The Escape is a 1986 American war film directed by Gideon Amir and starring David Carradine, Charles Grant, Mako and Steve James.

In the story, a group of captive U.S. soldiers forge a pact with the commander of their North Vietnamese camp to help him defect to the West with his personal treasure, but the lure of quick gain soon tests their fragile alliance.

[6][7] He had already worked on several Cannon projects set in the Philippines, including serving as line producer on the company's earlier foray into the same subgenre, Missing in Action.

[8] Supporting players Charles Grant, Steve James and Phil Brock were known quantities at Cannon, and were brought back thanks to their good rapport with either Amir or Golan.

[7] The shoot was subject to stringent security measures due to the combined threat of Communist and Islamic guerrilla groups fighting Ferdinand Marcos' army, who was guarding the crew.

Vehicles and itineraries to the shooting locations changed regularly to dissuade attacks, and Carradine seldom left the crew's headquarters at the Manila Hotel during his spare time.

[12] While Golan was pleased with the dailies sent to him during production, once the film was assembled, he felt that Carradine's character was too ambivalent towards the war, and demanded that some of his dialogue be excised to emphasize his heroism.

Frequent Cannon scribe James Bruner was brought in to write new exposition that would tie the remaining footage together, and one day of pickups was arranged in Los Angeles to bring those scenes to life.

Writing for the Copley News Service, David Elliott noted that "[t]he film doesn't ooze with patriotic goo like the Sly Stallone movies" and that "Carradine may be the best of the All-American bullheads.

[21] John Laycock of the Windsor Star granted that it "threatened a burst of imagination" with the uneasy alliance between Cooper and his Vietnamese counterpart, but quickly devolved into gunfights "directed as badly as a rush hour traffic jam" and carried by an aging Carradine, whose "fierceness is dimming".

"[23] The film's main theme is credited to David Storrs, but Cannon regular Michael Linn also contributed original material to the score.