Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

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  • Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

    Does anyone have advice on crafting a quality escape scene?

    You know the scene I'm talking about. Your protagonist is captured, cornered or otherwise imprisoned. Getting them to that spot is, of course, the easy part. Getting them out... not so much.

    Of course I know the escape has to be fresh, inventive and, whenever possible, progress the protagonist's personal arc. All that stuff I'm aware of. I'm talking about pure mechanics.

    How does my guy get out of his box, unlock his prison cell door, escape the burning building, etc. without relying on a tired trope or an all-too-convenient cheat? I'm wondering if anyone has any strategies they like to employ when tackling this kind of question - especially you TV writers out there who have to come up with these kind of scenarios week in and week out.

    How do you folks go about it?

  • #2
    Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

    This is going to come across as incredibly arrogant and probably obnoxious, but: figure it out yourself.

    If you want to be a writer, you'll have to be creative. Nobody here can give you a road map to follow because dreaming up great scenes, dangerous situations and realistic escapes is partly what defines awesome writers of those genres.


    ...Or, I suppose you could always suddenly spit out a total change of genre, such as Uma Thurman being buried alive, so we use the supernatural/comic book style of martial arts known as wuxia pien to have her one inch punch her way back to the surface!

    Good luck with it.
    Cufk, Tish, Sips.

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    • #3
      Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

      Originally posted by MAOshea View Post
      Does anyone have advice on crafting a quality escape scene?

      You know the scene I'm talking about. Your protagonist is captured, cornered or otherwise imprisoned. Getting them to that spot is, of course, the easy part. Getting them out... not so much.

      Of course I know the escape has to be fresh, inventive and, whenever possible, progress the protagonist's personal arc. All that stuff I'm aware of. I'm talking about pure mechanics.

      How does my guy get out of his box, unlock his prison cell door, escape the burning building, etc. without relying on a tired trope or an all-too-convenient cheat? I'm wondering if anyone has any strategies they like to employ when tackling this kind of question - especially you TV writers out there who have to come up with these kind of scenarios week in and week out.

      How do you folks go about it?
      When you read about real escapes they tend to fall into pretty familiar categories. There are escapes that take a long time to manage -- bars or walls that are chipped or sawed through over months. Tunnels that are dug over months or years. Tools that are improvised out of whatever bits of metal or rope of whatever they've got that also take weeks to hammer or file into shape.

      Those kinds of escapes.

      You also have escapes that involve simple gaps in security, either anticipated or simply spur-of-the moment. This can often happen during prisoner transport or when prisoners are being interrogated or taken to court and are left alone in rooms or taken to the bathroom or things like that. Also, sneaking into vehicles that go in and out of facilities or just walking out of doors that have been left unattended (yes, that also happens).

      With low or minimum security facilities, it's actually relatively easy to just walk out of them.

      You'd be surprised how many escapes happen this way.

      Then you've got situations when prisoners have the means of escape, usually weapons, smuggled into them and they get out that way. Also, they can get money which they can give to willing individuals who can be paid to look the other way and they get out that way.

      The point is -- really secure facilities, places like super-max facilities, just don't have prison escapes. Everybody is locked up tight in big steel boxes with heavy steel doors with 24-hour video surveillance and nobody gets out of those boxes without a whole bunch of guards taking them out. And they don't get taken out without either being cuffed or knocked to the ground, maced, and then cuffed.

      You might imagine some scenario where an escape might be staged when someone was being transported from a place like that to somewhere else -- but nobody is breaking out of a place like that -- not unless it's Bruce Banner on a bad day.

      Or -- unless you're prepared to invent some kind of Mission Impossible style technology that permits it.

      Otherwise, it's just not happening.

      Unless, as you say, you create a facility with some built-in flaw that permits it.

      But just to make the point -- prisons are not generally designed with ventilation shafts large enough for people to crawl through. Neither is the Pentagon, the CIA, or pretty much any place else that has any interest in maintaining security.

      NMS

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      • #4
        Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

        Ha. Indeed. Ventilation shafts are pretty much a nonstarter.

        Thanks for your replies, NMS & Grandmaster.

        Re: Grandmaster's point - Of course. I wouldn't expect anyone else to have a solution to my story problem. I'm not looking for a road-map that I can rely on every time. My question is about personal process. We all have different methods for breaking a story, crafting character arcs, etc. I posted this question because I'm curious to hear about other writers' approach to solving this kind of conundrum. Do you entrap your character first, then invent a way out? Do you imagine a dynamic escape scenario first and then craft the capture/prison to fit it? Do you engineer a capture scenario that will equip your character with the tools he/she needs in advance?

        For example, my current process for addressing these situations involves capturing the protagonist without regard for his/her escape. Then, when I need to engineer their escape, I take stock of every tool that's at my protagonist's disposal, using the internet as a resource to see how it might be done. This method serves me well for the most part, but I can't help but wonder if there isn't a better way that might invite more flexibility and inspire more inventive solutions. As I tend to write more action oriented material, I was thinking of keeping a journal of cool escape ideas the way some comedy writers keep a stable of jokes. Just a thought.

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        • #5
          Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

          Wherever the first place your thought goes, you have to push past it. Find the reversals. Find what's *specific* to your protagonist and your world and work from that. Those characteristics should inform how the character handles an escape, or any obstacle. Readers really appreciate being surprised, so surprise them. It's incredibly hard to do, for everyone btw. It's a high art to write a scene that truly feels unique. But keep it credible, and clear, and make it come from character.

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          • #6
            Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

            One of the things I like to do in the case of a great escape or an good action sequence is to reverse engineer it. Figure out a fabulous escape first then work to put him/her into that position, instead of painting yourself into a corner and trying to figure a way out...

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            • #7
              Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

              Originally posted by EdFury View Post
              One of the things I like to do in the case of a great escape or an good action sequence is to reverse engineer it. Figure out a fabulous escape first then work to put him/her into that position, instead of painting yourself into a corner and trying to figure a way out...
              Me, too.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

                Right, gotcha, apologies for coming off as hubris.

                Well, where thinking up a cool means of escape is the more sound idea, sometimes, we simply need that "Oh gosh, now my lead's fvcked..." going on in our heads to be creative.
                You effectively come to a point you don't know how to advance past and then need to take a few days off to figure it out.

                In my latest project, the villains just cut the bonds of the lead's hands so that he can dig his own grave... he's at gun point, with his girlfriend (still bound), yet manages to get away because they've armed him and put him in a situation where he must attack or die.

                It's not the most inventive but it's realistic and on paper, comes across as a gritty struggle for survival, as opposed to a sophisticated Martini-sipping stud setting off a bomb on his wrist watch as a means of distraction.

                I'm not knocking the above, just pointing out that whatever world and characters you have going on, you have to use accordingly.
                Cufk, Tish, Sips.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

                  Originally posted by EdFury View Post
                  One of the things I like to do in the case of a great escape or an good action sequence is to reverse engineer it. Figure out a fabulous escape first then work to put him/her into that position, instead of painting yourself into a corner and trying to figure a way out...
                  I read an interview with the Warchowskis in which they said they did just the opposite. They figured, if it took them a while to figure out how to get the hero out, then the results would be extra surprising to the audience.

                  Don't be afraid of that "impossible" situation. If it takes a little extra time to figure out, that might be a good thing.

                  The potential problem with Grandmaster's example (in theory, I haven't read his script and it may work in his execution) is that sort of thing CAN come off like the writer and villain conspiring to make things easy for the hero. We want the hero to succeed because he's great, not because the villain inexplicably makes things easy on him.

                  I mean, if I was in that situation with a guy who I perceived had any chance at all to disarm me or escape, I'd probably shoot him first and dig the grave myself, right?

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                  • #10
                    Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

                    Agree with don't be afraid of the impossible, but it's also your world, the world you set up. If you set it up correctly with the character and the prison or what have you, the escape/answer ought to there in your design. You're the deus ex machina of your own deus ex machina.

                    But be it comedy, action, thriller, what have you, set it up, set up that escape and make it organic, make it as organic as free range chicken shit.
                    #writinginaStarbucks #re-thinkingmyexistence #notanotherweaklogline #thinkingwhatwouldWilldo

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                    • #11
                      Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

                      It's a puzzle.

                      First you are the villain and come up with the most impossible to escape situation on earth...

                      Then you change hats and become the hero and figure out how to get past all of those things.

                      That's how I do it.

                      Oh, and I love having them partially fail - when your hero has to escape while *still* handcuffed to a chair, it creates new obstacles along the way.

                      - Bill
                      Free Script Tips:
                      http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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                      • #12
                        Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

                        Great thoughts. Much appreciated.

                        Here's my takeaway. Just thought I'd share. Who knows. Maybe this is helpful for someone else as well:

                        Moving forward I think I'll adapt my process to incorporate a combination of both approaches.

                        I'll keep my eyes peeled and my mind open for any cool escape methods that might work well in a script. I'll keep a collection of those in case I ever need them. This might be useful in terms of identifying an escape that resonates with the character's arc. (Bad example - perhaps the protagonist needs to conquer his/her fear of fire and I happen to have the perfect escape method I'd read about in a news article that utilizes fire).

                        At the same time, I think there's a lot to be said for Ronaldinho's theory that inspiration can come from forcing yourself into a corner. When it seems appropriate, I think I'll use this approach and see what comes of it. Who knows? Spending a decent amount of time scratching my head trying to solve the puzzle might unlock ideas and narrative connections I might never have imagined otherwise.

                        On the other hand, if it feels like I'm getting bogged down and spending way too much time trying solve the escape, I always have my stable of pre-fab escapes to draw from.

                        And finally... If all else fails, there's always that old axiom - "Good artists borrow. Great artists look stuff up on the the MacGyver wikia page"

                        http://macgyver.wikia.com/wiki/List_...ed_by_MacGyver

                        Thanks again everyone! I sincerely appreciate the discussion.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

                          I notice that nobody has mentioned the importance of the STORY around the escape. You're telling a tale, first and foremost, and the fact that the protagonist escapes is what's important in the scene. A fancy, new fangled way to escape is a nice bit of clever work, but it's not going to carry the story. However, if you have a really good story, a "classic, done a hundred times can't believe we're seeing it again" escape works perfectly well. Why? Becuase it isn't the same escape they've seen before, this time it's your characters in your story.

                          In "Star Wars", Leia escapes a locked room (cell) becuase somebody else opens it for her. Just a few short minutes later, Leia escapes ANOTHER locked room (trash compactor) because... somebody else opens it for her. The story around the method changed so nobody noticed or cared that the same device was used. The only thing that mattered for the story to work was that she got out.

                          Don't get me wrong, I LOVE creative ways of getting out of a scrape and you should do your best to make things original - but consider the big picture when you are being original. Look at the great "escape" moments in film and you'll see it isn't just the how that made the scenes snap, it's the who and the where and the way they propelled the story.

                          Jon

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                          • #14
                            Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

                            Newb, here...take this with a grain of salt. My response is a bit like MegaJon's, though in addition to thinking about STORY (and personal arc, as you mention), what about your character's personality? How would he approach a conflict? Would he go guns blaring? Or would he take a more subtle or subversive angle? How would his general demeanor dictate how he goes about an escape?

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                            • #15
                              Re: Crafting a fun, logically-sound escape scene

                              Rock hammer and a big goddamn poster of Rita Hayworth.

                              It's good for every escape scenario.

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