
The Mauritanian
The true story of the Mauritanian Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was held at the U.S military's Guantanamo Bay detention center without charges for over a decade and sought help from a defense attorney for his release.
Movies Like The Mauritanian
Similar in style, tone, and themes — find your next watch.

Midnight Express
1978★ 7.4
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".

The Stanford Prison Experiment
2015★ 6.8
In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.

Kiss of the Spider Woman
1985★ 7.0
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.

Escape from Alcatraz
1979★ 7.5
San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.

Emancipation
2022★ 7.8
Inspired by the gripping true story of a man who would do anything for his family—and for freedom. When Peter, an enslaved man, risks his life to escape and return to his family, he embarks on a perilous journey of love and endurance.

Cool Hand Luke
1967★ 7.7
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.

Shutter Island
2010★ 8.2
World War II soldier-turned-U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane, but his efforts are compromised by troubling visions and a mysterious doctor.

Nowhere to Run
1993★ 6.5
Escaped convict Sam Gillen single-handedly takes on ruthless developers who are determined to evict a widow with two young children.

The Woman in Cabin 10
2025★ 6.2
On a lavish yacht for an assignment, a journalist sees a passenger go overboard. But when no one believes her, she risks her life to uncover the truth.

The Last Castle
2001★ 7.2
A court-martialed general rallies together 1200 inmates to rise against the system that put him away.

Body of Lies
2008★ 6.6
The CIA’s hunt is on for the mastermind of a wave of terrorist attacks. Roger Ferris is the agency’s man on the ground, moving from place to place, scrambling to stay ahead of ever-shifting events. An eye in the sky – a satellite link – watches Ferris. At the other end of that real-time link is the CIA’s Ed Hoffman, strategizing events from thousands of miles away. And as Ferris nears the target, he discovers trust can be just as dangerous as it is necessary for survival.

Nothing but the Truth
2008★ 6.9
When reporter Rachel Armstrong writes a story that reveals the identity of a covert CIA operative, the government demands that Rachel reveal her source. She defies the special prosecutor and is thrown in jail. Meanwhile, her attorney, Albert Burnside argues her case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Palmetto
1998★ 6.0
After being released from prison on a bum charge, Harry Barber is out for payback to regain his lost two years. He's hired by Mrs. Malroux to fake the kidnapping of her stepdaughter (the daughter of a dying millionaire). He discovers that he is being set up on multiple levels and will soon face a longer sentence if he doesn't prove the truth.

Papillon
1973★ 7.8
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.

The Silence of the Lambs
1991★ 8.3
Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

Room
2015★ 8.0
Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.

Bronson
2009★ 6.9
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.

Murder in the First
1995★ 7.1
A young, inexperienced public defender is assigned to defend an inmate accused of committing murder while behind bars.

Escape from Pretoria
2020★ 7.2
South Africa, 1978. Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, two white political activists from the African National Congress imprisoned by the apartheid regime, put a plan in motion to escape from the infamous Pretoria Prison.

Double Jeopardy
1999★ 6.6
Libby Parsons, wrongly convicted of her husband Nick's murder, thinks he is still alive. She survives the long years in prison with two burning desires sustaining her -- finding her son and solving the mystery that destroyed her once-happy life. Standing between her and her quest, however, is her parole officer, Travis Lehman. Libby poses a challenge to the cynical officer, one that forces him to face up to his own failings while pitting him against his superior and law enforcement colleagues, as she plunges into a desperate fight for justice, survival, and revenge.