Sir Michael Caine Hints at Retirement with ‘The Great Escaper’

Sir Michael Caine has dropped the suggestion that his next film project could be the final of his illustrious acting career.

The 90-year-old legend, playing Bernie Jordan alongside the late Glenda Jackson in “The Great Escaper,” plays a World War II survivor who decides to escape from his care home in order to attend the D-Day anniversary celebrations taking place across the channel in France. His wife, Irene, is played by Jackson, who died at the age of 87.

In an interview with News Magazines, Caine was excited to be a part of the project and confessed that at one point he thought it would be COVID-19 killing his career back in 2020. He further added, saying that he loved Bernie as a character and thought his writing was simply ‘brilliant’.

During production for the film, Caine had some mobility problems and needed help walking around with a walking stick. He humorously said that it would take him just “one shot” but then quickly quipped, “One take, and that’s it. Forget it.”

Caine somewhat admitted to already being “sort of” retired in terms of possibly ending his illustrious eight-decade career because he spoke in relation to his age, mobility problems, and thankfulness for his life, family, and job. He indicated that before he had suggested retirement by saying so after certain movies like the 2009 crime “Harry Brown,” he had kept working on over 25 projects henceforth.

“The Great Escaper” has a release date marked for October 6, 2023, and it will be the first time that Caine and Jackson have worked together since 1975’s “The Romantic Englishwoman,” nearly 50 years ago. Sir Michael Caine boasts an illustrious film career with standouts such as “Get Carter,” “Zulu,” and “Educating Rita,” along with ventures into modern classics like director Christopher Nolan’s works on “Inception,” “Interstellar,” and also as Alfred in the director’s celebrated take on Batman in his recent trilogy installments.