Escape from Tomorrow is a 2013 American independent thriller horror film written and directed by Randy Moore in his directorial debut. It tells the story of an unemployed father having increasingly bizarre experiences and disturbing visions on the last day of a family vacation at the Walt Disney World Resort. It premiered in January at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and was later a personal selection of Roger Ebert, shown at his 15th annual film festival in Champaign, Illinois. The film was a 2012 official selection of the PollyGrind Film Festival.
The film drew attention due to the fact that Moore had shot most of it on location at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland without permission from The Walt Disney Company, owner and operator of both parks. Due to Disney's reputation of being protective of its intellectual property, the cast and crew used guerrilla filmmaking techniques to avoid attracting attention, such as keeping their scripts on their iPhones and shooting on handheld video cameras similar to those used by park visitors. After principal photography was complete, Moore was so determined to keep the project a secret from Disney that he edited it in South Korea. Sundance similarly declined to discuss the film in detail before it was shown. It was called "the ultimate guerrilla film". Rather than suppressing the film as Moore claimed would happen, Disney chose to ignore it.
It has been compared to the work of Roman Polanski and David Lynch. However, many who saw it expressed strong doubts that the film would be shown to a wider audience due to the legal issues involved and the negative depiction of the parks. At the time of its premiere, Disney stated that it was "aware" of the film; since then the online supplement to Disney A to Z: The Official Encyclopedia has included an entry for the film.
Escape from Tomorrow was released simultaneously to theaters and video on-demand on October 11, 2013, through Producers Distribution Agency, a Cinetic Media company.
Plot[]
On the last day of his family's vacation at Walt Disney World Resort, blue-collar worker Jim White gets fired for an unknown reason, during a phone call with his boss at the Contemporary Resort Hotel. Not wanting to ruin his family's vacation, Jim decides to keep it to himself. The family leave their hotel room and takes the monorail to the park alongside two French teenage girls, Isabelle and Sophie, who pique Jim's interest unbeknownst to his wife Emily and their two children Elliot and Sara.
During the rides, Jim has a series of bizarre and disturbing hallucinations, such as the faces of animatronic characters warping and taking on evil appearances, and his family verbally abusing him.
After an argument with his wife, Jim takes their children to various Disney park rides, while pursuing Sophie and Isabelle. Later on, he meets a mysterious woman, who uses a necklace of hers to hypnotise him, making him black out and wake up to her having sex with him. She then informs him that the parks' wholesome, costumed princesses are actually part of a secret prostitution ring that services rich Asian businessmen and that the turkey legs sold in the park are actually emu meat.
Jim's attempts to meet Isabelle and Sophie are noticed by Emily, causing tension between her and Jim, even when they go further with the kids to Epcot. After Emily and Elliot go back to the hotel following an argument with Jim resulting in her slapping Sara, Sophie approaches and invites Jim to come with her and Isabelle. When Jim refuses, Sophie spits in his face and walks off. Jim notices that Sara has disappeared and frantically searches for her, until the park guards use a taser to knock him unconscious.
Jim awakens in a secret detention facility under Epcot's Spaceship Earth where he sees pictures of a naked woman he imagined on the Soarin' ride, and video screens displaying events that happened earlier. A scientist discusses Jim's flights of fantasy and imagination, revealing that he is part of an experiment by the Siemens Corporation ever since he first went to the theme park as a child with his father. His boss is in on the conspiracy and his firing was all part of the plan along with the closure of the Buzz Lightyear ride, just as he and Elliot approached the boarding area. The scientist also tells Jim that he had turned in Elliot to them, like Jim's father had done to him as a child.
After damaging the instrument panel with medical ointment and decapitating the scientist, who turns out to be an android, Jim escapes the laboratory through a sewer. He then finds that Sara has been captured by the mysterious woman, now wearing a Snow White costume. She proceeds to tell them about her past as a costumed princess, which ended after she crushed a little girl to death whilst hugging her. She hypnotizes Jim with the necklace again, but Sara pulls it off and smashes it, freeing Jim from her spell, and allowing her and Jim to escape.
After returning to his hotel room and putting Sara to bed, Jim begins suffering from digestive distress, and vomits up a large amount of blood and hairballs, which he recognises as symptoms of cat flu; brought on by Sophie spitting on his face earlier, unknowingly infecting him. Elliot, awoken by the noises in the bathroom, comes in to find Jim on the verge of death. He weakly begs Elliot for help, but he shuts the door on him.
The next day, a distressed Emily finds Jim's dead body, which now has cat eyes and a grinning face. Cleaning staff arrive to remove all proof, with one of them filling Elliot's head with false memories of riding the Buzz Lightyear attraction. As Jim's body is taken away, a new family comes to the hotel, which consists of another version of Jim, the woman from the Soarin' attraction, and their daughter.
Cast[]
- Roy Abramsohn as Jim White
- Elena Schuber as Emily White
- Katelynn Rodriguez as Sara White
- Jack Dalton as Elliott White
- Danielle Safady as Sophie
- Annet Mahendru as Isabelle
- Alison Lees-Taylor as the Other Woman
- Lee Armstrong as the Man on Scooter
- Amy Lucas as the Nurse
- Zan Naar as the Fantasy Woman/New Wife
- Stass Klassen as The Scientist
- Trevor McCune as Valet
Response by Disney[]
Disney did not return reporters' calls or emails for comment, nor took any legal action during the festival, although it confirmed to CNN that it was "aware" of the movie.[26] Despite critical apprehension that the film would never be shown outside the festival, some observers saw the situation as more complex. Were Disney to attempt to forcefully suppress the film, that effort could serve to draw even more attention to it,[13] a phenomenon known as the Streisand effect.[27] Even if Disney were to successfully prevent official distribution, the film could easily be pirated and distributed over the Internet. In his Post review, Smith suggested that Disney prevent this by taking the opposite course, simply ignoring Escape from Tomorrow and letting the attention dissipate by itself.[22] Michael Ryan, director of The YoungCuts Film Festival, noted that there was a precedent for the film in the Air Pirates lawsuit, in which Disney spent eight years in court with some underground cartoonists who had published an underground comix parody in which Mickey Mouse and the other Disney characters engaged in explicit sex and used illegal drugs, among other behavior they avoided in Disney's own narratives. He suggested that Disney buy the rights and release the film itself, which it could easily do as its announced interest would guarantee it a monopsony on the film since no other distributor would want to match Disney's deep pockets or its feared legal response. As a Disney release, Escape from Tomorrow would have a large potential audience of both Disney enthusiasts and antagonists, Disney would be making money from property it already owns instead of someone else and the company's apparent willingness to go in the joke would take some of the satiric edge off.[27] Moore expressed hope that the film could be shown and released, even if it meant a legal battle.
Trivia[]
- It depends on how good a case lawyers can make for it. If they say I have a chance, I'll definitely fight for it. I worked on it really hard for three years and it took a lot out of me. Just to let it disappear would be a waste of time.
Since the film's release Disney has acknowledged it in another way. The online supplement to Disney A to Z: The Official Encyclopedia includes an entry for Escape from Tomorrow,
- describing it as "An independent surrealistic cult film surreptitiously filmed at Walt Disney World and Disneyland."
- According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney chose to avoid responding to the film altogether, rather than seeking legal action, in an effort to prevent increased publicity.
Video[]
It's a small world clip from Escape from Tomorrow 2013