Movies like Midnight Express

If you like "Midnight Express" you are looking for disturbing, realistic and suspense movies about / with prison, torture, brutality, injustice, lawyer, escape and drug themes of Biography, Crime and Drama genre shot in UK or USA.
Find your next favorite and similar movies in two steps: 1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below). 2. Look for them in the presented list.
Midnight Express (1978)
 7.5
 88K
Midnight Express (1978)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 121 min.
Story: Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of Turkey. The Turkish 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".
Style: disturbing, realistic, suspense, depressing, psychological, serious, tense, controversial, bleak, funny ...
Plot: prison, torture, brutality, injustice, lawyer, escape, drug, court, escape attempt, trial, prison break, jail, convict, justice, drug smuggling, violent, great ending, revenge, female nudity, prisoner, biopic, airport, hashish, prison life, lgbt ...
Time: 70s, 20th century, year 1978, year 1975, year 1972, year 1970, year 1974
Place: turkey, greece, istanbul turkey, brooklyn new york city
Keyword: oldies, american, french, peacock, visit, gangsters, eye candy

Movie in categories

Most similar movies to Midnight Express

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out serious, realistic, suspense and psychological films with plots about prison, violence, murder, prisoner, biopic, beating and jail mostly in Drama, Crime and Biography genres. Some movies like Midnight Express: Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Cape Fear (1991), Brubaker (1980), Papillon (2017), A Prayer Before Dawn (2017). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Genre: Action, Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min.
Story: Escape from Alcatraz tells the story of the only three men ever to escape from the infamous maximum security prison at Alcatraz. In 29 years, the seemingly impenetrable federal penitentiary, which housed Al Capone and "Birdman" Robert ...
Style: suspense, atmospheric, suspenseful, realistic, exciting ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: prison, prison escape, alcatraz, escape, island, prison life, freedom, prison warden, harassment, jail, convict, prison guard ...
Time: 20th century, 60s, year 1979, year 1960, year 1962 ...
Place: san francisco, bay area, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.3
 215K
Cape Fear (1991)
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min.
Story: Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? Fourteen years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a ...
Style: psychological, suspenseful, neo noir, tense, suspense ...
Plot: rape, fear, lawyer, family in danger, psychology, violence, serial killer, dangerous attraction, revenge, prison, rapist, psychopath ...
Time: 90s, 20th century, year 1991
Place: north carolina, georgia, florida, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story: A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
Style: psychological, suspense, suspenseful, bleak, rough ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: serial killer, maniac, serial murder, death penalty, violence, killer as protagonist, ted bundy, murder, police investigation, serial killer as protagonist, prison, true crime ...
Time: 70s, year 2019, 80s, year 1969, year 1978 ...
Place: usa, seattle, cincinnati ohio
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.1
 19K
Brubaker (1980)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min.
Story: The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.
Style: realistic, factual, suspense, harsh, serious ...
Audience: family friendly
Plot: prison, corruption, prison warden, prison escape, abuse of power, undercover, brutality, fighting the system, abuse, justice, liberal, murder ...
Time: 20th century, 80s, 60s
Place: louisiana, arkansas, southern usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
realistic movies
29790
suspense movies
20963
escape movies
5360
drug movies
4224
 7.2
 85K
Papillon (2017)
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA, Czech Republic, Spain
Duration: 133 min.
Story: Henri "Papillon" Charrière is convicted in Paris for a murder he did not commit. Sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, he becomes obsessed with escaping. After planning and executing a series of treacherous ...
Style: suspense, factual, psychological, art house, homoerotic ...
Audience: adult
Plot: prison, prison escape, island prison, friendship, life sentence, escape, thief, solitary, survival, wrongful conviction, human spirit, jungle ...
Time: year 2017, year 1931, 1930s, year 1969, year 1970 ...
Place: south america, colombia, france, venezuela, paris france
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
A Prayer Before Dawn (2017)
Genre: Action, Biography, Crime, Drama, Sport
Country: UK, France, China, Cambodia, USA, Germany
Duration: 116 min.
Story: Based on the true life experience of Billy Moore who survived his Thai prison ordeal by becoming a Muay Thai boxing champion.
Style: exciting, suspenseful, tense, captivating, suspense ...
Plot: prison, boxing, male rape, prison rape, male nudity, brutality, friendship, boxing match, violence, tattoo, suicide, martial arts ...
Time: year 2017, 2000s, year 2010
Place: bangkok thailand, thailand
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.4
 83K
Felon (2008)
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min.
Story: A family man convicted of killing an intruder must cope with life afterward in the violent penal system.
Style: brutal, realistic, tense, emotional, serious ...
Audience: date night, boys' night
Plot: prison, fighting the system, prison life, prison riot, life is a bitch, prison escape, prison gang, organized crime, life turned upside down, rivalry, murder, brutality ...
Time: year 2008, 21st century
Place: usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Murder in the First (1995)
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, France
Duration: 122 min.
Story: Inspired by a true story. A petty criminal sent to Alcatraz in the 1930s is caught attempting to make an escape. As punishment he is put in solitary confinement. The maximum stay is supposed to be 19 days, but Henri spends years alone, cold and in ...
Style: dramatic, suspense, emotional, depressing, period piece ...
Plot: prison, courtroom, alcatraz, lawyer, courtroom drama, court, legal, justice, murder, escape attempt, prisoner, politics ...
Time: 1940s, 1930s, 20th century, year 1941, year 1938
Place: san francisco, bay area, california, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
depressing movies
1828
70s movies
70s
4539
court movies
2019
 7.6
 102K
The Hurricane (1999)
Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA
Duration: 146 min.
Story: The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
Style: thought provoking, touching, inspirational, factual, motivational ...
Plot: prison, boxing, racism, courtroom, prison life, legal, death penalty, injustice, justice, biopic, african american, discrimination ...
Time: 20th century, 60s, 70s, 80s, 1940s ...
Place: new jersey, africa, toronto ontario canada, canada
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 142 min.
Story: Framed 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, ...
Style: clever, inspirational, touching, sentimental, twist ending ...
Audience: date night, kids, chick flick, teens, family friendly ...
Plot: prison, prison escape, freedom, human spirit, hopes, stephen king, life, friendship between men, friendship, plot twist, life philosophy, adaptation ...
Time: 1940s, 90s, 1950s, 2010s, year 1994 ...
Place: usa, america, iran, persia, pacific ocean ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
75%
 7.8
 102K
A Prophet (2009)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 155 min.
Story: Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) 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 ...
Style: harsh, tense, bleak, rough, atmospheric ...
Audience: manly, boys' night
Plot: prison, mafia, gangster, prison life, cruelty, organized crime, coming of age, prison gang, racial slur, jail, guilt, respect ...
Time: year 2009, 2000s, year 2010, 90s, 21st century
Place: france, europe, paris france, marseille
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 8.0
 138K
Papillon (1973)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 151 min.
Story: 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.
Style: inspirational, psychological, grim, realistic, depressing ...
Plot: prison escape, prison, escape, life philosophy, runaway, human spirit, prisoner, escape attempt, brutality, prison break, prison life, criminal heroes ...
Time: year 1973, 1940s, 20th century, 1930s
Place: persia, latin america, atlantic ocean
⇓ similarity ⇓
33%
 7.5
 237K
Sleepers (1996)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 147 min.
Story: Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.
Style: disturbing, sadistic, harsh, suspenseful, suspense ...
Audience: family friendly, teens, teen drama
Plot: lawyer, courtroom drama, child abuse, vengeance, friendship, childhood, rape, sexual abuse, haunted by the past, pedophilia, pedophile, murder trial ...
Time: 90s, 60s, 20th century, 80s
Place: new york, usa, madison square garden manhattan new york city, manhattan new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.7
 134K
Serpico (1973)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy, USA
Duration: 130 min.
Story: The real-life struggle of an honest New York City cop against a corrupt system.
Style: suspense, realistic, serious, neo noir, psychological ...
Audience: date night
Plot: police corruption, corruption, fighting the system, police, whistleblower, undercover cop, police investigation, corrupt cop, mafia, social decay, biopic, life is a bitch ...
Time: 70s, 20th century, year 1973, 60s
Place: new york, usa, manhattan new york city, greenwich village manhattan new york city, bronx new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.0
 140K
Bronson (2008)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: UK, Denmark
Duration: 92 min.
Story: 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.
Style: surreal, stylized, harsh, bloody, realistic ...
Audience: manly, boys' night, adult
Plot: prison, mental illness, prison life, male nudity, violence, society, violence spree, jail, fistfight, crime gone awry, violent, brutality ...
Time: year 2008, 2000s, 20th century, 70s, 80s ...
Place: england, britain, europe, united kingdom
⇓ similarity ⇓
50%
 7.2
 46K
Conviction (2010)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: Switzerland, UK, USA
Duration: 107 min.
Story: When Betty Anne Waters' older brother Kenny is arrested for murder and sentenced to life in 1983, Betty Anne, a Massachusetts wife and mother of two, dedicates her life to overturning the murder conviction. Convinced that her brother is ...
Style: emotional, sincere, touching, inspirational, sad ...
Audience: family friendly, adult
Plot: lawyer, legal, courtroom drama, trial, fighting the system, prison, injustice, false accusation, court, strong female character, freedom, hopes ...
Time: 20th century, 90s, year 1995, year 1992, year 2001 ...
Place: massachusetts, rhode island, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min.
Story: This film is based on the actual events that took place in 1971 when Stanford professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo created what became one of the most shocking and famous social experiments of all time.
Style: disturbing, thought provoking, psychological, serious, realistic ...
Plot: psychology, prison, experiment, human experiment, social experiment, human nature, university, prison escape, teachers and students, character study, student, disorder ...
Time: 20th century, 70s, 2010s
Place: usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Dead Man Walking (1995)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 122 min.
Story: A justice drama based on a true story about a man on death row who in his last days forms a strong relationship with a nun who teaches him forgiveness and gives him spirituality as she accompanies him to his execution.
Style: touching, thought provoking, sad, emotional, atmospheric ...
Plot: prison, death row, death penalty, nun, rape, court, death sentence, murder, confession, lethal injection, execution, justice ...
Time: 20th century, year 1995, 90s
Place: louisiana, new orleans, united kingdom, southern usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
 7.2
 17K
Bad Boys (1983)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min.
Story: 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 ...
Style: neo noir, suspense, realistic, disturbing, serious ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: prison, teenager, youth, juvenile delinquency, violence, bullying, gangster, rivalry, brat pack, confined, society, gang war ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: chicago, usa, illinois
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.6
 75K
Just Mercy (2019)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 137 min.
Story: The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights ...
Style: tense, suspense, disturbing, suspenseful, touching ...
Audience: family friendly
Plot: lawyer, courtroom, death penalty, injustice, false accusation of murder, defense attorney, african american, perjury, prison, murder, innocence, death row ...
Time: year 1987, 2010s, 80s, year 2019, year 1993 ...
Place: alabama
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Mauritanian (2021)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 129 min.
Story: A detainee at the U.S military's Guantanamo Bay detention center is held without charges for over a decade and seeks help from a defense attorney for his release.
Style: thought provoking, suspense, captivating, tense, disturbing ...
Plot: lawyer, courtroom, islamic terrorism, al qaeda, prisoner, american politics, brutality, prison, torture, american imperialism, war on terror, imprisonment ...
Time: year 2002, year 2003, year 2001, year 2005, year 1990 ...
Place: north africa, jordan, hamburg germany, germany, baltimore ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
67%
True History of the Kelly Gang (2019)
Genre: Action, Biography, Crime, Drama, Western
Country: Australia, UK, France
Duration: 124 min.
Story: Set against the badlands of colonial Australia where the English rule with a bloody fist and the Irish endure, Ned Kelly discovers he comes from a line of Irish rebels—an uncompromising army of cross dressing bandits immortalised for terrorising ...
Style: psychological, bleak, tense, cult classic, art house ...
Plot: raped woman, chase, criminal, fight, gang, criminal gang, murder, police officer, revenge, death, true crime, kidnapping ...
Time: 19th century, victorian era, 1870s, 1880s
Place: australia, united kingdom, oceania
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Killer: A Journal of Murder (1995)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story: Carl Panzram is sent to Leavenworth Prison for burglary. While there, he is brutally beaten by a guard. Neophyte guard Henry Lesser feels sympathy for Panzram, befriends him, and gets him to write his life story. Lesser learns that Panzram's ...
Style: disturbing, serious, realistic, rough, bleak ...
Plot: serial killer, death row, prison rape, prison, murder, killer, true crime, drinking, prisoner, corruption, chase, brutality ...
Time: 1930s, 1920s, 20th century
Place: rhode island, minnesota
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
Movie in collections
 7.5
 73K
Hunger (2008)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, Ireland
Duration: 96 min.
Story: The story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike in which Republican prisoners tried to win political status. It dramatises events in the Maze prison in the six weeks prior to Sands’ death.
Style: disturbing, bleak, political, sincere, depressing ...
Plot: prison, prison life, ira, suicide, dying, rebellion, idealism, police brutality, resistance, suffering, nudity, male nudity ...
Time: 20th century, year 2008, 90s, 2000s, year 1981 ...
Place: ireland, northern ireland, london, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
In the Name of the Father (1993)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: Ireland, UK
Duration: 133 min.
Story: A small time thief from Belfast, Gerry Conlon, is falsely implicated in the IRA bombing of a pub that kills several people while he is in London. He and his four friends are coerced by British police into confessing their guilt. Gerry's father ...
Style: political, sentimental, inspirational, dramatic, factual ...
Plot: prison, terrorist, lawyer, father son relationship, courtroom, terrorism, trial, biopic, legal, justice, politics, courtroom drama ...
Time: 20th century, 90s, year 1993, 80s, 70s
Place: ireland, northern ireland, england, britain, nepal ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
 7.5
 274K
Blow (2001)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min.
Story: A boy named George Jung grows up in a struggling family in the 1950's. His mother nags at her husband as he is trying to make a living for the family. It is finally revealed that George's father cannot make a living and the family goes ...
Style: depressing, touching, emotional, serious, epic ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: drug addiction, drug lord, drug abuse, drug dealing, friendship, drug, drug dealer, drug cartel, rise and fall, addiction, gangster, drug use ...
Time: 70s, year 2001, 20th century, 80s, near future ...
Place: latin america, colombia, california, mexico, usa ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
 7.3
 161K
Monster (2003)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Germany
Duration: 109 min.
Story: Aileen Wuornos is an emotionally scarred highway hooker who shoots a sadistic trick who rapes her and ultimately becomes America's first female serial killer.
Style: bleak, disturbing, psychological, depressing, emotional ...
Audience: chick flick, date night, teens, adult
Plot: serial killer, lesbian, homeless, prostitute, lesbian love, mental illness, rape, female serial killer, murder, borderline personality disorder, gay, couples ...
Time: year 2003, 20th century, 80s, 2000s, 90s
Place: florida, usa, michigan, miami, ohio
⇓ similarity ⇓
50%
 8.7
 1.2M
Goodfellas (1990)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 145 min.
Story: The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
Style: rough, suspense, realistic, epic, brutal ...
Audience: boys' night, adult
Plot: organized crime, mafia, gangster, rise and fall, mobster, cosa nostra, mentor, criminal, badass, friends, italian mafia, biopic ...
Time: 70s, 50s, 90s, year 1990, year 1970 ...
Place: new york, brooklyn new york city, italy, florida, usa ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
22%
Criminal Lovers (1999)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 96 min.
Story: After a perverted impulse drives them to kill, Alice and her boyfriend, Luc, drag the body into the woods, only to find themselves hopelessly lost – much like the fairy-tale plight of Hansel and Gretel. Starving and with no hope of being found, ...
Style: disturbing, psychological, serious, suspenseful, rough ...
Plot: lovers on the run, couples, murder, lgbt, youth, confined, mind game, psychopath, hostage, sexual manipulation, teenage life, violence ...
Time: 90s
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.7
 96K
The Experiment (2001)
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: Germany
Duration: 120 min.
Story: Das Experiment is a shocking psycho thriller about the potential for brutality that humans hide. Even more shocking is the fact that it’s based on an actual occurrence—a 1971 psychological experiment at Stanford University that was aborted ...
Style: psychological, thought provoking, disturbing, rough, suspense ...
Plot: experiment, prison, torture, aggression, psychology, social experiment, isolation, degradation, abuse, sociology, violence, survival ...
Time: year 2001, 70s, year 2002, 21st century
Place: germany, canada
⇓ similarity ⇓
50%
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