Top 250 Movies Like Life After Lock Up

A list of the best movies similar to Life After Lock Up. If you liked Life After Lock Up then you may also like: You Can't Get Away with Murder, Women in Cages, Night Zoo, The Nihilists, Racing for Time and many more great movies featured on this list.

Life After Lock-Up follows a year in the lives of ex-offenders as they're released from prison and attempt to reintegrate into society.

You Can't Get Away with Murder

Johnnie learns crime from petty thug Frank Wilson. When Wilson kills a pawnbroker with a gun stolen from Johnnie's sister Madge's fiance Fred Burke, Fred goes to Sing Sing's death house. Wilson uses all the pressure can to keep Johnnie silent, even after he and Johnnie themselves wind up in the big house.

Women in Cages

Carol Jeffries is a naive American woman staying in the Philippines. She is given ten years in prison after being set up by her drug-dealer boyfriend, Rudy. She endures the harsh conditions, sadistic head matron and attempts on her life, then convinces her cell-mates to try to escape with her through the jungle, in spite of the knowledge that ruthless trackers will be sent out after them.

Night Zoo

Marcel, recently released from prison, attempt to rebuild his relationship with his girlfriend Julie (now a prostitute) and especially his father Albert (who thinks he's been away on a long trip abroad), while being pursued by two corrupt cops (one of whom bears a longstanding grudge against him) for drug money he's alleged to possess.

The Nihilists

A happy Russian family is broken up when their patriarch is arrested for treason. His distraught wife joins the secret society of nihilists and is assigned to commit an act of terror. Based on the play "Vera; or, The Nihilists" by Oscar Wilde.

Racing for Time

Cleveland 'Stack' Stackhouse is a guard with the Texas Correctional Youth Authority who witnesses the cycle of destructive choices and racial tensions among female teen offenders and decides to do something about it. He gathers African-American, Latina and Caucasian teens, and organizes a multi-racial track team behind the bars of the prison. Participation in Stack's track team not only breaks down the racial divides between the girls, but puts them on a path to turn their lives around.

Reform School Girl

Donna is sent to a reform school to take the fall for bad boy Vince. Inside, she makes friends and learns about herself.

The Rescue

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.

Rhymes for Young Ghouls

In 1976, a Mi'gMaq teenager plots revenge against the sadistic Indian agent who imprisoned her in a residential school where rape and abuse are common.

The Running Man

By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where “runners” attempt to evade “stalkers” and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free.

Jailbait

Randy commits a crime that would normally get him probation and a hefty fine, but in the "three-strikes" world of justice, he finds himself locked up for 25 years. His cellmate Jake is a congenial yet remorseless lifer who casually informs Randy that he slit his wife's throat because she slept with another man just three months after they exchanged vows. Jake recognizes Randy's fear and offers him advice on how to make it in prison. But it soon becomes clear that Jake has much more than mentoring in mind as he takes Randy under his wing. "Jailbait" sets a darkly cerebral tone, juxtaposing brutality with the unattainable ideal of intimacy in the harshest of psychological environments. For these two men so yearning to be anything but who they are and where they are, power is the goal, and it's never clear who truly holds it right up to the last unsettling moment

Against the Wall

In 1971, a warden at Attica Penitentiary is caught up in a hostage crisis when inmates take over the prison to demand better living conditions.

Animal

His name: infamous. His reputation: ruthless. But when James "Animal"Allen is locked up in a maximum security prison, he meets a revolutionary who changes his life. Now a reformed man, James is released only to find that his own son has assumed a life of crime and violence. Can a father haunted by his past redeem his family from the very streets he created, or will he be forced to make the ultimate sacrifice?

Attica

Acclaimed dramatization recreating the incidents surrounding the 1971 revolt in New York's Attica State Prison that lasted for 23 days and resulted in the greatest casualty toll between Americans since the Civil War.

The Big House

Convicted of manslaughter for a drunken driving accident, Kent Marlowe is sent to prison, where he meets vicious incarcerated figures who are planning an escape from the brutal conditions.

Bronson

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.

Cadence

As punishment for drunken, rebellious behavior, a young white soldier is thrown into a stockade populated entirely by black inmates. But instead of falling victim to racial hatred, the soldier joins forces with his fellow prisoners and rises up against the insanely tyrannical and bigoted prison warden.

Caged Heat

A young woman is convicted on drug offenses and sent to a women's penitentiary run by a repressed and oppressive female warden. When the prison's sadistic doctor begins conducting illegal "therapeutic" experiments on the inmates, the ladies plot their revenge.

The Great Escape

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

Midnight Express

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".

Papillon

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.

Escape from New York

In the future, crime is out of control and New York City's Manhattan is a maximum security prison. Grabbing a bargaining chip right out of the air, convicts bring down the President's plane in bad old Gotham. Gruff Snake Plissken, a one-eyed lone warrior new to prison life, is coerced into bringing the President, and his cargo, out of this land of undesirables.

The Informer

In New York, former convict Pete Koslow, related to the Polish mafia, must deal with both Klimek the General, his ruthless boss, and the twisted ambitions of two federal agents, as he tries to survive and protect the lives of his loved ones.

Escape from Alcatraz

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.

Fortress 2

7 years on from the original Fortress movie, Brennick and his family are still on the run. Finally, they give in, and surrender, only to find themselves imprisoned in a new, more sophisticated fortress prison in outer space. But Brennick's not a man to give in easily, and with a 10 year old son waiting for him back on earth, he's going to pack some serious assault on the evil corporation.

The Big Doll House

Female prisoners in a Phillippine jail are being subjected to sadistic torture. Five of the women--along with the help of two men--plot an escape.

Most Dangerous Man Alive

An escaped, but framed, prisoner escapes prison during a cobalt explosion and soon discovers he has grown a special power that makes his body impervious to everything. Learning this, he seeks vengeance on the bad guys who framed him for jail.

Crown Heights

When Colin Warner was wrongfully convicted of murder, his best friend Carl King devoted his life to proving his innocence.

The Last Detail

Two Navy men are ordered to bring a young offender to prison, but decide to show him one last good time along the way.

The McKenzie Break

A German U-Boat commander and 600 prisoners plan a daring escape from a PoW camp in Scotland.

Lock Up

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.

Dog Pound

Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.

The Escapist

Frank Perry is an institutionalized convict twelve years into a life sentence without parole. When his estranged daughter falls ill, he is determined to make peace with her before it's too late. He develops an ingenious escape plan, and recruits a dysfunctional band of escapists - misfits with a mutual dislike for one other but united by their desire to escape their hell hole of an existence.

Everyday

This film charts the relationship between a man imprisoned for drug smuggling and his wife and is being shot over the course of five years, a few weeks at a time.

The Experiment

20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.

Fire with Fire

A young woman from a Catholic school and a young man from a nearby prison camp fall in love and run away together to escape the law, the church and their parents.

Flesh and Blood

Mixing fiction and reality, filmmaker Mark Webber tells the story of a man who returns home from prison and attempts to rebuild his life in his impoverished Philadelphia neighborhood.

Fools' Parade

When a trio of ex-convicts led by Mattie Appleyard is released from prison, they hope to open a general store using money Mattie has saved during his 40-year sentence. This attempt is met with great resistance from a corrupt prison official and the banker who issued Mattie the check.

Franklyn

Set between the parallel worlds of contemporary London and the futuristic faith dominated metropolis of Meanwhile City, Franklyn weaves a tale of four souls, whose lives are intertwined by fate, romance and tragedy. As these worlds collide, a single bullet determines the destiny of these four characters.

Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder

Leela becomes an outlaw when she and a group of ecologically-minded feminists attempt to save an asteroid of primitive life forms and the Violet Dwarf star from being destroyed, while Fry joins a secret society and attempts to stop a mysterious species known as the "Dark Ones" from destroying all life in the universe.

The Glass House

Adapted from a story by Truman Capote ("In Cold Blood"), the world of the prison convict is open to the viewer. As the story develops, one thing becomes clear. As in the outside world, there is a "system"; and just as on the outside, there is accommodation, honesty, cynicism, violence and all the other factors that make up our society. The film follows the three newcomers, it records the grim, terrifying, sometimes fascinating events that occur.

Caged Fury

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.

Prison Heat

Four American babes on vacation in the Middle East run into trouble when they are imprisoned by corrupt army officials and that's where the fun begins.

Life

Two men in 1930s Mississippi become friends after being sentenced to life in prison together for a crime they did not commit.

Maze

Inspired by the true events of the infamous 1983 prison breakout of 38 IRA prisoners from HMP Maze, which was to become the biggest prison escape in Europe since World War II.

Murder in the First

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 complete darkness, only to emerge a madman and soon to be a murderer. The story follows a rookie lawyer attempting to prove that Alcatraz was to blame.

Paradise Road

A group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women creates a vocal orchestra while being imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp on Sumatra during World War II.

Prison Song

Elijah has been bounced from group home to group home throughout his turbulent young life. What has sustained him is his art. After a promised scholarship is taken away, Elijah ends up in a fight that result in the death of another boy. Now, sentenced to a minimum of fifteen years, the young man must find a way to keep his soul alive behind bars or turn into a hardened bitter criminal.

SGT. Will Gardner

A troubled Iraq War veteran struggling to reintegrate into society sets out on a cross-country journey with the hope of reuniting with his young son.

Division 19

In 2039, jails have been turned into online portals where the public gets to choose what prisoners eat, wear, watch and who they fight. So successful is Panopticon TV, it is about to be rolled out to a whole town, providing subscribers even more choice.

Master Spy

Boris Turganev (Murray) is a Russian scientist who has absconded from a Communist prison in an attempt to achieve a better life working for the British. As Boris struggles to make his superiors believe he is there to work and not to spy for the Russians, an office romance blossoms that could put his mission in jeopardy.

Moon Child

Moon Child follows a group of childhood friends as they advance in a futuristic criminal underworld. Sho feels he is doomed to walk in his idol Kei's footsteps as a vampire with the gift of eternal life and the curse of blood thirst. Over time, their tight friendship becomes corrupted because of their rivalry and love for the same woman.

Carbine Williams

David Marshall Williams is sent to a prison farm where he works in the tool shop and eventually develops the precursor of the famous M-1 Carbine automatic rifle used in World War II.

Infinity Chamber

A man trapped in an automated prison must outsmart a computer in order to escape and try and find his way back to the outside world that may already be wiped out.

Cyanide

Thirteen years old Achille is waiting for his father to return from prison. Will everything go as planned and could the family survive?

Stuart: A Life Backwards

Story about the remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer and illustrator and a chaotic homeless man, whom he gets to know during a campaign to release two charity workers from prison.

Stoic

A heated game of poker causes three men incarcerated for nonviolent offenses to brutalize their cellmate before taking drastic measures in order to cover up their crime.

Drop Squad

Controversial film about an underground organization that kidnaps and 'deprograms' African Americans who sell out or deny their cultural heritage. Spike Lee is the Executive Producer.

Company K

Based on the popular World War I novel by author William March, director Robert Clem's COMPANY K follows a veteran of the first great conflict as he finishes a book about his wartime experiences and reflects on how a man's true character is revealed through his actions on the battlefield. From the German soldier who visits him in dreams to the camaraderie that is forged by fighting together and the true gravity of laying down your life for a greater cause, World War I veteran Joe Delaney will attempt to exorcise his demons through writing while struggling to readjust to small-town life following the trauma of war.

Blackout

John Gray, a mild-mannered banker, gets hit by a car and loses most of his memory. When he gets out of the hospital, he has flashbacks which do not fit with his current life. After a strange telephone call and a murder attempt on his wife, Gray's wife is murdered which he is forced to go to L.A. in order to solve the crime and piece together his mysterious past.

I Want to Live

The movie tells the story of a woman who struggles and fights to escape the gas chamber being condemned with capital punishment because of her participation in a hold up in which a person was killed.

Scrubbers

Inmates fight, pair off, try suicide and attempt escape at a British reform school for girls.

Fires Within

A Cuban emigre, living in Miami and involved in an affair with the American seaman who rescued her and her daughter years earlier, must face her husband after he is unexpectedly released from a Cuban prison.

Penitentiary III

A man is framed for murder and sent to prison. He is beaten and tortured, then forced to fight the prison's worst killer, a martial-arts fighting midget called Thud.

Five Thirteen

In this tension-packed thriller, brothers Mike and Tre set out in search of better lives, trying to leave their demons behind for good. After being released from prison for a crime he didn't commit, Mike's only care in the world is to protect his young daughter from an unforgiving ex. But the justice that awaits him on the streets is far worse than anything Mike had experienced in prison. His older brother Tre begrudgingly agrees to one last "delivery", attempting to free Mike and his new girlfriend from the grips of the criminal underworld. What transpires is a wild misadventure where multiple lives unknowingly intersect, and where decisions are made that will haunt everyone forever

Guilty As Charged

Rod Steiger stars as a vigilante who with the aid of his helper, Isaac Hayes, captures men who he considers evil and executes them in his homemade electric chair.

Alcatraz

A group of prisoners, led by an armed robber and a gangster, attempt to escape from the infamous Alcatraz Island.

The Advanced Guard

A group of aliens arrive on Earth as part of an advance invasion force. Their mission is to kidnap a small sample of humans and run them through a series of rigorous tests to determine if they would make suitable slaves. Harper, one of the alien experimenters, has become frustrated with her planet's endless cycle of conquest and extermination and begins to feel some sympathy for her human captives. While the prisoners see a glimmer of hope in the compassionate alien, will it be any use in stopping the enormous attack fleet just a few days from Earth?

Shot in the Heart

The story of a man coming to terms with the sins and secrets of his notorious brother and, in the process, exploring the legacy of violence in his own family.

Jacinta

An intimate portrait of mothers and daughters and the effects of trauma, Jacinta follows a young woman in and out of prison as she attempts to break free from an inherited cycle of addiction, incarceration, and crime.

House of Women

An innocent, pregnant prison inmate (Shirley Knight) becomes the bad warden's (Andrew Duggan) personal favorite.

Getting Out

Breaking out of prison with a child in her womb and a dream of a normal existence, Arlene Holsclaw (Rebecca De Mornay) resolves to get a job and lead a good, Christian life. But the ghosts from her past -- including an ex-boyfriend (Rob Knepper) who wants to pimp her out and a sadistic mother (Ellen Burstyn) who plots to take away Arlene's baby -- have other plans. This made-for-TV drama is based on Marsha Norman's off-Broadway play.

Nefarious

On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer gets a psychiatric evaluation during which he claims he is a demon, and further claims that before their time is over, the psychiatrist will commit three murders of his own.

Convicts 4

After his death sentence is commuted to life in prison, John Resko is transferred from Sing-Sing to Dannemora where, with the help of a humane prison guard, he becomes a rehabilitated man and a successful painter.

Killers Anonymous

A failed attempt to murder a Senator is connected to a group meeting secretly to discuss their darkest urges—to take lives.

Breakout

A bush pilot is hired for $50,000 to go to Mexico to free an innocent prisoner.

Dracula in a Women's Prison

Ten years after the horrific events of Werewolf in a Women's Prison, the penitentiary has a new warden with a thirst for blood. Young American Liz travels to the the third world country of Campuna to gather her sisters remains, who mysteriously passed in jail. However, anyone who dies in Campuna State Prison comes back to life under warden Drago better known as Count Dracula.

The Toughest Man in the World

Mr. T's first starring made-for-TV movie role has him playing a tough and scowling, but softhearted, nightclub bouncer who finds himself involved with a bunch of kids after being conned into taking over a youth center.

RSO: Registered Sex Offender

After serving three long years in prison, a registered sex offender returns to civilization, only to find an environment that's completely uncivilized. At the top of his list is finding a job — and getting his vindictive girlfriend to put out again.

The Bid

Loaded with a hilarious cast of comedians and internet personalities, The Bid follows Maurquis Boone and Richard “Philly Filthy Rich” Harris serving time for a crime they didn’t commit. Locked up, Boone & Rich encounter a variety of hardened, yet hilarious characters as they fight to prove their innocence and make it out the penitentiary in one piece.

Small Crimes

A disgraced former cop, fresh off a six-year prison sentence for attempted murder, returns home looking for redemption but winds up trapped in the mess he left behind.

New York

New York is a contemporary story of friendship set against the larger than life backdrop of a city often described as the centre of the world. Omar has gone abroad for the first time in his life and soon enough he begins to see and love America through the eyes of his American friends - Sam and Maya. It is the story of these three friends discovering a new world together.

The Wannabe

Based on true events, The Wannabe, a story about Thomas, a man obsessed with Mafia culture during the 1990s in New York City. When Thomas’s failed attempts to fix the trial of infamous mobster John Gotti gets him rejected by the people he idolizes most, he sets off on a drug infused crime spree with his girlfriend and longtime mob groupie, Rose, by brazenly robbing the local Mafia hangouts.

After Exile

The story of Mike Delaney who, after being released from prison for killing an innocent man after a violent robbery, must re-enter his old life where he and his ex-criminal father attempt to save his younger brother from a life of drugs and crime.

Conflicted

In the debut movie from Griselda Films, Hunter comes home from prison and attempts to get his life on the right track. Will he succeed or be dragged back into his criminal past? He is, as the title suggests, conflicted. And Michael Rapaport is in a scene.

Orthodox

Orthodox tells the story of Benjamin, an Orthodox Jewish man who alienated himself from his community by becoming a boxer. When his life took a wrong turn he ended up in prison, losing his wife and children in the process. Now he is out and desperate to reintegrate, he finds that acceptance harder than he ever imagined. He turns back to his old boxing coach thinking there he has an ally, but a truth about the past emerges which leaves him even more isolated than he once thought. Benjamin must make a choice which will effect not just his own future but the life of a young Jewish boy whose life he can relate to. He is determined not to allow history to repeat itself.

Guilt by Association

Life is good for Susan, her two children and new boyfriend Russell. But life abruptly changes when she discovers her perfect boyfriend is a drug dealer. Realising the danger this could bring to her family she tells him to leave. Suddenly her house is raided and Susan is arrested as a co-conspirator in Russell's drug business. Her situation goes from bad to worse when she finds herself behind bars with violent criminals. How will she ever prove her innocence when the system seems against her? Guilt By Association is a disturbing story based on true events.

Riot

A riot in a state prison is staged to cover up an escape attempt, during which many inmates and guards are killed. Shot on location at Arizona State Prison.

Imprisoned

Dylan Burke attempts to move on from his former life as a criminal with his true love Maria. He soon realizes that his past will continue to haunt him, when he learns the new local prison warden, Daniel Calvin, has not forgiven him for an old crime.

Bid For Love

After being injured and doing a bid in prison due to Memphis, her former drug trafficking boyfriend, Sasha comes out into the arms of Malik. Malik spoils her with gifts and gets her a job at his real estate office. However, Malik constantly uses his gifts and her past against her to keep her in his grasp. A love struck Sasha falls head over heels for Malik who slowly attempts to alienate her from her close ones and secretly plots against her. Her therapist and unexpected new friends opens her eyes to her history of relationships and gives her advice on how to deal with them and getting her life back.

Bootlegger

Mani, a master’s student, returns to the reserve in northern Quebec where she grew up. Her painful past resurfaces. Resolved to reintegrate into the community, she gets involved in the debate around a referendum on allowing the free sale of alcohol on the reserve. Laura, a bootlegger, pockets the profits she makes there under the protection of the band council and her partner Raymond. The latter is still angry with Mani, whom he holds responsible for the death of his daughter in a fire. Opposing forces quickly divide the community into two sides who face each other to determine the best path to independence.

Tomorrow

A film about soldiers trying to reintegrate into society after tours of duty.

In the Custody of Strangers

A teenage delinquent who goes on a drunken joyride is left in jail overnight by his parents in the hope that he might learn a lesson from it. But events follow which result in the boy spending far longer behind bars than anyone had foreseen.

Within These Walls

Female prisoners train dogs to aid people with disabilities in a program started by a nun (Laura Dern).

Calico Skies

Self condemned to the immense and boundless prison of the Mojave desert, Phoenix leads a life of forced isolation, living by himself in a house as far away as possible from the rest of the world. Phoenix does one thing and one thing only: he digs holes. Every month he digs a hole in the middle of nowhere and buries something. The last stronghold of society stands with the man that frequently delivers his mail. When one day the delivery doesn't happen by the hand of his trustworthy mailman, but by that of the beautiful and quizzical Ariel, Phoenix's life derails in an escalation that leads him to dangerous consequences which will be impossible to escape.

Texas '46

Based on a true story its the untold story of Italian World War II POW"S in Jan 1946. Luca Zingaretti stars as one of over 50,000 Italian Prisoners of War detained at POW camps in the U.S. Roy Schneider stars as Colonel Gartner, the Commander of the camp. Things take a turn for the worse when Manin is brought back from his most recent escape by a patrol force, only to realize that the camp has been evacuated while he was gone. Gartner is forced to keep Manin at the camp until another patrol force can come pick him up. However, no one ever comes. The phone lines get cut, and the two men realize they are completely isolated from the outside world. It is up to each man now to escape the camp.An untold and rarely known fact of US held Italian POW"S

Thousand Yard Stare

Returning home after fighting in Africa during World War II, a soldier with PTSD finds reintegrating with family life increasingly difficult as he relives the battle of Kasserine Pass.

Parallel Sons

Seth is a youth with artistic leanings, a fascination with Black pop culture, and a dead-end life in an Adirondack village. He's alternatively sensitive and brutal with Kristen, who wants a sexual relationship that he explosively rejects. Late one night, as he's closing the cafe where he works, a young Black man attempts to rob him at gun point but faints from illness. Seth takes the man, Knowledge, an escapee from a nearby prison, to a family cabin where he nurses him and they begin a tentative friendship. When the sheriff learns of Seth's harboring a fugitive, a confrontation looms. Relationships between fathers and their children dominate the subplots.

The Great Problem

A young pickpocket is taken in by an attorney who attempts to 'civilize' her.

The Double Life of My Billionaire Husband

Sebastian Klein, known to most as the illegitimate son of the prestigious Klein family, has been plagued by rumors suggesting he's nothing more than a loser who recently emerged from a stint in prison. Society, guided by these harsh tales, deemed him an undesirable match for any sensible young woman. That was until Natalie Quinn defied expectations by marrying him. Little did she realize the astonishing truth concealed beneath the surface: she had, unknowingly, wed a covert billionaire.

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