Escape from Alcatraz 2: The Price of Freedom

In early 1960, Frank Morris, a notorious criminal who had escaped from numerous facilities before, arrives at the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island, where no inmate had ever escaped. On the day of his arrival, Morris steals a nail clipper from the Warden’s desk during the admissions process.

Over the next few days, Morris gets to know his fellow inmates: the eccentric Litmus, who loves desserts; English, a black prisoner serving a life sentence for killing two white men in self-defense; and the elderly Doc, a portrait painter who once grew daisies on Alcatraz. Doc’s portraits feature daisies as a symbol of the human spirit and freedom. He gives one of the daisies to Morris. Morris also makes an enemy of Wolf, a rapist who harasses him in the bathroom and then attacks him in the prison yard with a knife; both men are later held in solitary confinement in a pit.

Morris is later released while Wolf is locked up. The Warden discovers that Doc has painted a portrait of him, as well as the other guards. The guards’ paintings are beautiful, acknowledging their humanity, but the Warden’s painting, hidden from view, captures what Doc sees as the ugliness of his cruel nature. Enraged, the Warden burns the painting and strips Doc of his privileges. Doc falls into a depression and while working in the prison workshop chops off several fingers with an axe before the guards stop him.

Morris then meets bank-robbing brothers John and Clarence Anglin, his old friends from another prison sentence, and forms a partnership with inmate Charley Butts. Morris notices that the concrete around the grating in his cell is weak and can be chiseled away, which develops into an escape plan. Over the next few months, Morris, Anglins, and Butts dug through the walls of their cells with spoons (heat welded to make makeshift shovels), made papier-mâché and human hair mannequins to plant in their beds, and built a rudimentary raft from raincoats. During mealtimes, Morris placed a chrysanthemum on the table in honor of Doc, but the Warden stopped and crushed it, provoking Litmus into having a heart attack. After a routine search of Morris’s cell turned up nothing during a contraband search, the Warden ordered him transferred to another part of Alcatraz. Wolf was released from his isolation cell and prepared to attack Morris again, but English stopped him by threatening Wolf with his own gang.

That night, the prisoners decided they were ready to leave. Morris, Anglins, and Butts planned to meet up in the hallway and escape. Butts lost his temper and failed to meet them. He later changes his mind, but it is too late, and returns to his cell to rue his missed opportunity. Carrying flotation devices, Morris and Anglins go to the roof and avoid the headlights. They climb down the side of the building into the prison yard, climb over the barbed wire, reach the shore of the island, and inflate the raft. The men leave Alcatraz, partially submerged, clinging to the raft and using their feet to propel themselves.

Note: The following content is hypothetical and not based on actual information.

The next morning, the escape is discovered and a manhunt is launched. Scraps of the men’s raincoats and personal effects are found floating in the bay. While searching Angel Island, the humiliated warden claims that the men’s personal effects were important and that the men would have drowned before leaving them behind. A police officer notes the possibility that the men simply threw them into the water to make it look like they had drowned. The Warden is then summoned to Washington and confronted by his superiors, with the prospect of being forced into early retirement/termination of duty for failing to prevent the escape. On a rock, he finds a daisy and is told by his assistant that no daisies grow on Angel Island.

After their successful escape from Alcatraz, Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers face new challenges as they evade capture by the authorities. The film explores their reclusive lives, new relationships, and attempts to build a normal life under false identities. However, their pasts always lurk, and they must decide whether to continue running or face the consequences.

Frank Morris: Michael Fassbender

Clarence Anglin: Tom Hardy

John Anglin: Aaron Taylor-Johnson

FBI Investigator: Bryan Cranston

Recommended Director: Denis Villeneuve

Style: The film is a psychological thriller with intense action, focusing on character depth and difficult moral choices.