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Movies that feel like Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

If you loved Escape from Alcatraz, the closest films we have are A Man Escaped (1956), Charley Varrick (1973) and The Experiment (2001). All three share Escape from Alcatraz's contemplative and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 7 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and Peacock Premium and others, checked against today's data.

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.

πŸ… 97% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 7.5 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Don Siegelcontemplativetense
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If Escape from Alcatraz hit the spot, these will too

A Man Escaped poster
A Man Escaped
1956 Β· dir. Robert Bresson
πŸ… 100%β˜… 8.2drama Β· thriller

Common ground in both: prison and escape

The difference: Made in the 1950s, in a different era of the craft

A captured French Resistance fighter during World War II engineers a daunting escape from prison.

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Charley Varrick poster
Charley Varrick
1973 Β· dir. Don Siegel
πŸ… 82%β˜… 7.5crime Β· thriller Β· drama

Don Siegel directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Leans harder into crime than Escape from Alcatraz does

Charley Varrick robs a bank in a small town with his friends, but instead of obtaining a small amount of money, they discover they stole a very large amount of money belonging to the mob. Charley must now come up with a plan to not only evade the police but the mob as well.

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The Experiment poster
The Experiment
2001 Β· dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel
πŸ… 72%β˜… 7.7drama Β· thriller

Common ground: prison

The difference: Reviewed a good deal more coolly

20 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation. A journalist senses a story behind the ad and smuggles himself in among the test subjects. They are randomly divided into prisoners and guards. What seems like a game at the beginning soon turns into bloody seriousness.

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No Way Out poster
No Way Out
1987 Β· dir. Roger Donaldson
πŸ… 92%β˜… 7.1thriller Β· drama

The same mix in both: stillness, then tension

Navy Lt. Tom Farrell meets a young woman, Susan Atwell, and they share a passionate fling. Farrell then finds out that his superior, Defense Secretary David Brice, is also romantically involved with Atwell. When the young woman turns up dead, Farrell is put in charge of the murder investigation. He begins to uncover shocking clues about the case, but when details of his encounter with Susan surface, he becomes a suspect as well.

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Knife in the Water poster
Knife in the Water
1962 Β· dir. Roman Polanski
πŸ… 97%β˜… 7.4drama Β· thriller

Drama built on stillness, twice over

On their way to an afternoon on the lake, husband and wife Andrzej and Krystyna nearly run over a young hitchhiker. Inviting the young man onto the boat with them, Andrzej begins to subtly torment him; the hitchhiker responds by making overtures toward Krystyna. When the hitchhiker is accidentally knocked overboard, the husband's panic results in unexpected consequences.

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Yojimbo poster
Yojimbo
1961 Β· dir. Akira Kurosawa
πŸ… 96%β˜… 8.2drama Β· thriller

Tense thriller, and it commits to that

A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.

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We Need to Talk About Kevin poster
We Need to Talk About Kevin
2011 Β· dir. Lynne Ramsay
πŸ… 74%β˜… 7.4drama Β· thriller

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

After her son Kevin commits a horrific act, troubled mother Eva reflects on her complicated relationship with her disturbed son as he grew from a toddler into a teenager.

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Runaway Train poster
Runaway Train
1985 Β· dir. Andrei Konchalovsky
πŸ… 84%β˜… 7.2action Β· thriller Β· drama

The same two preoccupations: prison warden, and prison escape

The difference: Sits closer to action than Escape from Alcatraz does

A hardened convict and a younger prisoner escape from a brutal prison in the middle of winter only to find themselves on an out-of-control train with a female railway worker while being pursued by the vengeful head of security.

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Hard Candy poster
Hard Candy
2006 Β· dir. David Slade
πŸ… 67%β˜… 7drama Β· thriller

Both lean on tension more than on thriller

Hayley’s a smart, charming teenage girl. Jeff’s a handsome, smooth fashion photographer. An Internet chat, a coffee shop meet-up, an impromptu fashion shoot back at Jeff’s place. Jeff thinks it’s his lucky night. He’s in for a surprise.

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The Wave poster
The Wave
2008 Β· dir. Dennis Gansel
πŸ… 67%β˜… 7.6drama Β· thriller

Drama in the same key

A school teacher discusses types of government with his class. His students find it too boring to repeatedly go over national socialism and believe that dictatorship cannot be established in modern Germany. He starts an experiment to show how easily the masses can become manipulated.

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First Blood poster
First Blood
1982 Β· dir. Ted Kotcheff
πŸ… 86%β˜… 7.7action Β· thriller Β· drama

The same preoccupation in both: escape

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.

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A Wednesday! poster
A Wednesday!
2008 Β· dir. Neeraj Pandey
β˜… 8.1drama Β· thriller

Both are thriller through and through

Prakash Rathod, a retired police commissioner recounts the most memorable case of his career wherein he was informed about a bomb scare in Mumbai by an ordinary commoner.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

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The best-reviewed films that share Escape from Alcatraz’s defining feeling.