Arnold Schwarzenegger And Sylvester Stallone Prepare For A Showdown In 'Escape Plan'

by UInterviewOctober 8, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Action legends Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone are getting ready for the release of their film, Escape Plan, which marks he first time the two headline a film together.

Schwarzenegger and Stallone first collaborated in The Expendables (2010) in which Schwarzenegger had a small role, and then again The Expendables 2 (2012), but Escape Plan is the first film that focuses on the two iconic actors.

Escape Plan, opening Oct. 18, directed by Mikael Hafstrom, tells the story of Ray Breslin (Stallone), a professional escape artist who specializes in breaking out of prisons. Breslin is hired by a corporation to test the security measures of a new, top-secret secure prison facility. It turns out, Breslin is walking straight into a trap and is actually simply meant to be a prisoner there. In the facility, Breslin befriends fellow prisoner, Emil Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger), and the two conspire to defeat the evil warden (Jim Caviezel) and break out to get revenge on their captors.

Though Stallone and Schwarzenegger play unlikely allies in the film, Hafstrom knew it would be impossible to cast these two opposite each other and not make them fight.

“It felt really important to have a fight. We grew up with these guys. You can’t make a film with Arnold and Sly and not give them that kind of moment,” Hafstrom said.

“For Arnold and I not to physically clash in the film I think would be a tremendous disappointment… We had to give the audience a certain kind of satisfaction to really play into our fanbase. So they’re expecting fireworks and they get it,” Stallone said, echoing his director.

Both Schwarzenegger and Stallone were in attendance to screen the film for fans at ComicCon.

Both actors have said that their competitive natures helped elevate the film and the action, as they were constantly trying to outdo one another on set, and they have the injuries to prove it.

“We were trying to outdo each other, especially when it came to the fight scenes, which then makes the fight scenes, of course, better, which of course gives you more injuries,” Schwarzenegger told reporters at ComicCon.