Escape from Alcatraz

Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

4 corrected entries

(9 votes)

Corrected entry: A painted dummy head fakes out the night guard inside Franks darkened cell, while Frank is up inside the vent system, confirming his escape route. The guard passes by Frank's cell twice, as after shots show Frank still toying around the escape shaft. Only a few moments later, the guard returns, suspicious, and remarks to Charlie Butts that Frank must be a very deep sleeper as the footsteps and noises have not awakened him. Then the guard clangs his nightstick on the bars to awaken Frank, but gets no response. He then grabs at the dummy's forehead and suddenly its a "sleeping" Frank - after only a split moment before where Frank was still shown in the vent system. Impossible time-frame sequence.

oprlvr33

Correction: The cut between Frank outside of his cell and the guard checking on the prisoners may not be a complete moment-to-moment shot. Several seconds or even minutes may have passed between those two shots, quite enough time for Frank to have made a quick run back to his cell.

Corrected entry: When Charley Butts first gets to Alcatraz he is inside his cell and introduces himself to Frank Morris. According to the camera angle, Charley's cell is on the right and Frank's cell is on the left. Later on, it's like they switched cells. Frank's cell is to the right and Charley's cell is to the left. But later their cells are back in their original positions. Video only.

Correction: The reason you see the cells on the other side is because the camera was on top looking out. So there is no mistake here.

Corrected entry: After Wolf attacks Frank Morris and both are sent to D-Block, you will see the guards shove Wolf in one of the D-Block sells and then immediately slam the metal door shut. A few seconds later, the guards put Frank Morris in the adjacent D-Block cell, but before they shut the big metal door, they also slide a set of jail bars closed first. They didn't do this for Wolf.

Correction: This is because of the way the cell bars were designed at Alcatraz. When the doors were opened they could be closed and locked one by one, and when the last prisoner was locked away the whole landing - up to twenty eight cells - could be locked by sliding a security bar shut. This is what you saw when the guard slid "the set of jail bars" shut. The film was shot on location in Alcatraz and is almost completely accurate.

Corrected entry: The beginning of the movie states that it takes place in January of 1960. The Warden has a picture in his office of John F. Kennedy, but Kennedy wasn't inaugurated as President until January 1961 - a full year later.

Correction: The picture on the warden's wall is Dwight Eisenhower, the President at the time, not John F. Kennedy.

Correction: Dwight D. Eisenhower's portrait is shown near the beginning of the movie, and JFK's portrait is shown later in the movie, denoting a passage of time.

Factual error: In the opening scene that shows San Francisco scenery there is a shot of a large TV tower called Sutro Tower. The film takes place in 1960 and Sutro Tower wasn't built until 1973.

More mistakes in Escape from Alcatraz

Prison Guard: Your painting privileges have been removed.
Doc: Why?
Prison Guard: I don't know.

More quotes from Escape from Alcatraz

Trivia: Fred Ward, who played John Anglin in this film, would later go on to play a character in Naked Gun 33 1/3rd who escapes from prison as well.

manthabeat

More trivia for Escape from Alcatraz

Question: When Frank is delivering books to inmates' cells, he reaches D block, but a guard stops him, and tells him they are not allowed in those cells. Were books really disallowed in D block cells?

Answer: Those were the solitary confinement cells, with no light and no luxuries of any kind. So yes, they did not allow inmates on that block to have books.

This is inaccurate as a light in each cell was turned on at 6:30 every morning in solitary confinement at Alcatraz.

More questions & answers from Escape from Alcatraz

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