Frustrated by the amount of resources necessary to track down escaped allied prisoners of war, Nazi authorities build a state of the art prisoners of war camp to hold the most stubborn, most effective and most dangerous escapees. Soon the prison holds a sort of an all star team of escape artists, with experts in different fields, such as digging tunnels, scouting, mapping, and so forth. They begin to hatch a plan about “the great escape”, which would not only get the prisoners freed, but also make the Germans spend enormous resources to try and capture them, resources that would otherwise be used in the battle fields. They start to work on digging three separate tunnels, with different groups assigned to different tasks: digging, distracting the officers, gathering information or procuring the necessary tools. When the guards discover one of the three secret tunnels the plan of escape is hurried. Many of them manage to escape and they split into small groups heading in different directions. Remainder of the film depicts various pursuits of the escaped prisoners. Most of them are shot dead, some of them are returned to the camp, and only a few of them reach safety in the neutral countries of Switzerland, Spain or Sweden. The film is based n the book of the same name written by Paul Brickhill, who was a war prisoner in the infamous Stalag Luft III camp, where he was heavily involved with the planning of the great escape, even though he didn’t take part in tunneling or the escape itself, due to his claustrophobia.
Jennifer Lawrence might join Chris Martin on tour
