Movies like Animal Factory (2000)
The best movies like Animal Factory (2000) are Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Felon (2008). If Animal Factory hooked you with its crime and drama, these 30 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 31,822 votes
- NewestA Violent Man (2022)Released 2022
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
When 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 admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
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: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFelon (2008)
A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Violent Man (2022)
Steve Mackleson is a dangerous prisoner, incarcerated for double murder in a maximum security prison. We follow, as he navigates his struggle against redemption the system and his inner turmoil, when a young black gang member becomes his unlikely new cell mate and a daughter he has never met, finally requests to meet her estranged father, face to face.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Papillon (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: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMidnight Express (1978)
Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of a country. The courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Prophet (2009)
Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & 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: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJamesy Boy (2014)
Based on the true story of teenager James Burns who goes from a suburban street gang to a maximum-security prison cell surrounded by hardened criminals. He turns his life around in prison thanks to the unexpected friendship he forms with a convicted murderer who becomes his mentor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBirdman of Alcatraz (1962)
After killing a prison guard, convict Robert Stroud faces life imprisonment in solitary confinement. Driven nearly mad by loneliness and despair, Stroud's life gains new meaning when he happens upon a helpless baby sparrow in the exercise yard and nurses it back to health. Despite having only a third grade education, Stroud goes on to become a renowned ornithologist and achieves a greater sense of freedom and purpose behind bars than most people find in the outside world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShot Caller (2017)
A 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.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPrison Song (2001)
Elijah has been bounced from group home to group home throughout his turbulent young life. What has sustained him is his art. After a promised scholarship is taken away, Elijah ends up in a fight that result in the death of another boy. Now, sentenced to a minimum of fifteen years, the young man must find a way to keep his soul alive behind bars or turn into a hardened bitter criminal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
American Me (1992)
During his 18 years in Folsom Prison, street-gang leader Santana rules over all the drug-and-murder activities behind bars. Upon his release, Santana goes back to his old neighborhood, intending to lead a peaceful, crime-free life. But his old gang buddies force him back into his old habits.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThis Is Martin Bonner (2013)
Martin Bonner has just moved to Nevada from the East Coast, leaving behind his two adult children and a life he spent more than two decades building. He's there working a new job as the volunteer coordinator for a non-profit organization that helps prisoners make the transition from incarceration to freedom.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Against Their Will (1994)
Behind prison walls, corruption, sex and power make criminals out of the guards and heroes out of the guarded. For more than a decade, the lawless guards inside a maximum security women's prison have reigned with impunity - rape, sex for money and illegal favors have become the norm until one woman decides to battle the system. Leading a group of inmates on a risky life-or-death struggle for justice, a ten year silence is finally broken, exposing the twisted truth to the world and enabling the prisoners the freedom to live without fear.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Bronson (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: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican History X (1998)
Derek 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 skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStarred Up (2014)
19-year-old Eric, arrogant and ultra-violent, is prematurely transferred to the same adult prison facility as his estranged father. As his explosive temper quickly finds him enemies in both prison authorities and fellow inmates — and his already volatile relationship with his father is pushed past breaking point — Eric is approached by a volunteer psychotherapist, who runs an anger management group for prisoners. Torn between gang politics, prison corruption, and a glimmer of something better, Eric finds himself in a fight for his own life, unsure if his own father is there to protect him or join in punishing him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Green Mile (1999)
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBad Boys (1983)
Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCaged (1950)
A single mistake puts a 19-year old girl behind bars, where she experiences the terrors and torments of women in prison.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPixote (1980)
10-year-old Pixote endures torture, degradation, and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of its members are murdered by policemen who frame Lilica, a 17-year-old trans hustler. Pixote helps Lilica and three other boys escape and they start to make their living by a life of crime which only escalates to more violence and death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDead 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: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShepherds and Butchers (2017)
A lawyer takes on a case of a prison guard in South Africa who is traumatized by the executions he's witnessed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · 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: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisColdwater (2013)
A teenage boy is sent to a juvenile reform facility in the wilderness. As we learn about the tragic events that sent him there, his struggle becomes one for survival with the inmates, counselors, and the retired war colonel in charge.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLevity (2003)
Manuel Jordan is a man who is free after serving 23 years for killing a teenager during an attempted robbery. After nearly two decades of staring at his victim's face on a newspaper clipping in his cell, the newly paroled man seeks redemption. Instead, redemption—in the form of a mysterious minister and two needy women— finds him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Animal Factory?
The closest matches to Animal Factory are Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Felon (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Animal Factory?
People who watched Animal Factory most often go on to Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Felon (2008).
What is the highest-rated movie like Animal Factory?
The Shawshank Redemption (1994), rated 8.7/10 by 31,822 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Animal Factory?
A Violent Man (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Animal Factory?
Yes: Cool Hand Luke (1967), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Felon (2008).
How are movies similar to Animal Factory chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Animal Factory, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.