Corrected entry: What makes Billy so sure (at least he looks very relieved after the famous, sweaty scene at Istanbul Airport) he won't have any problems dealing with the U.S.customs officers? Especially coming from a known "drug country" such as Turkey?
Midnight Express (1978)
1 corrected entry
Directed by: Alan Parker
Starring: Bo Hopkins, Irene Miracle, Paolo Bonacelli, Brad Davis
Visible crew/equipment: When Billy's girlfriend, Susan, visits him at the insane asylum section of the prison, just before Susan enters there is a reflection of a crew member on the left side of the screen giving the shot a ghostlike image. (01:35:15)
Tex: How much did you pay this joker? This cab driver?
Billy Hayes: Two hundred dollars. It was my last two hundred.
Tex: How much did you figure to make?
Billy Hayes: I was only gonna sell some of it to my friends. I'm not a pusher. Honest.
Tex: It beats workin'. Do you get a family back home?
Billy Hayes: Yeah, a mother, father, brother, sister in Babylon, Long Island.
Tex: It'll be tough on 'em.
Question: When Billy is walking down the steps towards the door he escapes through, the prison guard throws him the keys for the door. What would Billy have done if the prison guard didn't throw him the keys? What was his plan, or did he even have one?
Chosen answer: Billy's plan was to bribe a guard to help him escape, using the money his girlfriend had smuggled to him. That plan failed, and he was almost raped by a sadistic guard. When Billy accidentally killed him, he used that as an unexpected opportunity to disguise himself in a guard uniform and walked out the front door. If he had been caught, he did not have an alternate plan and would have been severely punished, probably even executed.
Answer: Wasn't there a shelf near the door with keys on it?
Answer: He had a gun on him.
He also had most of the money in his shoe - he only offered one $100 bill to the guard and he hadn't undressed him yet.
Answer: In the book Billy escapes in a completely different way. If memory serves me he was on a work detail and escaped using heavy rain as a cover.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Correction: Being caught in Turkey would be a lot worse for him than being caught in the US. Getting out of the country would be the first step, it's not strange that he relaxes for a while after believing to have gotten out.