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1980s Prison Movies

Public list by WPS with 35 movies or TV shows/series

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34 movies found (page 1/2):

Lock Up(1989)

FSK: 18+ years
| 1h 55min | Action, Crime
3.4/5 (with 511 votes)

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.

Runaway Train(1985)

FSK: 16+ years
| 1h 51min | Action, Thriller, Drama, Adventure
3.5/5 (with 229 votes)

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.

Bad Boys(1983)

FSK: 16+ years
| 1h 44min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
3.5/5 (with 110 votes)

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.

Chained Heat(1983)

1h 39min | Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
2.6/5 (with 21 votes)

Linda Blair plays Carol, a young woman who must serve 18 months in prison after driving drunk and killing a man. The prison turns out to be brimming with decadence, corruption and sleaze, where the other female inmates are sadistic crack-selling lesbian rapists and the guards and warden are no better.

Stir Crazy(1980)

FSK: 12+ years
| 1h 51min | Comedy
3.2/5 (with 186 votes)

New Yorkers Skip Donahue and Harry Monroe have no jobs and no prospects, so they decide to flee the city and find work elsewhere, landing jobs wearing woodpecker costumes to promote the opening of a bank. When their feathery costumes are stolen and used in a bank robbery, they no longer have to worry about employment — they're sent to prison.

The Concrete Jungle(1982)

1h 39min | Crime, Drama
3.2/5 (with 27 votes)

An unfortunate and naive girl is set-up by her boyfriend and convicted of drug smuggling. She is sent to a women's correctional facility where she must constantly struggle to survive.

An Innocent Man(1989)

FSK: 16+ years
| 1h 53min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
3.1/5 (with 55 votes)

Jimmie Rainwood was minding his own business when two corrupt police officers (getting an address wrong) burst into his house, expecting to find a major drug dealer. Rainwood is shot, and the officers frame him as a drug dealer. Rainwood is convicted of drug dealing, based on the perjured evidence of a police informant. Thrown into a seedy jail, fighting to prove his innocence is diffucult when he has to deal with the realities of prison life, where everyone claims they were framed.

The Professor(1986)

2h 51min | Crime
3.6/5 (with 49 votes)

Vaguely inspired to the real story of boss of the Camorra's bosses Raffaele Cutolo, this is the story of the criminal career of "Il professore" (the professor). He is in prison, and by there he is able to build, step by step, an empire founded on murders and drugs. He starts a war to destroy all the old Camorra bosses and becoming the new "boss of the bosses". With his sister's help he manages to evade from prison and escape in New York. Here he starts immediately a new relationship with "Cosa Nostra" (Italian American Mafia). He is going to seat on the peak of the most powerful criminal organization, and the Italian authorities are almost impotent.

The Rescue(1988)

1h 37min | Action, Adventure, Drama
2.8/5 (with 13 votes)

A team of Navy Seals are sent to destroy a disabled submarine so it will not fall into the "wrong" hands. They complete their mission, but are captured before they can return to their base. The U.S. Government will not mount a rescue mission to free the soldiers, so their teenage children take over. The kids find a way to venture into the foreign country and then must overcome many obstacles.

Directed by Ferdinand Fairfax

Mrs. Soffel(1984)

FSK: 16+ years
| 1h 52min | Drama, Romance / Love
3.2/5 (with 20 votes)

Kate Soffel is married to a prison warden in Pittsburgh, and is the mother of their four children. Ed Biddle is a convicted murderer awaiting execution on death row with his brother Jack. When Kate meets Eddie through her Bible readings to the prisoners, she is drawn to him, and they pursue a clandestine relationship. She agrees to help the brothers escape, and begins a treacherous journey with them to freedom in Canada.

Made in Britain(1982)

1h 16min | Crime, Drama, TV Movie
3.5/5 (with 51 votes)

After being sent to a detention centre, a teenage skinhead clashes with the social workers who want to conform him to the status quo.

Prison on Fire(1987)

1h 41min | Drama, Thriller, Crime
3.5/5 (with 31 votes)

Lo Ka Yiu, a young ad designer who is sentenced to jail for manslaughter, has gotten himself in trouble with the corrupted wardens and fellow inmates of Triad background. Chung Tin Ching, a veteran inmate and Yiu's mentor, is forced to confront his comrade's enemies time and again, leading up to the final showdown with the head of security.

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Marquis(1989)

FSK: 16+ years
| 1h 23min | Animation, Comedy
3.2/5 (with 19 votes)

In pre-French Revolution Bastille, the Marquis is held being unjustly accused of working to overthrow the king. While his talking penis, Colin, longs for action, Marquis himself only desires to write his deviant stories in peace.

Directed by Henri Xhonneux - With Michel Robin, Bernard Cogniaux, François Marthouret, Jacques Bouanich, Nathalie Juvet, Philippe Dumond, ...

Prison(1987)

1h 42min | Crime, Horror, Thriller
2.9/5 (with 50 votes)

After Charles Forsyth was sent to the electric chair for a crime he didn't commit, he forever haunts the prison where he was executed. Flash forward several years when the prison is reopened, under the control of its new warden Eaton Sharpe, a former security guard who framed Charlie. When prisoners are ordered to break down the wall to the execution room, they unknowingly release the angry spirit of Charles Forsyth, a powerful being distributing his murderous rage to all, leading up to the Warden himself.

Station for Two(1982)

3.7/5 (with 24 votes)

Platon Ryabinin, a pianist, is traveling by train to a distant town of Griboedov to visit his father. He gets off to have lunch during a twenty minute stop at Zastupinsk railway station. He meets Vera, a waitress, after he refuses to pay her for the disgusting food he doesn't even touch and misses his train due to police investigation of the incident. His passport is then accidentally taken away from him by Andrei, Vera's fiancé, and his money is stolen as he waits for the next train to Griboedov. Vera learns that Platon is about to get sentenced and sent to prison in the Far East for a car accident he isn't guilty for. During the few days that Platon has to spend in Zastupinsk he and Vera develop feelings for each other...

Caged Fury(1990)

1h 35min | Action, Thriller
2.1/5 (with 12 votes)

Kat arrives in Los Angeles to audition for movies. However, after meeting a sleazy producer, she and her new friend find themselves in a women's prison run by sadistic guards and a lesbian warden.

Directed by Bill Milling - With Erik Estrada, James Hong

Violence in a Women's Prison(1982)

FSK: 18+ years
| 1h 39min | Action, Thriller
2.8/5 (with 22 votes)

Emanuelle goes undercover into a prison to expose the corrupted officials who are brutalizing the inmates. Emanuelle is shocked by the horrors and humiliation the prisoners are subjected to, but when her true identity is discovered, she finds herself at the receiving end.

Reform School Girls(1986)

1h 34min | Action, Comedy, Crime
2.9/5 (with 25 votes)

Jenny is sent to a women's reform school. It is run by evil warden Sutter and her henchwoman Edna. Jenny will stop at nothing to escape but she also has to deal with Charlie the bully.

Weeds(1987)

1h 55min | Drama
2.7/5 (with 7 votes)

A San Quentin inmate, sentenced to life without parole, writes a play that catches the interest of a reporter.

Vendetta(1986)

1h 29min | Action, Drama
2.7/5 (with 7 votes)

A sexy stuntwoman gets herself thrown into prison to avenge the death of her sister.

Directed by Bruce Logan - With Sandy Martin, Roberta Collins, Marshall R. Teague, Will Hare

Slaughterhouse Rock(1988)

1h 30min | Horror
2.2/5 (with 11 votes)

A man visits Alcatraz prison after having dreams about all the people who died there. When he gets there, his brother is possessed by an evil cannibal demon. The ghost of a female heavy metal singer who was killed there tries to help the man fight the monster.

Penitentiary II(1982)

1h 48min | Action, Thriller
2.1/5 (with 5 votes)

An ex-con, on parole and trying to straighten his life out, decides to resume his boxing career when one of his prison enemies escapes and kills his girlfriend.

The First Time is the Last Time(1989)

2.6/5 (with 3 votes)

A very dark, realistic women-in-prison film from Angel director, Raymond Leung. Carrie Ng plays Winnie, a young woman who is jailed after avenging her boyfriend's death at the hands of some ruthless gangsters. Once in prison, Winnie befriends another inmate who, secretly because of the underworld massacre, wants her dead.

Directed by Pun-Hei Leung - With Andy Lau

Female Prisoner: Caged!(1983)

1h 8min | Drama, Crime
1.5/5 (with 4 votes)

A young woman who escaped from prison is eventually captured and brought back. The evil warden decides to make her a pet project and tries to break her down with torture, gang rape and by turning her friends against her.

Directed by Masaru Konuma - With Mina Asami

Gulag(1985)

FSK: 12+ years
| 2h 10min | Drama, TV Movie
2.7/5 (with 5 votes)

Mickey Almon is a sports star turned reporter covering the athletics in Moscow. Framed by the KGB and forced to confess that he was spying for America, he is sentenced to detention in a Gulag, a barbaric prison camp in the wilds of Siberia. Unable to prove his innocence, Mickey must either put up with the inhuman conditions or engineer an escape.

Don't Let Them Shoot the Kite(1989)

1h 23min | Drama
4.0/5 (with 22 votes)

Sent to prison along with his mother after her drug conviction, a young boy develops a warm, tender relationship with a political prisoner.

Buy & Cell(1989)

1h 35min | Comedy
2.9/5 (with 3 votes)

Herbie Altman is framed for Stock fraud by his boss when the SEC starts investigating his company. Sent to prison, he helps a fellow inmate successfully invest his money. Soon all the inmates want his help. To manage all the money, he forms CON INC. and runs it from the prison under the noses of the warden and the guards. But when the IRS and SEC begin to investigate this successful company, it looks like he may be in trouble again.

Jail Yatra(1981)

2h 26min | Crime

Raju comes from a middle-class family, and lives with his mother. He meets with nurse Shobha, and both fall in love. The only problem is that Raju somehow or other always gets mixed up in problems, and ends up getting in trouble with the police. As a result, he ends up getting in jail very often. One day he really gets into trouble by antagonizing a notorious gangster, and has to run for his life. Due to his "trouble maker" character no one really believes him, and it is upto him to save himself from this problem, without ending up in prison again.

Stir(1980)

1h 37min | Thriller, Action, Drama
3.3/5 (with 7 votes)

Filmed in the Clare Valley, Gladstone and the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, this prison movie was inspired by the true life prison riot at Bathurst Jail in 1974 and its subsequent Royal Commission into New South Wales Prisons.

A Sense of Freedom(1979)

FSK: 16+ years
| 1h 25min | Crime, Drama
3.1/5 (with 9 votes)

The true story of Jimmy Boyle, who was reputed to be Scotland's most violent man.

Directed by John Mackenzie - With David Hayman
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