MovieChat Forums > The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) Discussion > Edmund's escape from Chateau D'if

Edmund's escape from Chateau D'if


Obviously Edmund's escape from Chateau D'if made for good viewing but surely given all the skills he had learnt. he could have played dead in his cell, waited for the fat and slow guards to come in and then killed them and run off. It was stretching belief that when they carried the body out to the sea and placed chains on him that he was able to grab the keys off the warden just as they threw him in the sea

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Yes, the book does a much better job exlpaining the escape (and everything else for that matter). In the book it would be impossible to fake death because they actually made sure the old man was dead by burning his skin after having a doctor confirm his death. And in the book Dantes doesn't grab the keys or the warden, he thinks he is going to buried and figures he will either dig his way out or die trying...both options being better than remaining in prison. It is only as he is being hurled off the cliff that he realizes that the prison doesn't actually have a cemetery. He has a homemade knife with him that he uses to escape the weights that were tied to him and then he swims away.

I don't really understand the people who think the movie is better than the book. I'm sure those who don't like reading have a hard time sitting down to read 1000+ page book but the story is so much better if you give it a chance. I do still like this movie alot and own it on DVD but the book is so much better.

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the skin burn. ouch.



Season's Greetings

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Supposedly, one old tradition of wrapping people in something before burial, especially for naval burials at sea, is to sew them into whatever you wrap them in. The tradition goes that the last two stitches (bear in mind this is a THICK needle with HEAVY twine) are put through the nose, to make sure the person is really dead!

As for the rest - It is a one-episode movie adaptation of a MASSIVE book. There's only so much you can include and with the complex web of vengeance detailed in the book, there's no way you could manage that without a series of films.

So too, the escape scene is pared back to pretty believable basics. It's not like they had an emaciated 15-year prisoner suddenly sieze a sword and battle his way out Action Hero style...

Small matters like this are forgivable, I think. It's still a STUNNINGLY good film!



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why would he have done that he would have been guilty of murder

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Obviously Edmund's escape from Chateau D'if made for good viewing but surely given all the skills he had learnt. he could have played dead in his cell, waited for the fat and slow guards to come in and then killed them and run off.


Maybe that's not such a good plan, being that no such escape plan ever worked in real life at Chateau D'If.

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I was surprised they would waste heavy chains and a lock on a dead prisoner- it's not like you could buy that stuff at Ace Hardware for $20- someone had to make that stuff by hand! Rocks and rope would have done the job just fine.

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Haha yes, that's an awful expense for disposing of a dead prisoner!

As another poster mentioned, I think if it was me in Edmund's position I would have tried to make my escape BEFORE being bound and tossed into the sea. I suppose he thought he was going to be buried but even there, your chance of escape is very poor. Far better I think to take a guard by surprise after being carted outside the prison (especially since he had a knife), and then jump into the sea or steal a boat, if you can before getting shot.

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