Pilot (Escape)

Michael Scofield watches a tattoo artist apply a mysterious tattoo on his body, then in his apartment he tears off articles on various people in the Fox River Prison from the wall and throws a hard drive out of the window into the river. The next day he robs the bank and surrenders to the arrived policemen.

At the trial, Michael fully pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 5 years in prison and sent to serve in the Fox River Prison to serve his sentence. Arriving there, Michael first meets with the head of the prison guard, Captain Brad Bellic, who met him very coolly. Then he meets his cellmate Fernando Sucre, who explains to him who is in prison and shows Lincoln Burrows, who is in the courtyard separately from the rest of the prisoners.

Michael understands that the only way to get to his brother is to be in prison work, run by a former mafia boss and one of the most famous prisoners in prison - John Abruzzi . Michael goes to Abruzzi, asking him to accept him for prison work, but he refuses him. Michael places an origami on his desk as a sign that he knows about Fibonacci, an informant who made Abruzzi go to jail.

At the prison hospital, Michael first meets the prison doctor, Sarah Tancredi , who is the daughter of the Governor of Illinois. She gives Michael a subcutaneous injection. During the second visit, her analyzes seem strange to her, she doubts Michael’s diabetes and wants to conduct additional tests during her next visit. Michael seeks help from Sea-Note, the local “pharmacist,” and asks him to get PAGNAk, a drug that blocks the action of insulin.

His girlfriend Maricruz Delgado comes to Sucre, they meet in a room for marriage. Meanwhile, JJ, the son of Lincoln, falls into the hands of the police with drugs. Veronica meets with Michael, who asks her to find out who framed Lincoln. Secret agents Paul Kellerman and Danny Hale visit Bishop McMorrow, who may influence the governor's decision in the Lincoln case. They try to convince him not to interfere in this matter, but to no avail. Soon after, the bishop was killed.

Prison boss Henry Pope asks Michael to help him finish the Taj Mahal model for his wedding anniversary. Michael agrees.

Michael finally meets Lincoln after prison work and shows him the prison drawings in the form of a tattoo on his body, which are the basis of the plan for a future escape.

The original concept of “Escape” - a person who deliberately goes to jail in order to help another person - was proposed by Paul Scheuring by producer Dawn Parous. Scheuring stated that it was a good idea, but he was puzzled by the motives of this man. He invented the story of an unjustly accused brother, on the basis of which he developed the plot and the main characters. Scheuring proposed the idea of ​​the series to Fox, but it was rejected due to doubts about its prospects. However, following the success of Lost and 24 Hours , Fox producers supported the production of the series ^[1] .

Filming of the episode began a year after Scheuring wrote the script ^[2] and took place in Chicago and its environs ^{[3] [4]} . For shooting prison scenes, the former Joliet Prison Prison was used, while serial killer John Wayne Gacy was in the cell where Lincoln Burroughs was located ^[5] .

The pilot episode, along with the second episode on Fox, was watched by 10.5 million American television viewers ^[6] , making it the seventh most popular rating this week ^[7] . In other countries, the episode was also a great success. So, in the UK, the episode was shown on January 24, 2006 and collected 0.91 million views and ranked 28th among the most watched programs on Channel Five . In France, an episode of August 31, 2006 was watched by 5.5 million viewers). ^[8] . In Poland, on January 28, 2007, the episode gathered 7 million views, which was a record among other episodes of foreign television series ^[9] .

• Pilot on the Internet Movie Database