Films with theme "Prison films", sorted by revenue

, 2h6
Directed by Jon Turteltaub
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller
Themes Films about animals, Medical-themed films, Prison films, Psychologie, Films about apes, Films about psychiatry, Mise en scène d'un mammifère
Actors Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding Jr., Donald Sutherland, Maura Lynn Tierney, George Dzundza, John Ashton

The film examines the mind of anthropologist Ethan Powell (Hopkins) who has been missing for a few years, living in the jungle with gorillas. He had been convicted of killing and injuring several supposed Wilderness Park Rangers in Africa, and is sent to prison. A bright young psychiatrist (Gooding) tries to find out why he killed them, but becomes entangled in a quest to learn the true history and nature of humankind. Eventually it is revealed that during the course of his stay with the gorillas, the animals accepted Powell as part of their group and that he was attempting to protect his gorilla family when the rangers arrived and started shooting them. He gets a hearing to reveal the truth, but an attack by a vicious guard causes Powell to stop talking again. At the end of the film, Powell escapes from prison, using a pen to dig out the lock on a window and heads back to Africa.

, 1h31
Origin France
Genres Science fiction, Thriller, Action
Themes Space adventure films, Prison films, Rape in fiction, Dans l'espace, Films set in the future
Actors Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun, Lennie James, Peter Stormare

In 2079, CIA agent Snow is arrested for murdering undercover agent Frank Armstrong, who had uncovered evidence of another agent selling secrets about the space program. Secret Service director Scott Langral, on advice from the President, has Snow convicted of murder and espionage. Snow is sentenced to thirty years on the maximum security space penitentiary MS One, where prisoners are kept in stasis for the length of their sentence. Snow's friend and fellow agent Harry Shaw tries to locate Snow's contact Mace, who knows where Frank's briefcase containing the stolen secrets is hidden.

, 2h5
Directed by Gregory Hoblit
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War
Themes Prison films, Political films, Évasion
Actors Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Terrence Howard, Cole Hauser, Marcel Iureș, Linus Roache

During World War II, U.S. Army intelligence officer First Lieutenant Thomas Hart (Farrell) is captured by German forces. While interrogating Hart, the Germans coerce him to divulge intelligence by taking away his boots, causing his feet to become frostbitten and badly injured, and leaving him, naked, in a very cold cell. He is then transferred by train to Stalag VI-A prisoner of war camp at Hemer, Germany. While en route, a P-51 Mustang attacks (the letters POW were painted on the top of the train, but got covered by thick snow). To save themselves, the POWs leave the train and spell P-O-W with their bodies and prevent further strafing.

, 1h28
Directed by Edward Decter
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes L'adolescence, Films about education, Films about children, Prison films, L'enfance marginalisée, Films about school violence
Actors DJ Qualls, Eliza Dushku, Zooey Deschanel, Eddie Griffin, Jerod Mixon, Parry Shen

The film begins with prison inmate Luther speaking directly to the camera to an unseen individual, telling the story of Dizzy Gillespie Harrison, an 18-year-old nerdy high school senior. Dizzy is friends with Nora, Kirk, and Glen, who together started a funk rock band and are addicted to video games. They attend Rocky Creek High School, where Dizzy is picked on by basically everyone, especially star football player Barclay. This occurs before and after sex symbol Tina Osgood holds his hands, causing him to have an erection and ends up activating the trap where the jocks belittle him with no mercy. Dizzy's white briefs were yanked from underneath his pants and placed around his head - revealing the erect penis in plain sight to nearly everyone instead of "covering it." The school librarian would eventually "break" it after Dizzy refuses to "hand" over the "weapon" to her. Dizzy is misdiagnosed with Tourette's syndrome; he is then placed on medication by the school counselor who advises his father to spend every moment possible with him. While at the mall's food court, the heavily medicated Dizzy makes a fool of himself at a church revival and gets arrested.

, 2h2
Directed by Marc Rocco
Origin France
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Themes Prison films, Se déroulant à Alcatraz
Actors Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Embeth Davidtz, Brad Dourif, William H. Macy

As a 17-year-old orphan, Henri Young (Kevin Bacon), steals $5.00 from a grocery store to feed himself and his little sister, both of whom are destitute. He is apprehended by the store clerk, and his sister is sent to an orphanage. Because that grocery store also housed a U.S. Post Office his crime becomes a federal offense. Young never sees his sister again and is sentenced to Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas. After later being transferred to Alcatraz, he participates in an escape attempt with two other prisoners.

, 2h22
Directed by Frank Darabont
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Crime
Themes Prison films, Évasion, Films about capital punishment, Buddy films
Actors Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, James Whitmore, Clancy Brown

In 1947 Portland, Maine, banker Andy Dufresne is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at the fictional Shawshank State Penitentiary in rural Maine. Andy befriends prison contraband smuggler, Ellis "Red" Redding, an inmate serving a life sentence. Red procures a rock hammer and later a large poster of Rita Hayworth for Andy. Working in the prison laundry, Andy is regularly assaulted by the "bull queer" gang "the Sisters" and their leader, Bogs.

, 2h12
Directed by Rod Lurie
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Thriller, Action
Themes Prison films
Actors Robert Redford, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Delroy Lindo, Paul Calderon, Steve Burton

Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin (Robert Redford) is brought to a maximum security military prison to begin a ten-year sentence for his decision (in violation of a presidential order) to send U.S. troops on a mission in Burundi, resulting in the deaths of eight soldiers. Colonel Winter (James Gandolfini), the prison's commandant, is a great admirer of the general but is offended by a comment he overhears: Irwin criticizes Winter's much-prized military artifacts collection, calling it something no actual battlefield veteran would ever have.

, 1h56
Directed by John Huston
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Action
Themes Prison films, Sports films, Association football films, Political films
Actors Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, Max von Sydow, Daniel Massey, Amidou, Benoît Ferreux

Football plays a central role of the film. A team of Allied prisoners of war (POWs), coached and led by English Captain John Colby (Michael Caine), a professional footballer for West Ham United before the war, agree to play an exhibition match against a German team, only to find themselves involved in a German propaganda stunt.

, 2h16
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Thriller, Social science fiction, Crime
Themes L'adolescence, Films about children, Medical-themed films, Films about music and musicians, Prison films, Films about sexuality, Films about suicide, Rape in fiction, Films based on science fiction novels, Films set in the future, Films about classical music and musicians, Films about psychiatry, Political films, Dystopian films
Actors Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Adrienne Corri, Miriam Karlin, Godfrey Quigley, Anthony Sharp

In futuristic London, Alex DeLarge is the leader of his "droogs", Georgie, Dim and Pete. One night, after getting intoxicated on "drencrom" (milk laced with drugs), they engage in an evening of "ultra-violence," which includes beating an elderly vagrant and fighting a rival gang led by Billyboy. After stealing a car, they drive to the country home of writer F. Alexander, where they beat Mr. Alexander to the point of crippling him for life. Alex then rapes his wife while singing "Singin' in the Rain".

, 1h21
Directed by John R. Cherry III
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Crime
Themes Prison films, Films about capital punishment, Children's films
Actors Jim Varney, Gailard Sartain, Barbara Tyson, Bill Byrge, Charles Napier, Chambers Stevens

Security guards Chuck (Gailard Sartain) and Bobby (Bill Byrge) play a game of Red light/Green light while being night watchmen for Howard County Bank and Trust and are obsessed with elaborate schemes of would-be thieves. They hear a sound coming from a floor polisher that Ernest is trying to turn on for operation - he works as a night custodian at the bank - and dreams that he would be a clerk. He becomes magnetic from a mishap with the floor polisher and makes a disastrous mess. The next day, bank president Oscar Pendlesmythe's assistant, Charlotte Sparrow (Barbara Tyson) insists that he clean up his mess. Pendlesmythe wants to terminate Ernest's employment, but Charlotte has a soft heart for misfits and stray dogs, so she argues on his behalf. Ernest takes a bath at home in a tumble dry washing machine and uses a blow dryer with a windtunnel force for his evening dinner with Charlotte in a restaurant. He later receives a jury duty summons and excitedly tells the two watchmen about it. During the trial Dracup Maximum Security Prison convict Rubin Bartlett notices that death row inmate Felix Nash is a dead ringer for Ernest. Rubin's lawyer convinces the jury to tour the prison, where Ernest is abducted by Nash and another inmate named Lyle and forced to switch places with Nash. Even though he tries to tell the guards he is not Nash, they refuse to believe him. Ernest also does not know that he has a death sentence which is for Nash.

, 2h14
Directed by Peter Weir
Origin USA
Genres Drama, War, Adventure, Historical
Themes Politique, Prison films, Transport films, Films about automobiles, Political films, Évasion, Road movies
Actors Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong, Dragoş Bucur

During World War II, after the Soviet invasion of Poland, young Polish military officer Janusz Wieszczek (Jim Sturgess) is held as a POW and interrogated by the NKVD. The Soviets, unable to get him to say he is a spy, take into custody his wife from whom they extort a statement condemning him. He is sentenced to 20 years in a Gulag labour camp deep in Siberia.

, 1h56
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, War, Biography, Historical
Themes Seafaring films, Prison films, Transport films, Political films
Actors Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine, Stellan Skarsgård, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tanroh Ishida

During World War II, Eric Lomax is a British officer who is captured by the Japanese in Singapore and sent to a Japanese POW camp where he is forced to work on the Thai-Burma Railway north of the Malay Peninsula. During his time in the camp as one of the Far East prisoners of war, Lomax is tortured by the Kempetai for building a radio receiver from spare parts. This is apparently due to his falling under suspicion of being a spy for supposedly using the British news broadcast receiver as a transmitter of military intelligence. His only intention, in fact, had been to use the device as a morale booster for himself and his fellow prisoner-slaves. The torture depicted includes beatings and waterboarding.

, 1h59
Directed by Tony Kaye
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Crime
Themes Films about families, Prison films, Films about racism, Films about sexuality, Rape in fiction, Skinheads, Gangster films
Actors Edward Norton, Fairuza Balk, Edward Furlong, Stacy Keach, Elliott Gould, Avery Brooks

Danny Vinyard (Edward Furlong), a high school student and budding neo-Nazi in Venice Beach, California, receives an assignment from Mr. Murray (Elliott Gould), his history teacher, to write a paper on "any book which relates to the struggle for human rights". Knowing Murray is Jewish, Danny writes his paper on Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. Murray attempts to get Danny expelled for doing this, but Principal Dr. Bob Sweeney (Avery Brooks) — who is black — refuses, instead informing Danny that he will study history and current events under Sweeney, and that the class will be called "American History X". Danny's first assignment is to prepare a paper on his brother Derek (Edward Norton), a former neo-Nazi leader who has just been released from prison after serving three years for voluntary manslaughter. Danny is warned that failing to submit the paper the next morning will result in his expulsion. The rest of the film alternates between a series of vignettes from Danny and Derek's shared past (distinguished by being shown in black and white), and present day events (shown in color).

, 1h53
Directed by James Foley
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Crime
Themes Prison films, Films about capital punishment
Actors Chris O'Donnell, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway, Lela Rochon, Robert Prosky, Raymond J. Barry

Having survived the hatred and bigotry that was his Klansman grandfather Sam Cayhall's (Hackman) only legacy, young attorney Adam Hall (O'Donnell) seeks to appeal the old man's death sentence for the murder of two Jewish children 30 years ago. Only 28 days before Cayhall is to be executed, Adam meets his grandfather for the first time in the Mississippi State Penitentiary which has held him since his conviction in 1980. The meeting is predictably tense when the educated, young Mr. "Hall" confronts his venom-spewing elder, Mr. "Cayhall" about the murders. The next day, headlines run proclaiming Adam the grandson who has come to the state to save his grandfather, the infamous Ku Klux Klan bomber.

, 1h49
Directed by John Flynn
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Crime
Themes Prison films
Actors Sylvester Stallone, Donald Sutherland, John Amos, Darlanne Fluegel, Frank McRae, Sonny Landham

Frank Leone, a skilled mechanic and football player in Hoboken, New Jersey, is a model prisoner nearing the end of his sentence in Norwood, a low security prison. He occasionally spends time outside prison in his garage fixing cars, playing football and spending time with his girlfriend Melissa.