Summary
- From thrilling classics to modern adventures, prison escape movies offer varied genres and unforgettable journeys for fans of the genre.
- These movies explore desperate escapes, brutal captivity, and enduring friendships that transcend the boundaries of prison walls.
- Whether it’s a daring plan in Alcatraz or a tale of hope in Shawshank, these films captivate audiences with gripping narratives and unforgettable characters.
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Prison escape movies are a thrilling subgenre that has been around for decades and continues to be a draw today. Careful planning, coordination, and perfect execution are what it takes to successfully complete this kind of mission and some are not always lucky. Fans will find both among the best movies of this genre. From classics of the Golden Era of Hollywood to more recent adventures, prison escape movies carry a lasting legacy.
There’s nothing quite like a character’s desperate, determined, and dangerous attempt at freedom, whether they are innocent victims or endearing anti-heroes who belong in jail. However, while the concept of characters breaking out of their confinement might seem like a limiting genre, audiences might be surprised by how varied prison escape movies can be. From intense dramas to family-friendly comedies to epic adventures, these prison escape movies stand out in the genre.
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15 The Way Back (2010)
Prisoners At A Gulag Escape And Face The Dangerous Walk To Freedom
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Based on a much-disputed legend of a long walk to freedom taken by escaped prisonersfrom a Siberian gulag, The Way Back is a sprawling period drama in the spirit of director Peter Weir’s most sweeping epics. The gulag presents a brutal and inhumane fate for these prisoners with the audience desperately hoping they can be freed from it. The escape from the gulag is really the simplest part of the main characters’ ordeal but, of course, that isn’t their real prison.
Their 4000-mile journey across just about every kind of beautifully barren landscape imaginable wears them down to their cores and Weir never loses sight of the emotional details even in the most enormous backdrops. It becomes as much a survival movie as a prison escape movie with the prisoners facing the harsh elements, including freezing temperatures and vicious animals. The movie features a strong ensemble, including Saoirse Ronan, Ed Harris, and Colin Farrell.
14 King Of Devil’s Island (2010)
Inmates In A Boy’s Prison Rebel
A dramatization of life in a boy’s prison on the Norwegian island of Bastøy in the early 20th century which leads to an insurrection by the detainees, King of Devil’s Island is an unforgiving but deeply affecting drama.
The story begins with a new arrival at the Bastøy prison island where he befriends the other prisoners and attempts to fight back against the abuse and corruption he witnesses at the prison. Stellan Skarsgård leads a talented cast as the critically out-of-touch director of the prison.
However, it’s the boys themselves who shine the brightest, creating an enveloping criminal world and unbreakably tough bonds of loyalty that could go toe to toe with the most seasoned gangster sagas. It is a harrowing story of a place that is meant to serve justice yet offers none to the young inmates, pushing them to the point of desperate acts.
13 Down By Law (1986)
Three Men Are Locked Up Together And Form A Connection
Jim Jarmusch directed the black-and-white prison escape movie Down By Law starring Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni. Waits and Lurie play two men who are set up for a crime they did not commit while Benigni is a tourist who is locked up for accidental manslaughter.
While most prison escape films focus on these complicated and intricate schemes of escaping, this one is unique in focusing on how these convicts interact with each other, presenting a charming and hilarious trio who form a unique dynamic.
Jarmusch’s penchant for snappy dialogue along with cinematographer Robby Müller’s slow-paced and deliberate camerawork make this one of the more interesting movies about prison. There is a sweetness and fun to the movie that is rare in the genre. Like most of Jarmusch’s movies, Down By Law developed a cult following that extended far beyond its initially quirky indie origins.
12 The Grand Illusion (1937)
World War I POWs Plan Their Escape
War movies and prison escape movies often overlap, as is the case with the French film The Grand Illusion from reserved French auteur Jean Renoir. The story follows two French pilots who are shot down and captured during World War I.
After being taken to a German POW camp, they continue to fuel their pride in the French war effort. They continuously attempt to escape before being sent to a seemingly inescapable prison.
Much like with the director’s following masterpiece, The Rules of the Game, the insights into European culture and its decay are made incomparably poignant by the film’s proximity to the beginning of the Second World War. It is a thought-provoking look at the futility of war and the humanity at the center of these conflicts. The Grand Illusion holds the distinction of being the first foreign language movie nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
11 I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang (1932)
Based On A Real-Life Convict’s Imprisonment In Georgia
Another prison escape movie from the earlier days of motion pictures, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang has the added impact of being based on a true story. Adapted from the experiences of Robert Elliott Burns on a Georgia chain gang after returning home to a life of a drifter from World War I, this 1930s Best Picture nominee is just as exciting and pertinent today as it was almost a century ago.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang may not sound like a movie with as wide a scope as it has but the barbarity of the chain gang itself is only a part of the story’s depiction of the wider prison of a corrupt and self-perpetuating criminal system. In an age in which the movies had a very clear cut idea of what prisoners are and the kind of people who find themselves in those situations, this starkly realistic drama showed that there were complexities to the world.
10 Rescue Dawn (2006)
The Brutal Fight For Survival Of A Real-Life Vietnam War POW
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Werner Herzog is a filmmaker who jumps between documentary and narrative movies, but one subject inspired him to explore it in both mediums. Herzog made the documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly in 1997 about Dieter Dengler, a US pilot whose plane was shot down in the country of Laos during the Vietnam War and taken prisoner.
Herzog then proceeded to explore the same story in the movie Rescue Dawn, a dramatization of the horrors and brutality that Dengler faced before deciding that his only hope of survival was escape.
The film is an intense look at Dengler’s revolt and eventual escape with another prisoner from the cruel and torturous captivity. Steve Zahn gives a compelling performance as the other prisoner who joins Dengler in the ambitious and dangerous escape. It is another amazing transformative role for Christian Bale as Dengler whose survival story is gripping and triumphant.
9 Midnight Express (1978)
A Young Drug Smuggler Attempts To Survive In Turkish Prison
Alan Parker’s Midnight Express is a tough story to watch though it’s a seminal prison escape movie. College student Billy Hayes (Brad Davis) is arrested and sent to a Turkish prison for attempting to smuggle hash out of Istanbul. As a foreigner in the dangerous prison system, Billy quickly finds that he will not survive in this prison and makes plans to escape. Based on Hayes’s account of his time in a Turkish prison, the film takes many liberties with its story.
Despite that, Parker’s direction and the performances of the cast are all excellent as well as Giorgio Moroder’s Oscar-winning score. The movie takes the audience on a compelling journey with Hayes as it is a foolish choice that ends him in prison but the inhumanity and torture he endures makes the audience hope for his escape.
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8 Papillon (1973)
Two Unlikely Friends Plan An Escape From A South American Prison
The starring duo of Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman make for a wonderful pair in the thriller Papillon. The story is based on supposed true events and follows two prisoners who form an unlikely friendship during their respective life sentences in a South American prison. During this time, one of the prisoners plots an escape and kicks off one of the most daring plots in film history.
The movie is an old-school Hollywood adventure with a mixture of excitement and dread with the daunting task laid before the protagonists. McQueen is an actor whose movie star charisma lights up the screen but it is interesting to see him in a more vulnerable role here, often seen as one of his best performances. The movie was remade in 2017 with Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek but this original version remains the superior adaptation of the story.
7 The Defiant Ones (1958)
Sidney Poitier Makes History
Stanley Kramer’s 1958 drama, The Defiant Ones, is a thoughtful and tense film about the struggles of race relations in the 1950s. Two convicts seize an opportunity to escape from a chain gang while chained together, despite hating each other. It is a setup that became a cornerstone of the buddy action movie genre with this movie influencing so many others.
However, its cultural importance goes beyond that. Starring Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier, this film won two Oscars, with both actors being nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. This was a landmark, as Poitier was the first Black actor to be nominated for the award. The movie is a brilliant showcase of how social issues, such as race relations in America in this case, can be dealt with in a meaningful way in the middle of an entertaining adventure.
6 A Man Escaped (1956)
A Man Plans An Escape In Nazi-Occupied France
In stark contrast to Renoir’s The Grand Illusion, Robert Bresson’s devoutly ascetic war movie displays the unfeeling brutality of the Nazi occupation of France through one prisoner’s experience.
Based on the memoirs of André Devigny, A Man Escaped follows a French resistance fight who is captured and imprisoned with the looming threat of being executed. Though weakened, afraid, and unsure of where he is, the man takes charge of his fate and plans a daring escape.
A Man Escaped is timelessly tense and the cold, objective level of detail in the construction of every part of the escape makes it all feel so much more real. Bresson constructs the movie with a confident minimalist approach, never wasting a shot. It is also an impressive trick that the movie is able to build incredible tension and suspense even as the title of the movie spoils the ending.
5 Toy Story 3 (2010)
Woody And The Gang Must Escape A Corrupt Daycare
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As a perfect example of how versatile this genre can be, the Toy Story franchise created one of the greatest prison escape movies of all time. As Woody and the other toys deal with Andy growing up, they are accidentally donated, winding up at a daycare.
While it initially seems like a fitting place for them to live now that Andy has moved on, they soon find it is run by a tyrannical teddy bear, leading them to plan an elaborate and hilarious escape plan from the children’s school.
What makes this prison escape so special is how it references dozens of other movies before it. Nods to The Great Escape and Escape From Alcatraz are shown in abundance. It’s an emotional journey featuring characters countless kids grew up with and one of the very finest animated movies of the 2010s.
4 Escape From Alcatraz (1979)
Clint Eastwood Attempts To Escape America’s Most Infamous Prison
Director Don Siegel is responsible for some of Clint Eastwood’s best movies like Dirty Harry and The Beguiled. Their last collaboration was the 1979 film Escape From Alcatraz which saw the pair end on a very high note. It stars Eastwood as Frank Morris, a bank robber held at the infamous and inescapable prison. He and two others devise a plan to bust out of it.
The true story of this daring escape was one of Siegel’s final films, leaving a mark not only on his filmography but on the sub-genre of prison escape movies for years to come. Eastwood is the ideal leading man for the movie with his stoic performance suiting the gripping and clean script. The nearly dialogue-free opening sequence draws the audience into this world before the fast-paced story kicks off.
3 Cool Hand Luke (1967)
A Laid-Back Prisoner Challenges The Rules Of Prison
Paul Newman stars in one of his most famous roles in Cool Hand Luke as Luke Jackson, a laid-back southern man who does not play by the rules of the warden. The other prisoners take a liking to him, hailing him as a hero and leader of the group. His attempt to escape goes wrong but his fighting spirit is what makes Luke an icon.
Men can be broken but their spirit cannot – that’s what audiences are left with after everything is said and done. Newman creates one of the most likable and cool movie heroes of all time with the movie having a fun energy regardless of its setting. The egg-eating competition in Cool Hand Luke still charms audiences to this day. George Kennedy is also terrific as the gruff fellow prisoner who eventually becomes Luke’s best friend.
2 The Great Escape (1963)
Allied Troops Plan A Massive Exodus From A POW Camp
One of the greatest prison escape movies ever is also one of the greatest war adventure movies ever. It has one of the most epic feels of the genre, focusing not on one prisoner’s escape attempt, but an entire prison. After being held prisoner in a war camp during World War II, allied soldiers prepare to break out over a hundred of their own by any means necessary. The determination and strength of the soldiers are among the best put to screen.
The determined and brilliant planning behind the escape and the comraderies of the soldiers is entertaining and it all leads up to the gripping escape itself where not all the heroes get their happy endings. It is a wonderful star-studded ensemble yet the standout of The Great Escape is Steve McQueen’s effortlessly cool hero.
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1 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
A Man Finds Hope Within The Walls Of Prison
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The Shawshank Redemption is one of the most beloved movies of all time and its prison escape is a big reason it struck a chord with so many people. Tim Robbins stars as a man who is sentenced to life in prison for a crime he insists he did not commit.
While striking up a friendship with Morgan Freeman as his fellow inmate, Robbins holds onto his dignity and hope in a place that attempts to rob it from him. Using narration and playing with the passage of time, this film tells one of the most emotional and iconic stories of a prison break out there.
Few prison escape movies have been so uplifting and moving, and while it is far more than just a prison escape movie, it is that third-act twist that allows The Shawshank Redemption‘s ending to be one of the most satisfying of all time.