Prison Movies
by lucymooody | created - 14 May 2019 | updated - 18 Jun 2019 | 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: 2,886,833 | Gross: $28.34M
Did you know that the greatest movie of all time is a prison movie? Well, the answer is true, yes it is!
2. Oz (1997–2003)
TV-MA | 55 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A series chronicling the daily activities of an unusual prison facility and its criminal inhabitants.
Stars: Ernie Hudson, J.K. Simmons, Lee Tergesen, Dean Winters
Votes: 106,615
3. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
GP | 127 min | Crime, Drama
A laid-back Southern man is sentenced to two years in a rural prison, but refuses to conform.
Director: Stuart Rosenberg | Stars: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Strother Martin, J.D. Cannon
Votes: 188,452 | Gross: $16.22M
4. The Big House (1930)
Passed | 87 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A convict falls in love with his new cellmate's sister, only to become embroiled in a planned break-out which is certain to have lethal consequences.
Directors: George W. Hill, Ward Wing | Stars: Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, Robert Montgomery
Votes: 2,590
5. 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: 138,330 | Gross: $53.27M
6. Prison Break (2005–2017)
TV-14 | 44 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A structural engineer installs himself in a prison he helped design, in order to save his falsely accused brother from a death sentence by breaking themselves out from the inside.
Stars: Dominic Purcell, Wentworth Miller, Amaury Nolasco, Robert Knepper
Votes: 578,959
7. 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: 147,371 | Gross: $43.00M
8. 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: 140,819 | Gross: $0.10M
9. Felon (2008)
R | 104 min | Crime, Thriller
Locked up for killing an intruder in self-defense, a family man must cope with life in the violent penal system.
Director: Ric Roman Waugh | Stars: Stephen Dorff, Marisol Nichols, Vincent Miller, Anne Archer
Votes: 83,536 | Gross: $0.04M
10. 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: 86,099 | Gross: $2.34M
11. The Green Mile (1999)
R | 189 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy
A tale set on death row, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the lead guard, Paul Edgecombe, recognizes John's gift, he tries to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt
Votes: 1,406,401 | Gross: $136.80M
12. 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: 101,739 | Gross: $39.39M
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: 85,266 | Gross: $18.21M
14. Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)
Not Rated | 147 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A surly convicted murderer held in permanent isolation redeems himself when he becomes a renowned bird expert.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Neville Brand
Votes: 19,287
15. Capote (2005)
R | 114 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
In 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
Director: Bennett Miller | Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Clifton Collins Jr., Catherine Keener, Allie Mickelson
Votes: 140,710 | Gross: $28.75M
16. Convict (2009)
Thriller
A movie about a tough world where mohd mambeer get locked up in jail for something he didn't do. So he plan for his revenge in the inside of the reberso prison with his close inmate kandiman.
Director: Jeff Daniel Phillips | Stars: Kevin Durand, Tammy Trull, Dorie Barton, Dan Bell
Votes: 103
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: 357,996 | Gross: $134.07M
18. The Criminal Code (1930)
Passed | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
After a failed attempt at running for governor, D.A. Mark Brady is appointed warden of the state prison where many of the criminals he prosecuted are incarcerated.
Director: Howard Hawks | Stars: Walter Huston, Phillips Holmes, Constance Cummings, Boris Karloff
Votes: 1,377
19. 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: 96,086 | Gross: $0.14M
20. Shutter Island (2010)
R | 138 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Votes: 1,455,358 | Gross: $128.01M
21. V for Vendetta (2005)
R | 132 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In a future British dystopian society, a shadowy freedom fighter, known only by the alias of "V", plots to overthrow the tyrannical government - with the help of a young woman.
Director: James McTeigue | Stars: Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, Rupert Graves, Stephen Rea
Votes: 1,178,874 | Gross: $70.51M
22. White Heat (1949)
Not Rated | 114 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly
Votes: 35,722
23. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
R | 118 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A young F.B.I. cadet must receive the help of an incarcerated and manipulative cannibal killer to help catch another serial killer, a madman who skins his victims.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine
Votes: 1,547,378 | Gross: $130.74M
24. Convict (2014)
Not Rated | 110 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Sent to prison because of manslaughter, Ray is challenged both physically and mentally by a sadistic prison boss.
Directors: David Field and George Basha, George Basha, David Field | Stars: George Basha, Richard Green, Brian Ellison, David Field
Votes: 1,751
25. 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: 70,758
26. 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: 258,782 | Gross: $12.10M
27. Let's Go to Prison (2006)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Crime
When a career criminal's plan for revenge is thwarted by unlikely circumstances, he puts his intended victim's son in his place by putting him in prison...and then joining him.
Director: Bob Odenkirk | Stars: Dax Shepard, Will Arnett, Chi McBride, David Koechner
Votes: 26,456 | Gross: $4.61M
28. 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: 73,535 | Gross: $0.15M
29. 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: 111,616
30. 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: 257,362 | Gross: $25.13M
31. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
PG-13 | 164 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Eight years after the Joker's reign of chaos, Batman is coerced out of exile with the assistance of the mysterious Selina Kyle in order to defend Gotham City from the vicious guerrilla terrorist Bane.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman
Votes: 1,826,274 | Gross: $448.14M
32. Bound by Honor (1993)
R | 180 min | Crime, Drama
Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on step-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Damian Chapa, Jesse Borrego, Benjamin Bratt, Enrique Castillo
Votes: 34,004 | Gross: $4.50M
33. 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: 80,650 | Gross: $38.43M
34. The Experiment (2010)
R | 96 min | Drama, Thriller
26 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
Director: Paul T. Scheuring | Stars: Adrien Brody, Cam Gigandet, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace
Votes: 57,157
35. Big Stan (2007)
R | 105 min | Action, Comedy
A weak con man panics when he learns he's going to prison for fraud. He hires a mysterious martial arts guru who helps transform him into a martial arts expert who can fight off inmates who want to hurt or love him.
Director: Rob Schneider | Stars: Rob Schneider, David Carradine, Sally Kirkland, Jennifer Morrison
Votes: 47,220
36. 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: 14,626 | Gross: $0.04M
37. 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: 319,125 | Gross: $101.12M
38. The Longest Yard (1974)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
A sadistic warden asks a former pro quarterback, now serving time in his prison, to put together a team of inmates to take on (and get pummeled by) the guards.
Director: Robert Aldrich | Stars: Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, Ed Lauter, Michael Conrad
Votes: 21,416 | Gross: $7.13M
39. The Longest Yard (2005)
PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy, Crime, Sport
Prison inmates form a football team to challenge the prison guards.
Director: Peter Segal | Stars: Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds, Chris Rock, Nelly
Votes: 194,990 | Gross: $158.12M
40. 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: 21,478
41. Watchmen (2009)
R | 162 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
In a version of 1985 where superheroes exist, the murder of a colleague sends active vigilante Rorschach on the trail of a conspiracy that will change the course of history.
Director: Zack Snyder | Stars: Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Malin Akerman
Votes: 582,242 | Gross: $107.51M
42. The Defiant Ones (1958)
Approved | 96 min | Crime, Drama
Two chained-together escaped convicts, White and Black, must learn to get along in order to elude capture.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Cara Williams, Theodore Bikel
Votes: 17,821
43. Ladies of the Big House (1931)
Passed | 77 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Married couple is imprisoned for a crime they didn't commit.
Director: Marion Gering | Stars: Sylvia Sidney, Gene Raymond, Wynne Gibson, Earle Foxe
Votes: 154
44. The Last Mile (1932)
Passed | 75 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An innocent man sentenced to death gets caught up in a prison riot.
Director: Samuel Bischoff | Stars: Howard Phillips, Preston Foster, George E. Stone, Noel Madison
Votes: 418
45. Hold 'Em Jail (1932)
Passed | 66 min | Comedy, Sport
Two yokels are framed and sent to prison, but wind up playing football on the warden's championship team.
Director: Norman Taurog | Stars: Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Edna May Oliver, Robert Armstrong
Votes: 279
46. Hell's Highway (1932)
Passed | 62 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Chain gang prisoners forced to construct a "liberty highway" for their overseer chasten under his brutal stewardship, causing Duke Ellis to mastermind a mass riot.
Directors: Rowland Brown, John Cromwell | Stars: Richard Dix, Rochelle Hudson, Tom Brown, C. Henry Gordon
Votes: 821
47. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Passed | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Wrongly convicted James Allen serves in the intolerable conditions of a Southern chain gang, which later comes back to haunt him.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy | Stars: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Noel Francis
Votes: 14,432 | Gross: $1.42M
48. 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
Passed | 78 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Brash hoodlum Tom Connors enters Sing Sing cocksure of himself and disrespectful toward authority, but his tough but compassionate warden changes him.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Bette Davis, Arthur Byron, Lyle Talbot
Votes: 2,958
49. A Man Escaped (1956)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, Thriller, War
A captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from a German prison in France.
Director: Robert Bresson | Stars: François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock, Roland Monod
Votes: 24,971
50. Yol (1982)
PG | 107 min | Drama
When five Kurdish prisoners are granted one week's home leave, they find to their dismay that they face continued oppression outside of prison from their families, the culture, and the government.
Directors: Serif Gören, Yilmaz Güney | Stars: Tarik Akan, Serif Sezer, Halil Ergün, Meral Orhonsay
Votes: 14,503
51. Attica (1974)
80 min | Documentary, Crime, History
In 1971, inmates at Attica State Prison seized control of D-yard and took 35 hostages after peaceful efforts for reforms failed. Attica investigates the rebellion and its bloody suppression, revealing institutionalized injustices, sanctioned dishonesty, and abuses of power.
Director: Cinda Firestone | Stars: John Andrini, Herman Badillo, L.D. Barkley, Roger Champen
Votes: 201
52. The Grand Illusion (1937)
Not Rated | 113 min | Drama, War
During WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.
Director: Jean Renoir | Stars: Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim
Votes: 38,855 | Gross: $0.17M
53. A Prophet (2009)
R | 155 min | Crime, Drama
A delinquent Muslim man struggles to get by in prison until he is taken under the wing of a powerful mob boss. But his gradual rise through the mob's ranks brings him in conflict with his mentor.
Director: Jacques Audiard | Stars: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif, Reda Kateb
Votes: 102,157 | Gross: $2.08M
54. The Hill (1965)
Approved | 123 min | Drama, War
In a North African military prison during World War II, five new prisoners struggle to survive in the face of brutal punishment and sadistic guards.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Sean Connery, Harry Andrews, Ian Bannen, Alfred Lynch
Votes: 15,154
55. Brute Force (1947)
Passed | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
At a tough penitentiary, prisoner Joe Collins plans to rebel against Captain Munsey, the power-mad chief guard.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo
Votes: 11,532
56. Attica (1980 TV Movie)
97 min | Drama
The true story of the events leading up to and during the 1971 Attica Correctional Facility riot and the aftermath.
Director: Marvin J. Chomsky | Stars: Henry Darrow, Charles Durning, Joel Fabiani, Morgan Freeman
Votes: 541
57. Parole Girl (1933)
67 min | Crime, Drama
A young woman released on parole vows to ruin the life of the man who insisted on sending her to jail.
Director: Edward F. Cline | Stars: Mae Clarke, Ralph Bellamy, Marie Prevost, Hale Hamilton
Votes: 355
58. Justice Takes a Holiday (1933)
Passed | 68 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
After a judge sentences a man to prison, he uses his authority to adopt the mans's daughter then makes sure that the man will spend the rest of his life in prison. Outraged, the convict ... See full summary »
Director: Spencer Gordon Bennet | Stars: H.B. Warner, Huntley Gordon, Audrey Ferris, Matty Kemp
59. Day of Reckoning (1933)
Passed | 69 min | Drama
In this brutal prison drama a hen-pecked husband is sentenced to prison after getting caught with his hand in the company till. He is sent to a high-rise facility in LA. It seems the fellow... See full summary »
Director: Charles Brabin | Stars: Richard Dix, Madge Evans, Conway Tearle, Una Merkel
Votes: 277
60. Escape from Devil's Island (1935)
Approved | 64 min | Drama, Romance
Johanna Harrington waits eagerly at her cottage on the edge of the jungle that flanks the Devil's Island penal colony for the arrival of her father Steve Garrington, her sweetheart Dario, ... See full summary »
Director: Albert S. Rogell | Stars: Victor Jory, Florence Rice, Norman Foster, Stanley Andrews
Votes: 27
61. Pardon Us (1931)
Approved | 56 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two guys end up in prison after attempting to sell beer to a policeman during Prohibition.
Director: James Parrott | Stars: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, June Marlowe, Wilfred Lucas
Votes: 2,818
62. The Mad Game (1933)
Passed | 73 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Bootlegger Ed Carson is sent to prison. His old gang turns from liquor (now legal) to kidnapping. When they nab the son and daughter-in-law of the judge who sent Carson to prison, he is ... See full summary »
Director: Irving Cummings | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Claire Trevor, Ralph Morgan, Howard Lally
Votes: 97
63. Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story (1980 TV Movie)
196 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Fact based story of the lives and attempted 1946 escape of several inmates in the famous correctional facility. Young inmate Clarence Carnes masterminds a grand escape involving several ... See full summary »
Director: Paul Krasny | Stars: Michael Beck, Art Carney, Alex Karras, Telly Savalas
Votes: 334
64. Chopper (2000)
R | 94 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Chopper tells the intense story of Mark "Chopper" Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his autobiography while serving a jail sentence in prison. His book, "From the Inside", upon which the film is based, was a best-seller.
Director: Andrew Dominik | Stars: Eric Bana, Simon Lyndon, Vince Colosimo, Renée Brack
Votes: 41,488 | Gross: $0.23M
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