The 'shitty pipedream' comment highlights the power of rewriting for me. I have my doubts that would have been in a first draft, but once you've finished the first draft, all these setups and pay-offs become so much easier to inject into the script. I think that's what Darabont did here. So many setups and pay-offs in this film -- early on when Andy asks Red to get in the rockhammer, Red says something along the lines of: "what you gonna do, tunnel out of here?" Easily mistaken for a throwaway at the time, but it's brilliance is revealed later on, or more so when watching the film for a 2nd time. A testament to rewriting for sure!

Not to mention Andy had to crawl through one hell of a shitty pipe to get to that dream! Beat the man. Rape the man. They put him through hell, but "and then some" was saved for the last 500 yards or so.