Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "penal-colony"
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1. Alien³ (1992)
R | 114 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Returning from LV-426, Ellen Ripley crash-lands on the maximum-security prison Fiorina 161, where she discovers that she has unwittingly brought along an unwelcome visitor.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. Dutton, Charles Dance, Paul McGann
Votes: 319,086 | Gross: $55.47M
2. Papillon (I) (2017)
R | 133 min | Adventure, Biography, Crime
Wrongfully convicted for murder, Henri Charriere forms an unlikely relationship with fellow inmate and quirky convicted counterfeiter, Louis Dega, in an attempt to escape from the notorious penal colony on Devil's Island.
Director: Michael Noer | Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Damijan Oklopdzic, Christopher Fairbank, Jason Ryan
Votes: 85,994 | Gross: $2.34M
3. Papillon (1973)
R | 151 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner | Stars: Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffman, Victor Jory, Don Gordon
Votes: 138,281 | Gross: $53.27M
4. The Nightingale (I) (2018)
R | 136 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Set in 1825, Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. On the way she enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy, who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.
Director: Jennifer Kent | Stars: Aisling Franciosi, Maya Christie, Baykali Ganambarr, Addison Christie
Votes: 35,582 | Gross: $0.39M
5. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
PG | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
On the eve of retirement, Kirk and McCoy are charged with assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor and imprisoned. The Enterprise crew must help them escape to thwart a conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the last best hope for peace.
Director: Nicholas Meyer | Stars: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan
Votes: 80,847 | Gross: $74.89M
6. The One (2001)
PG-13 | 87 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A rogue Multiverse agent goes on a manhunt for alternate versions of himself, getting stronger with each kill. Only the last version of himself, an LASD cop, can stop his crusade before he becomes "The One".
Director: James Wong | Stars: Jet Li, Carla Gugino, Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham
Votes: 96,028 | Gross: $43.91M
7. No Escape (1994)
R | 118 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
A soldier convicted for murdering his commanding officer is dumped and left to die on a prison island inhabited by two camps of convicts.
Director: Martin Campbell | Stars: Ray Liotta, Lance Henriksen, Stuart Wilson, Kevin Dillon
Votes: 22,683 | Gross: $15.34M
8. An Officer and a Spy (2019)
132 min | Drama, History, Thriller
In 1894, French Captain Alfred Dreyfus is wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment at Devil's island.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Louis Garrel, Christophe Maratier, Pierre Poirot, Stéfan Godin
Votes: 21,059
9. Proteus (2003)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, Romance
An interracial gay love story set in early 18th century South Africa about two men -- a black prisoner living in a Cape Town penal colony and a Dutch sailor -- who weather injustices as a result of their affair.
Directors: John Greyson, Jack Lewis | Stars: Rouxnet Brown, Shaun Smyth, Neil Sandilands, Kristen Thomson
Votes: 702
10. Banished (2015)
TV-MA | 60 min | Drama, History
British convicts have been sent to Australia as punishment for their crimes. As they try to live their new lives, they have to live with the new rules. The soldiers also have to adjust.
Stars: Orla Brady, Ewen Bremner, MyAnna Buring, Ryan Corr
Votes: 4,161
11. Van Diemen's Land (2009)
Not Rated | 104 min | Adventure, Biography, History
The true story of Alexander Pearce, Australia's most notorious convict. In 1822, Pearce and seven fellow convicts escaped from Macquarie Harbour, a place of ultra banishment and punishment,... See full summary »
Director: Jonathan auf der Heide | Stars: Oscar Redding, Arthur Angel, Paul Ashcroft, Thomas M. Wright
Votes: 3,427
12. For the Term of His Natural Life (1983)
520 min | Adventure, Drama
In 1830's England, a young man from a good but troubled family is unjustly convicted of stealing a watch. He's transported to Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania) where he suffers under the enmity ... See full summary »
Stars: Anthony Perkins, Patrick Macnee, Samantha Eggar, Diane Cilento
Votes: 234
13. I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973)
R | 89 min | Action, Adventure
In 1916, A group of prisoners plot their escape from the notorious fortress located in French Guiana.
Director: William Witney | Stars: Jim Brown, Christopher George, Richard Ely, Richard Rust
Votes: 550
14. Fatal Conflict (2000)
R | 92 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
An ex-star pilot must stop a mad criminal and his gang from destroying what is left of civilization.
Director: Lloyd A. Simandl | Stars: Kari Wuhrer, Jennifer Rubin, Leo Rossi, Miles O'Keeffe
Votes: 378
15. The Pirates of Blood River (1962)
Approved | 87 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A group of ruthless pirates attack a seventeenth century Huguenot settlement on the Isle of Devon in search of treasure and will stop at nothing to obtain it.
Director: John Gilling | Stars: Kerwin Mathews, Glenn Corbett, Christopher Lee, Peter Arne
Votes: 1,194
16. Strange Cargo (1940)
Passed | 113 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Convicts escaping from Devil's Island come under the influence of a strange Christ-like figure (Ian Hunter).
Director: Frank Borzage | Stars: Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre
Votes: 2,971
17. Hell's Island (1955)
Approved | 84 min | Adventure, Drama, Film-Noir
Down-on-his-luck Mike Cormack is hired to fly to a Caribbean island to retrieve a missing ruby. On the island, possibly involved with the ruby's disappearance, is his ex-girlfriend.
Director: Phil Karlson | Stars: John Payne, Mary Murphy, Francis L. Sullivan, Eduardo Noriega
Votes: 415
18. Botany Bay (1952)
Approved | 93 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In 1787, American medical student Hugh Tallant and British convicts are sent from London to New South Wales on a ship commanded by the evil Captain Gilbert.
Director: John Farrow | Stars: Alan Ladd, James Mason, Patricia Medina, Cedric Hardwicke
Votes: 575
19. Women of Devil's Island (1962)
86 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Female prisoners are shipped to Devil's Island penal colony. They are indoctrinated into the prison life from abusive guards and then a new prison governor arrives with planned reforms.
Director: Domenico Paolella | Stars: Guy Madison, Michèle Mercier, Federica Ranchi, Marisa Belli
Votes: 284
20. New Eden (1994 TV Movie)
R | 89 min | Action, Sci-Fi
Two fellow prisoners, one a renegade and another mild-mannered engineer, are released on a desert planet with barren resources. Repeatedly Kyne and Adams come into contact for a final showdown that will determine the communities fate.
Director: Alan Metzger | Stars: Stephen Baldwin, Lisa Bonet, Tobin Bell, Michael Bowen
Votes: 387
21. Adam's Woman (1970)
M | 116 min | Drama
Adam (Beau Bridges) is a young American wrongly accused of being an accomplice to murder while on shore leave in Liverpool. He is sentenced to death by hanging, but the sentence is commuted... See full summary »
Director: Philip Leacock | Stars: Beau Bridges, John Mills, Jane Merrow, James Booth
Votes: 200
22. Samar (1962)
Approved | 89 min | Adventure
In 1870, in the Spanish Philippines, the commandant of an island penal colony, aided by an American doctor and local villagers, decides to relocate his coastal camp to a fertile valley inland but the arduous trek is fraught with dangers.
Director: George Montgomery | Stars: George Montgomery, Gilbert Roland, Ziva Rodann, Joan O'Brien
Votes: 118
23. Utopia (II) (2013)
112 min | Documentary, History, News
Exploring offenses practiced by popular media, big business, police forces and Governments helping the Australian 225 year campaign of genocide continue against Aboriginal Australians.
Directors: Alan Lowery, John Pilger | Stars: John Pilger, Jon Altman, Pat Anderson, Mal Brough
Votes: 445
24. Rio (1939)
Passed | 77 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A crazed man escapes from prison to kill his wife's lover.
Director: John Brahm | Stars: Basil Rathbone, Victor McLaglen, Sigrid Gurie, Robert Cummings
Votes: 195
25. Island of Lost Souls (1974)
95 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The film version of Jose Leon Sanchez's best-selling novel about the author's 20 years of imprisonment on an island ruled by brutality.
Director: René Cardona | Stars: Mario Almada, Eric del Castillo, Wolf Ruvinskis, Alejandro Ciangherotti
Votes: 138
26. Devil's Island (1938)
Approved | 62 min | Drama, Thriller
Unjustly condemned to Devil's Island and condemned to death, Dr. Gaudet's life is spared when his surgical skills save the life of the commandant's daughter.
Director: William Clemens | Stars: Boris Karloff, Nedda Harrigan, James Stephenson, Adia Kuznetzoff
Votes: 624
27. Grepor Butch Belgica Story (1995)
110 min | Action
Director: Toto Natividad | Stars: Joko Diaz, Ronaldo Valdez, Boots Anson-Roa, Albert Martinez
Votes: 33
28. Caccia all'uomo (1948)
86 min | Drama
Jean Valjean, pursued through the years for a minor infraction by the implacable policeman Javert, attempts to create a life for himself and for his adopted daughter Cosette amid the ... See full summary »
Director: Riccardo Freda | Stars: Gino Cervi, Valentina Cortese, Hans Hinrich, Luigi Pavese
Votes: 169
29. L'affaire Dreyfus (1899)
13 min | Short, Biography, Drama
Dramatized re-enactments of the events of the Dreyfus-affair from 1894 to 1899.
Director: Georges Méliès | Star: Georges Méliès
Votes: 704
30. Prestige (1931)
Passed | 71 min | Adventure, Drama
A woman travels to a French penal colony in Indochina to be with her fiancé, the commander, but when she arrives she discovers that he is now an alcoholic.
Director: Tay Garnett | Stars: Ann Harding, Adolphe Menjou, Melvyn Douglas, Ian Maclaren
Votes: 294
31. The Little Convict (1979)
77 min | Animation, Drama, Family
After failing to sell any of his paintings at a funfair, an artist begins to tell his granddaughter about the origins of his paintings. We are then transported on board a British convict ... See full summary »
Director: Yoram Gross | Stars: Rolf Harris, Paul Bertram, Ronald Falk, Gary Files
Votes: 97
32. Escape from Devil's Island (1935)
Approved | 64 min | Drama, Romance
Johanna Harrington waits eagerly at her cottage on the edge of the jungle that flanks the Devil's Island penal colony for the arrival of her father Steve Garrington, her sweetheart Dario, ... See full summary »
Director: Albert S. Rogell | Stars: Victor Jory, Florence Rice, Norman Foster, Stanley Andrews
Votes: 27
33. Isle of Missing Men (1942)
Approved | 67 min | Drama, Romance
A penal colony governor invites a ravishing blond vagabond to join him for a week on his island prison grounds, unaware that she has manipulated their meeting for ulterior motives.
Director: Richard Oswald | Stars: John Howard, Helen Gilbert, Gilbert Roland, Alan Mowbray
Votes: 178
34. The Penal Colony (1970)
75 min | Drama
A journalist arrives on the Latin American island of Captiva, where a dictatorial President rules capriciously over a society that seems to consist mainly of males in military uniform, speaking a polyglot language.
Director: Raúl Ruiz | Stars: Mónica Echeverría, Luis Alarcón, Aníbal Reyna, Nelson Villagra
Votes: 71
35. L'affaire Seznec (1993 TV Movie)
196 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Director: Yves Boisset | Stars: Christophe Malavoy, Nathalie Roussel, Madeleine Robinson, Jean Yanne
Votes: 72
36. The Making of 'Escape from Absolom' (1994 TV Special)
29 min | Documentary, Short, Action
Stars: John Bowring, Allan Cameron, Martin Campbell, Don Henderson
37. Jean Galmot, aventurier (1990)
135 min | Biography, Drama, History
Director: Alain Maline | Stars: Christophe Malavoy, Roger Hanin, Désirée Nosbusch, Jean-Michel Martial
Votes: 131
38. For the Term of His Natural Life (1927)
101 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
A convict, wrongfully accused and sent a harsh prison colony, attempts to escape.
Director: Norman Dawn | Stars: George Fisher, Eva Novak, Dunstan Webb, Jessica Harcourt
Votes: 130
39. Patmos (1985)
Not Rated | 72 min | Drama, History
The elderly apostle John lives as a prisoner in the penal colony on the island of Patmos, where he gets inspiration to write the Book of Revelation.
Director: Jimmy Murphy | Stars: Louis Rolston, Mark Mulholland, Joe McPartland, John Hewitt
Votes: 37
40. Autour d'une évasion (1934)
65 min | Drama
Directors: César Silvagni, Jacques B. Brunius, Gaston Chelle | Stars: Eugène Dieudonné, Floryse
41. Dreyfus Put in Irons (1899)
1 min | Short, Biography
Captain Dreyfus is placed in leg irons as a dramatization of the events surrounding the Dreyfus Affair, an actual historic event.
Director: Georges Méliès
Votes: 262
42. The Lovers of Manon Lescout (1954)
92 min | Drama, Romance
In the reign of King Louis XV, a handsome student, Des Grieux, meets his charming cousin Manon just when she goes to the convent of Amiens to take the veil.
Director: Mario Costa | Stars: Myriam Bru, Franco Interlenghi, Roger Pigaut, Marisa Merlini
Votes: 24
43. Captain Mephisto and the Transformation Machine (1966 TV Movie)
Approved | 100 min | Sci-Fi
Truncated feature version of the serial 'Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945)', in which Captain Mephisto attempts to take over the world's supply of a valuable ore.
Directors: Spencer Gordon Bennet, Yakima Canutt, Wallace Grissell | Stars: Richard Bailey, Linda Stirling, Roy Barcroft, Kenne Duncan
Votes: 19
44. Îles du diable - L'archipel des mondes perdus (2001 TV Movie)
58 min | Documentary, History
Imagine the prison of Alcatraz, only 10 times worse, built on tropical, hellish and deadly islands, lost to the rest of the world. Three tiny castaway islands rise away from the coast of ... See full summary »
Director: Jean-Christophe Jeauffre | Stars: Jean-Christophe Jeauffre, Frédéric Dieudonné, Jean Galfione, Christopher Lee
Votes: 41
45. K (2002)
85 min | Drama, Fantasy
Three stories. We see, but little is explained. In "The Married Couple," a salesman pays a call on an old customer who is with his wife in the upstairs bedroom of their ill adult son. ... See full summary »
Director: Shoja Azari | Stars: Oz Phillips, Shoja Azari, Shirin Neshat, Mohammad Ghaffari
Votes: 99
46. Escape from Absolom: Featurette (1994 Video)
7 min | Short, Action, Adventure
Stars: Allan Cameron, Martin Campbell, Don Henderson, Gale Anne Hurd
47. First Continuum
Sci-Fi, Thriller | Announced
In the far future an assassin decides the fate of the universe.
48. Devil's Island - Within the Palisade (1899)
1 min | Short
Former Captain Alfred Dreyfus paces in his prison, in a dramatization of the events surrounding the Dreyfus Affair, an actual historic event.
Director: Georges Méliès
Votes: 270
49. Framed (1927)
60 min | Drama
Captain Hilaire is wrongfully court martialed by the French Army. He Goes to Brazil where he is hired as a foreman in a Diamond mine. There, he falls in love with Diane, the boss's daughter... See full summary »
Director: Charles Brabin | Stars: Milton Sills, Natalie Kingston, E.J. Ratcliffe, Charles K. Gerrard
50. Fortress 2: Re-Entry - Behind the Scenes Featurette (2000 Video)
4 min | Documentary, Short, Action
Stars: Liz May Brice, John Flock, Willie Garson, Pam Grier