Movies like El cartel de Michoacán (1996)
The best movies like El cartel de Michoacán (1996) are The Escapist (2008), There Was a Crooked Man... (1970) and Pacto de Fuga (2020). If El cartel de Michoacán hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Shawshank Redemption (1994)8.7/10 from 31,831 votes
- NewestMona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2022)Released 2022
- In SpanishPacto de Fuga (2020)Also in Spanish
The Escapist (2008)
Frank Perry is an institutionalized convict twelve years into a life sentence without parole. When his estranged daughter falls ill, he is determined to make peace with her before it's too late. He develops an ingenious escape plan, and recruits a dysfunctional band of escapists - misfits with a mutual dislike for one other but united by their desire to escape their hell hole of an existence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThere Was a Crooked Man... (1970)
A charming but ruthless criminal is sent to a remote Arizona prison, where he enlists the help of his cellmates in an escape attempt with the promise of sharing his hidden loot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPacto de Fuga (2020)
During the last years of Pinochet's military regime, a group of militants from the "Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front" plan a prison break of political prisoners, through a tunnel that will take them 18 months to dig.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFigures in a Landscape (1970)
Two escaped convicts are on the run in an unnamed Latin American country. But everywhere they go, they are followed and hounded by a menacing black helicopter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGet the Gringo (2012)
A career criminal nabbed by Mexican authorities is placed in a tough prison where he learns to survive with the help of a 9-year-old boy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPapillon (1973)
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPapillon (2017)
Henri “Papillon” Charrière, a safecracker from the Parisian underworld, is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, where he forges a strong friendship with Louis Dega, a counterfeiter who needs his protection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPrison 77 (2022)
Modelo Prison. Barcelona, 1977. A young accountant, awaiting trial for embezzlement with a possible 20 years sentence, joins a group of prisoners demanding amnesty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Imprisoned 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 amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Unforgivable (2021)
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSusana (1951)
The story of a girl of questionable mental stability who escapes from incarceration and ends up at a plantation where she disrupts a working family's daily routines and chemistry.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mustang (2019)
While participating in a rehabilitation program training wild mustangs, a convict at first struggles to connect with the horses and his fellow inmates, but he learns to confront his violent past as he soothes an especially feisty horse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBronson (2009)
A young man who was sentenced to 7 years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending 30 years in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter ego, Charles Bronson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOutlaws (2021)
Introverted Girona student Nacho meets two delinquents from the city's Chinatown and gets caught up in a summer onslaught of burglaries and hold ups that will change his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2022)
A young woman with psychokinetic powers breaks out of a Louisiana asylum and makes her way to New Orleans, where she falls into the city’s netherworld of misfits and miscreants.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVirginia City (1940)
Union officer Kerry Bradford escapes from a Confederate prison and races to intercept $5 million in gold destined for Confederate coffers. A Confederate sympathizer and a Mexican bandit, each with their own stake in the loot, stand in his way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRevenge (1990)
Michael ‘Jay’ Cochran has just left the Navy after 12 years and he's not quite sure what he's going to do, except that he knows he wants a holiday. He decides to visit Tiburon Mendez, a powerful but shady Mexican businessman who he once flew to Alaska for a hunting trip. Arriving at the Mendez mansion in Mexico, he is immediately surprised by the beauty and youth of Mendez’s wife, Miryea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNowhere to Run (1993)
Escaped convict Sam Gillen single-handedly takes on ruthless developers who are determined to evict a widow with two young children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like El cartel de Michoacán and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like El cartel de Michoacán?
The closest matches to El cartel de Michoacán are The Escapist (2008), There Was a Crooked Man... (1970) and Pacto de Fuga (2020). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after El cartel de Michoacán?
Start with The Escapist (2008), the closest match to El cartel de Michoacán.
What is the highest-rated movie like El cartel de Michoacán?
The Shawshank Redemption (1994), rated 8.7/10 by 31,831 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like El cartel de Michoacán?
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like El cartel de Michoacán?
Yes: Pacto de Fuga (2020), Prison 77 (2022) and Susana (1951).
How are movies similar to El cartel de Michoacán chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside El cartel de Michoacán, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.