History Film / EscapeRoomTournamentOfChampions

''Escape Room: Tournament of Champions'' is a 2021 psychological horror film and a direct sequel to ''Film/EscapeRoom'', with Creator/TaylorRussell and Creator/LoganMiller reprising their roles as Zoey Davis and Ben Miller respectively, joined by Holland Roden, Creator/IndyaMoore, Thomas Cocquerel, and Carlito Olivero. It was released on July 16, 2021 after several [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]] delays.

* GambitRoulette: Once the players are inside the Game itself, this doesn't occur thanks to DevelopersForesight, but in order to get all of them there to begin with requires routing six players onto a specific subway car at the same time, on the middle of the day in a crowded station, with nobody on board who isn't supposed to be there, and none of them noticing that anything is amiss until the trap has been set.

* AbusiveParents: Henry trapped Claire in a glass prison since she was a ''child''. The key to her freedom is a needlessly complex riddle that Claire cannot solve by herself because it requires someone else to help her from the outside. She was given three tries to do it before the room is gassed by poison. According to Claire, she blew her first try to celebrate her 18th birthday.
* BigBad: Henry, the creator and head of Minos.

* EnfantTerrible: Claire was already showing sadistic tendencies as a child (physically hurting her mother, [[BadPeopleHurtAnimals killing crabs by snapping their body parts off]], and openly stealing); something that her mother recognized. Upon learning that she was planning to commit her to a mental hospital, Claire decided to kill her.

* EnfantTerrible: Claire was already showing sadistic tendencies as a child (physically hurting her mother, killing crabs by snapping their body parts off, and openly stealing); something that her mother recognized. Upon learning that she was planning to commit her to a mental hospital, Claire decided to kill her.

** Ben is forced to endure this himself in the climax, and nearly dies until Claire disables the engine that powers the Escape Rooms.

** We don’t hear about Theo’s game (apart from the fact that he suffered a burst eardrum)[[spoiler: since he dies in the first room before he reveals this.]]

* AMinorKidroduction: The Extended Cut opens in 2003, showing the origins of Henry, the head of Minos, his strained relationship with his wife, Amanda, and daughter, Claire, and Amanda's death in an Escape Room game that Henry ostensibly devised to foil her plans to divorce him.

** In the prologue, Amanda is killed failing to flee from an overheating sauna game that Claire devised.

* HisNameIs: [[spoiler:Theo was looking at a map which clues the three last letters when a lightning shocks him into grabbing an electrified metal bar which fries him to death. The aforementioned lightning also burns the map. Thankfully, a LED display shows the already inputted letters, allowing Zoey to figure out the three last letters.]]

* FragileFlower: Downplayed: Brianna is tough enough to pull herself together and participate in helping with the rooms, but she does seem more prone to freaking out than the other participants, having a small breakdown when she realizes she'll have to play another set of rooms, flinching and shaking when Theo loses his temper and tries to break out of the train car, and when [[spoiler: she and Rachel are about to die in the City Streets room]], she needs to be comforted by Rachel, who is much more calm about the situation.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Claire. She acts nice to Zoey (even saving Ben as a means of proving she can trust her) as she needs her help to break out of her glass prison and pulls a very convincing BrokenBird act. It's then revealed that she was imprisoned in the first place because Henry believed she was too ''dangerous'' to keep unrestrained; she is a psychopath who created [[EvenEvilHasStandards such dangerous escape rooms that even Henry refused to allow them]], and killed her own mother because she wanted to send her to an asylum when recognizing her TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior.

* NebulousEvilOrganisation: Once again, Minos returns in this film.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler: It's revealed that Amanda survived the events of the previous film after she fell and ended up having a soft landing. Minos later forced her to create the games [[IHaveYourWife in exchange for her daughter Sonya's life]], as she was kidnapped by the organization.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Rachel, who begins the game hostile and sarcastic (understandably so given the situation and natural stress), but she softens up towards the other players, comforting Zoey when [[spoiler: it seems like Ben has died in the Beach Room and she's guilt-ridden by his apparent death]], and calming a terrified Brianna when [[spoiler: they're both about to be killed by the acid rain in the City Streets Room.]]

* SequelHook: [[spoiler:By the time Zoey, Ben and Amanda escape and see the light of day again, the authorities are now hot on Minos' trail and Amanda is implied to be planning a way to save her daughter.]]
* ShaggyDogStory / ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler:Zoey and Ben have managed to escape Minos' escape rooms again, but at the very end, they end up in yet another escape room which they may not escape this time...]]

* WeCanRuleTogether: [[spoiler: Near the end, Minos offers Zoey to join their organization as one of their puzzle makers, but she refuses, breaking Ben free before fleeing with Ben and Amanda.]]
* WeHardlyKnewYe: The cast doesn’t even get to know the name of the first player that dies in the game. [[spoiler:He’s credited as Theo at the end of the movie.]] Funnily enough, he’s not even on the official poster of the movie!

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Claire. She acts nice to Zoey as she needs her help to break out of her glass prison and pulls a very convincing BrokenBird act. It's then revealed that she was imprisoned in the first place because Henry believed she was too ''dangerous'' to keep unrestrained; she is a psychopath who created [[EvenEvilHasStandards such dangerous escape rooms that even Henry refused to allow them]], and killed her own mother because she wanted to send her to an asylum when recognizing her TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior.

* EnfantTerrible: Claire was already showing sadistic tendencies as a child (physically hurting her mother, killing crabs by snapping their body parts off, and openly stealing); something that her mother recognized. Upon learning that she planning to commit her to a mental hospital, Claire discreetly killed her.

* SoleSurvivor: While Zoey and Ben are a subverted case, each of the other players were the winners in their own games:
** Brianna was in a game with several social media influencers with large followings.

* FeelNoPain: Rachel has a microdeletion in one of her genes that prevents her from feeling physical pain. This is what got her noticed by Minos, who put her in a set of rooms with other people with similar conditions.

** Brianna was in a game with several social media influencers.

** Rachel’s game featured people with congenital insensitivity. (A medical condition where one can't feel physical pain.)

* TitleDrop: The group is revealed to have been survivors of previous escape rooms. Rachel thinks of this as a "tournament of champions".
* TheUnfought: [[spoiler: Unlike the previous movie, there is no Gamemaster awaiting the group at the end, except for Amanda who was forced to create the games. She later helps Zoey and Ben escape, but not before she and Zoey start a fire.]]

* DefiantToTheEnd: [[spoiler: When Brianna and Rachel are locked out in the open and about to be killed by acid rain, a calm Rachel urges Brianna to not "give them the satisfaction" and to face their death with dignity. Urging her not to give their watchers a show of a terrified death.]]
* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler: Ben seemingly dies when the beach room sinks in quicksand. He later shows up locked in a cage that is slowly filled with water. Amanda is also revealed to have survived the events of the previous film.]]

* AbusiveParents: Henry trapped Claire in a glass prison since she was a ''child''. The key to her freedom is a needlessly complex riddle that Claire cannot solve by herself, because it requires someone else to help her from the outside. She was given three tries to do it before the room is gassed by poison. According to Claire, she blew her first try to celebrate her 18th birthday.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Claire. She acts nice to Zoey as she needs her help to break out of her glass prison. It is revealed that she was imprisoned in the first place because Henry thought she was too ''dangerous''; she is a psychopath who created far more dangerous escape rooms that Henry was willing to tolerate, and killed her own mother because she wanted to send her to an asylum.
* CapturedSuperEntity: Claire. As it turns out, she is actually much viler than Henry, who recognized this long ago and trapped her in a glass prison.
* EnfantTerrible: Claire was already showing sadistic tendencies as a child, something that her mother recognized. Upon learning that she planning to commit her to a mental hospital, Claire discreetly killed her.

* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Unlike the theatrical cut, the mugger sent by Minos to bait Zoey and Ben into participating the Escape Room is arrested by the police, along with the rest of the Minos operatives.

** Ben is forced to endure this himself in the climax, and almost gets killed until Claire disables the engine that powers the Escape Rooms.
* SelfMadeOrphan: Claire murdered her mother by trapping her in a sauna because she was about to send her to a mental hospital. In the ending of the film, she also kills her father as revenge for restricting her freedom for the past several years.
* SequelHook: Unlike the theatrical cut, Zoey and Ben are both better off in the end, having managed to beat Henry without being set up in another Escape Room fiasco. However, the former might have sowed the seeds for something far more terrible when she freed Claire, who has toppled her father and implicitly become the new head of Minos.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Claire. She acts nice to Zoey as she needs her help to break out of her glass prison. It is revealed that she was imprisoned in the first place because Henry thought she was too ''dangerous''; she was a psychopath who devised far more dangerous escape rooms that Henry was willing to tolerate, and killed her own mother because she wanted to send her to an asylum.

* AMinorKidroduction: The Extended Cut opens in 2003, showing the origins of Henry, the head of Minos, his strained relationship with his wife, Amanda, and daughter, Claire and Amanda's death in an Escape Room game that Henry ostensibly devised to foil her plans to divorce him.

* SelfMadeOrphan: Claire murdered her mother by trapping her in a sauna because she was about to send her to a mental hospital.

* ShoutOut: A girl who devised mazes trapping people inside? Claire is clearly based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariadne Ariadne]], the mythological daughter of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minos King Minos]].

* SelfMadeOrphan: Claire murdered her mother by trapping her in a sauna because she was planning to send her to a mental hospital.
* SequelHook: Unlike the theatrical cut, Zoey and Ben are both better off in the end, having managed to beat Henry without being set up in another Escape Room fiasco. However, the former might have sowed the seeds for something far more terrible when she freed Claire, who has toppled her father and implicitly became the new head of Minos.

The home release, set to be released on September 21, 2021, will include an "Extended Cut" that features a slightly different plot and restores Creator/IsabelleFuhrman and Creator/JamesFrain to the film (both were cut in the theatrical release).

!!This film provides examples of:

* WhatTheHellHero: After the group barely survives the bank room, Ben calls out the unconscious Nathan for nearly getting them killed with his thoughtless actions. Sure, he genuinely believed he was doing good. But it still put them all at risk.

* ItsAllMyFault: Dropped by Zoey when [[spoiler: it looks like Ben died during the beach escape room. She goes into a brief HeroicBSOD, saying he was her best friend and how he didn't want to return; convinced he would still be alive if she hadn't convinced him to come with her.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Rachel, who begins the game hostile and sarcastic (understandably so), but she softens up towards the other players, comforting Zoey when [[spoiler: it seems like Ben has died in the Beach Room]], and doing the same for Brianna when [[spoiler: they're both about to be killed by the acid rain in the City Streets Room.]]

* DefiantToTheEnd: [[spoiler: When Brianna and Rachel are locked out of the cab and phone booth in the City Streets Room and are about to be killed by the acid rain, Rachel urges Brianna to not "give them the satisfaction", and faces her death calmly instead of giving the watchers a show.]]

* FatalFamilyPhoto: [[spoiler: Theo is the first casualty of the group, and one of the things he says is that he has a wife whose birthday is today.]]

* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler: Implied with Minos’ behavior toward Zoey, not only for thwarting their escape rooms twice, but also for exposing them to the public and potentially triggering an investigation into their actions. The very end of the film even has them go out of their way to taunt her, as her flight home is revealed to be yet another escape room.]]

* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:Zoey, Ben, and Amanda escape from the game safely, with staff from Minos apprehended and everything going smoothly afterwards. Zoey then asks Ben to fly back with her. Unfortunately, this is all a ruse as the plane converts to another room and the credits roll.]]

** Zoey recounts the deaths of the escape room players in her groups...[[spoiler:and she later discovers that one of those who died was actually captured.]]

* CrisisOfFaith: Nate is a priest who starts the film sneaking some booze in his jacket. By the second room, he starts to get suicidal and [[spoiler:nearly kills himself as well as makes the escape effort much more difficult. By this time he comes to with renewed faith and eventually creates a HeroicSacrifice to save Rachel in the next room.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:After Zoey gets into the cab that renders her safe, Brianna and Rachel follow her, only for both the taxi door and the phone booth that kept them safe to lock. Brianna starts to freak out while Rachel tells her to "not give them the satisfaction" as both of them are killed by the following acid rain storm.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Early in the film there are hints that the whole movie is a set up by Minos. With the therapist claiming that "everything is a clue." and asking Zoey "What is it gonna take to get you on that plane?" Given the ending of the last movie, we know Minos hijacked Zoey's plane and turned it into another room. [[spoiler:Naturally, at the end, the things the therapist said could be a clue are present. As well as a lighthouse behind her when she asks what it will take to get Zoey on the plane. By the time Zoey realizes this, it's far too late.]]

* KarmaHoudini: The vagrant who steals Zoey's necklace and lures the pair into the escape rooms receives no punishment whatsoever. [[spoiler: Minos is also still at large, despite hints that there may finally be an investigation on the organization.]]

* QuicksandSucks: The beach-themed Houglass Bay escape room, with Minos' machinery doing the work. The sand-sinking grows in intensity, not only swallowing things and people, but ''the entire set''!

* SequelEscalation: The room traps are far more lethal this time around, [[spoiler: as evidenced by the fact that the ''very first room'' results in a death.]]

* SoleSurvivor: While Zoey and Ben are a subverted case, each of the other players were winners in their own games:
** Brianna was in a game filled with different influencers.
** Nate was in a game featuring all priests (himself included).
** Rachel’s game featured those who couldn’t feel pain.
** We don’t get to hear about Theo’s game (apart from the fact that he suffered a burst eardrum)[[spoiler: since he dies in the first room before he reveals this.]]
* SpottingTheThread: At the end, as Zoey relaxes on the plane [[spoiler: she begins to think on just how easy those last few traps were...and how convenient it was that the newscasts at the police station were talking about Minos escape rooms found nationwide. Ben tells her she's paranoid but Zoey spots a woman resembling her shrink who kept asking "what will it take to get you on the plane?" She then sees the woman is holding the same pen, purse and book (entitled ''Free Will'') as that shrink and it hits her too late that this is just another escape room]].
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Just because Ben and Zoey made it out of their game with no lasting physical injuries doesn't mean the others didn't. Brianna has a noticeable facial scar (obtained in an exploding hall of mirrors), and Theo suffered a burst eardrum in his game, necessitating his use of a hearing aid.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: While it's assumed that Amanda fled to safety with Zoey and Ben outside, she's not seen at the police station or afterwards, making her fate slightly ambiguous.]]

* WhatTheHellHero: After the group barely survives the bank room, Ben calls out the unconscious Nathan for nearly getting them killed.