Buttmunker

Let's face it - Andy could have gotten busted any time in his efforts of tunnelling out of his cell - from the first week he started, to the second to last day of his stay at Shawshank Prison.

But the biggest - and cruelest - joke the Gods could have played on Andy Dufresne would have been rain, but no thunderclaps. How the HELL would Andy have busted thru that pipe with a rock without the cushion of the thunder to muff his blows? - thinks Red as he narrates to us.

No thunder = no escape. And Andy would not have had another chance at it, because just a few things were irreparable - and I DON'T mean the wall to his cell with the big hole in it, either.

For one thing - he took the warden's shoes, and left his own in the warden's shoebox. He'd never have a chance to replace the shoes after he crawled back to his cell. For another, he took the warden's suit. AND, the icing on the cake - he switched out the documents the warden thought he put safely in his safe.

As you can see, that night of planned escape would have needed the thunder. Without it, Andy would have been busted. His futile attempts to bust thru the pipe anyway would have alerted the guards, so forget it.

He'd have lost his cell, and all hope of freedom would have gone down the shitter. To make matters worse, he would have lost his best friend, as Red would be paroled just a year later.

How's that for redemption. It reeks.

Bandoman

Yeah, but that's not the way it happened.

PopcornTreeCt

You really like The Shawshank Redemption don't you?

Storm was coming... Andy planned ahead. That's it.

Shilex

Andy also could've died while being ass raped, but that's not how it happened.

SonOfAStu

Oooh, let me play! Andy could have not been wrongly accused and never went to prison!!! OMG!!

riotinmyskull

quit making shawshank threads.

Dr Mabuse

RobLutter

Watch the film again.

The narration is clear about the fact that waiting for a loud thunderstorm was part of Andy's plan.

Palaver

Andy checked weather.com before putting his plan into motion. It's in the deleted scenes.

slop101

You can't die from ass-rape. Trust me.

Buttmunker

Maybe so, but you still never can tell with the weather. It was still one hell of a risk, but Andy figured he's gone this far.........what's he got to lose? He didn't have enough years in him to dig under the pipe five hundred yards with his little rock hammer.......

Buttmunker

for a guy who put Ryan Adams in his Top 10 album faves, you got some nerve!

riotinmyskull

yea but i'm not making 3 or 4 threads about it when all it needs is just 1.

PopcornTreeCt

Nice.

The Infidel

Stephen King could have never been born. Then where the fuck would Andy be?

Mopower

Fixed.

Buttmunker

Dude, you are in the minority in your opinion of my threads. So far as I can tell, people like my threads. What the hell, right?

Ash Ketchum

Answer me this: how did the escapee put the poster of Raquel Welch back up on the wall to cover the hole after going through the hole?

Someone explain that to me.

Buttmunker

Well, Andy never really took the poster down. He just kinda slipped under it. Much like a fart in the wind would do.

DonnachaOne

It was attached at the top two corners so it acted like a flap.

islandclaws

Not that I'm defending someone who munks butts by any means, but even 1 is excessive.

devilshalo

Seems Andy had already established the weakest part of the corroded/eroded metal pipe, he could have easily taken his time and muffled any noise made, but the opportunity to just bang away while a thunderstorm was happening just made it a bit easier.

Besides, the narrative is from Red's POV, so even Red may be wrong not knowing exactly what Andy had done.

Ash Ketchum

I'm not buying that. That poster looked like it was held down on all four corners. If it wasn't, it would have flapped up anytime a breeze came through the hole. Have you ever tried to pin up a poster on only two corners? For a period of years?

OldBoy

but they showed him going underneath the bottom to scoop out the wall. what wasn't clear about that scene?

devilshalo

He used the poster to shield what he was doing.. I'm sure times when they tossed the cell, he already had his plastic pouch in the hole to prevent any sudden airflow.