Movies like The Prisoner (2013)
The best movies like The Prisoner (2013) are Dead Man Walking (1995), Clemency (2019) and Killer: A Journal of Murder (1996). If The Prisoner hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLe Cercle Rouge (1970)7.6/10 from 773 votes
- NewestMy motherland is checkered (2026)Released 2026
Dead Man Walking (1995)
A death row inmate turns for spiritual guidance to a local nun in the days leading up to his scheduled execution for the murders of a young couple.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisClemency (2019)
Years of carrying out death row executions have taken a toll on prison warden Bernadine Williams. As she prepares to execute another inmate, Bernadine must confront the psychological and emotional demons her job creates, ultimately connecting her to the man she is sanctioned to kill.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKiller: A Journal of Murder (1996)
Carl Panzram is sent to Leavenworth Prison for burglary. While there, he is brutally beaten by a guard. Neophyte guard Henry Lesser feels sympathy for Panzram, befriends him, and gets him to write his life story. Lesser learns that Panzram's past is much more violent than he thought, but also that he's capable of being a much better person than the rest of the prison staff believes - or so Lesser thinks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLock Up (1989)
Frank Leone is nearing the end of his prison term for a relatively minor crime. Just before he is paroled, however, Warden Drumgoole takes charge. Drumgoole was assigned to a hell-hole prison after his administration was publicly humiliated by Leone, and has now arrived on the scene to ensure that Leone never sees the light of day.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrute Force (1947)
Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYield to the Night (1956)
Locked in her cell, a murderer reflects on the events that have led her to death row.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lazarus Project (2008)
After Ben Garvey foolishly turned back to crime, he thought his life was over when he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. But his death sentence isn't quite what it seems, as Ben regains consciousness near an eerie psychiatric ward, where he's told he's been hired as the groundskeeper. With the state of his soul in question, and the love for his wife and daughter all the more real and powerful, Ben must figure out if he's truly cheated death, or if he's become part of something far more sinister.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Hell (2003)
A man must survive a prison where hardened criminals battle to the death for the warden's entertainment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDog Pound (2010)
Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Life of David Gale (2003)
A man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMurder in the First (1995)
A young, inexperienced public defender is assigned to defend an inmate accused of committing murder while behind bars.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisO.G. (2018)
Louis Menkins is five weeks away from being released after 26 years in prison. He is faced with the decision to put his own release at risk in order to protect a young man named Beecher from growing gang controversies.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisI Want to Live! (1958)
Brazen perpetual offender Barbara Graham tries to go straight but she finds herself implicated in a murder and sent to death row.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLullaby (2014)
Estranged from his family, Jonathan (Hedlund) discovers his father has decided to take himself off life support in forty-eight hours’ time. During this intensely condensed period, a lifetime of drama plays out. Robert (Jenkins) fights a zero sum game to reclaim all that his illness stole from his family. A debate rages on patients’ rights and what it truly means to be free. Jonathan reconciles with his father, reconnects with his mother (Archer), sister (Brown-Findlay), and his love (Adams) and reclaims his voice through two unlikely catalysts – a young, wise-beyond-her-years patient (Barden) and a no-nonsense nurse (Hudson). Through this intensely life affirming prism, an unexpected and powerful journey of love, laughter, and forgiveness unfolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScum (1979)
Carlin is a new reform school inmate with a reputation as a hard case. The authorities encourage gang leader Pongo to humble Carlin, but Carlin overtakes Pongo as Daddy of the ward. The guards institute a reign of terror and neglect, with Carlin emerging as an unlikely leader.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPersonal Effects (2009)
Walter is a rising star in the NCAA wrestling world until his life is ripped apart by the brutal murder of his sister. Returning home to console his mother Gloria he seeks vengeance on the man who is accused of the crime. A chance meeting with a beautiful mature woman gives him solace to the situation. Will this unlikely pairing bloom into a romance and heal a wound the world cannot see or will the loss of his sister push him over the edge?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGood Time (2017)
After a botched bank robbery lands his younger brother in prison, Connie Nikas embarks on a twisted odyssey through New York City's underworld to get his brother Nick out of jail.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPowder Blue (2009)
On the gritty streets of LA, the destinies of four people desperate for connection and redemption are about to collide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Big House (1930)
Convicted of manslaughter for a drunken driving accident, Kent Marlowe is sent to prison, where he meets vicious incarcerated figures who are planning an escape from the brutal conditions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Soldier's Star (2006)
A Russian guitarist was enlisted in 1984 in the Afghan war. Imprisoned, he will meet an Afghan musician and a French journalist.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Freeway (1996)
Following the arrest of her mother, Ramona, young Vanessa Lutz decides to go in search of her estranged grandmother. On the way, she is given a ride by school counselor Bob Wolverton. During the journey, Lutz begins to realize that Bob is the notorious I-5 Killer and manages to escape by shooting him several times. Wounded but still very much alive, Bob pursues Lutz across the state in this modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
The story of two radically different men thrown together in a Latin American prison cell. One is Valentin, a journalist being tortured for his political beliefs. The other is Molina, a gay window-dresser who fills their lonely nights by spinning romantic fantasies drawn from memories of old movies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe First Great Train Robbery (1978)
In Victorian England, a master criminal makes elaborate plans to steal a shipment of gold from a moving train.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy motherland is checkered (2026)
In a mix of 2D animation and live action, through their voices and acting, two actresses recount the lives of imprisoned women that opposed the Russian Regime and their emotional stories of suffering and anguish.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Forbidden Territory (1934)
Britisher Sir Charles Farrington and a son, Rex Farrington, arrive in a Russian Soviet territory searching for another Farrington son, Michael,who has been thrown into prison. Valarie Perrovna is a singer who is in love with the imprisoned son and she provides the searchers with the information as to where the missing son is being held. They all go there and help Michael escape. But is their escape vehicle---a flat wagon pulled by three horses--- fast enough and sturdy enough through the snow to beat the Commmisar and his troops to the Rumanian border
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kaspar Hauser (1993)
In May 1828, a feral boy aged around 16 was found in Nuremberg. Kaspar Hauser, as he is called, can only speak a few indistinct words and knows nothing about his origins or family. The film depicts the - presumed - circumstances under which Hauser was held captive in complete isolation in a hiding place from infancy onwards. From this emerges the picture of an intrigue involving high circles of aristocratic society. Five years after his liberation, in December 1833, Kaspar Hauser died as a result of a stab wound inflicted by an unknown perpetrator.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Third Eye (2001)
Michael is supposed to go to prison for 18 months, but escapes from the police officer. On the run, he meets Malika, who has also committed "stupid things." Together, they flee from the "third eye" of her mother, who, according to Malika, can see into the distance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Instinct (1999)
In a prison for the criminally insane, deranged anthropologist Ethan Powell is set to be examined by a bright young psychiatrist, Theo Caulder. Driven by ambition and a hunger for the truth, Caulder will eventually risk everything—even put his very life on the line—in a harrowing attempt to understand the bizarre actions of this madman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Prisoner?
The closest matches to The Prisoner are Dead Man Walking (1995), Clemency (2019) and Killer: A Journal of Murder (1996). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Prisoner?
Start with Dead Man Walking (1995), the closest match to The Prisoner.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Prisoner?
Le Cercle Rouge (1970), rated 7.6/10 by 773 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Prisoner?
My motherland is checkered (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Prisoner?
Yes: Dead Man Walking (1995), Clemency (2019) and Killer: A Journal of Murder (1996).
How are movies similar to The Prisoner chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Prisoner, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.