I read how to do it in Popular Mechanics." Richard is thirty years old and works at Popular Mechanics in the promotions department. The story of the escape is legend, thanks in part to the 1979 movie Escape From Alcatraz starring Clint Eastwood as Morris. “I think it’s safe to say that if those guys had not had Popular Mechanics, they never would have tried to escape,” he says. Popular Mechanics tells its readers how to make things.