The Great Escape is a 1963 American epic war suspense adventure film starring Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough and featuring James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn, Hannes Messemer, David McCallum, Gordon Jackson, John Leyton and Angus Lennie. It was filmed in Panavision, and its musical score was composed by Elmer Bernstein.

Based on Paul Brickhill’s 1950 non-fiction book of the same name, the film depicts a heavily fictionalized version of the mass escape by British Commonwealth prisoners of war from German POW camp Stalag Luft III during the Second World War. The film made numerous compromises for its commercial appeal, including its portrayal of American prisoners’ involvement in the escape.

n 1943, a group of Allied POWs who have repeatedly escaped from camps across the Third Reich are moved to a new camp under the command of Luftwaffe Colonel von Luger. He warns British Group Captain Ramsey—the highest-ranked POW officer and their de facto leader—that any man who escapes will be shot. Privately von Luger opposes such measures, but the Gestapo, tired of the disruption caused by breakouts elsewhere, has threatened to intervene if the Luftwaffe cannot stop them for good.

Several prisoners ignore the threat and attempt to escape on the first day, but none succeed. Hilts, a notoriously prolific escapee, notices a blind spot at the fence and purposefully gets caught before the guards can realize his discovery. Sentenced to “the cooler”,[9] he is placed in a cell next to Ives, and the two become friends.

RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett re-establishes “the X Organisation”, the escape-planning committee at their former camp, with Ramsey’s tacit approval. He argues that they can help the Allied war effort by breaking out an unprecedented 250 men simultaneously, forcing the Germans to divert significant manpower away from the front.

The POWs begin working on three tunnels: “Tom”, “Dick”, and “Harry”. Hendley secures vital objects on the black market and forms a bond with expert forger Blythe. Sedgwick makes picks and air bellows, Welinski and Dickes oversee the digging, MacDonald gathers intelligence, Griffith sews civilian disguises, and Ashley-Pitt devises a method of hiding the excavated dirt. Digging and manufacturing noise is masked by a choir, led by Cavendish, who also surveys the tunnels’ routes. Aware that Hilts is planning to jump the fence, Bartlett asks him to scout out the surrounding area and then allow himself to be recaptured so he can draw maps for the X Organisation. Hilts refuses out of pride.

When “Tom” nears completion first, Bartlett orders “Dick” and “Harry” sealed off. Hilts, Hendley, and Goff brew potato moonshine with a homemade still and celebrate the Fourth of July with the camp, but the guards accidentally find “Tom” mid-party. A despondent Ives snaps, frantically climbs the fence, and is shot dead. Hilts, shaken, agrees to Bartlett’s proposal.

Bartlett orders “Harry” reopened. When the tunnel partially collapses, Welinski breaks down and confides to Dickes that he is claustrophobic. He tries to climb the fence like Ives, but Dickes manages to calm him down and prevent him being shot. Blythe finds he is going blind due to progressive myopia, and Hendley takes it upon himself to be his eyes during the escape.

The prisoners complete “Harry”, but on the night of the escape they break to the surface and find themselves 20 feet short of the forest, and still within sight of the guards. Guided by Hilts tugging on a rope as a signal—and aided by a fortuitous air raid blackout—dozens of men flee before Cavendish slips and makes a noise. An impatient Griffith surfaces while a guard investigates and is captured, ending the breakout.