The film stars Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine, Nik Dodani, Jay Ellis, and Yorick van Wageningen, and follows a group of people who are sent to navigate a series of deadly escape rooms.

[5][6] Six people from varied backgrounds are presented with a puzzle cube: Zoey, a physics student; Jason, a wealthy daytrader; Ben, a stockboy; Mike, a truck driver; Amanda, an Iraq War veteran; and Danny, an escape room enthusiast.

The participants arrive at an office block with no greeting, and when Ben tries to leave, the door handle falls off, revealing that the challenge has begun.

Danny falls through the ice in an icy room and drowns; Amanda falls to her death in an upside-down billiards bar where parts of the floor periodically fall into a deep shaft below; Jason accidentally shocks Mike to death to solve a puzzle in a hospital room filling up with poisonous gas, leaving Zoey behind to die after she refuses to leave in order to destroy security cameras; and in a room with optical illusions, strobe lights and transdermal drugs coating the surfaces, Ben kills Jason over an antidote required to escape.

Ben, after escaping the last room where a wall moves inwards to crush him, meets the Gamemaster, who controls the game that the Puzzle Maker designed.

While looking at the graffiti on the wall, Zoey notices the words "No Way Out" and realizes they are an anagram for "Wootan Yu", a name that appeared in several places throughout the escape rooms, suggesting the game is not over.

On August 9, 2017, it was announced that the film, then titled The Maze, had commenced casting, based on an original story created by screenwriter Bragi F.

The soundtrack was released by Sony Music Entertainment, and includes the full score and a remix of the film's main theme by Madsonik and Kill the Noise, used in the closing credits.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Escape Room fails to unlock much of the potential in its premise, but what's left is still tense and thrilling enough to offer a passing diversion for suspense fans.

[16] Sandy Schaelfer from Screen Rant gave the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, writing that "Escape Room is an entertainingly cheesy and surprisingly innovative B-movie, but suffers when it turns its attention to setting up future sequels.

"[20] In February 2019, a sequel, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, was announced as being in active development, with Robitel set to return to direct along with screenwriter Schut and producer Moritz.