In 1943 the Germans had many prisoners, many who tried escaping several times. Therefore, they made a new, high-security prison for those prisoners. Captain Vigil Hilts is one of those that was sent there, and the minute he lands he begins planning an escape. He is caught and sent to a “cooler” isolation room where he meets another prisoner named Ives.
Another prisoner is presented into the camp, Roger Bartlett, who has escaped numerous times and is called the “Big X” for his attempts. He realizes that since the Germans have put all the escape prisoners into one camp, they have built a team of the best escapers to be found in the war. He quickly sets up a team consisting of over hundreds of people for escape, all using their best knowledge to get to work. They begin working on three tunnels.
When Hilts and Ives are set free, they try to escape the same night, but are again caught and sent back to the isolation. They don’t consider it a defeat, as they know it at least distracted the Germans off of focusing on the rest of the prisoners. They are again released on a later occasion, and they make another plan. Bartlett asks Hilts if he could make maps and get information of the train station when he escapes and bring them back to camp. Hilts doesn’t want to. However, before they escape, their main tunnel is discovered by the guards, and Ives runs for the fence. He is killed, and Hilts is deeply saddened. He agrees to helping the team escape. He escapes the next night, before he gets caught the next day and returns to isolation with the information the team needs to escape.
They continue working on the second tunnel, and it is ready when Hilts is released form isolation. 76 prisoners escape of the 250, as they miscalculated the length of the tunnel and had to leave slower than expected. One impatient prisoner fell, which alerted the guards and led the rest of the group to be caught. The group that escaped had to leave on different means, some on boat, some on motorbike while other took train or car. On the train there were German soldiers, an obstacle which they have to try to escape. Hilts gets caught on the Swiss border.
Most of the others are then captured by Gestapo, though they state that they have never been happier than they are while working together for a greater cause than themselves. They are later killed. In the end Hilts sits in isolation yet again, planning a new escape.
