Prison Movies, a list by Riz

9.3

/2887541/

91

/41444/

87

/25841/

4.5

/1250677/

89

/140/

Audience

98

/890157/

82

/21/

4.0

age 15+

Framed in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.

10

82

8.6

/1406735/

86

/25976/

85

/16720/

4.2

/550857/

79

/136/

Audience

94

/815138/

61

/36/

3.5

age 16+

A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.

69

7.3

/98407/

75

/7020/

69

/1914/

3.5

/39551/

70

/50/

Audience

80

/4070/

59

/10/

2.5

age 17+

A newly-released prison gangster is forced by the leaders of his gang to orchestrate a major crime with a brutal rival gang on the streets of Southern California.

81

8.5

/1185907/

84

/19771/

83

/11097/

4.1

/417140/

84

/89/

Audience

96

/480573/

62

/32/

3.0

age 17+

Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.

73

7.4

/358042/

77

/8563/

71

/4455/

3.5

/114505/

67

/72/

Audience

85

/11178/

58

/24/

3.5

age 16+

When vengeful General Francis X. Hummel seizes control of Alcatraz Island and threatens to launch missiles loaded with deadly chemical weapons into San Francisco, only a young FBI chemical weapons expert and notorious Federal prisoner have the stills to penetrate the impregnable island fortress and take him down.

62

7.4

/319742/

77

/9303/

73

/4865/

3.3

/85489/

26

/163/

Audience

75

/517649/

34

/26/

3.0

age 18+

A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.

75

7.1

/157428/

72

/4735/

70

/2949/

3.6

/161468/

88

/72/

Audience

77

/73111/

76

/12/

age 16+

In a world ravaged by crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted into a walled prison where brutal prisoners roam. After the US president crash-lands inside, war hero Snake Plissken has 24 hours to bring him back.

64

7.2

/86133/

75

/4020/

73

/1836/

3.5

/40607/

52

/111/

Audience

71

/1485/

51

/31/

2.0

age 16+

Henri “Papillon” Charrière, a safecracker from the Parisian underworld, is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, where he forges a strong friendship with Louis Dega, a counterfeiter who needs his protection.

73

7.5

/237505/

77

/3819/

76

/3382/

3.7

/98216/

73

/56/

Audience

85

/93238/

49

/18/

3.0

age 18+

Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.

74

7.7

/134267/

77

/2487/

75

/1834/

3.8

/69318/

78

/63/

Audience

90

/60456/

62

/22/

2.5

age 14+

Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.

76

7.0

/162137/

72

/9963/

67

/3346/

3.5

/211177/

92

/289/

Audience

76

/1210/

78

/51/

3.5

age 13+

Trying to reverse a family curse, brothers Jimmy and Clyde Logan set out to execute an elaborate robbery during the legendary Coca-Cola 600 race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

77

7.0

/99260/

70

/1732/

66

/1182/

3.7

/56001/

94

/106/

Audience

74

/59969/

84

/30/

3.5

age 16+

Meet Jack Foley, a smooth criminal who bends the law and is determined to make one last heist. Karen Sisco is a federal marshal who chooses all the right moves … and all the wrong guys. Now they're willing to risk it all to find out if there's more between them than just the law.

77

7.1

/75644/

72

/4665/

69

/1309/

3.7

/65104/

90

/98/

Audience

74

/6446/

79

/21/

3.5

age 18+

After working as a drug courier and getting into a brutal shootout with police, a former boxer finds himself at the mercy of his enemies as they force him to instigate violent acts that turn the prison he resides in into a battleground.

72

7.0

/140845/

70

/3121/

69

/2361/

3.6

/118428/

75

/81/

Audience

74

/17380/

71

/22/

3.0

A young man who was sentenced to 7 years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending 30 years in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter ego, Charles Bronson.

71

7.9

/34006/

81

/709/

81

/1213/

3.9

/10913/

62

/13/

Audience

94

/49295/

47

/12/

2.0

Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East L.A. gang known as the "Vatos Locos", and the story focuses on how a violent crime and the influence of narcotics alter their lives. Miklo is incarcerated and sent to San Quentin, where he makes a "home" for himself. Cruz becomes an exceptional artist, but a heroin addiction overcomes him with tragic results. Paco becomes a cop and an enemy to his "carnal", Miklo.

67

6.8

/54750/

73

/1497/

66

/731/

3.4

/21269/

52

/58/

Audience

77

/50480/

63

/20/

3.0

age 16+

Two men in 1930s Mississippi become friends after being sentenced to life in prison together for a crime they did not commit.

85

8.1

/187059/

80

/2399/

79

/1636/

4.1

/58965/

94

/50/

Audience

95

/41476/

84

/16/

age 16+

A small time thief from Belfast, Gerry Conlon, is falsely implicated in the IRA bombing of a pub that kills several people while he is in London. He and his four friends are coerced by British police into confessing their guilt. Gerry's father and other relatives in London are also implicated in the crime. He spends fifteen years in prison with his father trying to prove his innocence.

50

6.4

/218871/

66

/5682/

62

/3589/

2.7

/46882/

41

/157/

Audience

60

/207815/

43

/24/

0.5

age 18+

Terminal Island, New York: 2020. Overcrowding in the US penal system has reached a breaking point. Prisons have been turned over to a monolithic Weyland Corporation, which sees jails full of thugs as an opportunity for televised sport. Adrenalized inmates, a global audience hungry for violence and a spectacular, enclosed arena come together to form the 'Death Race', the biggest, most brutal event.

56

6.7

/257415/

70

/10967/

67

/4962/

2.9

/70877/

50

/117/

Audience

55

/2295/

49

/33/

1.5

age 17+

Ray Breslin is the world's foremost authority on structural security. After analyzing every high security prison and learning a vast array of survival skills so he can design escape-proof prisons, his skills are put to the test. He's framed and incarcerated in a master prison he designed himself. He needs to escape and find the person who put him behind bars.

79

7.5

/86902/

75

/1619/

75

/1557/

3.8

/29558/

78

/32/

Audience

84

/42036/

71

/24/

4.0

A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.

65

6.9

/85273/

74

/1919/

71

/1191/

3.3

/18834/

52

/118/

Audience

74

/45972/

43

/32/

3.0

age 15+

A court-martialed general rallies together 1200 inmates to rise against the system that put him away.

69

7.3

/121991/

73

/2290/

69

/1479/

3.5

/23626/

74

/139/

Audience

72

/33886/

66

/33/

2.5

age 14+

At the dawn of WWII, several men escape from a Russian gulag—to take a perilous and uncertain journey to freedom as they cross deserts, mountains and several nations.

73

66

7.2

/7617/

69

/160/

69

/117/

3.7

/7913/

Audience

84

/4853/

After being sent to a detention centre, a teenage skinhead clashes with the social workers who want to conform him to the status quo.

73

7.1

/41497/

71

/561/

67

/339/

3.6

/17044/

76

/80/

Audience

89

/31548/

68

/26/

3.0

The true and infamous story of Australia's notorious criminal Mark 'Chopper' Read and his years of crime, interest in violence, drugs and prostitutes.

76

7.3

/110789/

72

/1871/

69

/1180/

3.5

/25816/

90

/162/

Audience

75

/125868/

77

/36/

3.5

age 15+

A US Fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.

72

7.2

/17058/

73

/346/

69

/243/

3.5

/6300/

90

/20/

Audience

81

/61617/

53

/10/

3.0

Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.

78

7.6

/75707/

80

/4278/

78

/2138/

3.8

/82774/

85

/311/

Audience

99

/4319/

68

/50/

2.5

age 13+

The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.

63

6.6

/42064/

70

/2892/

65

/790/

3.0

/15736/

64

/58/

Audience

60

/94/

61

/12/

age 16+

In New York, former convict Pete Koslow, related to the Polish mafia, must deal with both Klimek the General, his ruthless boss, and the twisted ambitions of two federal agents, as he tries to survive and protect the lives of his loved ones.

69

7.4

/83542/

73

/1349/

71

/843/

3.4

/8163/

60

/25/

Audience

82

/13952/

58

/10/

A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.

80

7.5

/73539/

73

/1391/

72

/1068/

4.0

/59438/

90

/134/

Audience

83

/74361/

82

/25/

3.5

age 16+

The story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike during The Troubles in which Irish Republican prisoners tried to win political status.

76

7.1

/10354/

77

/401/

74

/333/

3.5

/4215/

73

/11/

Audience

90

/10370/

66

/11/

3.5

age 17+

During his 18 years in Folsom Prison, street-gang leader Santana rules over all the drug-and-murder activities behind bars. Upon his release, Santana goes back to his old neighborhood, intending to lead a peaceful, crime-free life. But his old gang buddies force him back into his old habits.

82

7.5

/101758/

74

/1315/

73

/1271/

3.7

/28666/

95

/61/

Audience

86

/61989/

80

/26/

4.0

age 17+

A death row inmate turns for spiritual guidance to a local nun in the days leading up to his scheduled execution for the murders of a young couple.

64

6.7

/30389/

71

/845/

65

/413/

3.3

/11589/

69

/16/

Audience

75

/20070/

56

/6/

2.0

New Yorkers Skip Donahue and Harry Monroe have no jobs and no prospects, so they decide to flee the city and find work elsewhere, landing jobs wearing woodpecker costumes to promote the opening of a bank. When their feathery costumes are stolen and used in a bank robbery, they no longer have to worry about employment — they're sent to prison.

66

6.9

/42929/

67

/1749/

67

/977/

3.3

/13282/

74

/58/

Audience

63

/5236/

54

/25/

3.0

age 17+

A young woman joins the military to be part of something bigger than herself and her small-town roots. Instead, she ends up as a new guard at Guantanamo Bay, where her mission is far from black and white. Surrounded by hostile jihadists and aggressive squadmates, she strikes up an unusual friendship with one of the detainees.

76

7.2

/32982/

71

/645/

69

/525/

3.6

/15730/

83

/36/

Audience

76

/8255/

67

/11/

4.0

A hardened convict and a younger prisoner escape from a brutal prison in the middle of winter only to find themselves on an out-of-control train with a female railway worker while being pursued by the vengeful head of security.

73

7.3

/44551/

74

/1183/

75

/863/

3.4

/10450/

Audience

76

/2127/

Russian inmate Boyka, now severely hobbled by the knee injury suffered at the end of Undisputed 2. No longer the feared prison fighter he was, he has declined so far that he is now good only for cleaning toilets. But when a new prison fight tournament begins - an international affair, matching the best fighters from prisons around the globe, enticing them with the promise of freedom for the winner - Boyka must reclaim his dignity and fight for his position in the tournament.

60

50

6.5

/6094/

71

/116/

66

/85/

3.2

/1011/

42

/12/

Audience

70

/7093/

44

/17/

As punishment for drunken, rebellious behavior, a young white soldier is thrown into a stockade populated entirely by black inmates. But instead of falling victim to racial hatred, the soldier joins forces with his fellow prisoners and rises up against the insanely tyrannical and bigoted prison warden.

65

6.4

/831/

71

/76/

70

/19/

3.3

/220/

83

/6/

Audience

68

/25/

1.5

age 14+

A lawyer finds himself at the center of a trial in which a for-profit foster care agency puts a known sex offender into the same foster home as his young client Jamal, which leads to catastrophic results.

64

59

6.5

/6654/

67

/278/

64

/87/

3.2

/9052/

69

/67/

Audience

68

/23/

56

/18/

age 15+

The story of Steve Harmon, a 17-year-old honor student whose world comes crashing down around him when he is charged with felony murder.

65

6.3

/286/

70

/1/

76

/6/

72

/32/

Audience

45

/1247/

60

/16/

3.0

A young man dying in prison brings his family together for a fateful visit, and proceeds to put his life back together.

66

7.3

/30664/

73

/578/

71

/536/

3.4

/6841/

54

/39/

Audience

79

/22034/

2.0

age 18+

A young, inexperienced public defender is assigned to defend an inmate accused of committing murder while behind bars.

60

6.4

/41810/

67

/871/

62

/545/

3.1

/8818/

34

/56/

Audience

72

/38187/

45

/25/

3.0

Disgraced ex-England football captain, Danny 'Mean Machine' Meehan, is thrown in jail for assaulting two police officers. He keeps his head down and has the opportunity to forget everything and change the lives of the prisoners. When these prisoners have the chance to put one over the evil guards during a prison football match, Danny takes the lead.

79

7.7

/55279/

75

/732/

73

/690/

4.1

/50370/

88

/32/

Audience

93

/22432/

75

/20/

3.0

A disc jockey, a pimp and an Italian tourist escape from jail in New Orleans.

74

6.8

/26182/

70

/1431/

67

/538/

3.6

/21295/

92

/65/

Audience

75

/1885/

76

/17/

3.0

The amazing true story of Billy Moore, an English boxer incarcerated in Thailand’s most notorious prison. Thrown into a world of drugs and violence, he finds his best chance to escape is to fight his way out in prison Muay Thai tournaments.

80

7.3

/48677/

72

/1522/

70

/900/

3.8

/25826/

99

/117/

Audience

84

/451/

81

/26/

3.5

age 17+

19-year-old Eric, arrogant and ultra-violent, is prematurely transferred to the same adult prison facility as his estranged father. As his explosive temper quickly finds him enemies in both prison authorities and fellow inmates — and his already volatile relationship with his father is pushed past breaking point — Eric is approached by a volunteer psychotherapist, who runs an anger management group for prisoners. Torn between gang politics, prison corruption, and a glimmer of something better, Eric finds himself in a fight for his own life, unsure if his own father is there to protect him or join in punishing him.

78

7.6

/102444/

77

/1652/

74

/1326/

3.6

/21269/

82

/113/

Audience

87

/55717/

74

/30/

3.5

age 16+

The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.

67

7.0

/13519/

71

/397/

72

/361/

3.6

/6563/

63

/27/

Audience

69

/1954/

57

/8/

Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.

82

7.6

/70762/

77

/1793/

74

/1196/

3.7

/20027/

98

/46/

Audience

88

/5420/