Best movies like Against the Wall
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of the Attica Prison uprising of 1971.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: political, cult classic, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Best tv shows and movies like Against the Wall (1994):
Similar in 82%
Moonshine Highway (1996)
Plot Summary:
The plans of a moonshine runner trying to make a better life by becoming a stock car racer go awry when the local sheriff is determined to kill the driver over an affair with his wife.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 286
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
Brotherhood of Death (1976)
Plot Summary:
A group of Black soldiers are home from the war and head to a small Southern town. The town is dominated by a group of Klansmen who keep the Black majority from voting or being treated like human beings. However, these newcomers convince the local population to register to vote so they can take back power and achieve justice. When hundreds show up to register, the Klan responds with violence. Eventually, though, the Black community has little choice other than fight back and the film ends with a small war between these combat vets and the Klan.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 533
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
Prison on Fire (1987)
Plot Summary:
Ching and Yiu and problems they face with Mickey, a fellow inmate and "Assassin", a prison guard. Yiu is sentenced to three years for manslaughter. In a fight for his father, he pushed a man and was run over by a bus. Ching was sent to prison for killing his wife for being a prostitute. During the end of the film, inmates decide to go on hunger strike to protest against the cigarette price rise, this causes problems with Assassin. Ching bit Surface's ear off and gets an extended sentence, continued on Prison on Fire II, Yiu is released later on.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
Trapped (2008)
Plot Summary:
When Anton O'Neill returns home after five years at sea, he finds that 1970's Ireland is a radically different place to the one he left behind. Northern Ireland is in flames, and civil unrest has spilled south of the border to his beloved home in County Cavan. Blinded by hatred and misguided patriotism 'Anton' is led into an illicit world of violence and is forced to choose between his family and his country. Hunted and on the run, Anton is drawn into a battle of wills with the law and his former accomplices, ending in a showdown in which he must risk everything to protect the woman he loves.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 209
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, History, Romance, Thriller
Country: Ireland
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, bleak
Similar in 87%
Doing Hard Time (2004)
Plot Summary:
A father's eight year old son is murdered in a gangland shooting. The father (Boris Kodjoe) gets himself thrown into prison to avenge his son's death.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, hood, crime drama
Similar in 88%
Born American (1986)
Plot Summary:
Three American students vacationing in Finland, cross the border into Russia for fun of it. When they are spotted by the Russian soldiers who are shooting to kill, it's not fun anymore. Captured and thrown in jail, they find it's not fun either. It's a nightmare.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Finland
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: suspense, harsh, stylized, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, rough, independent film, bleak, realistic
Similar in 86%
Lockdown (2000)
Plot Summary:
Avery (Jones) returns to college as a competitive swimmer after getting his life back on track. But his life takes another unexpected turn when he and his two friends (Bonds, Casseus) are wrongly accused of murder and end up in prison.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, serious, realistic, hood, crime drama, bleak, independent film
Similar in 83%
Mistrial (1996)
Plot Summary:
When a cop-killer goes free, a detective's search for personal justice veers dangerously out of control. Declaring a mistrial, he takes the accused, the judge and the jury hostage...and begins a trial of his own.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 939
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, suspenseful, rough, serious, psychological thriller, psycho film
Similar in 86%
Civil Brand (2002)
Plot Summary:
Forced to work under slave-like conditions in a "prison for profit" program, the inmates of a mostly-African-American female prison, Whitehead Correctional, try to take over the institution. At the core of the story is Frances, who finds herself in prison after being falsely convicted of murder, and who is told that her baby has been murdered, sparking her to lead her fellow inmates in the protest.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 790
Genere: Drama, Thriller, Crime
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, disturbing, thought provoking, serious, realistic, suspenseful, hood, independent film
Similar in 82%
Battle in Seattle (2007)
Plot Summary:
Thousands of activists arrive in Seattle, Washington in masses to protest the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 (World Trade Organization). Although it began as a peaceful protest with a goal of stopping the WTO talks, it escalated into a full-scale riot and eventually, a State of Emergency that pitted protesters against the Seattle Police Department and the National Guard.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Germany, Canada, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: political, intellectual, rough, thought provoking, serious, emotional, suspenseful, tense, sincere, realistic
Similar in 82%
Dirty Hearts (2011)
Plot Summary:
In 1945, Japan surrendered to the United States and the Second World War was over. Right? Wrong. For eighty percent of the Japanese community in Brazil, Japan had won the war and defeat was nothing more than American propaganda. The few immigrants that accepted the truth were persecuted. Some were hunted down and assassinated - by their own countrymen - causing the start of a new, private war. Dirty Hearts is a thriller and love story told by the wife of one of the fanatics dedicated to preach Japanese victory. Little by little, she watches her husband, a hard-working immigrant, become an assassin and their love story fade away.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 681
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Brazil, Japan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, disturbing, rough, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
Get the Gringo (2012)
Plot Summary:
A career criminal (Gibson) nabbed by Mexican authorities is placed in a tough prison where he learns to survive with the help of a 9-year-old boy.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 111000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: intense, clever, brutal, entertaining, exciting, rough, suspenseful, witty, action packed, humorous
Similar in 88%
An Innocent Man (1989)
Plot Summary:
Jimmie Rainwood was minding his own business when two corrupt police officers (getting an address wrong) burst into his house, expecting to find a major drug dealer. Rainwood is shot, and the officers frame him as a drug dealer. Rainwood is convicted of drug dealing, based on the perjured evidence of a police informant. Thrown into a seedy jail, fighting to prove his innocence is diffucult when he has to deal with the realities of prison life, where everyone claims they were framed.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: tense, psychological, suspense, intense, suspenseful, disturbing, rough, serious, realistic, scary
Similar in 90%
The Pentagon Papers (2003)
Plot Summary:
This compelling political drama is based on the true story of high-ranking Pentagon official Daniel Ellsberg, who, during the Nixon era, strove to preserve American democracy by leaking top-secret documents to the New York Times and Washington Post. The documents in question would eventually become famous as the Pentagon Papers, which revealed the true reasons for U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, disturbing, captivating, realistic, political, bleak
Similar in 85%
Bad Boys (1983)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: neo noir, suspense, realistic, disturbing, tense, serious, entertaining, bleak, suspenseful, epic
Similar in 87%
Cell 211 (2009)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 70000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Spain, France
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, tense, psychological, intense, tricky, rough, bleak, clever, dramatic, realistic
Similar in 80%
Oldboy (2013)
Plot Summary:
An everyday man has only three and a half days and limited resources to discover why he was imprisoned in a nondescript room for 20 years without any explanation.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 80000
Genere: Action, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: twist ending, suspenseful, disturbing, brutal, mind bending, sexy, bleak, psychological thriller, tense, stylized
Similar in 78%
In Hell (2003)
Plot Summary:
A man must survive a prison where hardened criminals battle to the death for the warden's entertainment.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: harsh, brutal, emotional, stylized, intense, serious, realistic, exciting, rough, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 73000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: suspense, disturbing, tense, rough, psychological, exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crime thriller
Similar in 90%
Lock Up (1989)
Plot Summary:
Frank Leone is nearing the end of his prison term for a relatively minor crime. Just before he is paroled, however, Warden Drumgoole takes charge. Drumgoole was assigned to a hell-hole prison after his administration was publicly humiliated by Leone, and has now arrived on the scene to ensure that Leone never sees the light of day.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 46000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: suspense, intense, realistic, rough, serious, suspenseful, exciting, brutal, clever, cult classic
Similar in 89%
The Escapist (2002)
Plot Summary:
Denis Hopkins, a pilot, lives with his pregnant wife Valerie and has a comfortable lifestyle. When a gang of criminals led by the sadistic Ricky Barnes breaks into his home, he offers whatever the criminals want to protect his wife and unborn child, but the evil Ricky kills Valerie anyway. Their baby is saved, and later Barnes is arrested and sentenced to life in the maximum security prison, Sullen Voe. Denis fakes his own suicide, then assaults a police car in order to get himself arrested and sent to prison with the intention of tracking down and killing Ricky Barnes. He does not reveal his true name and is called John "What" by the prisoners and guards. Denis escapes from successive prisons, forcing his eventual transfer to Sullen Voe. When he reaches his objective, Ricky Barnes schedules a confrontation, but things do not quite turn out the way Denis had expected.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, tense, serious, rough
Similar in 78%
Animal (2005)
Plot Summary:
His name: infamous. His reputation: ruthless. But when James "Animal"Allen is locked up in a maximum security prison, he meets a revolutionary who changes his life. Now a reformed man, James is released only to find that his own son has assumed a life of crime and violence. Can a father haunted by his past redeem his family from the very streets he created, or will he be forced to make the ultimate sacrifice?.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Action
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, serious, realistic, crime drama, bleak
Similar in 87%
Terra Nova (2008)
Plot Summary:
A story, which takes place in 2013, describes the world overflowing with "dangerous" criminals due to the official termination of death penalty. The UN "blue helmets" under the directive from the central authority (i.e., One World Government) decided to conduct a social "experiment" by forcibly dumping the outlaws on the deserted island.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: Russia
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, serious, suspenseful, sadistic, psychological horror, bleak
Similar in 86%
Attica (1980)
Plot Summary:
A behind the scenes look of the 1971 prisoners revolt at the Attica prison.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 526
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: political, rough, thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, tension, suspense
Similar in 75%
Mean Dog Blues (1978)
Plot Summary:
Former TV documentary filmmaker Mel Stuart tries to inject an acceptable degree of verisimilitude in Mean Dog Blues. A victim of circumstance, country and western musician Paul Ramsey (Gregg Henry) finds himself on a Southern chain gang. Captain Omar Kinsman (George Kennedy) snarls a lot as the obligatory sadistic prison guard, but the film's real villains are Victor and Donna Lacey (William Windom and Tina Louise) as the Bonnie-and-Clyde couple who get Henry into trouble. Listed as editor is Housley Stevenson, the son of the late Hollywood character-actor Onslow Stevens.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 289
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
The Last Castle (2001)
Plot Summary:
A Court Martialed general rallies together 1200 inmates to rise against the system that put him away.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 84000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: intense, exciting, tense, rough, inspirational, clever, sincere, depressing, spiritual, serious
Similar in 83%
Black August (2007)
Plot Summary:
The last 14 months of George Jackson's life was an existence under subjective and objective conditions in California's industrial prison complex. George Jackson would spend 11 years in jail (7 of which were in solitary confinement) for a $70 gas station robbery crime in 1960. He was 18 years of age when the sentence of one year-to-life was handed down to him.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 302
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, serious, realistic, political
Similar in 81%
The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
Plot Summary:
This film is based on the actual events that took place in 1971 when Stanford professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo created what became one of the most shocking and famous social experiments of all time.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 46000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: disturbing, thought provoking, psychological, tense, serious, realistic, intense, suspenseful, captivating, suspense
Similar in 75%
Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Plot Summary:
Escape from Alcatraz tells the story of the only three men ever to escape from the infamous maximum security prison at Alcatraz. In 29 years, the seemingly impenetrable federal penitentiary, which housed Al Capone and "Birdman" Robert Stroud, was only broken once - by three men never heard of again.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 145000
Genere: Action, Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: suspense, atmospheric, suspenseful, realistic, exciting, motivational, inspirational, neo noir, non fiction, crime drama
Similar in 83%
Munich (2005)
Plot Summary:
During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, eleven Israeli athletes are taken hostage and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September. In retaliation, the Israeli government recruits a group of Mossad agents to track down and execute those responsible for the attack.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 236000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada, France
Duration: 164 min
Plot tags: political, suspenseful, intense, tense, suspense, brutal, rough, political thriller, bleak, realistic