Breaking Free
A collection of movies that showcase the thrill and danger of escaping.
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- DirectorFrank DarabontStarsTim RobbinsMorgan FreemanBob GuntonA banker convicted of uxoricide forms a friendship over a quarter century with a hardened convict, while maintaining his innocence and trying to remain hopeful through simple compassion.The Be-All End-All of Prison break movies. This is the gold standard against which all prison break movies are measured.
- DirectorDon SiegelStarsClint EastwoodPatrick McGoohanRoberts BlossomAlcatraz is the most secure prison of its time. It is believed that no one can ever escape from it, until three daring men make a possibly successful attempt at escaping from one of the most infamous prisons in the world.It’s one of those very difficult exercises in which large emotions, like the compulsion to be free, are reflected in minute actions, like the chipping away at stone with a pocket nail clipper.
The movie makes brilliant use of the tense claustrophobia of its infamous setting – as well as its leading man’s legendarily flinty resolve. - DirectorFrancis AnnanStarsDaniel RadcliffeDaniel WebberIan HartBased on the real-life prison break of two political captives, Escape From Pretoria is a race-against-time thriller set in the tumultuous apartheid days of South Africa.Stars Daniel Radcliffe as Jenkin, a clever and courageous inmate who devises a plan to escape using wooden keys that he carves in his cell.
The movie is praised for its tense and gripping portrayal of the escape attempt, which relies on the meticulous details and the nerve-wracking suspense of each lock and door. - DirectorJohn SturgesStarsSteve McQueenJames GarnerRichard AttenboroughAllied prisoners of war plan for several hundred of their men to escape from a German camp during World War II.A classic war adventure film based on the true story of a mass escape by Allied prisoners of war from a German camp during World War II.
The escapees, portrayed by a stellar cast use their skills and ingenuity to dig three tunnels and overcome various obstacles. The film also features one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history: McQueen’s motorcycle chase and jump over a barbed wire fence. - DirectorRobert BressonStarsFrançois LeterrierCharles Le ClaincheMaurice BeerblockA captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from a German prison in France.A Man Escaped is a film that demonstrates the power of cinema to convey a compelling story with minimal resources. It shows how a man can overcome seemingly impossible odds with courage, intelligence, and perseverance. It is a movie that celebrates the human spirit in its quest for freedom.
- DirectorJean RenoirStarsJean GabinDita ParloPierre FresnayDuring WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.
- DirectorFlorian GallenbergerStarsEmma WatsonDaniel BrühlMichael NyqvistA young woman's desperate search for her abducted boyfriend draws her into the infamous Colonia Dignidad, a sect nobody has ever escaped from.Colonia is a movie that attempts to shed light on a dark and disturbing chapter of Chilean history, the existence of a cult-like colony that served as a torture center for political dissidents under the Pinochet regime.
The movie follows the story of Lena (Emma Watson), a flight attendant who joins the colony in order to rescue her boyfriend Daniel (Daniel Brühl), a German activist who was captured by the military during the 1973 coup. - DirectorVincenzo NataliStarsNicole de BoerMaurice Dean WintDavid HewlettA group of strangers awaken to find themselves placed in a giant cube. Each one of them is gifted with a special skill and they must work together to escape an endless maze of deadly traps.The cube itself is a character in the film, as it constantly shifts and changes its configuration, creating a sense of unpredictability and mystery.
Escaping from this labyrinth would be a longshot. - DirectorAndrzej SekulaStarsKari MatchettGeraint Wyn DaviesGrace Lynn KungEight strangers awaken with no memory, in a puzzling cube-shaped room where the laws of physics do not always apply.The movie attempts to explore the concept of a hypercube, which is a four-dimensional analogue of a cube, and the implications of such a reality for the trapped characters.
- DirectorPaul W.S. AndersonStarsJason StathamJoan AllenTyrese GibsonEx-con Jensen Ames is forced by the warden of a notorious prison to compete in our post-industrial world's most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.Win 5 races and get the chance at freedom from the island prison.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsKurt RussellSteve BuscemiStacy KeachSnake Plissken is once again called in by the United States government to recover a potential doomsday device from Los Angeles, now an autonomous island where undesirables are deported.
- DirectorJohn CarpenterStarsKurt RussellLee Van CleefErnest BorgnineIn 1997, when the U.S. president crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber is sent in to rescue him.
- DirectorMikael HåfströmStarsSylvester StalloneArnold Schwarzenegger50 CentWhen a structural-security authority finds himself set up and incarcerated in the world's most secret and secure prison, he has to use his skills to escape with help from the inside.If personality were enough to carry a movie, Escape Plan would never touch the ground.
Stars Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger as two prisoners who try to break out of a high-tech and secretive prison facility. - DirectorJacques BeckerStarsAndré BervilJean KeraudyMichel ConstantinDistrust and uncertainty arise when four long-term inmates cautiously induct a new prisoner into their elaborate prison-break scheme.
- DirectorJohn Erick DowdleStarsLake BellPierce BrosnanOwen WilsonIn their new overseas home, an American family soon finds themselves caught in the middle of a coup, and they frantically look for a safe escape from an environment where foreigners are being immediately executed.
- DirectorRupert WyattStarsBrian CoxDamian LewisJoseph FiennesFrank is 14 years into a life sentence when he decides to break out of the London prison to set things right with his ill junkie daughter. He plans an ingenious escape requiring 4 inmates with different skills.
- DirectorPeter WeirStarsJim SturgessEd HarrisColin FarrellSiberian gulag escapees travel four thousand miles by foot to freedom in India.The movie follows the journey of a group of prisoners, led by Janusz (Jim Sturgess), who face harsh conditions, hostile enemies, and personal conflicts as they seek survival and liberation.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsWilliam HoldenDon TaylorOtto PremingerAfter two Americans are killed while escaping from a German P.O.W. camp in World War II, the barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer.
- DirectorMark RobsonStarsFrank SinatraTrevor HowardRaffaella CarràAn American POW leads a group of mainly British prisoners to escape from the Germans in WWII.
- DirectorPaul HaggisStarsRussell CroweElizabeth BanksLiam NeesonA married couple's life is turned upside down when the wife is accused of a murder.
- DirectorAndrew DavisStarsHarrison FordTommy Lee JonesSela WardDr. Richard Kimble, unjustly accused of murdering his wife, must find the real killer while being the target of a nationwide manhunt led by a seasoned U.S. Marshal.
- DirectorAdrian GrunbergStarsMel GibsonKevin BalmoreDaniel Giménez CachoA career criminal nabbed by Mexican authorities is placed in a tough prison where he learns to survive with the help of a young boy.
- DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsGeorge ClooneyJohn TurturroTim Blake NelsonIn the deep south during the 1930s, three escaped convicts search for hidden treasure while a relentless lawman pursues them.
- DirectorGuy HamiltonStarsJohn MillsEric PortmanChristopher RhodesAllied prisoners - British, Dutch, French and Polish - pool their resources to plan numerous escapes from the "escape-proof" German P.O.W. camp housed in a Medieval castle known as "Colditz".
- DirectorZaza BuadzeStarsMykola BerezaOleg ShulgaAleksandr MavritsIn 1947, the commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), Danylo Chervonyi, finds himself trapped in Stalin's brutal prison-camp Gulag. He must endure hellish and inhumane prison conditions, as well as the persecution of criminal leaders, treachery, and despair. Despite the repression of the prison-camp commander, Danylo finds the strength to resist and makes a desperate attempt to break free, sparking the first rebellion in the camp.
