In 2013, Escape Plan, a mammoth film about a prison break, was brought to the screen, with Mikkel Haverstrom directing two of Hollywood’s biggest stars, Schwarzenegger and Stallone, in a thrilling prison break.

Having fallen in love with Stallone in First Blood, he fell in love with Schwarzenegger again in The Terminator. Both Hollywood superstars are big, tough guys. Although the two tough guys appeared at the same time in the later Daredevil, Governor Schwarzenegger at the time was only a cameo for a few minutes.

The famous director Mikael Haverstrom, who made 1048 The Phantom Menace, then split the two male leads in The Walking Dead between Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Prior to this, the two tough guys had rarely worked together, and there were even rumours of “animosity” between them.

Schwarzenegger and Stallone have dominated the Hollywood action genre for nearly 20 years, and whenever we think of them, we think of them as muscular, masculine men. They have been with us through a golden age of action films, and in Escape Plan, it is clear that both of them have aged considerably.

It is a rare dream combination to have two epic action stars working together in Escape Plan. In a prison of steel, the two tough guys team up to escape from a “perfectly safe” prison. There’s no shortage of action, and in the chaos of the prison, the two tough guys not only have to fight for their wits but also keep their humanity intact. This was a new challenge for both of them.

The filming of Escape Plan was unlike any other Hollywood action drama. Producer Mark Canton said of this new kind of action film, “I always want to bring audiences a film that they can only enjoy in the cinema. I’m really excited about this film. Whether you’re an 18 year old college student or a 50 year old office worker, the new ideas, the high calibre of the action scenes and the director’s unique style of filming will please a variety of audiences. “A new kind of action film for young and old alike, Escape Plan eschews the gunfire and large scale gory close-ups of previous action films. In this film, a very specialised all-round knowledge is used.

To escape from a prison is not a very rushed and straightforward process, but rather a knowledge of physics and chemistry including astronomy and geography is blended into the protagonist in lieu of guns and ammunition.

The battle of wits and the very reversal of plot settings give Escape Plan a new dimension in terms of plot and narrative structure. And these fresh elements are exactly what Stallone said after the film: “Audiences are smart, they’re demanding. You have to give them something different, like putting Arnold and I together. It’s not the kind of film that people expect us to do.”

That’s why Escape Plan has been rated as an epic presence in the action genre since its release. Also the film has been praised for the two tough guys meeting across 30 years in two golden ages of action.

In the story, Stallone plays the role of Ray, a security officer who tests the security of prisons around the country. Over the course of the last eight years, Ray has managed to escape from 14 prisons. Shedding the icy wisdom of First Blood, Stallone emerges as a more steady and intelligent aura in the story repertoire, with his mind being his most potent weapon in Escape Plan.

The tree is a big one, precisely because of Ray’s professionalism and intelligence. Each time he escapes from a prison, it signals that there is a hole in that prison that needs to be filled. In his last mission, Ray is put into the rumoured “super-prison”, which is a watertight facility. The systems and security here are top of the range technology and set up, and the chances of escaping from here are nil.

But Ray had all the knowledge and experience. He managed to open the floor of the prison by any means possible and escaped from it. But what lay before him was indeed a prison of death built into the sea. Here, too, is a suspenseful twist, and it is only then that Ray discovers that he has been framed for imprisonment by a conspiracy to kill him.

This prison at sea holds some of the most dangerous criminals in the world. Ray is forced to turn to his fellow prisoner, Emil, who is also played by Governor Schwarzenegger. And so the two men embark on a battle of wits to escape in this heavily guarded “Iron Forest”.

They unravel the mysteries of the “Iron Forest” in this prison of deceit. There are twisted wardens who take pleasure in torturing prisoners. There are ruthless warders and brutal guards. After much torture and hardship, the pair finally escape this dark “hell”.

Of course, the film is more than just an action-packed battle of wits between two superstars. The whole story is interspersed with the glory and darkness of humanity, as the warden and guards in this ‘techno-iron forest’, built on a closed sea, are oppressed by the ‘isolation’ of the world, causing their minds to be twisted and finally having to take it out on the prisoners. In contrast, the framed prisoners are not as likely to be the only ones to have been killed.

In contrast, the framed Ray’s unrelenting hope and solidarity with the Emir is a more humane way of communicating between shots. The two hardened characters both embark on new journeys at the end of the story, with Ray continuing to fight his fate to the end. Perhaps the character is just destined to keep getting locked up and then escaping again. It is a profession of admiration as well as an unyielding defiance of fate.

For there is a prison in everyone’s heart that is hard to escape, a prison that binds us to hope and humanity. But Ray is escaping from this prison step by step, and the road behind him must be broader and brighter. In contrast to Stallone’s Ray, Schwarzenegger (Emile) once again brings tears to the eyes of the audience with a classic gesture. The moment when the governor raises his gun, it is as if we see the Terminator again.

Escape Plan is a film that doesn’t have the fierce fighting that audiences have come to expect, but rather the indomitable spirit of the two superstars, sculpted by the years. In this certain format, we are transported back in time to the days of Rambo and the Terminator. Both superstars will not survive the years, each one will age, but their dazzling light will always be there.

The film features a dazzling array of technological prison scenes, including a six-sided, bulletproof glass prison, and the escape from such a vastly constructed prison is a point of suspense throughout the film. The location chosen by the director was inside NASA, a position that will definitely surprise any audience.

Behind the scenes of the film, we can see that the two tough guys do not have the “bad blood” that they are rumoured to have. Stallone says, “It’s an honour to have a rival like Schwarzenegger.” And Stallone is looking forward to working with Schwarzenegger again through “The Cicada”.

Escape Plan not only has a suspenseful storyline and tight pacing, but it is also excellent in terms of its cast. In addition to the two epic tough guys, the film also features James Kavitzer from “Black Hole Frequency”, Sam Neill from “Jurassic Park” and comedian Vinnie Jones from “Two Guns”.

During the filming of this movie, Stallone suffered a tendon injury and 70 stitches in his right foot as a result of a careless fight scene. This attitude of treating films like life deserves a tribute from all of us.