The following contains spoilers for Andor Season 1, Episode 10, "One Way Out," now streaming on Disney+.
The jaw-dropping prison escape in Andor Season 1, Episode 10, "One Way Out" is an instant highlight of the season. The sequence is driven by the Disney+ series' signature slow burn and a stunning performance from Andy Serkis. And as with the payroll robbery depicted in Season 1, Episode 6, "The Eye," it demonstrates the explosive events that turned the Rebellion from a collection of malcontents into a proper uprising.
The escape also draws active inspiration from the past works of George Lucas -- though not the Star Wars saga. THX 1138, the director's feature film debut, has been a subtle influence on the show's prison setting since the prison was introduced in Season 1, Episode 8, "Narkina 5." The conclusion of "One Way Out" is similar to that film's climax, but the ending is far more hopeful in 2022 than it was in 1971.
THX 1138 Is Another Look at Dystopia
Lucas first expressed many of the ideas that would come to define the Star Wars films in THX 1138. It presents a dystopian future where human identity has been all but removed and emotions are controlled through drugs. The society in the movie lives entirely underground. The title character, defined by his "prefix" rather than a name, slowly breaks out of the system's control. He escapes after being sentenced to prison, then engages in an extended chase with the authorities. He finally shakes off his pursuers by climbing a ventilation shaft and emerges to see the setting sun for the first time.
The film is more badly dated than Star Wars and more openly reliant on earlier science fiction classics like Brave New World and 1984. But it succeeds in its depiction of an individual struggling against an oppressive society, as well as in presenting ideas that would later become Star Wars staples. Anonymous "police androids" with masks for faces are the predecessors of Stormtroopers and the film's climactic chase shows off Lucas's signature love of speed and vehicles. Now some of these elements have resurfaced in Andor.
Andor's Prison Borrows THX 1138's Look
The prison on Narkina 5 where Cassian Andor is laboring contains subtle visual cues connecting it to THX 1138. The white prisoner' uniforms and the all-white décor of the prison itself are both similar. Those cues become more overt in "One Way Out," however, when the prisoners realize that parole is a myth and engineer a revolt. Led by Cassian and Serkis' character Kino Loy, they quickly sabotage the security system and overpower the guards. The episode's stunning high point comes when Loy gets on the public address system and urges the prisoners to break free.
And as with THX 1138, that involves a lot of climbing. The building is only accessible from the top level, which means that prisoners live their entire lives in an artificial enclosure -- just as the citizens in THX 1138 do. Their escape involves a very similar climb that leads them to suddenly confront a natural world that has been denied to them for a very long time.
Yet while THX 1138 ended with just a single man breaking loose from his confines, the prison in Andor contains over 5,000 inmates. They escape not just as individuals, but as an entire society in and of themselves. That's a big part of what gives the scene its power and neatly matches Andor's stated purpose of showing a rebellion that grows beyond containment. THX 1138 provides an inspiration from the same creative source.
Andor streams Wednesdays on Disney+.