Synopsis 4
When Andy finally comes out of solitary, he and Red have a conversation where Andy talks in a depressed tone about his wife and how much he loved her and feels responsible for her death even though he didn't pulled the trigger. He then talks about his projects should he ever get out of prison. He talks about Zihuatanejo, a beach town on the Pacific coast of Mexico where he'd like to live for the rest of his life and manage a hotel on the beach. He then asks Red if he'd join him to which Red says no and that he believes he is too far gone like Brooks. He then criticizes Andy for allowing hope to mess with his mind like that and that it will only destroy him. Andy agrees and is about to leave when he asks Red if he knows the Buxton, Maine area. He then tells Red about a very specific hay field where there is a large oak tree at the end of a stone wall. He then asks Red to promise him that, should he ever get paroled, he will seek that oak tree and retrieve something that was hidden among the stones but refuses to say what it is. Red promises but is worried about his friend's state of mind. His worries are heightened further when he learns that Andy has asked Heywood for a six-foot length of rope. Red believes Andy may have finally reached his breaking point and is about to commit suicide. Meanwhile, Norton asks Andy to shine his shoes for him and put his suit in for dry-cleaning before retiring for the night. Andy returns to his cell and the guards turn the lights off for the night. Red remarks that it was the longest night of his life.
The following morning, Andy has not answered the morning call and is not standing in front of his cell. The guard yells at Andy for not following procedure and walks to his cell expecting to find a seriously sick or dead Andy. At the same time, Norton becomes alarmed when he finds Andy's shoes in his shoe box instead of his own. The alarm then goes off announcing a missing inmate. Norton rushes to Andy's empty cell and demands an explanation. Hadley brings in Red, but Red insists he knows nothing of Andy's plans. Becoming increasingly hostile and paranoid, Norton starts throwing Andy's sculpted rocks around the cell. When he throws one at Andy's poster of Raquel Welch (in the spot previously occupied by Marilyn Monroe, and before that by Rita Hayworth), the rock punches through and into the wall. Norton tears the poster from the wall revealing a tunnel just wide enough for a man to crawl into.
It is revealed in a series of flashback sequences narrated by Red that many years ago, not long after receiving his rock hammer, Andy innocently tried to carve his name on his cell wall when a chunk of it came off. Andy, being a fan of geology, realized that the material the wall was made off of could make it possible for him to dig a hole in case he ever needed to escape. Andy first ordered the giant poster of Rita Hayworth to hide the hole. He then spent years digging at night with his rock hammer and hiding the dirt from his job into his pockets which he would then empty in the courtyard during his morning walks. Andy did much to keep himself occupied while serving his time as a defense against the institutionalization that could have effected him like it did with Brooks but when Tommy was killed, Andy decided it was time to try to escape.
During the previous night's thunderstorm, Andy wore Norton's clothes underneath his own to his cell, catching a lucky break when no one notices Norton's shiny black shoes on his feet, including Red. He packed many of his belongings, some papers and Norton's clothes into a plastic bag which he tied to himself with the rope he'd asked for, and escaped through his hole. The tunnel he'd excavated led him to a space between two walls of the prison where he found a sewer main line. Using a rock, he hit the sewer line in time with the lightning strikes and eventually broke it open. After crawling through 500 yards of raw sewage contained in the pipe, Andy emerged in a brook outside the walls. A search team later found his prison clothes, a bar of soap and a very worn out rock hammer.
While the warden and Red are discovering Andy's escape, Andy walks into the Maine National Bank in Portland, where he had put Norton's money. Using his assumed identity as Randall Stephens, and with all the necessary documentation, he closes the account and walks out with a cashier's check. Before he leaves, he asks them to drop a package in the mail, to which they pleasantly agree. He continues his visitations to nearly a dozen other local banks, ending up with some $370,000. The package contains Warden Norton's accounting books, which are delivered straight to the Portland Daily Bugle newspaper along with Andy's written confessions and testimony.
The following morning, Andy has not answered the morning call and is not standing in front of his cell. The guard yells at Andy for not following procedure and walks to his cell expecting to find a seriously sick or dead Andy. At the same time, Norton becomes alarmed when he finds Andy's shoes in his shoe box instead of his own. The alarm then goes off announcing a missing inmate. Norton rushes to Andy's empty cell and demands an explanation. Hadley brings in Red, but Red insists he knows nothing of Andy's plans. Becoming increasingly hostile and paranoid, Norton starts throwing Andy's sculpted rocks around the cell. When he throws one at Andy's poster of Raquel Welch (in the spot previously occupied by Marilyn Monroe, and before that by Rita Hayworth), the rock punches through and into the wall. Norton tears the poster from the wall revealing a tunnel just wide enough for a man to crawl into.
It is revealed in a series of flashback sequences narrated by Red that many years ago, not long after receiving his rock hammer, Andy innocently tried to carve his name on his cell wall when a chunk of it came off. Andy, being a fan of geology, realized that the material the wall was made off of could make it possible for him to dig a hole in case he ever needed to escape. Andy first ordered the giant poster of Rita Hayworth to hide the hole. He then spent years digging at night with his rock hammer and hiding the dirt from his job into his pockets which he would then empty in the courtyard during his morning walks. Andy did much to keep himself occupied while serving his time as a defense against the institutionalization that could have effected him like it did with Brooks but when Tommy was killed, Andy decided it was time to try to escape.
During the previous night's thunderstorm, Andy wore Norton's clothes underneath his own to his cell, catching a lucky break when no one notices Norton's shiny black shoes on his feet, including Red. He packed many of his belongings, some papers and Norton's clothes into a plastic bag which he tied to himself with the rope he'd asked for, and escaped through his hole. The tunnel he'd excavated led him to a space between two walls of the prison where he found a sewer main line. Using a rock, he hit the sewer line in time with the lightning strikes and eventually broke it open. After crawling through 500 yards of raw sewage contained in the pipe, Andy emerged in a brook outside the walls. A search team later found his prison clothes, a bar of soap and a very worn out rock hammer.
While the warden and Red are discovering Andy's escape, Andy walks into the Maine National Bank in Portland, where he had put Norton's money. Using his assumed identity as Randall Stephens, and with all the necessary documentation, he closes the account and walks out with a cashier's check. Before he leaves, he asks them to drop a package in the mail, to which they pleasantly agree. He continues his visitations to nearly a dozen other local banks, ending up with some $370,000. The package contains Warden Norton's accounting books, which are delivered straight to the Portland Daily Bugle newspaper along with Andy's written confessions and testimony.
