Escape the Jumpers

Escape the Jumpers is a 2018 Gordican action crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Shawn Lim in his directorial debut and produced by Lim, Bentley Wong, Melinda Galang, and Kirkland Smith. The film follows Pierre Lin, an executive at the fictional Gordican digital media company Magnetic E&M who goes on the run from the authorities after his past involvement in organized crime is brought to light while simultaneously plotting to kill Tony Yong, the CEO of Magnetic's competitor Blitztech and a candidate in the 2016 Gordican presidential election. "Jumper" is itself a Gordican slang term referring to a police officer.

The film was announced in February 2015, and casting was done in March and April 2017. Miguel Zhou stars as the main character, Sammy Chan portrays Tony Yong, and Louisa Sung, Dorian Shu, Shinji Yamamoto, Serena Chong, Charlene Chin, Juan Yeoh, and Jay Panganiban star in supporting roles. Filming took place from May to July 2017 in Sangpei, Bohamo and Shenshu, Shabai in Gordica, as well as in the United States.

Escape the Jumpers premiered at the 2018 Hollywood Film Festival on June 7, 2018, and was domestically released on August 16, 2018. It is generally considered one of the greatest Gordican films of all time, and it received critical acclaim for its story, characters, writing, editing, cinematography, and soundtrack. The film won the GFPO Awards for Best Picture, while Lim won Best Director, and Zhou won Best Actor.

Plot
In 2015, 26-year-old Pierre Lin is a multimillionaire who is the co-founder and chairman of the fictional Sangpei-based digital media company Magnetic E&M. He has a seemingly luxurious life, living in a $750,000 mansion in Costavista with his wife Marina and owning several cars. However, he is constantly at odds with Magnetic's employees and struggles to control his rage and overcome work-related frustration, and his relationship with Marina is strained. Moreover, Pierre is in competition with Tony Yong, the CEO of Magnetic's competitor Blitztech.

Meanwhile, Ricardo Barbin the Captain of a fictionalized version of the Special Cases Division (SCD) of the Sangpei Police Department. He stumbles upon a from several years prior involving an uncaught gangster called P-Air from a gang known as LPTZ. Due to a recent report of criminal activity involving LPTZ, he decides to reopen the case, tasking Detectives Richie Chu and Shinichiro Kanagawa with finding P-Air and bringing him to justice.

After taking a lengthy business trip to, Pierre flies home to Gordica and arrives at the John Wong Airport. While growing increasingly tired of Tony's company bringing in more profits than Magnetic, Pierre turns on his TV and finds live GGNN coverage of Tony announcing his bid for the 2016 Gordican presidential election. Fearing Tony's popularity and ability to fund his campaign will help him win the election, Pierre uses "" to plot to assassinate Tony before the debates begin, both keeping his competitor from making it to Gordica Palace and saving his own reputation as the richest man in Gordica's digital media industry.

During Chu and Kanagawa's investigation, it becomes increasingly obvious that Pierre is P-Air, but they refuse to believe it because "rich people don't need to commit crimes to get rich because they're already rich". However, Barbin quickly notices the similarities between Pierre and P-Air and pressures the two to question him. Moments later, Kanagawa and Chu drive to Pierre's mansion to question his past activities and Marina's involvement. Pierre denies all wrongdoings and suggests finding more evidence than him and P-Air having similar names and "looking too much alike". Once the detectives leave, Marina tells Pierre that his secret is becoming harder to keep as he continues garnering fame and that the police will soon find out he is P-Air.

The next day, fearing an impending arrest, Pierre contacts radio host and "retired" Diane Lee to tell her to come out of retirement and aid him in killing Tony Yong. She agrees to the plan demands "financial compensation", asking for $20,000 or no deal will be made. Out of desperation, Pierre pays the full price.

The detectives return to Pierre's place to tell him to come to the police station so they can obtain forensic samples and—if he is innocent—officially clear his name. Pierre hesitates, so Chu forces Pierre in the back of his and Kanagawa's van. At the station, they collect DNA samples as Barbin does further questioning. Pierre continues to deny any wrongdoing. On the way home, Pierre begins worrying about his safety and decides to "run away" to Burbank indefinitely. He pressures Marina to join, but she repeatedly refuses and tells him to turn himself in to the authorities. Pierre disagrees and hurriedly begins packing his important belongings.

The samples obtained by Chu and Kanagawa match Pierre, and they return to his mansion to make the arrest. When they arrive, however, only Marina is home. She tells the detectives that Pierre actually is P-Air, knew he would be arrested, and decided to go to Burbank. Meanwhile, Pierre makes a quick pitstop on his way to the airport to join Diane at a dinner attended by Tony at an upscale Chinese restaurant, and Diane's cover is that she is an old friend of Pierre's named Amy. As Tony delivers a toast, she quickly pulls a gun out as planned. However, rather than shooting instantly like she and Pierre discussed, she forces them and the restaurant employees into a corner and tortures them all with boiling water. Pierre "fires" Diane but quickly ends up in the corner with the others. Once Diane turns around, however, he beats her up, frees the staff, ditches the captive attendees, and makes a run for the front doors.

Chu, Marina, and Kanagawa take the van to the airport and end up driving alongside Pierre. Kanagawa rolls down his window and shouts at Pierre to "pull the fuck over", but he instead shoots bullets at him and misses. Once the van moves slightly ahead of Pierre's car, Marina rolls down her window asks him to admit to wrongdoing. However, Pierre's car swerves off the road and crashs in the woods, where the detectives detain him.

From that point forward, Pierre decides that the best thing to do is cooperate with the police and honestly answer questions, but because he has become a pathological liar, he lies to the detectives even more and then screams at them for his lawyer.

Pierre is represented by Diane, who did extensive forgery and legal document fabrication in the past to pose as a licensed defense attorney named Deanne Choi who flew in from a trip to, mocking Pierre. She claims that though she is only licensed to practice in Shabai, where she lived before running away to Bohamo, she discovered a legal loophole allowing her to practice in Bohamo. When the time for pre-trial hearings comes, Dianne acts cockily confident in winning the trial, but loses said confidence when she finds out that Kate Liu, her smooth-talking college classmate, is the district's public attorney. Seeking a way to get out of court, she fakes having an epileptic seizure, aupposedly allowing Pierre to escape undetected. However, Detective Kanagawa spots him, and he and Chu chase him.

Pierre jacks a car parked outside the courthouse and speedily makes "one last trip" to Tony Yong's mansion. Once there, Tony steps outside to greet him. Pierre tells him, "I don't want any bad blood between us. I just came to make reparations." Tony invites Pierre inside. Pierre, who pulled a gun off a bailiff, holds him hostage and threatens him with the gun. The police fastly arrive at the scene, and Pierre steps outside briefly telling them not to come in or Tony dies. Chu refuses to believe him and decides to begin stepping toward the house, all while news reporters begin gathering outside. Pierre runs back inside and shoots a tied-up Tony in the head. While watching him fall, Pierre begins questioning "how things got this bad" and why he even decided to hold Tony hostage in the first place, having flashbacks to the evidence leading up to the shooting. He opens the front door and shouts to the police in tears, "I killed Tony Yong! I killed him! I'm sorry I killed him! I'm sorry I killed him!" While breaking down, the stunned police lower their weapons, and Tony drops his gun. Chu and Kanagawa then detain him as others call for back up and come into the mansion to check up on Tony.

Much later, Pierre—now represented by licensed lawyer Mark Lang—pleads no contest to one count of murder, two counts of assaulting a law enforcement official, and two counts of dishonest conduct. As part of a plea deal is sentenced a total of only 14 years in prison. He looks at the judge, Andrew Ching, and thanks him for service and says "it was nice knowin' ya", and smiles as he is walked out of court. He is put in the back of a police van, which—once the two officers who walked him are inside—explodes.

Pierre walks out, and says one more time, "It was nice knowin' ya."