Is No Escape on Netflix based on a true story?
The 2015 film stars Owen Wilson and Lake Bell and has recently been making a splash on streaming.
No Escape is your standard high concept thriller focused on an American family trapped abroad in an unspecified Asian country in the middle of a revolution.
Starring Owen Wilson in one of his rare dramatic roles, as well as Lake Bell and 007 himself Pierce Brosnan, No Escape is exactly what it says on the tin.
But there's one interesting twist – it is kind of, but not really, based on a true story.
Read on for everything you need to know.
Is No Escape based on a true story?
Strictly speaking, No Escape is an entirely fictional story and a thriller in the vein of Taken, but the events of the film can very loosely claim to be inspired by a true story.
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Written by brothers John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle, the duo were motivated by a 2006 trip to Thailand taken by John and their father shortly after the country had undergone a bloodless coup d'état that removed Thaksin Shinawatra from power following various corruption allegations.
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"Right before we got to Thailand, a coup overthrew the prime minister," said John. "There’d been no previous warning. There was a feeling of anxiety in the air. So I started thinking about that. If it went badly, what would I do?"
The brothers also acknowledged that other revolutionary acts and terrorism incidents inspired the screenplay.
"But all sorts of things happened after that," says John. "The Arab Spring, the attack on the Taj Mahal Hotel in India… So we studied all of those things to see what parts would make it into the script.
"We have two little sisters who are very similar to the girls in the movie, and we’ve traveled with them extensively. A lot of our own family made it into the script."
Though inspired by the experience in Thailand, the country in No Escape remains unnamed, likely for political reasons - as they actually did shoot the film in the Southeast Asian country.
The 2006 coup in Thailand was also a great deal less violent than the one depicted in the film. In reality, the Thai military took control of the government while Shinawatra was out of the country and enacted martial law.
In No Escape, the political upheaval is depicted as violent and revolutionary and led by rebels, with riots erupting in the streets and one particular instance of rebels executing Americans - none of which, of course, happened in real life.
There is also a subplot in No Escape about western conglomerates looking to exploit the resources of poorer countries, which is not thought to be a factor in the real Thai coup.
Nor was there an American family in Thailand at the time being pursued across the border by the military; the Dwyer family are entirely a creation of the Dowdle brothers.
In short, the Dowdle siblings took a real-life event and used it as a very broad jumping off point for their thriller, and have never claimed it is based on true events beyond the inspiration of the Thai coup they almost experienced while on their holidays.
No Escape is now streaming on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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