About the Song:
"The Great Escape is a story of two people who dream of escaping the safety of their stable but ultimately unsatisfying lives. For numerous reasons, both of the song's characters settled for the safety of the known, and allowed themselves to become people they never imagined they could become.   
 
The escape they hope to achieve is the metaphorical equivalent of the scenes in the movie The Great Escape, where Steve Mc — Amelia

Lyrics:

The great escape never came like the movies
No brave attempt to scale the fence,
Never who he ever wanted to be
So he lies awake and thinks
with a half a mind to break away

The starts and ends
and the time she spends in the middle
Is the dullest pain,
but she won't complain just a little
and the house is a mess
So she lies awake and waits
For the love that got away

It's cold outside but here, it was better
A shelter while the years grew together
For could-have-beens and beauty in decline