Michael Caine Announces Retirement

After a career that spanned seven decades, Michael Caine announced that he is retiring, making The Great Escaper his last film.

He told BBC Today, "I keep saying I'm going to retire. Well, I am now."

The Guardian said that he went on to say, "I've figured, I've had a picture where I've played the lead and had incredible reviews … What am I going to do that will beat this?"

Caine also said: "The only parts I'm liable to get now are 90-year-old men. Or maybe 85. They're not going to be the lead. You don't have leading men at 90. You're going to have young, handsome boys and girls. So I thought, I might as well leave with all this."

The Great Escaper takes place in the summer of 2014 and follows Bernard Jordan, a World War II veteran who sneaks out of his care home to attend the 70th-anniversary commemoration of the D-Day landings in Normandy.

The film received a 79% score from 19 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, where critics called it "moving and surprisingly nuanced" and "a mixed bag of joy, trauma, celebration and grief".