Ever wonder what happens when a movie star realizes they've made a huge mistake? Most actors just take the paycheck and keep their mouths shut. Not Sylvester Stallone. He’s pretty much the king of calling out his own flops once the ink on the contract is dry. Honestly, the sylvester stallone escape plan franchise is one of the weirdest trilogies in Hollywood history. It started as a dream team-up and ended with Sly calling his own sequel "beyond awful" on Instagram.
What Really Happened with the First Escape Plan
Back in 2013, the pitch for the first movie was absolute gold for anyone who grew up on 80s action. Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Together. For the whole movie. We’d seen Arnold do a tiny cameo in The Expendables, but this was different. This was the heavyweight title fight of the century.
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Stallone plays Ray Breslin. He’s a guy who gets paid to break into prisons to find their flaws. Basically, if you want to know if your jail is secure, you throw Ray inside and see if he can get out. He gets double-crossed and sent to "The Tomb," a high-tech facility that’s literally a giant ship in the middle of the ocean.
It worked. Sort of.
The chemistry between the two legends was great. Arnold has this scene where he starts shouting in German just to distract the guards, and you can tell he’s having the time of his life. It wasn't The Shawshank Redemption, but it wasn't trying to be. It was a fun, $54 million action flick that actually made decent money internationally—nearly $137 million. It survived on the pure star power of two guys who used to be rivals but were now just old friends having a blast.
The Trainwreck Known as Escape Plan 2: Hades
This is where things get messy. Really messy.
By 2018, someone decided we needed a sequel. Arnold was gone. Instead, they brought in Dave Bautista. Now, Dave is awesome, but the movie felt... cheap. It was a $20 million production that went straight to DVD and digital in the US. Stallone isn't even in it for most of the runtime. He’s more like a "special guest star" while younger actors do the heavy lifting.
If you think that sounds bad, Stallone agreed.
He didn't hold back. In a post that went viral among film geeks, he called Escape Plan 2 the "most horribly produced film" he had ever been in. That’s coming from the guy who made Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot. He was frustrated with the lack of vision and the way the production was handled. It felt like a cash grab that used his name to trick people into watching a low-budget mess.
- The Budget: Dropped significantly from the first film.
- The Plot: Something about a robotic, shifting prison called "Hades" that made zero sense.
- The Vibe: It looked like a sci-fi channel original movie from 2005.
It's rare to see a star trash their own project so publicly, but Stallone has always been a "what you see is what you get" kind of guy. He knew the fans felt cheated, and he wanted them to know he felt the same way.
Why The Extractors Tried to Fix Everything
After the disaster of the second film, you’d think they’d just quit. Nope. They had already greenlit a third one: Escape Plan: The Extractors.
Sly was determined to make this one better, or at least more "real." They shot the whole thing in 17 nights. Think about that. Most big movies take months. This was a "dusk till dawn" grind with no breaks. Stallone even brought in a different director, John Herzfeld, who he’d known for years.
The big selling point for the third sylvester stallone escape plan entry was the final fight. Stallone told the choreographers to scrap the fancy martial arts stuff. He wanted it to look like a "real fight." No cuts. One long take. He asked his co-star Devon Sawa if he was ready for it to actually hurt. Sawa apparently said, "bring it."
The result? It’s better than the second one, for sure. It’s gritty, dark, and feels like a classic 70s revenge movie. Is it a masterpiece? No. But it feels like a movie made by people who actually care about the genre.
The Business Reality of Straight-to-Video Sequels
Why do these movies keep happening? It's all about the international market. Even if a movie flops in US theaters, the "Stallone" name sells like crazy in China, Russia, and Europe.
- International Appeal: Stallone is a global icon.
- The Math: If you spend $10 million and make $15 million from overseas licensing, you’ve won.
- The Legacy: Fans will always show up to see Rocky or Rambo, even if he’s playing a character named Ray Breslin.
The first film's success in China alone (over $40 million) basically paid for the sequels to exist. It’s a weird corner of the industry where quality matters less than the face on the poster.
Lessons from the Escape Plan Franchise
If you’re looking to dive into these, here is how you should handle it.
Watch the first one for the Stallone and Schwarzenegger bromance. It’s genuinely enjoyable and the prison-break mechanics are actually kind of clever. You can probably skip the second one unless you’re a completionist who likes suffering. The third one is worth a look if you like brutal, un-choreographed fight scenes and want to see Stallone actually trying to redeem the series.
What’s next? There’s always rumors of an Escape Plan 4, but Stallone is a busy man. He’s got Tulsa King, he’s got The Expendables follow-ups, and he’s always working on something new. If he does come back, you can bet he’ll demand a bigger budget—or at least more than 17 days to shoot it.
Next time you see a movie pop up on your streaming service that looks a little too "budget," check the production stories. Sometimes the most interesting part of the sylvester stallone escape plan isn't how the character gets out of jail, but how the actors survived the production itself.
If you're planning a movie marathon, stick to the 2013 original and the 2019 "Extractors" finale. You'll save yourself about 90 minutes of "Hades" induced confusion.
Actionable Insights for Fans:
- Check the Director: John Herzfeld (Part 3) has a much better rapport with Stallone than Steven C. Miller (Part 2).
- Watch the Credits: Notice how the production companies change; it explains the jump in quality between the sequels.
- Follow Sly on Socials: He’s famously honest about which of his movies he thinks are "dogs" and which are worth your time.