Movies and TV series about prison
The 60 best titles about prison, ranked by the iRank Score — our composite of IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and TMDb. Every page includes cast, where to watch and similar recommendations.
GoodFellas
1990 · Martin Scorsese
MovieCrimeDramaThe 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 Conw
The Shawshank Redemption
1994 · Frank Darabont
MovieCrimeDramaImprisoned 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 a
The Silence of the Lambs
1991 · Jonathan Demme
MovieCrimeDramaThrillerClarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life
Cool Hand Luke
1967 · Stuart Rosenberg
MovieCrimeDramaWhen 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 admi
Banana Fish
2018 · Nobumasa Sawabe
SeriesAction & AdventureAnimationCrimeA teenaged gang leader in New York City faces his abuser and rival gangs alongside a photojournalist from Japan as they investigate a deadly new drug.
The Great Escape
1963 · John Sturges
MovieAdventureDramaWarThe Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder
MINDHUNTER
2017 · Courtenay Miles
SeriesCrimeDramaAn agent in the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit develops profiling techniques as he pursues notorious serial killers and rapists.
Escape from Alcatraz
1979 · Don Siegel
MovieDramaThrillerSan Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and
Black Bird
2022 · Dennis Lehane
SeriesCrimeDramaAs Jimmy Keene begins a 10-year prison sentence, he gets an incredible offer: If he can elicit a confession from suspected killer Larry Hall, Jimmy will be freed. Completing this mission becomes the c
Prison Break
2005 · Nelson McCormick
SeriesAction & AdventureCrimeDramaDue to a political conspiracy, an innocent man is sent to death row and his only hope is his brother, who makes it his mission to deliberately get himself sent to the same prison in order to break the
Prison School
2015
SeriesAnimationComedyThere was a time when the Hachimitsu Private Academy was a revered and elite all-girls' boarding school on the outskirts of Tokyo but a recent policy revision is allowing boys into the student body. O
A Better Tomorrow
1986 · John Woo
MovieActionCrimeDramaA reforming ex-gangster tries to reconcile with his estranged policeman brother, but the ties to his former gang are difficult to break.
American History X
1998 · Tony Kaye
MovieDramaDerek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinh
The King of Comedy
1982 · Martin Scorsese
MovieComedyDramaAspiring comic Rupert Pupkin attempts to achieve success in show business by stalking his idol, a late night talk-show host who craves his own privacy.
The Night Of
2016 · Steven Zaillian
SeriesCrimeDramaMysteryAfter a night of partying with a female stranger, a man wakes up to find her stabbed to death and is charged with her murder.
Arrested Development
2003 · Jim Vallely
SeriesComedyThe story of a wealthy family that lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.
Mayor of Kingstown
2021 · Evan Perazzo
SeriesCrimeDramaIn a small Michigan town where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry, the McClusky family are the power brokers between the police, criminals, inmates, prison guards and politici
The Raid 2
2014 · Gareth Evans
MovieActionCrimeThrillerAfter fighting his way through an apartment building populated by an army of dangerous criminals and escaping with his life, SWAT team member Rama goes undercover, joining a powerful Indonesian crime
Walk the Line
2005 · James Mangold
MovieDramaMusicRomanceA chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry
My Cousin Vinny
1992 · Jonathan Lynn
MovieComedyDramaTwo carefree pals traveling through rural Alabama on their way back to college are mistakenly arrested and charged with murder. Fortunately, one of them has a cousin who's a lawyer - Vincent Gambini,
Orange Is the New Black
2013 · Mark A. Burley
SeriesComedyCrimeDramaA crime she committed in her youthful past sends Piper Chapman to a women's prison, where she trades her comfortable New York life for one of unexpected camaraderie and conflict in an eccentric group
First Blood
1982 · Ted Kotcheff
MovieActionAdventureThrillerWhen former Green Beret John Rambo is harassed by local law enforcement and arrested for vagrancy, he is forced to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.
The Color Purple
1985 · Steven Spielberg
MovieDramaHistoryAn epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie's abusive father marries her off to the equ
Lady Vengeance
2005 · Park Chan-wook
MovieDramaThrillerReleased after being wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 13 years, a woman begins executing her elaborate plan of retribution.
Undisputed III: Redemption
2010 · Isaac Florentine
MovieActionCrimeDramaRussian inmate Boyka, now severely hobbled by the knee injury suffered at the end of Undisputed 2. No longer the feared prison fighter he was, he has declined so far that he is now good only for clean
The Blues Brothers
1980 · John Landis
MovieComedyCrimeMusicJake Blues, just released from prison, puts his old band back together to save the Catholic home where he and his brother Elwood were raised.
Boyka: Undisputed IV
2016 · Todor Chapkanov
MovieActionCrimeDramaIn the fourth installment of the fighting franchise, Boyka is shooting for the big leagues when an accidental death in the ring makes him question everything he stands for. When he finds out the wife
Lost Highway
1997 · David Lynch
MovieDramaMysteryThrillerA tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.
Shot Caller
2017 · Ric Roman Waugh
MovieCrimeDramaThrillerA newly-released prison gangster is forced by the leaders of his gang to orchestrate a major crime with a brutal rival gang on the streets of Southern California.
The Living Daylights
1987 · John Glen
MovieActionAdventureThrillerAfter a defecting Russian general reveals a plot to assassinate foreign spies, James Bond is assigned a secret mission to dispatch the new head of the KGB to prevent an escalation of tensions between
Resident Evil: Death Island
2023 · Eiichiro Hasumi
MovieActionAnimationHorrorIn San Francisco, Jill Valentine is dealing with a zombie outbreak and a new T-Virus, Leon Kennedy is on the trail of a kidnapped DARPA scientist, and Claire Redfield is investigating a monstrous fish
The Accountant
2016 · Gavin O'Connor
MovieCrimeDramaThrillerAs a math savant uncooks the books for a new client, the Treasury Department closes in on his activities and the body count starts to rise.
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
2019 · Joe Berlinger
MovieCrimeDramaA 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.
Despicable Me 3
2017 · Pierre Coffin
MovieActionAdventureAnimationGru and his wife Lucy must stop former '80s child star Balthazar Bratt from achieving world domination.
Gridiron Gang
2006 · Phil Joanou
MovieCrimeDramaUnder the leadership of their counselor, teenagers at a juvenile detention center gain self-esteem by playing football together. Based on a true story.
Undisputed
2002 · Walter Hill
MovieActionCrimeDramaMonroe Hutchens is the heavyweight champion of Sweetwater, a maximum security prison. He was convicted to a life sentence due to a passionate crime. Iceman Chambers is the heavyweight champion, who lo
The Butterfly Effect
2004 · J. Mackye Gruber
MovieScience FictionThrillerA young man struggles to access sublimated childhood memories. He finds a technique that allows him to travel back into the past, to occupy his childhood body and change history. However, he soon find
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
2022 · David Yates
MovieAdventureFantasyProfessor Albus Dumbledore knows the powerful, dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald is moving to seize control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts magizoologist Newt Scamander to
The Exorcism of God
2022 · Alejandro Hidalgo
MovieCrimeDramaFantasyAn American priest working in Mexico is considered a saint by many local parishioners. However, due to a botched exorcism, he carries a secret that’s eating him alive until he gets an opportunity to f
Death Race
2008 · Paul W. S. Anderson
MovieActionScience FictionThrillerTerminal Island, New York: 2020. Overcrowding in the US penal system has reached a breaking point. Prisons have been turned over to a monolithic Weyland Corporation, which sees jails full of thugs as
Law Abiding Citizen
2009 · F. Gary Gray
MovieCrimeDramaThrillerA frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involve
Now You See Me 2
2016 · Jon M. Chu
MovieCrimeThrillerOne year after outwitting the FBI and winning the public’s adulation with their mind-bending spectacles, the Four Horsemen resurface only to find themselves face to face with a new enemy who enlists t
The Longest Yard
2005 · Peter Segal
MovieComedyCrimeDramaDisgraced pro football quarterback Paul Crewe lands in a Texas federal penitentiary, where manipulative Warden Hazen recruits him to advise the institution's football team of prison guards. Crewe sugg
Ranked by the iRankMovies editorial teamUpdated August 2026MethodologyData sources