Wootan Yu Part II: Isabelle Fuhrman and the Escape👂🏽🔥🤳✈️⛪️ crew

An Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021) Review

Orphan Black’s Ferdinand, Orphan’s Esther, and Pose’s Indya Moore are just a few cast members in a solid team of escape artists and designers.

The following is a review for the extended cut of the film. I have no idea what the theatrical release consists of. Hang on.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Ben and Zoey are back in a new leveled up version of Minos Escape Rooms. This time, with other surviving champions of Minos’ previous Escape Rooms.

Holland Roden’s Rachel Ellis, Indya Moore’s Brianna Collier, Carlito Olivero’s Theo, Thomas Cocquerel’s Nathan, join our final two for some more escape room fun starting off in a subway train car that derails into the depths of the NY tunnel system.

We find out the genre of competitors each character was a part of throughout the film.

Brianna Collier endured an exploding hall of mirrors in a challenge designed for influencers.

Rachel Ellis ~ painlessly ~ suffered a game with fellow players who could not feel pain. “Just imagine…the kinds of puzzles Minos came up with for the pain freaks.”

Nathan is a former priest who competed with a bunch of priests whose game was sought to determine if the priests’ faith was enough to get them through their games.

Let’s talk about the rooms.

THE SUBWAY CAR

‘If you see something, say something’ guides the competitors to look through a bag that gifts them rubber pads to hold onto the handles without being electrocuted. They discover the creator of the advertisements for the train forgot how to turn on auto-correct so the missing letters in the text correspond with the correct handle to pull in their car. Once complete, the message reads “Welcome Back” while pushing them into the next room. Quite an electrifying start.

THE BANK

The players find out they need to step on the tiles in a specific sequence ordered by a code in line with the time on the clocks – or be zapped by a grid system of lasers. Mr.Priest takes it upon himself to try and test out tiles with no rhyme or reason and he does surprisingly well for a little bit (shoutout to the glass bridge on Squid Games.) They leave lollipops to make it easy for others to follow the path to the exit: the vault.

THE BEACH

A polaroid in the sand guides them to a metal detector they have to piece together themselves. Having the games in the setting of a postcard is such a smart choice. Daylight horror is underutilized and it completely works here. Spots in the sand might pull you under (which is sadly how we lose Nathan).

What turns this room on its head is that the group finds out they need to get the fridge open to exit the room but Zoey is focused on something else…

A secondary exit. A mistake on the gamemakers part? She makes her way from the top of the lighthouse taking Rachel with her, leaving Brianna to continue the game the way the makers had intended – through the fridge, and leaving Ben to fall through the sand as the room closes up.

THE BODEGA

Zoey and Rachel find a manhole that leads to a busy intersection in the city, but as they get out, Brianna races to them. It seals. They find themselves back in the game. How fun! Zoey ends up in the sitting taxi that closes and locks leaving Brianna and Rachel to suffer an agonizing death of acid rain (well at least Brianna).

THE ESCAPE

The conclusion comes to Zoey rescuing the credited game designer’s daughter, Claire, from a holding cell after discovering she has been the one forced to design the games while her father takes all the credit. Claire left clues for Zoey to find another way out. She gets her moment to lock her father in the cell he forced her into and sends Zoey away to finally put an end to the games her father has organized.

*Stu Macher voice* BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE.

Claire’s entire life has become about the games at the hands of her father. “Parents are supposed to love their children. They aren’t supposed to throw them away like trash.”

She confesses she tried to prove her usefulness to her father by getting rid of her own mother – putting Sonya in an escape room in their in-home sauna. “I followed my curiosity wherever it led and I was smarter than both of you.” Disturbing. Unsettling. More please.

I think what’s great about these films is you want to figure out the story as with any movie but you also are playing the games with the characters. And on top of the through storyline and the escape room game itself, there’s Claire’s hidden game within the game.

It’s also very stylized in its colors and literal visual effects. With a film like this they have so much room to play with all of these elements and they do it well.

Here’s a quick little list of thing’s I really liked.

This shot right here.

This one too - Brianna close to being killed.

This little easter egg right here. Moment of silence for my boy Danny 🙏

Rachel’s “Well I’ll Be” Moment ~ Moments before disaster

I have to say this woman just absolutely suffered.

but not as much as Theo’s wife when she finds out he’s late….again 🙄

Fun concept. Fun rooms. Fun clues. And extremely well blended cast. Rachel and Brianna definitely had more to them that I wish we could have seen more of but I’m happy they survived as long as they did. And I haven’t yet seen The Novice but Isabelle Fuhrman’s role here makes me even more excited to see it.

If you know how the theatrical release differs from this, please let me know. Otherwise, I will watch that version when I can.

By the way, are we getting a sequel to this?

“You and Mom are gonna be so proud of me when you see what I can really do.” is a killer way to close this part of the story out. But knowing the real mastermind has gotten away with it, I’m gonna need another. Isabelle Fuhrman as the main antagonist? Make it happen!

Crew Shoutouts:

Nezile Ntutha - Set PA: second unit

Joshua Brownwood - Cast Production Assistant

Hannah Versfeld - Art Director

A round of applause. 🙌 🙌 🙌