Best movies like Papillon

Similar in 90%

A Prayer Before Dawn (2017)

Plot Summary:

Based on the true life experience of Billy Moore who survived his Thai prison ordeal by becoming a Muay Thai boxing champion.

Similar in 82%

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.

Similar in 87%

El Angel (2018)

Plot Summary:

About a real-life criminal who shocked Argentine society: Carlos Robledo Puch, a merciless teen killer dubbed “The Angel of Death” because of his beatific good looks, who now ranks as the longest-serving prison inmate in Argentine history.

Similar in 76%

Charlie Says (2018)

Plot Summary:

Three young women were sentenced to death in the infamous Manson murder case, but when the death penalty was lifted, their sentence became life imprisonment. One young graduate student was sent in to teach them - and through her we witness their transformations as they face the reality of their horrific crimes.

Similar in 82%

Chopper (2000)

Plot Summary:

The true and intense story of Mark 'Chopper' Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his autobiography while serving a jail sentence in prison.

Similar in 79%

Dillinger (1973)

Plot Summary:

The life of American public enemy number one who was shot by the police in 1934. After a shoot-out kills five FBI agents in Kansas City the Bureau target John Dillinger as one of the men to hunt down. Waiting for him to break Federal law they sort out several other mobsters, while Dillinger's bank robbing exploits make him something of a folk hero. Escaping from jail he finds Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson have joined the gang and pretty soon he is Public Enemy Number One. Now the G-men really are after him.

Similar in 79%

Carandiru (2003)

Plot Summary:

Carandiru, a story based on real facts and on the book written by the doctor Drauzio Varella, starts when he decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo, Carandiru, the victim of one of the darkest days in Brazilian History, when the State of São Paulo’s Military Police, with the excuse for law enforcement, shot to death 111 people.

Similar in 78%

Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

Plot Summary:

After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.

Similar in 83%

Blood In, Blood Out (1993)

Plot Summary:

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.

Similar in 84%

A Prophet (2009)

Plot Summary:

Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.

Similar in 88%

Bronson (2008)

Plot Summary:

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.

Similar in 77%

Animal Factory (2000)

Plot Summary:

A young man goes to prison and a tough, older convict takes him under his wing as a mentor.

Similar in 80%

Jamesy Boy (2014)

Plot Summary:

Based on the true story of teenager James Burns who goes from a suburban street gang to a maximum-security prison cell surrounded by hardened criminals. He turns his life around in prison thanks to the unexpected friendship he forms with a convicted murderer who becomes his mentor.

Similar in 79%

Capote (2005)

Plot Summary:

A biopic of the writer, Truman Capote and his assignment for The New Yorker to write the non-fiction book, 'In Cold Blood'.

Similar in 88%

Infamous (2006)

Plot Summary:

While researching his book In Cold Blood, writer Truman Capote develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith.

Similar in 84%

Midnight Express (1978)

Plot Summary:

Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of Turkey. The Turkish courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".

Similar in 76%

Crown Heights (2017)

Plot Summary:

When Colin Warner was wrongfully convicted of murder, his best friend Carl King devoted his life to proving his innocence.

Similar in 79%

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

Plot Summary:

A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.

Similar in 87%

The Lost City of Z (2016)

Plot Summary:

A true-life drama in the 1920s, centering on British explorer Col. Percy Fawcett, who discovered evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilazation in the Amazon and disappeared whilst searching for it.

Similar in 76%

Black Mass (2015)

Plot Summary:

The true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.

Similar in 82%

Goodfellas (1990)

Plot Summary:

The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.

Similar in 87%

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.

Similar in 85%

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Plot Summary:

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

Similar in 86%

Papillon (1973)

Plot Summary:

A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.

Similar in 81%

Dead Man Walking (1995)

Plot Summary:

A justice drama based on a true story about a man on death row who in his last days forms a strong relationship with a nun who teaches him forgiveness and gives him spirituality as she accompanies him to his execution.

Similar in 83%

Lawless (2012)

Plot Summary:

Set in the Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a bootlegging gang is threatened by authorities who want a cut of their profits.

Similar in 86%

Jungle (2017)

Plot Summary:

A mysterious guide escorts an enthusiastic adventurer and his friend into the Amazon jungle, but their journey turns into a terrifying ordeal as the darkest elements of human nature and the deadliest threats of the wild force them to fight for survival.

Similar in 75%

The Irishman (2019)

Plot Summary:

A mob hit man recalls his possible involvement with the slaying of Jimmy Hoffa.

Similar in 82%

In the Name of the Father (1993)

Plot Summary:

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.

Similar in 79%

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Plot Summary:

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.