Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "penitentiary"
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1. The Green Mile (1999)
R | 189 min | Crime, Drama, Fantasy
A tale set on death row, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the lead guard, Paul Edgecombe, recognizes John's gift, he tries to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt
Votes: 1,407,092 | Gross: $136.80M
2. The Departed (2006)
R | 151 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg
Votes: 1,422,041 | Gross: $132.38M
3. The Flash (I) (2023)
PG-13 | 144 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Barry Allen uses his super speed to change the past, but his attempt to save his family creates a world without super heroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future.
Director: Andy Muschietti | Stars: Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon
Votes: 210,247
4. The Suicide Squad (2021)
R | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Supervillains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and a collection of nutty cons at Belle Reve prison join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X as they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.
Director: James Gunn | Stars: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman
Votes: 409,521 | Gross: $55.82M
5. Oz (1997–2003)
TV-MA | 55 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A series chronicling the daily activities of an unusual prison facility and its criminal inhabitants.
Stars: Ernie Hudson, J.K. Simmons, Lee Tergesen, Dean Winters
Votes: 106,654
6. Escape from New York (1981)
R | 99 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
In 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.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence
Votes: 157,468 | Gross: $25.24M
7. Papillon (1973)
R | 151 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon
Votes: 138,356 | Gross: $53.27M
8. The Rifleman (1958–1963)
TV-PG | 30 min | Family, Western
The adventures of a Wild West rancher, wielding a customized rapid-fire Winchester rifle, and his son.
Stars: Chuck Connors, Johnny Crawford, Paul Fix, Joe Benson
Votes: 5,009
9. Dogville (2003)
R | 178 min | Crime, Drama
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town she finds out that their support has a price.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall, Harriet Andersson
Votes: 158,631 | Gross: $1.53M
10. JFK (1991)
R | 189 min | Drama, History, Thriller
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau
Votes: 169,890 | Gross: $70.41M
11. Spiderhead (2022)
R | 106 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In the near future, convicts are offered the chance to volunteer as medical subjects to shorten their sentence. One such subject for a new drug capable of generating feelings of love begins questioning the reality of his emotions.
Director: Joseph Kosinski | Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, Jurnee Smollett, Mark Paguio
Votes: 66,401
12. The Paperboy (2012)
R | 107 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A reporter returns to his Florida hometown to investigate a case involving a death row inmate.
Director: Lee Daniels | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, Zac Efron
Votes: 39,625 | Gross: $0.69M
13. The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Not Rated | 92 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
Director: Charles Laughton | Stars: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason
Votes: 97,336 | Gross: $0.65M
14. Capote (2005)
R | 114 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
In 1959, Truman Capote learns of the murder of a Kansas family and decides to write a book about the case. While researching for his novel In Cold Blood, Capote forms a relationship with one of the killers, Perry Smith, who is on death row.
Director: Bennett Miller | Stars: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Clifton Collins Jr., Catherine Keener, Allie Mickelson
Votes: 140,749 | Gross: $28.75M
15. Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead (2009 Video)
Not Rated | 92 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Horror
When their transfer bus crashes in a West Virginia forest, a group of convicts and one a corrections officer meet a rafter who is on the run from cannibalistic hillbillies who have murdered her friends.
Director: Declan O'Brien | Stars: Tom Frederic, Janet Montgomery, Gil Kolirin, Christian Contreras
Votes: 28,846
16. Freeway (1996)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A twisted take on "Little Red Riding Hood", with a teenage juvenile delinquent on the run from a social worker travelling to her grandmother's house and being hounded by a charming, but sadistic, serial killer and pedophile.
Director: Matthew Bright | Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Bokeem Woodbine, Paul Perri
Votes: 31,744 | Gross: $0.30M
17. Malcolm X (1992)
PG-13 | 202 min | Biography, Drama, History
Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his eventual assassination.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee
Votes: 102,012 | Gross: $48.17M
18. 2 Guns (2013)
R | 109 min | Action, Comedy, Thriller
Two hardened criminals get into trouble with the US border patrol after meeting with a Mexican drug lord, and then revelations start to unfold.
Director: Baltasar Kormákur | Stars: Denzel Washington, Mark Wahlberg, Paula Patton, Bill Paxton
Votes: 225,333 | Gross: $75.61M
19. Escape from Pretoria (2020)
PG-13 | 106 min | Biography, Crime, Mystery
Based 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.
Director: Francis Annan | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Daniel Webber, Ian Hart, Mark Leonard Winter
Votes: 43,540
20. The Number 23 (2007)
R | 98 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Walter Sparrow becomes obsessed with a novel that he believes was written about him, as more and more similarities between himself and his literary alter ego seem to arise.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston
Votes: 212,619 | Gross: $35.19M
21. In Cold Blood (1967)
R | 134 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Two ex-cons murder a family in a robbery attempt, before going on the run from the authorities. The police try to piece together the details of the murder in an attempt to track down the killers.
Director: Richard Brooks | Stars: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart
Votes: 29,142
22. Gothika (2003)
R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A psychiatrist awakens as a patient in a mental institution, with no memory of the murder she's accused of committing. As she tries to regain her memory, a vengeful spirit manipulates her.
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz | Stars: Halle Berry, Penélope Cruz, Robert Downey Jr., Charles S. Dutton
Votes: 119,174 | Gross: $59.69M
23. Ain't Them Bodies Saints (2013)
R | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
The tale of an outlaw who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife and the daughter he has never met.
Director: David Lowery | Stars: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker
Votes: 22,785 | Gross: $0.39M
24. Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within (2010)
Not Rated | 115 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After a prison riot, former-Captain Nascimento, now a high ranking security officer in Rio de Janeiro, is swept into a bloody political dispute that involves government officials and paramilitary groups.
Director: José Padilha | Stars: Wagner Moura, Irandhir Santos, André Ramiro, Milhem Cortaz
Votes: 86,759 | Gross: $0.10M
25. All the Pretty Horses (2000)
PG-13 | 116 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Two Texas cowboys head to Mexico in search of work, but soon find themselves in trouble with the law after one of them falls in love with a wealthy rancher's daughter.
Director: Billy Bob Thornton | Stars: Matt Damon, Penélope Cruz, Henry Thomas, Angelina Torres
Votes: 15,653 | Gross: $15.53M
26. Animal Factory (2000)
R | 94 min | Crime, Drama
A young man goes to prison and a tough, older convict takes him under his wing as a mentor.
Director: Steve Buscemi | Stars: Willem Dafoe, Edward Furlong, Danny Trejo, Mark Boone Junior
Votes: 14,636 | Gross: $0.04M
27. Charlie Bartlett (2007)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A rich kid becomes the self-appointed psychiatrist to the student body of his new high school.
Director: Jon Poll | Stars: Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr., Hope Davis, Kat Dennings
Votes: 66,693 | Gross: $3.95M
28. 13th (2016)
TV-MA | 100 min | Documentary, Crime, History
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
Director: Ava DuVernay | Stars: Melina Abdullah, Michelle Alexander, Cory Booker, Dolores Canales
Votes: 37,670
29. Cell 211 (2009)
113 min | Action, Crime, Drama
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.
Director: Daniel Monzón | Stars: Luis Tosar, Alberto Ammann, Antonio Resines, Manuel Morón
Votes: 70,764
30. Charlie Says (2018)
R | 110 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The tragic tale of an all-American girl who was transformed into a cold-blooded killer in the summer of 1969.
Director: Mary Harron | Stars: Hannah Murray, Matt Smith, Sosie Bacon, Marianne Rendón
Votes: 5,408 | Gross: $0.04M
31. The Last Gangster (1937)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A gangster is jailed for ten years after his wife becomes pregnant. He becomes bitter when she divorces him and remarries.
Director: Edward Ludwig | Stars: Edward G. Robinson, James Stewart, Rose Stradner, Lionel Stander
Votes: 1,748
32. Gloria (1999)
R | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After serving three years in prison covering for her gangster boyfriend, Kevin, Gloria returns to New York City for the money she was promised. Inside Kevin's base of operations, she finds 7-year-old Nicky, whose family has been killed.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Sharon Stone, Jean-Luke Figueroa, Jeremy Northam, Cathy Moriarty
Votes: 6,218 | Gross: $4.16M
33. Brute Force (1947)
Passed | 98 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
At a tough penitentiary, prisoner Joe Collins plans to rebel against Captain Munsey, the power-mad chief guard.
Director: Jules Dassin | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo
Votes: 11,536
34. Beyond Re-Animator (2003)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
After 13 years in prison, the mad scientist from Re-Animator (1985) gets a new chance to experiment with the arrival of a young prison doctor, who secretly hopes to learn to reanimate dead people. Good intentions turn to horror.
Director: Brian Yuzna | Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Tommy Dean Musset, Jason Barry, Bárbara Elorrieta
Votes: 13,023
35. There Was a Crooked Man... (1970)
R | 126 min | Comedy, Western
A charming but totally ruthless criminal is sent to a remote Arizona prison. He enlists the help of his cellmates in an escape attempt with the promise of sharing his hidden loot.
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Hume Cronyn, Warren Oates
Votes: 5,234 | Gross: $0.64M
36. The Sunchaser (1996)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama
A prestigious oncologist learns a valuable lesson in humility and is forced to reexamine his relationship with medicine and his life in general when Brandon, a young patient and convicted for murder, kidnaps him at gunpoint.
Director: Michael Cimino | Stars: Woody Harrelson, Jon Seda, Anne Bancroft, Alexandra Tydings
Votes: 5,208 | Gross: $0.02M
37. Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965)
Not Rated | 100 min | Drama
In Texas, a woman and her young daughter head down to another town where the girl's irresponsible, hotheaded and immature father has just been released from prison on parole.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Lee Remick, Steve McQueen, Don Murray, Paul Fix
Votes: 2,015
38. Punishment Park (1971)
R | 91 min | Drama, Thriller
"Punishment Park" is a pseudo-documentary purporting to be a film crews's news coverage of the team of soldiers escorting a group of hippies, draft dodgers, and anti-establishment types ... See full summary »
Director: Peter Watkins | Stars: Patrick Boland, Kent Foreman, Carmen Argenziano, Luke Johnson
Votes: 7,628
39. Lightning Strikes Twice (1951)
Passed | 91 min | Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Sent to a dude ranch in the west to recover her health, a New York actress falls in love with a ranch owner recently acquitted of the murder of his wife.
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Richard Todd, Ruth Roman, Mercedes McCambridge, Zachary Scott
Votes: 1,436
40. Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971)
Not Rated | 97 min | Horror, Mystery
An American journalist temporarily stationed in Central Europe searches for his new girlfriend, who has suddenly disappeared.
Director: Aldo Lado | Stars: Ingrid Thulin, Jean Sorel, Mario Adorf, Barbara Bach
Votes: 3,669
41. The Fixer (1968)
M | 132 min | Drama
In Czarist Russia, around 1911, a Russian-Jewish handyman, Yakov Bok (Sir Alan Bates), is wrongly imprisoned for a most unlikely crime.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Alan Bates, Dirk Bogarde, Georgia Brown, Hugh Griffith
Votes: 1,468
42. Dear Eleanor (2016)
PG-13 | 89 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
Two teenage girls travel across the U.S. in 1962, during the chaos of the Cuban missile crisis, in search of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Director: Kevin Connolly | Stars: Liana Liberato, Isabelle Fuhrman, Josh Lucas, Luke Wilson
Votes: 2,047
43. Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 83 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
The star spangled hero must battle a villain's plan to poison America with a chemical that horrifically accelerates the aging process.
Director: Ivan Nagy | Stars: Reb Brown, Connie Sellecca, Len Birman, Christopher Lee
Votes: 1,769
44. Verdict (2022– )
45 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
When a renowned criminal lawyer from São Paulo sees one of the people she loves most become a victim of the Brazilian penitentiary system, she must decide whether to cross the line that ... See full summary »
Stars: Camila Morgado, Pedro Caetano, Lucinha Lins, Bárbara Colen
Votes: 318
45. The Monster and the Girl (1941)
Passed | 65 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
After a young woman is coerced into prostitution and her brother framed for murder by an organized crime syndicate, retribution in the form of an ape visits the mobsters.
Director: Stuart Heisler | Stars: Ellen Drew, Robert Paige, Paul Lukas, Joseph Calleia
Votes: 753
46. The Trial of Billy Jack (1974)
PG | 170 min | Action, Drama, Music
After Billy Jack in sentenced to four years in prison for the "involuntary manslaughter" of the first film, the Freedom School expands and flourishes under the guidance of Jean Roberts. The... See full summary »
Director: Tom Laughlin | Stars: Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor, Victor Izay, Teresa Kelly
Votes: 1,516 | Gross: $89.00M
47. Chattahoochee (1989)
R | 98 min | Biography, Drama
In 1955 Florida, a Korean vet has a breakdown and is incarcerated in a "maximum security" mental health prison, where patients are abused.
Director: Mick Jackson | Stars: Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Frances McDormand, Pamela Reed
Votes: 2,422 | Gross: $0.26M
48. Killer: A Journal of Murder (1995)
R | 91 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A prison guard at Leavenworth with lofty ideals and hopes of reform struggles to understand a violent, hateful and conscienceless convict. The result is a written testimonial to a crime that no one could have predicted.
Director: Tim Metcalfe | Stars: James Woods, Robert Sean Leonard, Ellen Greene, Cara Buono
Votes: 2,408 | Gross: $0.07M
49. The Great Impostor (1960)
Approved | 113 min | Comedy, Drama
Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr. is a versatile man who gets his kicks out of impersonating a marine, a monk, a navy surgeon and a prison warden, eventually getting in trouble with the law for it.
Director: Robert Mulligan | Stars: Tony Curtis, Karl Malden, Edmond O'Brien, Arthur O'Connell
Votes: 1,707
50. Unspeakable (2002)
R | 108 min | Horror, Thriller
A woman battles an unspeakable terror.
Director: Thomas J. Wright | Stars: Pavan Grover, Michelle Wolff, Mark Voltura, Marco Rodríguez
Votes: 1,510