Stallone, Schwarzenegger in a high-octane action-thriller

MANILA, Philippines - The world’s foremost expert in prison security is trapped in a brutal black-ops fortress housing the world’s most dangerous criminals in Escape Plan, a high-octane action-thriller driven by the explosive star power of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Ray Breslin (Stallone) is the world’s leading authority on prisons — building them, securing them and, most importantly, breaking out of them. Handsomely paid to engineer real-life jailbreaks in high-security correctional facilities, Ray has been incarcerated in a  super-max facility run by the Federal Bureau of Prisons — with 100-percent escape rate.

When Ray and his associates at B&C Security, Abigail (Amy Ryan), Hush (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) and Lester (Vincent D’Onofrio), are offered double their normal rate to evaluate The Tomb, an off-the-grid, privately-run maximum-security prison constructed using Ray’s own stringent protocols, Ray can’t resist the challenge. To replicate an actual imprisonment, the location of the prison is to remain undisclosed and Ray will be unable to communicate with his team in any way.

Once inside, Ray discovers that The Tomb is a pitiless high-tech warehouse for some of the world’s deadliest lawbreakers. A seemingly endless maze of glass cells kept under constant video surveillance and surrounded by heavily armed, masked guards, The Tomb seems to offer no possibility of escape. Worse, the sadistic warden, Willard Hobbes (Jim Caviezel), makes it his personal mission to break the wills of uncooperative inmates — like Ray — by any means possible.

When Ray attempts to use the pre-arranged evacuation code to free himself, Hobbes claims not to know what he’s talking about. Realizing he’s been set up by an unknown enemy, Ray has no choice but to turn to the prison’s mysterious strongman, Emil Rottmayer (Schwarzenegger), to help him survive the violence and treachery of The Tomb long enough to unlock its secrets.

Escape Plan is directed by Swedish director Michael Hafstrom from a screenplay by Miles Chapman and Arnell Jesko and story by Miles Chapman. Producers are Mark Canton, Randall Emmett, Remington Chase, Robbie Brenner and Kevin King-Templeton. Executive producers are George Furla, Mark Stewart, Zack Schiller, Alexander Boies, Nicolas Stern, Jeff Rice and Brandt Andersen. Co-producers are Stepan Martirosyan, Kelly Dennis and Brandon Grimes.

Escape Plan opens today nationwide.