The Next Three Days
When the law leaves him no way to save his wife, John Brennan decides to create one himself.
Director
Paul Haggis
Release
5 January 2011
Runtime
133 Minutes
Certificate
12A
Synopsis
John and Lara Brennan's comfortable family life ends abruptly when police arrive at their home and arrest Lara for murder. She maintains that she didn't kill anyone. The prosecution believes otherwise. Lara is convicted and imprisoned, leaving John to raise their son Luke while pursuing every legal route available to overturn the conviction. Years pass. John refuses to stop believing his wife. But eventually the final appeal is rejected. For Lara, it's devastating. For John, it changes the problem completely. He's spent years trying to get Lara released legally. Now he begins researching how to get her out illegally. John seeks advice from Damon Pennington, a man who has successfully escaped from prison multiple times. What he learns isn't reassuring. Breaking somebody out is only the beginning. John needs money. False documents. Transportation. A destination. And a plan capable of surviving the enormous police response that will begin the moment Lara disappears. The mild-mannered teacher gradually starts entering a world completely outside his experience. He studies prison routines. He experiments with forged documents. He learns how criminals operate. And he begins taking increasingly dangerous risks. Then John discovers Lara may soon be transferred to another prison. Suddenly, the elaborate plan he's been carefully constructing has a deadline. He doesn't have months left to prepare. He has three days.
The Movie Trailer
John Brennan isn't a criminal.
He's a college professor, a husband and a father living an ordinary life with his wife Lara and their young son Luke.
Then Lara is arrested for murder.
She insists she's innocent.
John believes her.
But the evidence convinces a court otherwise, and Lara is sent to prison.
For three years, John fights through the legal system, convinced that eventually somebody will find a way to bring his wife home.
Then their final appeal fails.
As Lara loses hope and their family slowly falls apart, John reaches an extraordinary conclusion.
If the justice system won't release his wife, he'll have to do it himself.
There is just one problem.
John has absolutely no idea how to break somebody out of prison.
THE PLAN
John Has Never Broken the Law — Now He Has to Outsmart an Entire Prison
John Brennan begins with one enormous disadvantage.
He doesn't know what he's doing.
He's not a professional criminal.
He doesn't have contacts waiting to provide forged passports or getaway vehicles.
Everything has to be learned.
That makes the preparation one of the most compelling parts of The Next Three Days.
John approaches escaping prison almost like an academic problem.
Research.
Observe.
Test.
Adjust.
Except mistakes outside the classroom don't result in a bad grade.
They can put John in the cell next to his wife.
LARA
Believing His Wife Means Betting Everything on Being Right
John's entire plan rests on one conviction.
Lara is innocent.
The courts don't agree.
The evidence doesn't make his belief easy.
And eventually the legal system offers him nothing else to challenge.
John must decide how much his belief is worth.
His career?
His freedom?
His relationship with his son?
Potentially his life?
Breaking Lara out isn't simply an act of desperation.
It's John placing everything he has behind his belief that the woman he married didn't commit the crime that destroyed their family.
72 HOURS
Years of Planning Suddenly Come Down to Three Days
John can research forever while the situation remains theoretical.
Then Lara's circumstances change.
Suddenly his preparation has an expiry date.
Three days means there is no longer time to perfect every part of the escape.
John has to use what he's learned, accept what he hasn't and start moving.
That's where the film's tension changes.
The question stops being whether an ordinary man could design a prison break.
It becomes whether he can actually carry one out when every mistake has consequences.