Breakout

Breakout (1975) is Tom Gries' lean action picture with Charles Bronson, free to watch online on iFILM. Businessman Jay Wagner is framed and buried in a Mexican prison, handed 28 years for something he never did.

Getting him out falls to Nick Colton, a scruffy bush pilot who flies for cash and works alone. Bronson plays him as no superman — he gripes about the fee, argues with his partner and improvises the whole rescue because nobody official will touch the case. Robert Duvall is the trapped prisoner, Randy Quaid the bumbling sidekick, and John Huston turns up as the man who rigged the frame in the first place.

This comes from the era when the stunts were real: a small plane, a dusty border crossing and one desperate run at the wall. The story takes its cue from an actual jailbreak pulled off in Mexico City. Short, rough and quick on its feet — a meat-and-potatoes 70s thriller for Bronson fans. Stream Breakout (1975) online on iFILM.