ESCAPE PLAN (2013)

ESCAPE PLAN (vt EXIT PLAN, 2013). Mikael Håfström, dir. Miles Chapman, story and script; Jason Keller (as Arnell Jesko), script. USA: Summit Entertainment et al. (prod. and US dist.), 2013. Barry Chusid, production design. See IMDb for complex filmographic information.

Significantly not SF, but "20 minutes into the future" adventure/prison-escape movie. See for "Panopticon" surveillance of prisoners and confinement in a high-tech environment combining computers and cameras with industrial machines: (spoiler here) the prison is on a converted container ship of the huge variety, with the usual modern nautical boilers and generators, pipes and passages. If one wanted to push the point, the guards' appearance can be seen to allude to the robot police in THX-1138, but less CHiPs/Modern elegant and more toward po-mo clunky and dark. The look and feel of the prison has a human correlative in its figuratively robotic warden, who is contrasted with the more humane prison physician; cf. and emphatically contrast Mr. Spock vs. Dr. McCoy in classic Star Trek.

5. DRAMA, RDE, 29/X/13