Escape Plan 2: Hades

Dir: Steven C. Miller

2018

*

Like most mindless-action films, Escape Plan didn’t really do anything that warranted a sequel other than make a bit of money, but like many a mindless-action film before, as long as it as easy to watch as the first, then I see no harm. Escape Plan 2: Hades is no-where near as watchable as the first and I believe that the only reason it hasn’t adorned most people’s ‘worst films of the year’ lists is because very few people went to go and see it. It had a $20 million budget – pretty low for a modern action film - and it still lost money. However, the makers were so confident that it would be popular, they already put the third film in motion before the second one was released. Amazing, especially as one of the key reasons no one went to see it was because Arnold Schwarzenegger declined to be part of it. It does feature up and coming action star Dave Bautista but it isn’t quite enough. Sylvester Stallone himself only features for around fifteen minutes of the movie, so I don’t think I’m out of order in feeling that as a viewer, I have been cheated. When out of the original film of b-listers only 50 Cent is prepared to return for a sequel you know there has been trouble. After escaping the Tomb in the first film, Ray Breslin (Stallone) has continued operating his security company to some success. He employs Hush and Abigail as members of his senior staff, with newcomers Shu Ren, Jasper Kimbral and Luke Graves as field operators. During a hostage rescue mission in Chechnya, Kimbral, trusting his computer algorithms, deviates from the mission objectives, resulting in one of the hostages getting shot. The hostage later dies of her wounds. Because of his inability to work in a team, Breslin fires Kimbral from the company. A year later, Shu is contacted by his family to protect his cousin Yusheng who is about to announce groundbreaking satellite communications technology from his telecommunications company. Yusheng is targeted by a rival company who wants his technology and has made increasingly aggressive attempts to acquire it. After attending a party in Bangkok, Yusheng is confronted by masked men. Shu fights them off, but both of them are stunned with taser weapons and kidnapped. When Shu comes to, he finds himself imprisoned in an unknown location with the appearance of an arena, where inmates are forced to fight each other and the winner receives a reward. He is forced to fight another prisoner and wins. Shu later encounters Kimbral as another inmate. Kimbral tells Shu that the prison they are in is called Hades and that he has been imprisoned for several months. Meanwhile, Luke, Hush, Abigail and Breslin attempt to locate Shu after his and Yusheng's disappearance. In the prison, Shu formulates an escape plan while drawing on the training he received from Breslin about prison escapes. Shu meets the warden, Gregor Faust, who calls himself the "Zookeeper" and learns that Faust wants Yusheng's patents on his communications technology. If they give him the information, Faust will release them both. Yusheng tells Shu that since the technology could be used to hack into and control any nuclear launch system in the world, he buried it for fear of it being used for nefarious purposes. They resolve to escape the prison. Using his contacts, Breslin determines that Hades is funded by a mysterious organization composed of the same group who funded the Tomb. Breslin seeks help from an old contact, Trent DeRosa. While following a lead on Shu's disappearance, Luke is also caught and transferred to Hades. Shu attempts to learn the prison layout. He befriends the prison cook and learns that the prison layout changes every night. Kimbral informs him that another inmate, a hacker known as Count Zero, knows the layout of the prison. Shu earns his trust and Count Zero gives him the information, but in doing so reveals his identity. The following day, Shu, Luke and Kimbral are brought in for questioning and forced to watch as Count Zero is presumably executed. As Shu contemplates how his plan was compromised, Kimbral reveals that he is the one who runs Hades and the Zookeeper works for him. In the year since being dismissed from Breslin's team, he designed and built Hades to prove that his algorithms work and that his prison is inescapable. Breslin and DeRosa find clues that reveal Kimbral's connection to Hades. Knowing Kimbral is out for revenge, Breslin willingly allows himself to be captured and transferred to Hades. Using a hidden communication device in his tooth, Breslin stays in contact with Hush while attempting to breach the prison's defenses from the inside. Breslin, Shu, and Luke formulate a new plan to escape while enlisting the help of Yusheng, the cook, Count Zero's friends and other inmates. They manage to disable the prison's security cameras and with Hush's help from the outside, temporarily shut down Galileo, the prison's automated defense system. They break into the prison's medical center and attempt to gain control of the prison's systems and get to the control room. The Zookeeper responds with an armed force and in the shootout, several of the inmates are killed and the group gets separated. Meanwhile, DeRosa, following his own leads, locates the prison from the outside and prepares to break in. Yusheng manages to override the prison's power systems, alerting DeRosa to the prison's entrance and allowing him to break in. While attempting to locate an exit, Shu encounters the Zookeeper and the two engage in a fight, ending with Shu's victory. Breslin, Luke and DeRosa converge on the control room. Breslin faces off with Kimbral in hand-to-hand combat while DeRosa rescues Luke from the prison guards. Breslin defeats Kimbral and together with DeRosa disables Galileo for good. Shu and Yusheng find an exit and are safely extracted by Abigail and Hush. Breslin is then contacted by the group behind Hades, after which he vows to track them down and expose them. Stallone and Dave Bautista are the leading names but neither of them is around much and neither of them do much. The film is actually led by Huang Xiaoming and Jesse Metcalfe but neither is a leading actor or an exciting action star. Hades is the worst super prison I have ever seen and it looks like exactly what it is – a cheap film set. The story is predictable and uninteresting and I had not one ounce of emotion invested in the characters. I can’t believe they’re making another one.