The escape


As much as I love this movie I can't shake the implausibility of Andy's escape; cracking open the water main with a rock, a highly fortuitous thunder storm the night of his escape so he could mask the blows of the rock with,peals of thunder, coolly appearing the next day in 12 banks around Portland cleaning out the phony accounts. It's so beautiful but unbelievable. Has anyone read the book and can they add to the storyline to flesh it out for me?


I intend to live forever. So far so good.

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We know from The Escape From Alcatraz that concrete does decay under the right circumstances. Say that Shawshank is a ripoff of Alcatraz if you prefer but the pipe could have been terra cotta or even concrete in a similar state of decay, enough to be compromised by a heavy stone.

It took Andy almost 20 years to dig that tunnel. Would he leave the minute that last opening was made, or would he carefully go over every detail waiting hours, days, weeks or even months for the perfect set of circumstances to leave.


Is very bad to steal Jobu's rum. Is very bad.

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It certainly was a terra cotta pipe (ceramic) which is what they make those old red flower pots out of. This of course is thicker and stronger. He also wasnt just lucky that it rained. Andy had access to newspapers and perhaps even hearing radio weather reports since he worked in the wardens office. He could also have simply asked a guard the weather forecast for the night.


He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?


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The source book is fairly brief and tells the story from Red's point of view, here is a synopsis from an older thread that may help you.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/board/nest/232226068

Now, think a bit about your concerns and at the same time think about other works of fiction. The author obviously made up everything, and in his mind it is all plausible. But for Shawshank the value of the movie doesn't hinge on the plausibility of the escape nor the plausibility of visiting the various banks before leaving town. Those are just mechanisms for moving the core story forward, namely Andy's incarceration, his positive effect on the prison and the inmates, and his eventual escape from an unjust conviction. From my POV it isn't productive to get caught up in such things as whether you could expect a prisoner in that prison to escape the way we see him escape.

We all saw the movie, we all saw that he indeed did it. It was difficult, and it required a number of things to happen just right, but it worked!

..*.. TxMike ..*..
Take a risk, Take a chance, Make a change. Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway

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The storm wasn't just a convinient storm that happened to be there just the day he decide to escape. He waited for a storm like that.

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In the novel it's explained in great detail and he waited until the prison was updating its sewage system the old pipe he went through was going to be disengaged and the new system online he knew he had to make it or break it right away or never

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This movie is fiction - not a documentary.

Sheeish!

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That there is the stoopidestest thing you can say on a movie forum.

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I agree that the thunderstorm's coincidental appearance is unexplained. The pipeline break-in is believable to me, and I have no problem with Andy's ability to be well-dressed and go unnoticed at the banks. I think too many of us on this board are nitpickers.

And why not read the book yourself?

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You aren't a deep thinker and you don't comprehend what has already been written in this thread. You don't have to "explain" thunderstorms, they appear periodically and all Andy had to do was wait for the next one.

Red

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Well, you aren't a deep thinker more than me, so there. How idiotic, btw. Andy's waiting for a thunderstorm to initiate everything he has to do the day of his escape. Jeez.

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I don't know if I was being a nit picker. I kind of have "the suspension of disbelief" thing down pretty cold. Still you would have to be a real cool dude to accomplish it all after 20 years in a place like Shawshank. I have trouble with the breaking the watermain with a rock thing. Someone explained it better. But that was where I got stuck. Still. I loved it: the black volcanic rock, the remote stone wall in a meadow, the loneliness of the beach with his friend on it. All things that I love.

I intend to live forever. So far so good.

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I have to admit that I've had a few problems with the escape, the convenient thunderstorm, the breaking through the sewer pipe mainly. All things considered, it is indeed a beautiful movie.

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Well, you aren't a deep thinker more than me, so there. How idiotic, btw. Andy's waiting for a thunderstorm to initiate everything he has to do the day of his escape. Jeez.

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Not only all that but he also somehow manages to survive breathing in a place full of methane gas.
In real life that would have made him pass out and he would have drowned in the pipe.
And the end of the pipe is not covered over with a grate to keep animals out and escaping prisoners in.

Damn I'm good.

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Also why when he bashed a hole through the pipe did it gush out water/sewage? The other end was open to the air so there would no pressure.

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Also why when he bashed a hole through the pipe did it gush out water/sewage? The other end was open to the air so there would no pressure.


Yeah, I've never understood that. He breaks into the pipe and immediately a shower of sewage gushes out, like he's smashed a fire hydrant. But then he pokes his head into the pipe and the water level is down near the bottom. It's one or the other.

You buy egg roll!

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