Giroux asked Wimmer about his propensity for “movie logic,” that is: stories that are over-the-top for real life, but still feel weirdly in the realm of possibility. Wimmer explained that his screenplays all abide by a very strict code of inner logic, even if they’re set in a sci-fi universe, or if they begin to spiral out of control into action bonanzas. He even argued that “Law Abiding Citizen” was so plausible that a known criminal imitated it after the film’s release. He said:
“I believe my scripts are logical because they’re not about quantum mechanics. I believe that they’re fundamentally logical. I mean, if you want to say, ‘Well, how does somebody dig a tunnel into jail,’ it actually turned out that El Chapo did it. Now, he did it after ‘Law Abiding Citizen.’ I think he copied the movie, but they literally tunneled into jail. So, these things are possible. They’re unlikely, but they’re possible.”
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is the ex-leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, who is currently serving a life-plus-30-years prison sentence. Guzmán was known for his tunnels and frequently used underground passages to transport drugs in secret. In 2014, Guzmán briefly evaded arrest via a secret network of tunnels underneath his and five other people’s homes. In 2015 — and this is the part that sounds like Wimmer’s idea — Guzmán escaped from prison by making a large, well-lit, well-ventilated tunnel with a motorcycle in it. It was posited that he was sneaking in and out of prison to continue his drug trade. Oh yeah, and he escaped prison again via a tunnel in 2016. The dude loved to burrow.
There is no evidence, however, that Guzmán was familiar with “Law Abiding Citizen.”