Credits
Distributed by
Vertigo Films
IFC Films

Directed by
Rupert Wyatt

Written by
Rupert Wyatt
Daniel Hardy

Produced by
Adrian Sturges
Alan Moloney

Cinematography
Philipp Blaubach

Edited by
Joe Walker

Music by
Benjamin Wallfisch

Synopsis

The film runs two narratives simultaneously, preparation of the escape and the escape itself. Frank Perry (Brian Cox) is a lifer and has long accepted that he will never see the outside again. 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. He plans an escape with help from Lenny Drake (Joseph Fiennes), Brodie (Liam Cunningham) and Viv Batista (Seu Jorge). 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. When Perry receives the bad news that his daughter has died his plans change. Perry nears freedom, as he climbs towards a London Underground exit. 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. The escape scenes were Perry's hallucinations as he was dying, and he sacrificed himself to cause distraction, allowing the other prisoners to escape.