Movies like A Man Escaped (1956)
The best movies like A Man Escaped (1956) are Le Trou (1960), Army of Shadows (1969) and Le Cercle Rouge (1970). If A Man Escaped hooked you with its drama and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLe Trou (1960)8.2/10 from 616 votes
- NewestThe Children of the Resistance (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchLe Trou (1960)Also in French
Le Trou (1960)
Four prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan with the newcomer. Over the course of three days, the prisoners and friends break through the concrete floor using a bed post and begin to make their way through the sewer system – yet their escape is anything but assured.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisArmy of Shadows (1969)
Betrayed by an informant, Philippe Gerbier finds himself trapped in a torturous Nazi prison camp. Though Gerbier escapes to rejoin the Resistance in occupied Marseilles, France, and exacts his revenge on the informant, he must continue a quiet, seemingly endless battle against the Nazis in an atmosphere of tension, paranoia and distrust.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLe Cercle Rouge (1970)
When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel. Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen, they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei, who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Defiant Ones (1958)
Two convicts—one white, one black—escape while chained to each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhite Heat (1949)
A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and then leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. After the heist, events take a crazy turn.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFarewell (2009)
An intricate thriller about an ordinary man thrust into the biggest theft of Soviet information of the Cold War. Right after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. A French businessman based in Moscow, Pierre Froment, makes an unlikely connection with Grigoriev, a senior KGB officer disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Brezhnev. Grigoriev begins passing Froment highly sensitive information about the Soviet spy network in the US.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret (1974)
A stranger enters into and forever alters the life of a couple. He claims to be pursued by certain authorities who intend to prevent him from disclosing a secret that only he holds, whence the title. Is he lying, or insane - or is he telling the truth? Who, if anyone, is after him? And what *is* - the secret?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Great Escape (1963)
The 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 of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGrand Illusion (1937)
A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Seventh Cross (1944)
In Nazi Germany in 1936 seven men escape from a concentration camp. The camp commander puts up seven crosses and, as the Gestapo returns each escapee he is put to death on a cross. The seventh cross is still empty as George Heisler attempts an escape to freedom in Holland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDark Passage (1947)
A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try and prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Children of the Resistance (2026)
During the German occupation of World War II, François, Eusèbe, and Lisa, three courageous children, embark on a secret adventure: resisting the Nazis in the heart of France. Through sabotage, hidden messages, and perilous escapes, they carry out clandestine actions right under the enemy's nose. Daring and friendship are their only weapons in the fight against injustice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Colditz Story (1955)
The Germans believed that no man could escape from Colditz Castle, set as it was in the heart of the Reich, 400 miles from any neutral frontier. This film, based on Pat Reid's epic novel, tells the story of how the British, French, Dutch and Polish prisoners of war who were incarcerated in Colditz set out to prove their captors wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Killer Is Loose (1956)
A savings-and-loan bank is robbed; later, a police wiretap identifies meek bank teller Leon Poole as the inside man. In capturing him, detective Sam Wagner accidentally kills Poole's young wife, and at his trial Poole swears vengeance against Wagner. Poole begins his plans to get revenge when he escapes his captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt Always Rains on Sunday (1947)
During a rainy Sunday afternoon, an escaped prisoner tries to hide out at the home of his ex-fiance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPickpocket (1959)
Michel takes up pickpocketing on a lark and is arrested soon after. His mother dies shortly after his release, and despite the objections of his only friend, Jacques, and his mother's neighbor Jeanne, Michel teams up with a couple of petty thieves in order to improve his craft. With a police inspector keeping an eye on him, Michel also tries to get a straight job, but the temptation to steal is hard to resist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFanny's Journey (2016)
Fanny is a Jewish girl in a French orphanage in 1943. When she and her friends are no longer safe from the Nazis, they try to flee to Switzerland. After their guide disappears, Fanny has to take the lead and help the other kids make it over the mountains.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe One That Got Away (1957)
Based on the true story of Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, the only German prisoner of war captured in Britain to escape back to Germany during the Second World War.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJean Valjean (2025)
Jean Valjean is released from prison after nineteen years of hard labor, violence, and suffering. Filled with anger and a deep sense of injustice, he has become a dangerous man who trusts no one and nothing. When he arrives in a small village in Provence, he is repeatedly turned away. Desperate, he unknowingly finds refuge at the house of Bishop Bienvenu, who lives simply, with his sister and a single servant. There, he is surprised by their warm welcome, and his inner demons start to waver. But the temptation to be what society sees in him still haunts him, and he steals the Bishop’s silverware. When the police ultimately catches him, the Bishop forgives him and gifts him the candlesticks. This acts becomes the starting point of Jean Valjean’ transformation into a new man who reclaims his humanity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFirst Blood (1982)
When 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.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTouch of Evil (1958)
A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHannibal Rising (2007)
The story of the early, murderous roots of the cannibalistic killer, Hannibal Lecter – from his hard-scrabble Lithuanian childhood, where he witnesses the repulsive lengths to which hungry soldiers will go to satiate themselves, through his sojourn in France, where as a medical student he hones his appetite for the kill and learnt sword skills from his Japanese girlfriend, who happened to have similar fate
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGhost Rider (2007)
In order to save his dying father, young stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze sells his soul to Mephistopheles and sadly parts from the pure-hearted Roxanne Simpson, the love of his life. Years later, Johnny's path crosses again with Roxanne, now a go-getting reporter, and also with Mephistopheles, who offers to release Johnny's soul if Johnny becomes the fabled, fiery 'Ghost Rider'.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisLetters from Iwo Jima (2006)
The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Imperial Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of the Japanese who fought it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWidow Wanted (1965)
One of Ahmed's relatives dies and leaves him a huge fortune to inherit, but on one condition, which is to search for a widow to marry, and he continues to search again and again for someone suitable for the task.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sunshine (2007)
Fifty years into the future, the sun is dying, and Earth is threatened by arctic temperatures. A team of astronauts is sent to revive the Sun — but the mission fails. Seven years later, a new team is sent to finish the mission as mankind’s last hope.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGloomy Sunday (1999)
Budapest in the 1930s. Restaurant owner Laszlo hires pianist András to play in his restaurant. Both men fall in love with the beautiful waitress Ilona who inspires András to his only composition. His song of Gloomy Sunday is, at first, loved and then feared, for its melancholic melody sets off a chain of suicides. The fragile balance of the erotic ménage à trois is sent off kilter when the German Hans falls in love with Ilona as well.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this3-Iron (2004)
A drifter lives in people's houses while they are away and repays them by doing chores for them. His life changes when he meets a beautiful woman who wants to escape her unhappy marriage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWords with Gods (2014)
The first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series. Comprised of several short films by some of the world's most exciting directors, Words with Gods follows the theme of religion - specifically as it relates to an individual's relationship with his/her god or gods...or the lack thereof. In Words with Gods, each director recounts a narrative centered around human fragility, as well as environmental and cultural crises involving specific religions with which each has a personal relationship; including early Aboriginal Spirituality, Umbanda, Buddhism, the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, and Atheism. An animated sequence by Mexican animator Maribel Martinez is woven through each of the film segments, with each segment narratively connected as a feature-length film.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Man Escaped?
The closest matches to A Man Escaped are Le Trou (1960), Army of Shadows (1969) and Le Cercle Rouge (1970). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Man Escaped?
Start with Le Trou (1960), the closest match to A Man Escaped.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Man Escaped?
Le Trou (1960), rated 8.2/10 by 616 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Man Escaped?
The Children of the Resistance (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like A Man Escaped?
Yes: Le Trou (1960), Army of Shadows (1969) and Le Cercle Rouge (1970).
How are movies similar to A Man Escaped chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Man Escaped, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.