Escapist, The (2008)

The lights go out for the night at the film’s Owl Creek Prison in London SE1 where Frank Perry is serving a life sentence. This is Kilmainham Gaol on Inchicore Road in Kilmainham, Dublin 8 and much of the action takes place in the location that also appears in ‘The Italian Job’, ‘The Face of Fu Manchu’, 'The Whistle Blower', 'The Last Remake of Beau Geste' and ‘The Mackintosh Man’.

Following a complex escape from the prison in which Brodie is killed during a tunnel collapse, Frank Perry (Brian Cox), James Lacey (Dominic Cooper), Lenny Drake (Joseph Fiennes) and Viv Batista (Seu Jorge) reach a flight of steps leading to an old underground station.

Lenny leads the group as they carry Brodie into the story’s disused Union Street station. The station is played by Holborn tram station on Kingsway WC1 which also features in ‘Hidden City’.

Taken from a similar position. With acknowledgement to London Transport Museum's 'Hidden London' who arrange tours of the disused spaces and stations on London's underground and former tram network and thanks especially to the guides on the day of my visit. See link in the header section above. (PW)

Sitting the deceased Brodie (Liam Cunningham) on one of the station’s benches, the fugitives pause for a rest. Opened in 1906, the station was the northernmost in the Kingsway Tram Subway which ran beneath Kingsway from Southampton Row to Victoria Embankment.

Off angle to include the prop signs that were added for filming. (PW)

Abandoning the lifeless body slumped on the bench, the rest of the fugitives make their way through a tunnel in the direction of Charing Cross. This is a matted shot of Holborn tram station which closed in April 1952 along with the subway. Other productions that have used the location include 'Hidden City' and 'Bhowani Junction'.

Without the digital augmentation. (PW)

When Viv gets his foot caught between rails in the dark tunnel, Lenny tries to free him as a train approaches. This is a reversed shot looking north in the crossover tunnel south of Holborn on the disused Aldwych branch of the Piccadilly Line.

Frank looks up before he and his cellmate James throw themselves against the tunnel wall as the train passes. The crossover tunnel to the west of Charing Cross Jubilee Line platforms on the disused route from Green Park.

Leaving the tunnel and their fallen mates, Frank and Lenny reach Charing Cross. This is the ‘northbound’ platform 3 at Charing Cross underground station in London WC2. The disused part of the station also features in ‘Three And Out’, ‘The Fourth Protocol’, ‘Creep’, ‘28 Weeks Later’ and ‘Skyfall’.

The two catch their breath after climbing onto the platform. The eastern end of platform 4 at Charing Cross. The platform was the southern terminus for Jubilee Line trains between 1979 and 1999.

Having watched Lenny make his way along the platform to freedom, 23401 Frank Perry heads out of the station. The Jubilee Line concourse at Charing Cross underground station with the escalators to the Northern Line in the background.

Walking along the South Bank of the Thames, Frank sees a young girl leaning on the railings ahead. The South Bank outside the National Theatre with Waterloo Bridge in the background and Charing Cross station beyond.

A summery shot. SJ

Frank’s dead daughter Lisa (Eleanor McLynn) turns as her father approaches and the two embrace. The ‘octagonal’ outcrop from Queen’s Walk on the South Bank in SE1 with St. Paul’s Cathedral in the right distance.

Not often one manages a people-free view. SJ