Getaway

Getaway is a 2013 American action thriller film starring Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez and Jon Voight. Directed by Courtney Solomon and written by Gregg Maxwell Parker and Sean Finegan, the film is distributed by Warner Bros., the last Dark Castle Entertainment film to be released by Warner Bros., as Universal Studios took Dark Castle over in 2013. Though originally reported to be a remake of the 1972 film The Getaway, the film is actually an original story. This is the first film directed by Solomon in eight years, with his last being 2005's An American Haunting.

Plot

Washed up former race driver Brent Magna (Ethan Hawke) arrives home to find his house ransacked and his wife, Leanne, missing. He then receives a phone call from a mysterious man known only as The Voice (Jon Voight), who reveals himself as the kidnapper of Magna's wife. The man tells Magna that he must follow a set of instructions precisely in order to be reunited with his wife. The Voice orders Magna to steal a specially customized Shelby Mustang from a parking garage. The Voice warns Magna that if he does not follow the instructions or is caught, Leanne will die.

Magna sees two police officers chasing him and speeds off. Being a skilled driver, he is able to evade them with ease, eventually setting a trap to cause one to crash into the other. Despite more police cars joining the pursuit, Magna is able to out maneuver them. Magna is again contacted by The Voice, who directs him towards his next task. He tells Magna to speed up and take some perilous turns, eventually being forced to crash through a park, ice rink, and shopping center, nearly killing numerous civilians in the process. The Voice calls to congratulate him and tells him to keep moving. Magna is ordered to crash into a water truck and run through a red lighted intersection, causing accidents in his wake. Magna is then ordered to park in a construction zone and await further instructions. While Magna is waiting, a young woman known only as The Kid (Selena Gomez) attempts to steal Magna's car. The Voice calls and orders Magna to kill The Kid. Magna refuses, and The Voice says that keeping her alive was the right choice, as he will need her help. As Magna and The Kid drive off, with more police in pursuit, she reveals that the Mustang is, in fact, her car, and that she was told, by a police officer, it was stolen. Magna realizes that their meeting was orchestrated by The Voice.

After the Voice assigns Magna another destructive task, The Kid reveals herself as a skilled computer hacker and the daughter of the C.E.O of a large bank. The Voice contacts Magna again and orders him to upload the contents of a USB flash drive into a computer before 11:30 pm. Upon reaching the designated area, a power plant, The Kid attempts to hack the computer in order to contact the police. She appears to succeed, only for The Voice to reveal that he set up the computer as a trap for her. The plant suddenly overloads and explodes, blacking out a large portion of the city.

The Voice gives Magna his final task: to rob the bank owned by The Kid's father. The Kid points out that there is no actual money at her father's bank; it is an investment firm which holds all of its assets on computers. Gradually, the duo realizes that they are not actually committing a heist, but are merely providing a distraction for the police while The Voice executes the real robbery and subsequently frames them for it.

As The Voice's men attempt to commandeer an armored car carrying sensitive hard drives, Magna surprises and overpowers them, succeeding in taking the drives. Now fleeing from the police and The Voice's men, Magna calls The Voice and offers to release the hard drives in exchange for his wife. The Voice accepts and directs him to an airplane hangar. While it appears that Leanne is about to be returned, The Kid deduces that The Voice is planning to have them all killed once the deal is done. As Magna, Leanne, and The Kid attempt to escape, the police arrive, and in the ensuing chaos, a man Magna assumes to be The Voice grabs The Kid and drives off with her. Magna leaves Leanne with the police and pursues.

Following a high speed chase, both cars are destroyed, Magna rescues The Kid, and the police arrest the mysterious man. Leanne and Magna are reunited. However, Magna receives a phone call from The Voice, revealing that the man who was busted was no more than a decoy. The Voice thanks Magna for his help and hangs up. It is revealed that The Voice was in fact controlling the entire operation from a bar in the United States. He checks his account balance and walks out of the bar.

Cast

• Ethan Hawke as Brent Magna
• Selena Gomez as The Kid
• Jon Voight as The Voice
• Rebecca Budig as Leanne Magna
• Paul Freeman as The Man
• Bruce Payne as Distinguished Man

Reception

Box office

The film was released in the United States on August 30, 2013. The film was due for UK release on October 4, 2013 but was rescheduled to December 6, 2013. Getaway opened in 2,130 theaters in North America and grossed $4,503,892 with an average of $2,115 per theater and ranking 9th at the box office. The film dropped 56% in its second weekend and grossed $2,808,134 in 2,135 theaters with an average of $1,315 per theater. After 35 days in theaters the film earned $10,501,938 domestically and $1,304,494 internationally for a total of $11,806,432, below its production budget of $18 million. Variety magazine listed Getaway as one of "Hollywood's biggest box office bombs of 2013".

Critical response

• Getaway was panned by film critics and was considered to be one of the worst films of 2013. On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, the film has a score of 2% based on 133 reviews with an average rating of 2.7 out of 10. The critical consensus states: "Monotonously fast-paced to the point of exhaustion, Getaway offers a reminder of the dangers in attempting to speed past coherent editing, character development, sensible dialogue, and an interesting plot". The film also has a score of 22 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 34 critics indicating "overwhelming dislike".

• IGN said "Not even the gruffly likable Ethan Hawke can make the murky, messy car chase movie Getaway worthwhile thanks to its inane script and poorly conceived action sequences" (Rating 3/10). John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter called it a "brainless chase flick that doesn't even offer guilty pleasures." Scott Foundas of Variety said in his review, "Solomon has made something like a 'Cannonball Run' for the YouTube Generation, with the largely incoherent action photographed (by cinematographer Yaron Levy) from dozens of small digital cameras mounted inside and outside the Shelby and cut in a Cuisinart".