How Escape Room 2's Ending Twist Creates A Big Franchise Problem

Summary Escape Room 2 ends with a clever twist that hints at a franchise problem due to Minos' overwhelming control over outcomes.

The movie brings back familiar characters and introduces an extended cut with a new antagonist to set up potential for Escape Room 3.

Despite hints at a sequel, Escape Room 3 has yet to happen, leaving the fate of the franchise in the hands of studios and audience interest.

Escape Room 2: Tournament of Champions ends with a fairly clever twist, but unfortunately, said twist presents a major franchise problem going forward. The first Escape Room became a sleeper hit in 2019, overcoming mediocre reviews by critics to become a hit with audiences, earning $155 million on a $9 million budget. After several COVID-19-related delays, Escape Room 2 finally hit theaters, and while the sequel might not have been the financial powerhouse the first movie was, its makers clearly intend to bring the world an Escape Room 3 based on the Escape Room 2 ending.

After another movie full of Zoey (Taylor Russell) and Ben (Logan Miller) staying alive despite trap after trap constructed by the Minos company, the Escape Room 2 ending twist reveals that everything in the sequel up to that point had been done to convince Zoey that Minos had been caught, and get her and Ben into the plane escape room that was constructed at the end of the original. The twist, while feeling a bit cheap, is pretty well pulled off. The problem is, it makes Minos entirely too powerful, to the point where anyone ever beating them seems ludicrous.

Related Escape Room: Tournament of Champions Ending & Twist Explained Escape Room: Tournament of Champions' ending features surprise character returns, major twists, and a link to the first Escape Room movie's ending.

What Happens In The Escape Room 2 Ending

The Finale Takes A Surprisingly Uplifting Turn

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The ending of The Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions was filled with twists and turns, and it significantly altered the direction the franchise could potentially take. After the movie made many references to a girl named Sonya, it's revealed that Sonya is the daughter of Amanda, from the original Escape Room movie. The sequel retcons the ending of the first film to reveal that Amanda survived, and has been designing escape rooms for Minos ever since.

The sinister activities of Minos ar revealed to the world, and it seems the company will be brought to justice.

Amanda then shows up, and begins working with Zoey to help her and Ben escape. After the pair manage to free Ben from his cage (which had been filling with water), they then contact the FBI. In a turn of events that felt surprisingly uplifting for a sequel to Escape Room, the authorities manage to retrieve the bodies of Theo, Brianna, Rachel and Nathan. The sinister activities of Minos ar revealed to the world, and it seems the company will be brought to justice. There is then a final tacked-on moment when Zoey, on a plane home with Ben, is caught up in a last-minute Minos escape room.

Why Escape Room 2's Ending Twist Is A Franchise Problem

The Levels Of Control Minos Have Over Outcomes Isn't Plausible

To facilitate the Escape Room 2 ending twist, Minos proves itself capable of doing everything but manipulating reality itself, and with its vast resources, it can even nearly do that. By the end of the highly anticipated horror film, it's clear that even the psychiatrist Zoey and Ben visited about their prior experiences was in Minos' pocket.

Picking up from there, from the moment they enter New York City and visit the Minos building, they're manipulated and pushed into position for the next game by Minos. Even the events within the game, which ostensibly should be harder for Minos to predict, end up with Zoey escaping through an alternate route they clearly intended her to find, and Ben getting sucked into the quicksand, enabling Minos to use him as a bargaining chip with Zoey.

Even the events within the game, which ostensibly should be harder for Minos to predict, end up with Zoey escaping through an alternate route they clearly intended her to find

According to the surprise returning character in Escape Room 2, Amanda (Deborah Ann Woll), who it turns out survived the first film due to yet more Minos manipulation tactics. This entire game was put together to convince Zoey to become a game designer for the company herself, assuming anything Zoey was told during the game can be trusted.

If that's true though, that means Minos casually orchestrated that a bunch of former "winners" would end up on the same subway train at the same time, and without anyone else on it, just to play a game for the purposes of deceiving Zoey and Ben and getting the duo into the coming plane trap. That is a level of control over outcomes that would leave most movie villains in awe. At this point, Zoey and Ben's battle doesn't feel winnable. In fact, it feels hopeless, not only for Escape Room 2 but for Escape Room 3 as well.

Related Escape Room: Tournament of Champions Cast & Character Guide Returning cast members Taylor Russell and Logan Miller join four new players in horror sequel Escape Room: Tournament of Champions.

Escape Room 2 Has An Extended Cut That Changes The Ending

The Addition Of Isabelle Fuhrman's Character Fixes Many Issues

Escape Room 2's Minos is probably far too powerful in the regular ending, but the movie also has an extended cut that adjusts this issue. Instead of placing the focus on the plane twist, the alternate version of Escape Room 2 heavily features Claire (Orphan's Isabelle Fuhrman), the true mastermind behind the games who killed her parents after they tried to take credit for her creations.

Not only does the Escape Room 2 alternate ending reduce the near-supernatural omnipotence of Minos effectively by making the movie more about Claire, but it also very directly sets up the antagonist for Escape Room 3. If the franchise wants a shot at continuing past Escape Room 2, this compelling new antagonist is a great way to do so.

What We Know About Escape Room 3

Despite Being Teased In 2021, A Sequel To Tournament Of Champions Hasn't Happened

The ending of Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions — and especially the alternate extended cut — seemed to strongly hint that Escape Room 3 would arrive to turn the duology into a trilogy. The core premise of Escape Room clearly has franchise potential, and like the Saw movies, only really seems limited by how many different traps filmmakers can dream up. However, despite Escape Room 2 arriving several years ago and making over $65 million at the box office on a budget of only $15 million (via Box Office Mojo), Escape Room 3 still hasn't arrived.

Director Adam Robitel did hint in 2021 that Escape Room 3 was a possibility. Speaking to Nightmarish Conjurings, Robitel suggested that the only thing holding back a potential sequel was the budget and audience interest:

"We’ll see! I always say, let’s see if there’s a desire for it. It all comes down to bucks as they say."

However, this was several years ago, and there's been no solid news on Escape Room 3 since. Adam Robitel (who also appeared as Gabe in the first Escape Room) hasn't directed any movies since, either. This may actually be good news for Escape Room 3 though, as it means he's not distracted by other projects. It seems that the fate of a sequel to Escape Room: Tournament of Champions rests on the wishes of Columbia and Sony Pictures, the studio and distributors behind the franchise.