit him with several tranquilizers. Then Robbins falls down the gorge and lands in the water. He washes up on the bank, exhausted, where the insiders find and rescue him.

After the insiders feed him back, Robbins immediately goes to work on his plan to flee the island. Robbins befriends young Casey, and the villagers try in vain to convince him to stay in the village and accept his life on Absolom.

One night Robbins watches the father's people secretly carrying building materials to the coast. After several observations, Robbins finds out that a handful of villagers under the command of their father are building a vehicle to safely leave the guarded seas around the island. During the first test, the submersible can cross the thermally monitored death zone, but outside this zone it is destroyed by attack helicopters. Robbins, the father, the hobbyist Dysard, and a few others manage to take cover before the prison guards shoot the coast. After this failure, Robbins learns from "father" that the prison director has smuggled a spy into the village.

During the Insider's Christmas party that followed, the Outsiders attacked the village in an attempt to loot it; the outsiders do not take care of their own maintenance, but are provided for by the guards. A bloody battle begins in which the father is injured and is brought to safety by his servant. However, Marek follows them. Robbins comes to the aid of the father. After a brief scuffle, Marek flees and the Outsiders withdraw.

The next morning the surviving villagers remove the traces of the attack. In a conversation with Dysard in his workshop, Robbins notices a V8 engine that is missing the distributor. Otherwise it is in good condition. It occurs to Robbins that he could find a distributor from the Outsiders. He also encourages Dysard to build another vehicle. Robbins promises to get him the part he needs from the “Outsider” warehouse - in return for a ride to freedom. He breaks loose on his own, but Casey follows, and both of them are caught by the Outsiders. Marek lets Robbins fight Casey. Casey sacrifices himself for Robbins to save his life. Then Robbins is to be beheaded. With the help of a former "insider" who was expelled by the insiders due to a security breach, he managed to escape with the distributor he was looking for, and he learned that Marek is planning another attack in order to finally conquer the insider village. The reason for this is that the scarce supplies make it increasingly difficult to hold the Outsiders together and maintain his position of power.

When Robbins arrives back at the Insider Village, he learns that the father is seriously ill with cancer and will soon die. He also informs the insiders of the impending attack. After an angry discussion with some of the villagers and the father, they decide to evacuate the village and set a trap for the outsiders. Dysard is given the task of building the second ship with the now repaired V8 engine as a drive.

Robbins uses a ruse to lure the “outsiders” into the village - and thus into the ambush. The attackers gathered in the market square are beaten as Robbins blows up this place with the stolen high-tech weapon from Marek. The other Outsiders flee into the jungle. Marek, who was believed to be dead, still manages to seriously injure "father", but Robbins can ultimately eliminate Marek and push him down from a high tower. When the father dies, he asks Robbins to take his place, but he refuses. Instead, he tells him that he killed his superior because he was used in a combat mission to destroy a village full of women and children. Robbins cannot live with this burden, so he must be released so that the world may know the truth. The father understands this and in return asks him to take his diary about the insiders with him and also to explain the illegal machinations of the prison director.

During the battle, Dysard was killed while building the second ship and his nearly finished work was destroyed. However, Dysard was able to snatch a necklace from his killer. Since this chain is owned by King, the director's spy has been exposed. Robbins then appoints the father's right-hand man Hawkins as the new leader of the Insider. With him and King's forced support, he lures the prison director to "Absolom". Robbins and the villagers can turn off his guards and hijack his helicopter . With some insiders, the escape from the island succeeds, while the director and King are left with the lurking outsiders.

Reviews

"Action story cobbled together from relevant genre models, which relies more on played out cruelty and a perfidious image of" charisma "than on the credibility of the story and characters. Convincing: the cast of the supporting roles. "

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

The film was nominated for the Saturn Award for best science fiction film in 1995 .

Trivia

  • Although the film was given the FSK classification “18+”, it was often released in a shortened FSK 16 version due to various depictions of violence. He has also been on the index since 1995.
  • In the US, the film grossed around $ 15 million.
  • David Wenham has a mini-role as a guard . He later became known as Faramir in the Lord of the Rings film adaptations .
  • The roles of the film were cast exclusively with male actors.
  • The dubbing voice of Ray Liotta was Christian Tramitz .
  • Samples from the film are used by the music project Feindflug in the songs "Lagerhaft" and "Kahle Threathung". At the beginning of the song "Immune" by the rock band Godsmack you can hear a quote from the prison director.
  • Robbins mentions in the film that he was on a mission in Libya in 2011 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Escape from Absolom. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used