Prison films
by notaprincess9 | created - 19 Aug 2018 | updated - 01 Nov 2020 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
R | 142 min | Drama
Over the course of several years, two convicts form a friendship, seeking consolation and, eventually, redemption through basic compassion.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler
Votes: 2,887,586 | Gross: $28.34M
2. Out of Sight (1998)
R | 123 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A career bank robber breaks out of jail, and shares a moment of mutual attraction with a U.S. Marshal he has kidnapped.
Director: Steven Soderbergh | Stars: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames, Steve Zahn
Votes: 99,260 | Gross: $37.56M
3. Animal Factory (2000)
R | 94 min | Crime, Drama
A young man goes to prison and a tough, older convict takes him under his wing as a mentor.
Director: Steve Buscemi | Stars: Willem Dafoe, Edward Furlong, Danny Trejo, Mark Boone Junior
Votes: 14,633 | Gross: $0.04M
4. Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
PG | 112 min | Action, Biography, Crime
Alcatraz is the most secure prison of its time. It is believed that no one can ever escape from it, until three daring men make a possibly successful attempt at escaping from one of the most infamous prisons in the world.
Director: Don Siegel | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Thibeau
Votes: 147,395 | Gross: $43.00M
5. The Great Escape (1963)
Approved | 172 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Allied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their number to escape from a German camp during World War II.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson
Votes: 258,839 | Gross: $12.10M
6. Escape Plan (2013)
R | 115 min | Action, Thriller
When a structural-security authority finds himself set up and incarcerated in the world's most secret and secure prison, he has to use his skills to escape with help from the inside.
Director: Mikael Håfström | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, 50 Cent, Vincent D'Onofrio
Votes: 257,397 | Gross: $25.13M
7. Midnight Express (1978)
R | 121 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Billy Hayes, an American college student, is caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey and thrown into prison.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Bo Hopkins, Paolo Bonacelli
Votes: 88,218 | Gross: $35.00M
8. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
PG-13 | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
In the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them.
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen | Stars: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman
Votes: 330,748 | Gross: $45.51M
9. Dead Man Walking (1995)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama
A nun, while comforting a convicted killer on death row, empathizes with both the killer and his victim's families.
Director: Tim Robbins | Stars: Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Robert Prosky, Raymond J. Barry
Votes: 101,758 | Gross: $39.39M
10. Down by Love (2016)
110 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
Based on a true story, the impossible love between a prison director and one of its female inmates.
Director: Pierre Godeau | Stars: Adèle Exarchopoulos, Guillaume Gallienne, Stéphanie Cléau, Aliénor Poisson
Votes: 2,396 | Gross: $0.00M
11. Stone (2010)
R | 105 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
A convicted arsonist looks to manipulate a parole officer into a plan to secure his parole by placing his beautiful wife in the lawman's path.
Director: John Curran | Stars: Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich, Robert De Niro, Frances Conroy
Votes: 42,902 | Gross: $1.80M
12. American Son
Crime, Drama | Pre-production
A remake of the French film "A Prophet", which centers on the exploits of a young man in prison.
Director: Rapman | Stars: Russell Crowe, Stephan James
13. The Last Castle (2001)
R | 131 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A court-martialed General rallies together twelve hundred inmates to rise against a corrupt and sadistic warden.
Director: Rod Lurie | Stars: Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Steve Burton
Votes: 85,273 | Gross: $18.21M
14. The Hurricane (1999)
R | 146 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The story of Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Denzel Washington, Vicellous Shannon, Deborah Kara Unger, Liev Schreiber
Votes: 102,444 | Gross: $50.67M
15. Con Air (1997)
R | 115 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
Newly-paroled ex-con and former U.S. Ranger Cameron Poe finds himself trapped in a prisoner-transport plane when the passengers seize control.
Director: Simon West | Stars: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, Colm Meaney
Votes: 319,162 | Gross: $101.12M
16. Hunger (2008)
Not Rated | 96 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Irish republican Bobby Sands leads the inmates of a Northern Irish prison in a hunger strike.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Laine Megaw
Votes: 73,541 | Gross: $0.15M
17. The Rock (1996)
R | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A mild-mannered chemist and an ex-con must lead the counterstrike when a rogue group of military men, led by a renegade general, threaten a nerve gas attack from Alcatraz against San Francisco.
Director: Michael Bay | Stars: Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, John Spencer
Votes: 358,049 | Gross: $134.07M
18. Bronson (2008)
R | 92 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A young man who was sentenced to seven years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending three decades in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter-ego, Charles Bronson.
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn | Stars: Tom Hardy, Kelly Adams, Luing Andrews, Katy Barker
Votes: 140,848 | Gross: $0.10M
19. Cell 211 (2009)
113 min | Action, Crime, Drama
The story of two men on different sides of a prison riot -- the inmate leading the rebellion and the young guard trapped in the revolt, who poses as a prisoner in a desperate attempt to survive the ordeal.
Director: Daniel Monzón | Stars: Luis Tosar, Alberto Ammann, Antonio Resines, Manuel Morón
Votes: 70,763
20. Murder in the First (1995)
R | 122 min | Drama, Thriller
An eager and idealistic young attorney defends an Alcatraz prisoner accused of murdering a fellow inmate. The extenuating circumstances: his client had just spent over three years in solitary confinement.
Director: Marc Rocco | Stars: Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Embeth Davidtz
Votes: 30,664 | Gross: $17.38M
21. Primal Fear (1996)
R | 129 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An altar boy is accused of murdering a priest, and the truth is buried several layers deep.
Director: Gregory Hoblit | Stars: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward Norton, John Mahoney
Votes: 246,938 | Gross: $56.12M
22. Get the Gringo (2012)
R | 96 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A career criminal nabbed by Mexican authorities is placed in a tough prison where he learns to survive with the help of a young boy.
Director: Adrian Grunberg | Stars: Mel Gibson, Kevin Balmore, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Jesús Ochoa
Votes: 111,628
23. Gridiron Gang (2006)
PG-13 | 125 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Teenagers at a juvenile detention center, under the leadership of their counselor, gain self-esteem by playing football together.
Director: Phil Joanou | Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Xzibit, L. Scott Caldwell, Leon Rippy
Votes: 80,658 | Gross: $38.43M
24. The Experiment (2001)
R | 120 min | Drama, Thriller
For two weeks, 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards in a prison. The "prisoners" have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the "guards" are told to retain order without using physical violence.
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel | Stars: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Oliver Stokowski, Wotan Wilke Möhring
Votes: 96,092 | Gross: $0.14M
25. In Hell (2003)
R | 98 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
A man must survive a prison where hardened criminals battle to the death for the wardens' entertainment.
Director: Ringo Lam | Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lawrence Taylor, Lloyd Battista, Carlos Gómez
Votes: 21,485
26. Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
Not Rated | 132 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A former boxer-turned-drug runner lands in a prison battleground after a deal gets deadly.
Director: S. Craig Zahler | Stars: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Udo Kier
Votes: 75,645
27. Maze (2017)
Not Rated | 92 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Inspired by the true events of the infamous 1983 prison breakout of 38 IRA prisoners from HMP, which was to become the biggest prison escape in Europe since World War II.
Director: Stephen Burke | Stars: Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Barry Ward, Martin McCann, Eileen Walsh
Votes: 3,547 | Gross: $0.02M
28. Papillon (I) (2017)
R | 133 min | Adventure, Biography, Crime
Wrongfully convicted for murder, Henri Charriere forms an unlikely relationship with fellow inmate and quirky convicted counterfeiter, Louis Dega, in an attempt to escape from the notorious penal colony on Devil's Island.
Director: Michael Noer | Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Damijan Oklopdzic, Christopher Fairbank, Jason Ryan
Votes: 86,136 | Gross: $2.34M
29. Papillon (1973)
R | 151 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon
Votes: 138,346 | Gross: $53.27M
30. The Mustang (2019)
R | 96 min | Drama
While participating in a rehabilitation program training wild mustangs, a convict at first struggles to connect with the horses and his fellow inmates, but he learns to confront his violent past as he soothes an especially feisty horse.
Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre | Stars: Matthias Schoenaerts, Jason Mitchell, Bruce Dern, Gideon Adlon
Votes: 14,477 | Gross: $5.04M
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