History Main / GreatEscape

'''Oh no, the snitch!''' [[TheInformant Every prison has a snitch]], a weaselly character who gives information to the guards in exchange for cigarettes. At a critical conspiratorial moment, he'll overhear the wrong conversation and our heroes have to decide how far they'll go to shut him up. This is almost always a choice between murder and making him an accomplice. In the latter case, you can bet the snitch will pansy out at the last second. Alternatively, they might discover they have a snitch [[TheMole within the escape party]], in which case the newest recruit will always be suspect number one, [[RedHerring but will rarely]] turn out [[TheKillerInMe to be the snitch]].

* ''VideoGame/TheEscapists'' is all about staging these. The prisons and their security range from [[CardboardPrison cardboard]] to TheAlcatraz (including the ''real'' Alcatraz, if you buy the DLC), with a couple POW camps thrown in for good measure. It runs on all the classic escape tropes too, with a heavy dose of [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome reality]] mixed in.

* In Creator/DanAbnett's ''Literature/{{Eisenhorn}}'' novel ''Malleus'', when Eisenhorn is imprisoned and about to be transferred to trial, his jailor will [[ToThePain question]] him in a manner he would not survive. His friend urges him to eat his dinner, he does and falls vilely ill, and when he is being transferred for treatment, his friends rescue him. [[spoiler:Earlier, an enemy had given Eisenhorn half of a poison; his friends had added the other hand to the meal.]]

* In ''Film/BootCamp'', Ben plans one to allow him and Sophie to escape from Camp Serenity. It actually runs according to plan, and they escape, but he failed to take into account the limited number of places they could go once off the island and they are quickly recaptured.

* ''Literature/BootCamp'': Garrett, Pauly, and Sarah, three teens imprisoned at Lake Harmony, hatch a plan to escape, which they carry out late at night during a new moon. Garrett creates a distraction while Pauly opens the circuit-breaker box, shuts off power to the whole camp to disable the door locks and alarms, and locks the box with a padlock Sarah smuggled in with her. Then Garrett steals as much food as he can carry from the kitchen while Sarah and Pauly start a fire with stolen matches and accelerants. When the gates open to let the fire trucks in, the three make a break for it into the surrounding woods. Their "father" Joe chases after him, but they grab him and [[BoundAndGagged tie him up with duct tape]]. Then they set off for the border with Canada, where Sarah says she has an aunt. [[spoiler:They almost make it, but as they're crossing the Saint Lawrence River in a stolen boat, the transporters Harry and Rebecca stupidly chase after them in another boat from which the teens have removed the stopper. By the time the escapees have reached the other side of the river, Harry and Rebecca's boat is foundering in the middle. Rather than let them drown, Garrett drops off Pauly and Sarah, then takes his boat back into the river to pull Harry and Rebecca aboard. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished They thank him by taking him right back to camp.]]]]

* In ''Film/BootCamp'', Ben plans one to allow him and Sophie to escape from Camp Serenity. It actually runs according to plan, and they escape, but he failed to take into account the limited number of places they could go once off the island and they are quickly recaptured.

* ''Literature/BootCamp'': Garrett, Pauly, and Sarah, three teens imprisoned at Lake Harmony, hatch a plan to escape, which they carry out late at night during a new moon. Garrett creates a distraction while Pauly opens the circuit-breaker box, shuts off power to the whole camp to disable the door locks and alarms, and locks the box with a padlock Sarah smuggled in with her. Then Garrett steals as much food as he can carry from the kitchen while Sarah and Pauly start a fire with stolen matches and accelerants. When the gates open to let the fire trucks in, the three make a break for it into the surrounding woods. Their "father" Joe chases after him, but they grab him and [[BoundAndGagged tie him up with duct tape]]. Then they set off for the border with Canada, where Sarah says she has an aunt. [[spoiler:They almost make it, but as they're crossing the Saint Lawrence River in a stolen boat, the transporters Harry and Rebecca stupidly chase after them in another boat from which the teens have removed the stopper. By the time the escapees have reached the other side of the river, Harry and Rebecca's boat is foundering in the middle. Rather than let them drown, Garrett drops off Pauly and Sarah, then takes his boat back into the river to pull Harry and Rebecca aboard. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished They thank him by taking him right back to camp.]]]]

There are different flavors of escape, of course. There's the classic [[CutleryEscapeAid tunneling-under-the-wall-with-spoons]], the hiding-in-the-laundry-cart, the diversionary PrisonRiot, and of course DressingAsTheEnemy and the AirVentPassageway escape. (There's also the stereotypical method of cutting through the bars with [[JailBake a file delivered in a cake]] and escaping down a BedsheetLadder, but that's mostly a DeadHorseTrope.) Any permutation of these will always involve a SleepingDummy, and ''almost'' always MacGyvering crude weapons from prison-issue goodies because it's a NoGearLevel. Bonus points if the plan hinges on [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy bribing a guard]] with some nigh-impossible favor. The protagonists may be there because [[YouAllMeetInACell They All Met in a Cell]]. A faster and lighter version of this which often appears in children's media is PetGetsTheKeys.

* ''Film/TheBigHouse'' (1930) which won the first UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Sound, as well as one for its script.

* ''Film/MinchinaOta'': Half of this [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherwoods Sandalwood]] film is about how the three main characters plan an ArmedBlag and get sent to prison. They then proceed to plan an escape. No one snitches on them before the break out, but a guard stumbles onto them at the wrong time. He gets knocked out but comes to and sounds the alarm. Then things go badly when the eldest of the three falls to his death while trying to jump an electrified fence. The remaining two make it out of the prison premises, but don't get too far before they are cornered. They decide to go out via SuicideByCop.

* In the short story [[http://whisperingspirits.dragynspice.com/2009flashissue.pdf "Good Friends and Good Family" (scroll down)]] by Desmond Warzel, Sparks manages a prison break with a little outside help. Say hello to his little friend...

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBoilingRockPart1 The Boiling]] [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBoilingRockPart2 Rock]]" episode of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' had basically all of the common elements, plus kung fu, {{wall crawl}}ing and {{fireballs}}. [[spoiler:The gargantuan Chit Sang forced his way into the plan, causing the first attempt to fail. The group that eventually got out stayed together.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' fourth-season episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E2AStreetcarNamedMarge A Streetcar Named Marge]]" had a sub-plot parodying ''Film/TheGreatEscape'' with Maggie placed in daycare while Marge rehearsed for a play. Instead of actually escaping, the plot was to liberate all of the confiscated pacifiers.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'': Icicle, Sr. attempts to stage a mass breakout from Belle Reve in "Terrors".

* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': In "Cool Hand Ed", Eddy decides to escape from school and gets Double D and Ed onboard before Jonny joins in as well. Naturally, like the rest of their scams, the plan ends in complete failure.

* ''Film/ConvictedWoman'' has Betty pay off another inmate, Frankie Mason, to help her escape by sneaking her onto a truck taking old mattresses out of the prison while also keeping watch, but Frankie betrays her and alerts the guards, causing Betty to be put in solitary confinement.