Escape Room: Tournament of Champions introduces audiences to a new series of puzzle rooms and traps as the competitors fight for survival. While the first movie was a surprise hit, it did not quite capture the spirit of puzzle rooms and felt a lot similar to Saw. The sequel, however, corrects this issue and provides linear puzzle rooms that more accurately capture a heightened version of the escape room experience.
The film is filled with diverse puzzle rooms, including some that are expansive and require teamwork while others are small and involve only a single person. As the competitors make their way from room to room, the audience gets to experience a variety of interesting and original puzzles, with some standing out more than others.
The Minos Logo
After the events of the first film, Zoey is hesitant to believe that Minos has really let her go. Despite everyone telling her to move on with her life, Zoey continues to see everything around her as a puzzle to be solved. This leads her to reexamine the Minos logo, realizing that the overlap between the three triangles is actually a clue to the organization’s headquarters.
While the Minos logo is not exactly the most iconic logo from a movie franchise, it does provide a valuable clue. Though minor, this first puzzle is one that sets the tone for the rest of the movie. Zoey is justified in her mistrust and paranoia. Additionally, it reinforces her status as the smartest and most ingenious competitor in the escape room.
The Airplane
The film opens with a surprising sequence, completely ignoring the ending of the first film that had appeared to set up the sequel by showing that Minos had trapped Zoey and Ben in another puzzle room that looked like a crashing plane. However, the movie subverts this expectation by revealing this scene is actually from the end of the second movie. It is not the most shocking plot twist to occur in a horror movie, but it does manage to subvert audience expectations.
While the audience does not get to see the resolution of this puzzle room, it is chilling to watch as Zoey slowly pieces things together, recognizing different elements around the plane and realizing she is in another puzzle room.
The Bedroom
In what is made to appear as the final puzzle room, Zoey finds herself in a child’s bedroom, forced to decide between working for Minos or letting Ben die in front of her. Once again, Zoey thinks outside of the box and finds a creative solution to the problem, managing to somehow beat a seemingly impossible Saw-like trap.
This puzzle room shows both Zoey’s character and intelligence, maintaining her moral integrity by refusing Minos’ offer and still finding a way to save Ben. While no one else even sees the room as a puzzle, she is able to see through Minos’ deception and think her way through the situation.
The Illusion Of Choice
At the completion of the beach-themed puzzle room, the group is prepared to exit through the door in the refrigerator and move onto the next room when Zoey discovers another exit in the wall. Zoey and Rachel escape through the hole in the wall, believing that they have finally made it out of the trap. However, they end up in the city street-themed puzzle room with Brianna all the same.
This puzzle perfectly conveys the movie’s dark cynicism, presenting the characters with the illusion of a choice only to reveal that they are still being manipulated and controlled by Minos. It ultimately does not matter how creative or smart the competitors are because they all still end up in another trap regardless of what they do.
Beach
The beach-themed puzzle room is the biggest and most expansive room in the game, incorporating the beach, a beach house, and a lighthouse, that force the players to spread out and eventually divide the group into two.
The beach is the room that most resembles the rooms from the first movie, functioning in a similar way to the winter cabin room. While it may not be the most inventive setting, since many horror movies take place at the beach, the size and multiple parts of the room force the team to change their approach. Additionally, the puzzles in this room begin to clue the audience, and Zoey, into the fact that a larger story is being told through the rooms.
Subway Train
The subway-themed puzzle room catches the competitors by surprise, starting the game by forcing the players to solve the puzzle before they are killed by electricity. The room catches the players by surprise, forcing them to solve the puzzle without having ever knowingly entered into a puzzle room.
The room does not feature the most difficult puzzles, with the players deciphering the posters and pullies rather quickly, but it is one of the most lethal, with the electric shocks putting immense pressure on the competitors. The puzzle is a good introduction to the characters and their group dynamic while also re-establishing Zoey’s innate ability to think creatively in order to solve puzzles.
City Street
The city street-themed puzzle room introduces a ticking clock that activates acid rain in short intervals, forcing the competitors to scramble to solve the puzzles in spurts before hiding under coverage from the rain.
By adding the unique element of a timed environmental hazard, this puzzle room breaks up the predictability of the previous rooms and stands out as one of a kind. Additionally, the room punishes the players for each wrong move, making every second valuable. This puzzle also proves to be the deadliest in the game, killing multiple competitors.
Bank
The room that best capitalizes on the premise of the movie is the bank-themed puzzle room. The puzzle has the ticking clock of the vault closing, features the major obstacle of the lasers, and forces the players to work together from opposite sides of the room.
This puzzle makes the best use of the group, forcing them to work through the multiple parts of the puzzle in order to unlock more and more of the step pattern required to get past the lasers and make it to the vault. Inventive and challenging, this entertaining room is easily the best puzzle in the film.
