MovieChat Forums > The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Discussion > How did Andy manage to break the wall us...

How did Andy manage to break the wall using a rock hammer, squeeze out into a sewer...


...and get all the money from the warden using a fictitious account? What are the steps?

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That is pretty much the last half of the film. I think it was a series of rock hammers.

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It was never stated that Andy had more than one rock hammer. Red commented that the rock hammer found in the creek was worn down to the nub. Also there were no worn out rock hammers left in his cell, just the empty space for one in the Bible. I think things were built to last back then, but it is still far-fetched to say one rock hammer did all that burrowing and made all those chess pieces too.

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I think it can be assumed that he went through more than one rock hammer over 20-25 years.

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i dunno , its a long time but its a short tunnel!
And he'd be digging very carefully and quietly , which would add longevity to it.

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Only 19 years

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The walls weren't as strong as people thought they were.
He was an accountant, the warden trusted him with the secret books, and it was easy for him to embezzle money.
Breaking into the sewer pipe is a little less likely.

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Step 1: Chip away, little by little.

Step 2: Acclimate yourself to the smell and feel of poop.

Step 3: Monularize a paper trail with accounterification.

Simple!

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Monularize a paper trail with accounterification.


I gotta stop drinking so early in the day. That made perfect sense..

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LOL. I sometimes forget not to use such technical jargon.

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It takes a lot of planning.

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There was a scene where he was scratching something on the wall with the hammer. And then a huge chunk of the wall falls out. That scene implies that the wall was in poor condition. That's how Andy was able to dig that huge tunnel with a rock hammer. The walls were disintegrating

It's basic how he squeezed out of the sewer. He broke a hole with a rock, he crawled in, he crawled out

How did he get the money from the warden with that fictitious account? He goes through this point in the library with Red. He was cooking the books for the Warden, so he had a lot of liberty about where to direct the money. He created a fictional individual named Randall Stevens

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The question should be, where did he find that rock he used to break the sewer pipe.

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It may have been part of the wall he just tunneled through.

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