Tamal Kundu
With ‘Escape The Undertaker,’ WWE Studios, in collaboration with Netflix, explores the live-action interactive genre by pitting The New Day, one of the most dynamic and decorated pro-wrestling tag teams of all time against the Deadman himself. The result is a highly engaging video game-esque experience for the audience, many of whom adore these remarkable athletes. ‘Escape The Undertaker’ proves beyond doubt that the live-action interactive genre is a fertile ground for sports entertainment.
As the audience, you control the choices that the three members of the New Day — Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E — make while they are in the spooky and supernatural mansion of The Undertaker. Here is the best route you can take to complete the mission quickly and efficiently. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Escape The Undertaker: The Mission
Initially, your mission is to acquire The Undertaker’s urn from him as members of The New Day. The urn is an integral part of The Undertaker’s mythos in WWE. It is supposedly the source of The Undertaker’s mystical powers and was often carried by his manager Paul Bearer. The New Day has already mastered the Power of Positivity. They arrive at the Undertaker’s mansion, believing that if they can acquire the power of the urn, they will be unstoppable.
However, it is later revealed to them that the power of the urn is inherently evil. As The Undertaker says, there is nothing evil loves more than to feed off the good. And The New Day is definitely a force of good. Every time they try to take the urn, it attempts to capture their souls. So, your mission is ultimately to destroy the urn so that it will not be used against anyone else ever again.
Escape The Undertaker: The Best Route
In the film’s prologue, The Undertaker is shown to be preparing a contraption for his legendary urn. He describes the urn’s powers and then challenges the audience to prove that they are brave enough to wield the urn. The first choice you get to make in this journey is whether you are ready to accept the challenge or want to get out of there as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter what you choose, because, either way, you have to play the game.
When The New Day arrives in front of The Undertaker’s mansion and pleads him to let them in, the Deadman has no intention to do that at first. However, the urn suddenly seems to glow, and The Undertaker remembers its evil nature. So, he lets the three boys in. You then pick The New Day member you want to follow as they venture deep into the mansion, looking for The Undertaker. If you follow Kofi to the whispers that they can hear, it takes you upstairs, where there is a photo of Paul Bearer as well as an artist’s depiction of The Undertaker’s druids worshipping the urn. If you follow Woods, it takes you to the basement, where the fog seems to be emitting out of a room. Both Kofi and Woods eventually run toward E after they hear him shouting for help.
Instead of those routes mentioned above, choose E and follow him to the lights, which leads you to The Undertaker’s trophy room. You get the chance to go through those two routes later in your search, but the only time you get to explore the trophy room is with E. The Undertaker’s throne is also there. E sits on it and gets his wrists stuck to it by magical restraints. Suddenly, the urn, which is in the middle of the room, activates.
Hearing E’s cries for help, his friends arrive and get him off the chair. They discover that the urn is locked into the contraption. In his booming voice, The Undertaker then speaks, declaring that a ritual has begun after E sat on his throne. There is an hourglass under the urn with a liquid inside. The Undertaker implies that E’s soul will be his once the liquid completely transfers from the upper glass bulb to the lower.
E is visibly weak, making the boys understand the seriousness of the situation. They spot a keyhole on the lock along with markings that they saw in the mansion. Your next choice is whether to go upstairs or downstairs to find the key. There are actually two keys. If you pick upstairs first, there is a chance that you will get caught in an infinite loop. So, choose the basement. After going through the hallway there, The New Day finds themselves in a morgue. There is a body there belonging to an individual named Isaac Yankem.
Here, choose to stay with E and Kofi. If you pick to follow Woods, The Undertaker appears out of the fog and disappears with him. He seems to take Woods to a dark and foggy place and beats him up before releasing him. Deciding to stay with E and Kofi shows you how they retrieve the key in the basement. For your next route, select keep searching as Woods suggests and not busting the urn out of the lock as the frustrated E wants. The latter only gives the three boys horrible visions about what’s going to happen to them.
The next choice is perhaps the most crucial one in the entire journey. After going upstairs, E finds a vial of power inside a book in The Undertaker’s library. Select to keep it. And then, you get the choice between following Kofi down a secret passageway or stay in the library with the other two. Once more, choose to remain in the library to see how E and Wood retrieve the second key from the mouth of what looks like a taxidermy alligator.
As for Kofi, he ends up in The Undertaker’s observation room and discovers that the Deadman has been watching them all this time. He also gets beaten by The Undertaker before joining his friends. The three friends then unite the keys and unlock the urn. As they have completed this part of the mission, E gets his soul back. But as the friends reach out to grab the urn, The Undertaker’s voice fills the room again, warning them if they touch the urn, they will face their “deepest, darkest fears.” Predictably, The New Day doesn’t listen and touch the urn together. They are subsequently forced to experience their respective worst fears.
For Kofi, it’s the fear of failure; for E, it’s the fear of spiders or arachnophobia; and for Woods, it’s the fear of enclosed spaces or claustrophobia. You can select any one of these fears because it takes about the same time to get through each of them. However, for your next selection, don’t make the boys pick a selfish option over their friendship because, in all three routes, it results in that particular New Day member turning into one of The Undertaker’s druids.
The final battle between these forces of good and evil occurs in what looks like The Undertaker’s workshop. Again, you can pick any one of the boys to attack The Undertaker because the result is their defeat in all three instances. The boys have to work together to win against the Deadman.
Your penultimate choice during the journey is between grabbing the urn or destroying it. Choose the latter. This is where the power vial comes into play. E drinks from the vial and is infused with supernatural powers. He destroys the urn, and The Undertaker subsequently vanishes. If you choose to grab the urn, it gets the three boys out of the mansion, but the urn continues to exist for more soul harvesting in the future. If you select not to keep the power vial earlier, you still get thrown out of the house even if you unsuccessfully try to destroy the urn.
Escape the Undertaker Ending
After the urn is destroyed and The Undertaker vanishes, a coffin opens, transporting The New Day outside. The boys congratulate each other as they have not only defeated The Undertaker but also destroyed the urn. Moreover, E has gotten his soul back. After they depart, there is one more choice for you to make. You can go back and face the fears once more or choose to rest in peace. Select the latter, and The Undertaker appears, sitting on his throne and clapping. He congratulates the audience member who has managed to escape his house with their soul intact.
Who Is Isaac Yankem?
In the Undertaker’s mansion, The New Day finds a body. The tag attached to one of its toes reveals that it belongs to someone named Isaac Yankem. All three boys seem to recognize who this person is. But none of them is courageous enough to lift the covers and check whether it is indeed Isaac.
In the WWE mythos, Isaac Yankem, DDS, is a notorious dentist who was in a tag team with Jerry Lawler in the mid-1990s. He is actually the gimmick that Glenn Jacobs used in his first television appearance. Jacobs is arguably more known as Kane — The Undertaker’s half-brother and Paul Bearer’s illegitimate son in the wrestling universe.
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