Coming Soon: Escape Room 2: Tournament of Champions

We finally have a trailer, release date, and title for the Escape Room sequel. Escape Room is the surprise 2019 hit horror/thriller film about the world’s most challenging escape room. People from around the country are invited to participate for a chance to win $10000. Unfortunately for them, the game has life or death stakes that only become more challenging as they advance in the game.

The sequel is now called Escape Room 2: Tournament of Champions and the premise is pretty heartbreaking. The original film showed that the game masters were willing to prey on people’s trauma to disarm them and lead them to their doom. Now, the new game is comprised entirely of former winners.

The survivors of the original film pick up where that story left off: on a mission to take down the corporation that put them through the deadly game. They quickly find themselves on a new puzzle in the NYC subway system with four strangers. All of them have previously escaped the escape room and instantly realize what has happened to them.

I really enjoyed the original Escape Room film. The ending sure was a choice, but the overall experience was tense and terrifying. Deadly game films are one of my favorite horror subgenres and Escape Room hit all the elements well. Not since Battle Royale have I felt such a genuine connection to all the unlucky players trapped in one of these stories. It hurt when these people didn’t succeed. What really helped was knowing that the characters were perfectly capable of solving these puzzles if the game didn’t…bend the rules with false clues and booby traps. This is the kind of horror universe where you can do everything right and still fail.

Tournament of Champions shows off some wicked looking escape rooms. The subway trap is a great hook and really sells the premise. These former players realize immediately what the cryptic clue about false advertising means and get to work solving the puzzle. Then the rules of the puzzle seem to punish them for making the correct choices with a jolt of electricity.

We know from the end of the last film that the corporation does not want the newest winners to get their revenge and will do anything to stop them. Are there actually solutions to these escape rooms or will the champions have to rely on bending or breaking the rules of the puzzle to survive?

We don’t have long to wait to find out. Escape Room 2: Tournament of Champions comes out 16 July in theaters.