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Where did Andy put his newly acquired dress clothes (the suit he took from the Warden's office) as he was escaping?

posted 4 years ago by JackalopeCash57 (92)
1 reply | jump to latest

So this is one detail that has always bothered me - ironic, seeing as how the film primarily aces it in regards to the importance of the smaller details. What gets me is where did he put the sports coat,dress pants, shirt, and tie once he was escaping the prison; we do see that he has a sealed plastic bag where he has put his chess set, financial documents, books, etc. Yet we do not see anything in the bag that looks like it could be a suit packed in with the other items. Obviously, he not did wear the dress clothes while crawling thru the river of shit and the plastic sealed bag does not appear to have been packed with the dress clothes - so, how did he manage to take the clothes with him as he escaped?

This always drives me nuts whenever I watch the film lol

[–] spacecomedy (2051) 4 years ago

Frank Darabont has your answer. The plastic bag might not appear full enough, but the suit was supposed to be in there.
https://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/1304-Fall-2013/Shot-to-Remember-Shawshank-Redemption.aspx

In this frame Andy has squeezed out of the tunnel into a very real depiction of the service space that existed between the two cellblock locations. This was also a set built by Terry, but it was so real that when Andy came out of his hole, he grabbed hold of what would naturally be there, and started climbing down. My major concern in the shot was for the audience to see the plastic bag tied to his ankle, because that explains everything later on about how he’s able to wear a perfectly pressed suit, etc. It’s just one very quick visual reference point that we absolutely needed to have, and it was an incredibly simple shot. We just got a crane in there, and as Andy climbed down to ground level we craned down with him.