Are Ben and Zoey still trapped in the escape room?
The sinister Minos ups its set of do-or-die game puzzles in the 'Escape Room' sequel, 'Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions.'
Zoey and Ben are back and they are determined to bring the secret organization down. However, Minos is also up for another challenge, one that will put Zoey and Ben to a series of much darker and sinister tests again.
'Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions' is directed by Adam Robitel, and stars Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Jay Ellis, Tyler Labine, Nik Dodani, and Yorick van Wageningen.
The sequel takes place after the events of the first film, and sees Zoey and Ben getting pit against other survivors of the deadly games. It ended in a mind-blowing twist that had us questioning our reality. Here, we break down the important events of the film and shed light to that obscure ending. Warning: Spoilers Ahead.
‘Escape Room: Tournament of Champions’ picks up following the events of the first film. Zoey and Ben may have survived the horrendous games, but they did not come out of it unscathed. Zoey has been seeing a therapist to deal with her trauma. She tells the therapist that she must take down Minos to move on. Later, she meets up with Ben, and the two decide to go to Manhattan, New York City, believing that an unlisted industrial building is the Minos headquarters. They are planning to find proof to take down the secret organization and find justice for their horrible experiments. Instead of taking a flight, the duo drives to Manhattan. In the first film, it was revealed that Zoey is a sole survivor of a plane crash. Hence, the decision to travel by land is a smart idea.
Upon arriving near the building, a homeless man steals Zoey's compass. She and Ben chased the stranger to a subway station, and onto a subway train. The train quickly moves, and soon they realized that the subway cabin is another sinister escape room. The train has a few other passengers: Rachel, Brianna, Nathan, and Theo. They are all survivors from different games. Although horrified, the group are forced to play the game again and the tournament of the champions begin.
The escape rooms are filled with deadly puzzles, and failure to solve them in time leads to death. Theo was the first one to die after he gets electrocuted. The remaining players proceed to a bank-like room that activates deadly lasers if you step in the wrong tiles. Luckily, they all managed to find their way out without casualty. The group then finds themselves in a beach-like setting, where Nathan sacrifices himself to save Rachel. Before it's too late, Zoey finds an alternative exit. Ben and Rachel follow her, but Brianna went to the regular exit.
Unfortunately, before Ben can climb to the top of the lighthouse, the ladder breaks down, and Ben was seemingly swallowed by the quicksand. Brianna, Zoey, and Rachel move on to the next challenge. They find themselves in an escape room that looks like a bustling street in Manhattan. Brianna and Rachel die in the acid rain, leaving Zoey the last standing champion again.
In the last escape room, we saw an unexpected twist. Amanda is alive! Amanda seemingly died after plummeting to her death in an upside-down billiards bar in the first film. However, it turns out that Minos took her and forced her to become their architect. She designed the escape room puzzles that Zoey has just survived. Amanda explains that Minos kidnapped her daughter Sonya and forced her to create the puzzles. Amanda used the design to tell her unfortunate story. Zoey realizes that the escape rooms are all connected to memories of a specific day: riding on train, going to the bank and then to the beach. The beach and street puzzle used an image of a little girl looking up at her mother.
We also found out that Ben is still alive but is trapped inside a glass cage linked to the final room. Amanda tells Zoey that Minos wants her to become their new architect, and Ben is their leverage. Zoey refuses and Ben's cage slowly fills with water. Before he can drown, Amanda had a change of heart and helps Zoey rescue Ben. The three managed to get out of the warehouse alive, and the next scene brings us to a police station.
Rachel, Theo, Nathan, and Brianna all seemingly died. However, it's worth noting that we didn't see them die on screen, except for Theo. The biggest role in a horror movie is that unless you see a character die on-screen, then that person might still be alive. Amanda and Ben are the greatest examples of this rule. We have never really seen their dead bodies and we were surprised to know that they are still alive. Hence, don't be surprised if you'll see the others return in the future.
Just as when we thought everything is finished, we heard another frustrating twist. At the final moments of ‘Escape Room: Tournament of Champions’, a law enforcement officer tells Zoey and Ben that they have sufficient proof against Minos. Zoey and Ben thought they will finally get the justice they have been looking for. They get on a plane, ready to leave the city and all its horrible memories behind. However, Zoey soon realizes that they are inside another escape room!
This plane-like escape room is most likely the simulator we saw at the end of the first film. Minos is determined to break Zoey, but they haven't succeeded in doing it so far. She always manages to beat them at their own games. This new escape room will prove to be even more challenging as it will bring back more bitter memories from the plane crash. It's unclear why Minos is pursuing Zoey vigorously. Maybe they are very interested in having Zoey join their horrible cause as their new architect. Or perhaps, they just want to see Zoey's breaking point and find out if she's willing to sacrifice innocent people to save herself. It looks like we need another sequel to get some answers.
We know that Amanda is only forced by Minos to work for them. The only way for her to be free is to have Zoey replace her as the new architect. Zoey refuses, and Amanda decides to help her and Ben escape instead. That action will have dire consequences. We saw Amanda emerge at the warehouse with Ben and Zoey. However, we didn't see her at the police station. The officer only said that Amanda has given her testimony to the police, but is that the truth? The police station might be just another setup by Minos. Now that Zoey refuses to take over Amanda's position, it's possible that Minos has taken Amanda back and will force her to work for them again. Her daughter is held captive by Minos, so she might've no other choice but to follow their orders.
‘Escape Room: Tournament of Champions’ has painted a clear picture of the scope of Minos' operations. In the first film, we saw the secret organization's ability to make the escape rooms appear realistic. However, the second film has shed light on how much they can bend reality and infuse it into their deadly puzzles. Imagine going to a police station and into an airport, only to find out that you are still a player in their twisted game? Minos clearly has powerful people working for them from the outside, allowing them to carry out their heinous crimes.
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