00:00The film begins with Frank Morris, a hardened criminal and skilled escape artist, being transferred to Alcatraz,
00:06a maximum security prison located on a lonely island in San Francisco Bay.
00:17Since it houses the most dangerous and incorrigible inmates, this prison has become famous for being impossible to escape from.
00:25Upon arrival, Frank undergoes a harsh prison intake procedure, including a strip search.
00:37He is then led to his cell, where he is expected to spend the rest of his days.
00:41The next morning, Frank has breakfast in the dining hall, where he meets Litmus, a friendly old man who keeps
00:46a pet rat with him.
00:48Litmus shares his food with him, and they strike up a conversation.
00:51However, Frank, he also notices another inmate nearby, Wolf, who openly tries to intimidate him.
01:04Frank, completely unimpressed, ignores him and continues his conversation with Litmus.
01:09Later, Frank is summoned to the warden's office, where he receives a stern briefing.
01:14The warden explains that Alcatraz is the place where society sends its most uncontrollable criminals.
01:20He emphasizes that no one has ever managed to escape from here.
01:24He warns Frank not to try.
01:27But while the warden is lecturing him, Frank discreetly steals something from his desk.
01:31A pair of nail clippers.
01:33A small but defiant gesture.
01:35Back in his cell, Frank hides the clippers in his Bible, and the thought,
01:39With great power comes great responsibility, hangs clearly in the air.
01:43Here, power wasn't about brute strength, but about the choices you made to survive.
01:48Later, during the communal shower, Wolf approaches Frank and makes lewd, offensive remarks.
01:54Without hesitation, Frank responds by hitting him in the groin and shoving a bar of soap into his mouth, leaving
02:00his opponent humiliated.
02:02Frank calmly finishes washing up, further cementing his reputation as someone you don't want to mess with.
02:08The library becomes a place of respite for Frank, where he meets English, the librarian who has long come to
02:14terms with spending his life in Alcatraz.
02:17English is passionate about books and history, and a friendship develops between them.
02:22During a walk in the yard, Frank also meets Doc, a talented artist who is painting a self-portrait.
02:28Doc says that the prison can only control his body, but not his spirit.
02:32He mentions that he used to grow chrysanthemums, which he saw as a symbol of hope.
02:37But in Alcatraz, hope is a dangerous thing.
02:40It either keeps a person afloat, or shatters their dreams against harsh reality.
02:45For Doc, his art became his salvation.
02:48For now.
02:49That same evening, a guard tells Frank about the opportunity to work as a carpenter for 15 cents an hour.
02:55Frank agrees, and the guard addresses him in an unusually friendly manner.
03:00But soon, trouble starts to brew.
03:03During another walk in the yard, Wolf comes back with a shiv and tries to attack Frank.
03:08However, Doc manages to warn him in time, and Frank fights back, using his jacket as a shield.
03:14A fight quickly breaks out, which ends with Wolf attacking the guard who tried to break them up.
03:19As a result, both Wolf and Frank are punished.
03:22Wolf is sent to solitary confinement, as is Frank, even though he was only defending himself.
03:27After two exhausting weeks in isolation, Frank returns to his cell.
03:32Latmus lifts his spirits with a note delivered by his pet rat.
03:36Frank also meets his new cellmate, Charlie Butts, who is serving time for car theft.
03:41Charlie confesses to Frank that he regrets crossing state lines.
03:45That made his crime a federal offense.
03:48Meanwhile, the warden makes an unannounced inspection of the cells.
03:51Entering one of the inmate's cells, he notices a detailed portrait of himself painted by Doc, and at first appears
03:58flattered.
03:59However, he later takes revenge.
04:01He orders the guards to confiscate all of Doc's art supplies, leaving him alone with emptiness.
04:07Despite Frank's attempts to support him, Doc withdraws into himself.
04:11During a shift in the carpentry workshop, Doc, in despair, chops off three of his own fingers with an axe.
04:17A desperate protest against losing the ability to paint.
04:21The guards, panicking, try to give him medical assistance, while Frank, who witnessed the incident, simply watches in silence.
04:34Here, include this in the report.
04:36That same night, after returning to his cell, Frank notices a cockroach crawling into the vent under the sink.
04:43Intrigued, he checks where the vent leads.
04:46Meanwhile, English approaches Frank, and he tells him that the warden took away Doc's right to paint because he didn't
04:52like the portrait.
04:53During the next meal, Frank sits at the table with John and Clarence Anglin, brothers he knew from a previous
04:59stint in prison.
05:01They discuss the grim atmosphere in Alcatraz, and the fact that the cold waters surrounding the island make escape impossible.
05:08However, at that moment, an idea sparks in Frank's mind.
05:11That same night, using the stolen nail clippers, Frank begins chipping away at the concrete around his vent.
05:18He does this methodically, hiding the nail clippers in the Bible and pretending to read whenever guards walk by.
05:24Gradually, the concrete becomes thinner, and his plan starts to take shape.
05:28The next day, during outdoor recreation, both Charlie and English receive rare visitors.
05:34English struggles to find words as he sees his grown-up daughter, and Charlie's wife brings terrible news.
05:40His mother is seriously ill and has only a few months left to live.
05:44This realization pushes Charlie toward the idea of escape.
05:48The next morning, Frank gathers John and Clarence, and the three of them begin to develop a strategy.
05:54Frank suggests that because of the salty air and humidity, the prison infrastructure is highly susceptible to corrosion.
06:00This means they can gradually pry out the ventilation grills and get into the service shafts.
06:05His enthusiasm inspires the others, and they decide to work together so that one day they can escape.
06:11That night, Frank continues chipping away at the concrete around the grate in his cell using stolen nail clippers,
06:16while Charlie keeps watch for the guards, ready to whistle if they appear.
06:20Despite the progress, Frank starts to get frustrated that the work is going too slowly with the clippers,
06:25and his fingers are getting very tired.
06:27The next morning at breakfast, he tells the group about it.
06:32While they're racking their brains for a new method, Frank notices his spoon and comes up with a new trick.
06:38He secretly dirties the spoon on the sole of his shoe and calls over a guard, complaining that his utensil
06:43is dirty.
06:44The others catching on do the same thing.
06:47The guard swaps out their spoons, unwittingly aiding their escape plan.
06:51At the table in the center, while John distracts the guard with conversation, Frank.
06:56Frank takes advantage of the moment and discreetly hides an extra spoon.
07:00However, one tool isn't enough.
07:02Frank trades 20 servings of dessert with latmus to get more materials.
07:06He breaks the spoon in half and combines the pieces with tweezers and a coin, which he grinds into powder.
07:12Using the heat from a match, he fuses all the elements together.
07:16This way, making holes in the wall becomes much more effective.
07:20That same evening, Frank starts chipping away at the wall again, while Charlie keeps watch.
07:25The new tool works through the concrete much faster.
07:29However, while they're working, one of the guards comes by for an inspection.
07:33Charlie, who is dozed off, doesn't manage to warn him in time.
07:37English comes to the rescue, distracting the guard with conversation, while Charlie hurriedly bangs on the bars to warn Frank.
07:44Frank covers the grate with the accordion-style box and joins in the conversation with the guard, who doesn't notice
07:50anything suspicious.
07:51When the guard leaves, Frank gets back to work, although now he sees Charlie as not the most reliable partner.
07:58Over time, Frank realizes that the grate is fastened with bolts, and he'll need something else to remove them.
08:04The next day, during the yard walk, Frank discreetly gets rid of the concrete crumbs.
08:09Later, in the carpentry workshop, he makes a wooden wedge to loosen the bolts.
08:14Knowing that he'll have to pass through a metal detector when leaving the workshop, Frank gets crafty.
08:19He hands the guard a different piece of wood, while hiding the wedge in his shoe.
08:23Back in his cell, he uses the wedge to pry out the bolts and remove the grate, revealing a system
08:29of pipes behind it that could lead to freedom.
08:31But Frank realizes he needs to carefully plan the next steps.
08:35He suggests making papier-mâché dummy heads to fool the guards during night checks.
08:40The team divides up the tasks.
08:43John collects hair in the barbershop, Charlie gets the paints, and Frank uses English to get newspapers.
08:49Frank starts creating with the newspapers and magazines.
08:51They mix wall crumbs with water to make a cement-like mixture for molding the heads.
08:57Charlie carefully paints the faces, making them realistic enough to pass for sleeping inmates.
09:02To make the disguise even more convincing, Charlie creates a fake grate to imitate the one he removed.
09:09One night, Frank decides to do some reconnaissance.
09:12Crawling through the hole behind the vent grate, he climbs up the pipes to the upper level, but runs into
09:17a steel door.
09:18He tries to jump up to it, but it's no use.
09:21At that moment, a guard enters his cell.
09:24It was a dangerous trip.
