Escape on AllMovie

The made-for-TV Escape was inspired by the true story of Dwight Worker, an American imprisoned in Mexico for smuggling hashish. Given the country's stringent anti-drug laws, Worker's chances of release are slim to none (a situation similar to the protagonist's plight in Midnight Express). Against all odds, Worker plans a daring getaway from the notoriously impenetrable Lecumberri Prison (for obvious reasons, the film was not shot on location). Timothy Bottoms stars as Worker, with Kay Lenz as Barbara Chilcoate, the woman who became his wife; Colleen Dewhurst co-stars as the sympathetic "Mother Jones" type who helped engineer the escape. Adapted from Dwight and Barbara Worker's autobiography, Escape debuted February 20, 1980.