No Escape is a 2015 American action thriller film directed by John Erick Dowdle, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother, Drew Dowdle. The film stars Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, and Pierce Brosnan, and tells the story of an expat engineer trapped with his family in an unidentified country in Southeast Asia during a violent uprising.

The film was released on August 26, 2015, by The Weinstein Company.^[6] It had special sneak previews in the Philippines on August 16 and 17, 2015, as well as multiple pre-screenings throughout the United States before its official release.

Plot

In an unidentified country in Southeast Asia, the Prime Minister closes a deal with a representative of Cardiff, an American company specializing in water systems. After the representative leaves, a group of armed rebels initiate a coup d’état and assassinate the Prime Minister.

Seventeen hours earlier, Jack Dwyer, a new Cardiff employee, arrives in the country with his wife Annie and their young daughters Lucy and Briegel “Beeze”. At the airport, they run into a Briton named Hammond and his local friend, nicknamed Kenny Rogers, who give the Dwyers a ride to their hotel.

The next morning, Jack leaves the hotel to buy a newspaper and inadvertently finds himself in the middle of a confrontation between armed protesters and riot police. The two forces clash violently as Jack makes his escape, and the protestors gain the upper hand. Jack witnesses rebels executing an American outside his hotel. A rebel soldier then spots Jack, forcing him to quickly climb a fire escape and enter the hotel through a window. The rebels break through the main hotel entrance and begin slaughtering the staff and guests.

Jack makes it back to the room but learns that Lucy is downstairs in the swimming pool. He goes back down to get her just as the rebels force their way into the pool area, while Annie narrowly manages to keep the other rebels from entering their room. Jack returns with Lucy and they all make their way up to the roof to join the other surviving guests. Hundreds of rebels are gathered at the base of the hotel chanting “Blood for water”, and Jack learns the rebels are protesting foreign corporations control of their water supply. Suddenly, a helicopter appears holding armed rebels who immediately open fire. The Dwyers run for cover as the helicopter becomes entangled in electrical wires and crashes. As another group of rebels break through the barricaded door onto the roof, Jack and his family jump onto the roof of another building next to the hotel.

The Dwyers hide in the building until nightfall, but upon leaving, Jack is spotted by a looting rebel who attempts to call for help. Jack pins the man down and kills him. Annie finds a map of the city and decide they need to make their way to the American embassy. They take clothes from the dead office workers to disguise themselves as locals and then make their way through the town on a stolen moped. Upon arriving at the embassy, they discover it has been overrun and seemingly deserted. A small group of rebels spot the family and they flee, taking shelter in a Buddhist shrine garden nearby.

The rebels enter the compound and, as Jack attempts to take one of their guns, Annie comes out of hiding to draw attention away from him. Jack tries to shoot the leader, Samnang, but the gun is unloaded. The rebels then beat and restrain Jack as Samnang prepares to rape Annie. Hammond and Kenny arrive and shoot most of the rebels, though Samnang escapes. The two men then take the Dwyers to a nearby safe house; Hammond reveals he and Kenny secretly work on behalf of the British government. Hammond had been tasked with convincing poor governments to make expensive infrastructure deals with Western companies. Unable to repay their debts, the companies would then be able to control the poorer governments, leaving the citizens to rebel in anger.

Hammond tells Jack they must get to the nearby river where they can sail downstream to the Vietnamese border. During the night, the group is attacked by rebels from a nearby guard tower; Kenny is killed and Hammond is severely wounded. Hammond then sacrifices himself to stop a rebel following them in a truck. Near the riverbank, Annie hides with the children while Jack finds a fisherman, and trades his watch and shoes for a boat. Samnang appears leading another small group. They capture Jack and prepare to execute him. Lucy runs to her father and Samnang catches her; he puts a gun in her hands and another to her head, ordering her to kill Jack or he will kill her. Before she can make a choice, Annie attacks the group, bludgeoning Samnang to death with an oar. Jack takes the gun from Lucy and kills the remaining rebels.

The Dwyers paddle downriver toward the Vietnamese border. They are spotted by another group of rebels, but since the border is in sight, they keep paddling. As soon as the boat crosses the border marker, the Vietnamese border guards turn their guns on the rebels, warning them that any acts of aggression will be interpreted as an act of war; the rebels relent and walk away. The Dwyers embrace one another, having finally survived their ordeal, and Jack later recovers in a local hospital.