Last Updated on 20 March 2024
I searched the Internet for lists of the best prison break or prison escape movies of all time. Criteria included the movies being ranked, not just listed, and generally created by groups, whether teams or committees or based on general public voting (like Ranker.com).
I was able to find 18 lists. I took the 18 lists and added all their content into a spreadsheet, noting the rank of every film. I ended up averaging the rankings each movie got (there were 69 that were on at least 2 lists) and dividing that average by a factor of the number of lists that movie was on. The lowest score meant a high ranking average on many lists. The complete spreadsheet is attached at the bottom.
The movies that were on the most lists (out of 18) were:
- The Shawshank Redemption (1994) – 17 lists
- Escape from Alcatraz (1979) – 16 lists
- The Great Escape (1963) – 14 lists
- Papillon (1973) – 12 lists
- Midnight Express (1978) – 10 lists
Here are links to the lists I used along with dates the lists were created:
- WatchMojo – 18 Mar 2024
- Ranker – 15 Mar 2024
- Screen Rant – 2 Feb 2024
- Collider – 17 Nov 2023
- Pop Matters – 23 May 2023
- Harper’s Bazaar India – 12 Feb 2023
- Flicks UK – 14 Oct 2022
- MysteryTribune – 10 Oct 2022
- MovieWeb – 14 Mar 2022
- Cinevue – 19 Oct 2021
- CrimeReads – 5 Feb 2021
- Lehren -22 Oct 2019
- USA Today – 26 Nov 2018
- Manly Movie – 6 Jul 2016
- NZ Herald – 13 Jul 2015
- Rotten Tomatoes – 25 Mar 2011
- Flickchart – no date
- Letterboxd – no date