The 15 Best Prison Escape Movies, Ranked

Prison escape stories have long seemed to capture our imagination because they speak to our love of antiheroes and underdogs, From Alexandre Dumas’ 1846 novel, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” to Sylvester Stallone’s “Escape Plan” movies, we just love watching innocent (morally, if not literally) people outwit their captors and escape to freedom.

Filmmakers have delivered a fairly steady stream of movies featuring a prison escape, and the best ones know that viewers thrive on the detailed planning, the struggle that immediately follows, and the ultimate catharsis for the characters. We’ve put together a list of 15 of the best prison escape movies, and while most are dramatic thrillers we managed to squeeze in some comedy, action, and sci-fi antics as well. They include films from Japan, France, and Australia, but it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that most come from the United States –- home to the highest number of incarcerated citizens in the world.

Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) is a career criminal who’s made a habit of escaping custody. He’s sentenced to Alcatraz Island, a prison notorious for having zero successful escapes, but Frank takes those odds as nothing more than a challenge.

Director Don Siegel crafts an engaging tale that has viewers rooting for a guilty man under fire from both the warden and an increasingly menacing convict. Once Frank decides to escape, the film’s energy ticks up and moves from drama to something more suspenseful. Siegel uses the actual Alcatraz location to great effect to highlight the claustrophobic conditions and the apparent impossibility of escape.

Eastwood and Siegel had a successful, decade-long collaboration across five movies, but “Escape from Alcatraz” was the one that broke them. They fought over numerous aspects of the film, including the ending with Eastwood insisting on a more hopeful, less ambiguous conclusion. The film is loosely based on real events, but Eastwood wanted something more optimistic than the facts provided. Despite the on-set friction, the end result remains a dramatically thrilling success showcasing Siegel’s directorial chops and Eastwood’s more emotionally grounded performance.

Billy Hayes is caught leaving Turkey with drugs taped to his body, and it’s a choice he might not live to regret. He’s arrested, convicted, and thrown into prison, an already dangerous place made worse by his presence as a foreigner.

As with the Eastwood film above, “Midnight Express” is also based on a true story, but this is a far more harrowing experience. Beatings, poor conditions, and attempted assaults become the norm, and the toll they take on Billy becomes difficult for even viewers to endure. The physical pain is surpassed by the mental trauma making for a draining, heart-wrenching, and ultimately rewarding film. The escape sequence here becomes more about Billy seizing an opportunity than developing an intricate plan, but it’s no less effective for its bluntness.

It’s worth noting that the film faced strong accusations of racism from both critics and even the real Billy Hayes for its universal depiction of Turks as villains. It’s an understandable take, but in addition to featuring some non-Turks as human monsters too, the late Alan Parker and his lead actor both work to craft a protagonist who’s far from likable. Hayes is, in his own way, a bad guy whose actions and choices serve to worsen his situation, but that’s where the human spirit and our feelings of empathy crack through.

Japan’s “Abashiri Prison,” set on the brutally cold northern island of Hokkaido, is home to Shinichi, a low-level criminal skating by on charisma and counting down the days to his release. Plans change when he’s pulled into an escape after being chained together with an erratic member of the yakuza.

While director Teruo Ishii is arguably best-known for his late 60s “ero-guro” films -– erotic and grotesque movies like “Horrors of Malformed Men” and “Inferno of Torture” -– it’s this 1965 feature that kicked off the career of the great Ken Takakura and spawned a whopping seventeen sequels. The focus here is on the mismatched pair of prisoners and Shinichi’s gradual entry into the world of the yakuza, and it’s a journey that manages both thrills and a real sense of character as our protagonist navigates prison personalities and criminals more hardened than himself.

If the synopsis sounds familiar it’s because the film, while ostensibly based on a Japanese novel from 1956, is actually a remake of the Academy Award-winning Hollywood production, “The Defiant Ones.” While that film focused more on the collision of race in the Deep South, Ishii’s version explores ideas of nature versus nurture when it comes to the formation of a criminal making it an interesting and attractive entry in the yakuza sub-genre.

Fontaine is a member of the French resistance who’s captured and imprisoned by the Nazis in Lyon, France. The walls echo with screams and executions by gunfire, and hope disappears into the earth like tears in the dirt, but Fontaine is persistent, focused, and determined to escape.

Perhaps the most intimate of the prison escape films on this list, director Robert Bresson’s mid 50s “A Man Escaped,” once again based on real-life memoirs, is focused almost exclusively on Fontaine. A handful of other prisoners enter and leave his periphery, some friendly and helpful to Fontaine’s end goal, but the guards remain just out of view. They’re oppressive forces, but to Fontaine they’re mostly just distractions.

Bresson adds voiceover that, while arguably unnecessary, highlights the methodical approach that Fontaine is taking with his escape plan. We follow him step by step, from monotonous actions to tense close calls, while the visuals and stellar sound design turn one man’s drudgery into an immersive experience that feels as determined in its conclusion as it does uncertain.

A German officer decides to organize an exhibition football match between his POW prisoners and Germany’s professional team. An American POW is convinced to use the match to help the entire team make their way to freedom.

Like a B-side bop to the more celebrated “A Man Escaped,” John Huston’s star-studded tale of wartime sports and prison escape pits our heroes against Nazis on French soil. That film’s artistic drama is replaced here by much more populist fare complete with a big, rousing finale, but that’s far from a bad thing. You’re a stronger viewer than I am if you turn off “Victory” during its third act. Michael Caine choosing to stay and beat the Germans on the field, Sylvester Stallone desperate to take advantage of their short escape window, Pelé delivering a hero-making bicycle-kick goal –- this is a film you cheer for.

The movie was inspired by a real-life series of matches between Ukrainian POWs and a German team, but it feels every bit as indebted to 1974’s “The Longest Yard” – itself reportedly inspired by those same matches – as it dials up the entertainment and big beats over historical accuracy, drama, or logic.

Nine convicts gather together for a meal while a tenth tells them about a treasure he’s stashed somewhere in Tokyo. They all want it, so the nine men escape their prison and head out into the world.

Nine men, nine criminals of varying degrees, nine souls in search of something unattainable. We follow them into the streets of Tokyo and fields beyond, and what starts as a playful story about foul ruffians and perverts shifts into an affecting commentary on the illusion of redemption. Society has branded them as irredeemable, and these men have come to believe it’s true.

While the actual escape portion of Toshiaki Toyoda’s melancholic “9 Souls” passes by quickly, a sadness settles in with the realization that a prison sentence is more than the physical walls that confine you. It’s a belief held by others about you and that you hold for yourself, and as we spend time with these men, within their pasts and present, it becomes all too clear that real freedom probably won’t be part of their future.

It’s the future, then-1997, and the island of Manhattan has been turned into a maximum security prison. When the U.S. president’s plane is hijacked and crashed into the city, a dangerously unpredictable man is sent in to break the president back out.

John Carpenter’s “Escape from New York” is one of his best films, but it might not seem like an obvious choice for this list. Sci-fi setup be damned, though, the second and third acts are all about escaping from an island prison. Kurt Russell is the ridiculously cool Snake Plissken, the only man for the job, and the chaotic streets of the prison city are populated by characters with names like Brain, Cabbie, and the Duke of New York. The world-building is strong, and it remains effective fun even with its dated effects.

Thrilling set-pieces, charismatic characters and performers (Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Harry Dean Stanton, Tom Atkins), and a genuine feeling of anarchic energy drive the film’s momentum to deliver a fun, highly satisfying adventure.

A thief is wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to hard labor, but like the butterfly tattoo that earned him the nickname Papillon, his yearning to fly free is impossible to squash.

While some of the escapees on this list get lucky on their first try, others are fueled by a persistence that carries them through attempt after attempt. Steve McQueen in “Papillon” is the epitome of that persistence as the film showcases him escaping, being recaptured, escaping again, and so on. The difficulty and resistance increases each time building to an incredibly audacious cliffside jump to the churning ocean waters below.

The film shifts between the harsh realities of prison life to lushly photographed locales, and the contrast between the beauty of nature and the ugliness of the people pursuing Papillon is crystal clear. His drive is relentless, but the film finds a calm humanity in Dustin Hoffman’s Dega who adds heart and emotion to his friend’s full throttle journey. And yes, the power of their pairing did make it difficult to cast the remake.

A flock of chickens grow increasingly nervous about their captors intentions, and that only intensifies when parts for a chicken pie machine arrive at the farm. Hope for escape rests in the wings of an American rooster named Rocky who just might help them fly to freedom.

Yes, 2000’s “Chicken Run” is an animated comedy, but that doesn’t make the escape elements any less thrilling. There are laughs to be had with the interactions between chickens, and darker humor arrives with the human characters. While playful and family friendly, there’s a sense of danger that fuels the suspense and anticipation as we race towards the escape.

The bones of the story are inspired by “The Great Escape,” but the laughs, heart, and ridiculous thrills belong to the talents at Aardman Animation. Claymation-style animation first hit screens in the early 20th century and gives objects a more tactile feel and an expressively physical presence, and both elements aid this film’s action beats as the fowl struggle to build an airplane right under the farmers’ noses.

Five inmates are forced to share a cell as they await long sentences and possible executions, but a plan is already in motion. They’re going to dig through the floor to the sewers below and simply walk to freedom.

Jacques Becker’s “Le Trou” is a fine companion piece to the other French film above as both focus on the minutiae of an escape plan in motion. While “A Man Escaped” focuses on one man’s intentions, though, here we’re in the huddle with five desperate men. Their work can be done quicker, but five criminals aren’t a team, they’re five men looking out for themselves. That extra risk ups the film’s ante when it comes to the drama and tension.

It’s an equally good companion to “9 Souls” as its themes echo the idea that prison isn’t serving these men as a source of rehabilitation. Instead, and as the English title translation suggests, it’s only a hole to hold people within until a subjective punishment time has passed. There is no effort made to make these men better before their inevitable return to society, and that’s as far from justice as these men are from freedom.

A Polish officer is accused of being a spy by the Soviets and sentenced to a Siberian prison. He and six other men plan and execute their escape, but not everyone will survive their 4,000 mile walk to freedom.

“The Way Back” may not be among Peter Weir’s very best films, but it’s still a grueling tale of survival that kicks off with incarceration and escape before revealing the unbelievable adventure that followed. The trek makes the harsh conditions of the work camp look easy by comparison, and the convicts soon face death from icy temperatures, dehydration, and the specter of doubt that they’ll ever see home again. It’s a harrowing journey powered by perseverance and hope.

Weir’s no stranger to films about nature’s inhospitality towards the unprepared as evidenced by titles like “The Last Wave” and “The Mosquito Coast,” and this last effort serves as something of a final word on the topic. Cinematography veers from the beautiful to the stark, all of it a challenge to people dwarfed by the immensity of it all, and as with those earlier films, the ones who come out the other side are the ones who remain both smart and humble along the way.

American POWs in World War II pass the time with minor distractions and occasional escape attempts, but both are at risk when they suspect an informant lurks among them.

Mistreatment aside, the biggest challenge for POWs was often the draining effect of a monotonous existence. Some men, like J.J. Sefton, pass the time with creatively silly endeavors, and William Holden does great work here as a man struggling in his own way to survive. What looks to be indifference is actually his own self-defense against a grim reality, and it serves to add a mischievous yet sincere heart to the film.

Billy Wilder’s filmography is filled with bangers, and this one ranks near the top thanks to a delicate balancing act as a playful tone blends with serious beats including the early killing of two Americans attempting to escape. It’s a tightrope, of sorts, as the tension and suspense as to the informant’s identity builds even as we’re having fun.

For the last time on this list, a group of POWs during World War II decide it’s time to escape their confines and their captors. Rather than just send a handful to freedom, though, the plan here is to free over two hundred men at the same time.

While it’s easy to recall the high-profile cast (Steve McQueen, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Richard Attenborough, James Coburn, and more) and McQueen’s legendary motorcycle jump over the prison fence, it’s even easier to forget that John Sturgess’ early 60s WWII epic, loosely inspired by a true story, ends as a fantastic downer. It’s a bold move as the catharsis mentioned at the top of this article is mostly absent here, and yet “The Great Escape” still succeeds brilliantly as a story of camaraderie under the worst possible conditions.

At nearly three hours long, it feels every bit the epic that it wants to be as drive, bravery, ingenuity, and fearlessness combine in an ensemble you desperately want to see succeed. Intrigue and double-crosses layer in alongside character beats both humane and humorous, and the poignancy of victory in the face of defeat is undeniable.

Luke is a fun-loving guy who makes the most of a given situation. After being sentenced to two years on a chain gang for a minor offense, what he’s making is a plan to escape.

Do a double feature of Stuart Rosenberg’s counterculture hit with Sturgess’ WWII epic above, and you will be depressed for days – but damn, you will have gone down with two of cinema’s greats. Paul Newman infuses Luke with an irrepressible charisma and likability, one that neither viewers nor his fellow prisoners can deny, but all the smiles and cheers you give it only make the ending of “Cool Hand Luke” hit that much harder.

The film’s themes are all about giving a raised fist and a middle finger to authority figures and those trying to force conformity. What starts as something of a romp sees Luke’s escape attempts punished more and more severely until a line of finality is crossed with the goal being to quell dissent and disruption. It’s the opposite that happens, though, as one man’s life becomes legend.

Andy Dufresne is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and sentenced to a life sentence in Shawshank State Prison. It’s a place where hope goes to die, but the insular banker has other plans.

Stephen King is most associated with the horror genre, but his imagination also birthed two incredibly compelling and emotionally affecting character dramas in Rob Reiner’s “Stand By Me” and this adaptation from director Frank Darabont. “The Shawshank Redemption” bombed in theaters on release, but just as it’s essentially a slow-motion prison escape, one that unfolds over two decades charting the hope and persistence in one man’s heart and mind, it also became a slow-motion hit after initially bombing at the box office. Andy finds darkness in prison, both literal and figurative, but it’s that hope alongside some unexpected kindnesses that carry him forward.

Darabont doesn’t shy away from the ugliness of prison life as our protagonist is beaten and assaulted, but it’s the humanity that shines through. From the heartbreak of an elderly prisoner unable to cope after his release to a friendship that transcends the pain and suffering all around them, this is a film experience that rewards multiple viewings with an abundance of emotional satisfaction and catharsis.