Escape Plan Filming Locations: Sidi Ifni & Morocco

Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger spent most of Escape Plan inside a prison that does not exist. The escape plan filming locations are easier to follow through the paperwork than through the plot: Louisiana for the prison, a Texas studio for the interiors, and one Moroccan coastal town that the credits mention in passing. The film’s Moroccan material is credited to Sidi Ifni on the Atlantic coast. The production itself worked mainly in New Orleans and Slidell, Louisiana, with additional shooting in Los Angeles.

In this guide we will break down where Escape Plan was filmed, what the Morocco unit is credited with, and how to reach the old Sidi Ifni airfield on a trip south from Agadir.

Where Was Escape Plan Filmed?

Most of the film belongs to Louisiana. Principal photography ran from 16 April to 23 June 2012, mostly in New Orleans and Slidell, with extra work in Los Angeles. The prison interiors went into the disused Michoud Assembly Facility, a former aerospace plant with the ceiling height for a multi-level cell block. Spiderwood Studios in Austin, Texas also appears in the location credits.

Mikael Håfström directed. The cast carried serious weight: Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Vinnie Jones, 50 Cent, Sam Neill and Amy Ryan. Summit Entertainment produced for a Lionsgate release, and the film runs 115 minutes. It reached US cinemas in October 2013, about sixteen months after the shoot wrapped.

The prison is a set. No real supermax stands behind it, so the Louisiana plant and a Texas soundstage did the work.

Where was Escape Plan filmed outside the United States? The location credits add one Moroccan entry, Sidi Ifni, and the story’s last scene does return to a North African beach.

Escape Plan in Sidi Ifni: What the Morocco Unit Shot

The Escape Plan Sidi Ifni credit is a single line in the location listings, Morocco (Sidi Ifni), and that line is the whole documented record. The entry covers a stretch of coast rather than a single address, and it is the only Moroccan location we could tie to this production. Production notes describe nothing about which sequences were covered here, and location databases repeat the credit without naming scenes.

The Moroccan moment you actually see is the closing beach landing, when the helicopter sets down on sand and Rottmayer reveals that he is Mannheim. Whether that beach is Sidi Ifni is not documented.

Nothing built for the film survives. No cell block, no prop helicopter, no marker in the sand. The production passed through, and what is left is the coastline.

The Sidi Ifni Airfield Today: A Runway Under a Souk

The Sidi Ifni airfield is the part of this story you can still stand on. Spain built the field while the town was a Spanish enclave and used it as a military strip. It carried the code SII, with a single 1,000 m (3,281 ft) runway at about 190 ft above sea level. When Spain withdrew in 1969 the airfield closed and never reopened for traffic.

It sits roughly 2 km from the town centre, on the Guelmim side, and what remains is gravel and open desert.

• The strip: one runway, no lighting and no markings left.
• The market: the big Sunday souk spreads across part of the old field.
• Facilities: none. No signage, no props, nothing left from the shoot.
• Reading the runway: nearly impossible at eye level, obvious in satellite imagery.
• Access: you can walk the open ground where the souk spreads.

Go late in the day with a wide lens and expect flat, bright gravel. Bring water, since there is no shade anywhere on the field.

A Town Cinemas Keep Coming Back To

Film crews found this coastline long before an American prison thriller arrived. Two productions used it earlier, and the town has since built a festival of its own.

• A Spanish colonial-era war film: shot on this stretch of coast.
• A road movie: filmed between Casablanca, Tafraout, Sidi Ifni and Dakhla.
• A southern cinema festival: an international event hosted in town.

The place reads as a film set even when nothing is shooting: white walls, blue trim, a cliff edge above the surf, and a hinterland that turns to gravel within a few hundred metres.

For the architecture, the beach and the practical detail of a stay, our full Sidi Ifni guide covers it properly.

Planning a Sidi Ifni Film Trip from Agadir

Agadir is the practical base. The drive south is about 170 km and takes 2.5 to 3 hours on sealed road. You mostly use the R104 via Tiznit, about 90 km out from Agadir, then another 73 to 79 km down to the coast. The coastal road passes Mirleft and the Legzira turn-off before you reach town. A standard hire car is enough, and you do not need a 4x4.

Plan around the light. The Canary Current pushes fog banks onto this coast most mornings and it usually clears by late morning, so late afternoon is the dependable window for the airfield and the cliffs.

Two nights in town makes a comfortable plan: one afternoon on the airfield and the cliff road, and one morning for the souk if your dates land on a Sunday.

If you would rather leave the driving to someone local, our 3-Day Tour from Agadir to Tafraoute, Sidi Ifni and Tiznit is the only itinerary we run that overnights in Sidi Ifni, with the Anti-Atlas granite and the Legzira coast along the way.

If the southern coast is one leg of a longer trip, the 7-Day Agadir to Merzouga Desert Tour also starts from Agadir and heads inland to the dunes instead.

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