Six strangers wake up in a cornfield with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a few tools that prove to be more than meets the eye. How will a gun with one bullet, matches, lantern, knife, compass, and a flask of water save their lives? Escape the Field follows the strangers as they try to solve the puzzle while being hunted by an unknown evil.
Escape the Field stars an ensemble cast including Theo Rossi, Jordan Claire Robbins, Shane West, Tahirah Sharif, Julian Feder, and Elena Juatco. It’s directed by Emerson Moore, who co-wrote the film with Sean Wathen and Joshua Dobkin.
Ahead of its May 6 release, Rossi, who plays the character Tyler, sat down with Movieweb to discuss the character-driven story, chemistry between the cast, and what drew him to the project.
Escape the Field is a Character-Driven Story
To say that the characters in the film experience a sense of fight or flight is an understatement. They’re hunted in the woods and are stripped down to their most basic instinct: survival. It consumes them to degrees of no longer abiding by what is considered socially acceptable, rather, creating their own set of rules that apply only within the cornfield.
“The first thing you have to do is think [for Tyler]… who is he, as a person? What does he listen to? What kind of music? What’s his relationship with his daughter? How does he handle his divorce? Where does he live in Texas? What does he do for a living? Does he work out? What kind of food does he eat? What’s his relationship like with his family? Once I can pull that all together, I can forget it all in meaning because, in the text of what’s going on, I could then react to the situations in survival mode. Because how you react in survival mode may not be how I react in survival mode. It all depends on what our makeup of the situation is.”
Tyler certainly has his reactions unique to the other characters but where they find common ground is in the evolution of how each character reacts based on the increasing context of their situation.
"Everybody is really different. From a different part, they’re a different person, they have a different makeup, which now actually makes it even more appealing.”
Chemistry Between the Cast
Despite any character differences, the cast has great chemistry which Rossi credits to their preparation and how the film was shot on the tail end of pandemic regulations.
“We were in a two-week quarantine in this hotel in Canada, in Hamilton, and we couldn't really leave. And so, we ate together, we rehearsed together, we discussed together, we all went together all the time. So that really fostered this, ‘I got your back, you got mine,’ kind of relationship. It was like, ‘Whatever you need. I'm here. Let's discuss it.’ And Emerson really led that charge. And I think that's an absolute rarity. I've tried to make it the foundation of everything from here on forward, because I think that it really, regardless of the project, I think that the familiarity is really helpful, even if you're adversaries in the project.”
Whatever you need is right, as Rossi’s character endures a scene towards the end of the film where Sam (played by Jordan Claire Robbins) certainly has his back. Without giving too much away, the scene has Rossi covered head to toe in mud in what looks to have been a gritty moment during the filming process.
“So that was an interesting night. That's one that I will never forget. They had dug this mud, kind of like giant pool, I guess you would call it. It was absolutely freezing… and they couldn't warm the water, so they just used you know, cold hose water… [or] it would have electrocuted and did whatever. So I was just like, ‘Alright, cool, let's do what we can.’ And then you're in, and you got to go all the way under, and then she's gonna drag you out. And it was an interesting one for me. But it was so helpful for the film. And again, it was just the commitment we all had to each other… I'm a point-and-shoot type of person. If Emerson's like, ‘do this,’ I do it right. I do that with all my directors.”
What Drew Theo Rossi to Escape the Field
Viewers can recognize Rossi from many other projects like Sons of Anarchy, True Story, or Army of the Dead. When it comes to Escape the Field, he mentioned that what really drew him to the film was the people he would be working with and the duality of the character.
“Right off the bat, it was Emerson… We have a long-standing history. He's one of those people, there's very few, but he's one of five, maybe, that if they call me up and go, ‘Hey, I need you here.’ I'm like, ‘Sure, whatever you need… I'll be there.'" Said Rossi, adding, "I've known Shane for 20 years. I got to work with people I knew I was a fan of.”
As for the duality of his character, that can be seen in the first moments of the movie when we're unsure who is responsible for their situation.
“Any character that I can make ambiguous. And what I mean by that is that you can't put a finger on that he's not the hero, he's not the villain… He might be good or he might be bad. He's just kind of unknown in a way that you can't box him in. And I love that about any character I take on… So when I play villains, I want you to love them. And when I play heroes, I want you to be unsure of them. I'm just trying to create that duality… that's the main thing besides the people.”
Escape the Field is a Lionsgate production. It releases on May 6, 2022, in Select Theaters, On Digital, and On-Demand.