Top 10 Prisons in Film
Hello, Toby Gold here and welcome to another Top 10 List. Today, I will be counting down my Top 10 Prisons in Film. For this list, I have chosen cinematic slammers where life is unbearable and escape is difficult, assuming the inmates succeed in breaking out. Prison is one of my greatest fears, and I do not want to have to face it in real life. For those of you who have not seen these movies, I will issue a spoiler alert, so you have been warned. Now, let's put on our jumpsuits and begin our sentence.
10. Erewhon Prison -- Face/Off (1997)
FBI agent Sean Archer uses an experimental plastic surgery procedure to disguise himself as his nemesis, terrorist mastermind Castor Troy, and infiltrate his gang. However, Troy uses the same procedure to disguise himself as Archer and infiltrates the latter's family while Archer-as-Troy is sent to Erewhon Prison, a high-tech private prison where the Geneva Convention does not apply. Erewhon, which is an anagram for "nowhere," is a giant magnetic field with miles of water surrounding it, where the inmates wear metal boots to track their every movement. When inmates get out of line, the guards "lock them down," rendering them immobile for violent punishment and electric brain torture. However, the only time the guards take off the inmates' boots is when they fry their brains. With that knowledge, Archer-as-Troy escapes by inciting a riot, kicking a guard's head in with his boots, and jumping into the ocean to evade a law enforcement helicopter. With those boots on their feet, one might wonder how the inmates take a shower or change in and out of their jumpsuits.
9. The Tomb -- Escape Plan (2013)
Designed to be the most inescapable prison ever built, the Tomb consists of a series of transparent cells made of glass and steel illuminated by powerful halogen lights, which are used to disorient and dehydrate the prisoners. With no outside windows to indicate the aptly-named Tomb's location, escape artist Ray Breslin teams up with fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer to escape from their classified, off-the-grid prison. As Breslin and Rottmayer later find out, the Tomb is actually a massive cargo ship in the middle of the ocean, which makes escape impossible. However, Breslin convinces the prison's doctor to send a message to master criminal Victor Mannheim, aka Rottmayer himself, who sends a helicopter to the Tomb, allowing Breslin to escape. Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger may be old, but they're not people you want to mess with, especially in prison.
8. Manhattan Island -- Escape from New York (1981)
In the bleak, futuristic year of... 1997, Manhattan Island has been converted into a giant maximum-security prison in which the inmates serve life sentences, enclosed by a 50-foot wall and separated from the rest of society. In John Carpenter's false perception of the future, New York City has been devastated by nuclear war, but there is an active taxi service in the massive prison. However, escape is nearly impossible due to the bridge that serves as the only way in and out being lined with landmines. The unofficial leader of Manhattan Island is a crime boss known as the Duke, who takes the President hostage when the commander-in-chief crash-lands in the city after Air Force One is hijacked. Snake Plissken, a former Special Forces soldier turned convicted bank robber, is sent into the city to rescue the PotUS, triggering a kill-or-be-killed fight for survival in the sea of anarchy that is New York. My aunt and uncle live in 21st century New York City, but fortunately, they don't have to live amongst grotesque criminals led a tinpot Isaac Hayes.
7. Chorh-Gom Prison -- Kung Fu Panda (2008)
After being denied the Dragon Scroll, snow leopard kung fu master Tai Lung went on a rampage and tried to take the scroll by force, but Grand Master Oogway stopped him in his tracks. Tai Lung was then imprisoned in Chorh-Gom Prison, an impenetrable fortress located on the outskirts of Mongolia built specifically to hold him, guarded by an army of 1,000 Javan rhinos. With one way in, one way out, and a tortoise shell-like restraining device preventing Tai Lung from escaping, it was almost certain that escape was impossible. But wait! After learning from Oogway that his corrupted foster son will escape, Master Shifu sends Zeng, a servant at the Jade Palace, to tell Commander Vachir to double the prison's security. Ironically, this enables Tai Lung to escape, as one of Zeng's feathers gets dislodged and is used by the snow leopard to pick the lock on his restraints before using the prison's defences against the rhino guards in a brutal prison escape. Chorh-Gom Prison may be inescapable, but as Oogway said, "one often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it."
6. The Pit -- The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Talk about a literal hellhole. In an ancient part of the world, there is an underground prison where people are sent to suffer. Long ago, Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Bruce Wayne's former mentor, Ra's al Ghul, was born in the aptly-named Pit to the daughter of a warlord, who was killed by the inmates. However, Talia escaped with the help of a fellow prisoner known as Bane, who was disfigured in the process. How did she escape? Well, the entrance to the Pit is a well-like structure where inmates are free to climb out if they please. Sounds easy, right? Well, not really, because numerous attempts to escape have failed due to the large gap between the two ledges at the top of the Pit. However, the only way to successfully escape is to use adrenaline to boost the human body's capabilities to superhuman levels. The trick is to climb without using a rope, causing the fear of death to give you the adrenaline you need to jump the gap and climb out into the light. Gotham City District Attorney turned scarred vigilante Harvey Dent once said, "the night is dark just before the dawn," but he meant that figuratively, whereas his words are literal in the Pit.
5. Sunnyside Daycare -- Toy Story 3 (2010)
Daycare is a fun place for a child to be, but the 2010 Oscar-winning animated threequel Toy Story 3 portrayed a daycare centre as a nightmare. After his owner abandoned him, Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear, a depraved pink bear who smells like strawberries, took over Sunnyside Daycare and turned it into a concentration camp for toys, including Sheriff Woody and the remnants of the toy box that got the Pixar ball rolling. Sunnyside is divided into two rooms, the Caterpillar Room and the Butterfly Room. Lotso's modus operandi is to assign new toys in the Caterpillar Room, where they are subjected to rough and destructive playtime by the toddlers, while the twisted bear and his inner circle enjoy the gentle embrace of the older kids in the Butterfly Room. Now, the toys Lotso imprisons in the Caterpillar Room are not toddler-friendly, so when the toddlers have their way with them, they are thrown in the dumpster. Night is no better, as Lotso's associates patrol the hallways at night, making sure the toys stay imprisoned. When the toy inmates don't cooperate, they are sent to "the Box," a sandbox used by Lotso and his gang as a form of solitary confinement. This may sound like escape is hard, but it's actually not. In order to escape, one must incapacitate "the Monkey," a cymbal-banging monkey who monitors the daycare's security cameras and viciously screeches to alert Lotso's crew to any escape attempts. Eventually, Lotso is ousted from Sunnyside, and the daycare's resident toys then turn the place into a paradise where although they are still tortured by the toddlers, they rotate between rooms to ensure that everyone gets an equal share of playtime. At least this prison experienced some reforms.
4. The Kyln -- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
In Marvel's 2014 out-of-this-world box office hit, the scum of the galaxy are imprisoned in the Kyln, an interstellar prison facility run by an elite intergalactic police force called the Nova Corps. The Kyln is laid out similarly to a panopticon, a type of prison in which a central watch tower gives the guards a 360-degree view of all of the criminals and miscreants at once. The inmates wear yellow jumpsuits, the number of stripes on which indicate the number and type of crimes of which they have been convicted. The watchtower is powered by a Quarnyx Battery, the removal of which causes the prison to go into emergency mode. In the words of Guardian of the Galaxy and former inmate Rocket, "they call the Kyln the stomach of the prison system: No matter how good you are going in, you come out pretty freakin' bad," and given the physical appearances of many of the inmates, he's right about that.
3. Cold Mountain Penitentiary -- The Green Mile (1999)
Unlike most of the other prisons on this list, Cold Mountain Penitentiary challenges many negative stereotypes when it comes to correctional facilities. In the 1930s, John Coffey, a physically large but gentle black man, is sentenced to the facility's death row, nicknamed the "Green Mile," where he is found to possess supernatural healing powers. The facility's warden, Hal Moores, is a benevolent man compared to many portrayals of his position who allows Coffey to use his powers to cure his ailing wife. Both the guards and inmates are a sympathetic bunch, except for Percy Wetmore, a sadistic young guard who enjoys harassing the inmates, and William Wharton, a troublesome inmate whose refusal to cooperate comes to a head when he is found to have committed the crimes for which Coffey was condemned. When it comes to execution, it is done by using a sponge to conduct electricity from an electric chair to the death row inmate's head, giving them a swift and painless execution, unless the sponge is not soaked. If you have been sentenced to prison, it's better to be in the company of friendly guards and inmates compared to what Frank Darabont's other prison film based on a Stephen King novel, The Shawshank Redemption, had to offer.
2. Azkaban Prison -- Harry Potter film series (2001-2011)
The Wizarding World may be magical, but it also has its faults as a society. One of those faults is Azkaban, a fortress in the middle of the North Sea where the scum of Great Britain's magical community are imprisoned. The prison is guarded by soul-sucking wraiths known as Dementors, who feed off of human misery, causing many of the inmates to literally die of despair. After Lord Voldemort's downfall, the Ministry of Magic rounded up his followers and sentenced them to Azkaban without a trial, resulting in the wrongful conviction of Order of the Phoenix member Sirius Black. However, despite the magical defences of the prison, escape is not impossible. If you are an Animagus, a wizard or witch capable of turning into an animal at will, then you can use your animal form to sneak past the Dementors undetected. When Voldemort returned from years of incapacitation, he recruited the Dementors to his cause, allowing the Dark Lord's human followers to easily escape from the facility. Let us hope that after Voldemort's downfall, the psychological torture of Azkaban was removed and replaced with a more humane security system.
Before I reveal my top choice, here are some honourable mentions.
- Camp Green Lake -- Holes (2003)
- CryoPrison -- Demolition Man (1993)
- Shawshank State Prison -- The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- Fiorina "Fury" 161 -- Alien 3 (1992)
- Rura Penthe -- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
1. Crematoria Slam Facility -- The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
The Slam Facility on the planet Crematoria may not be Richard B. Riddick's first stint in prison, but it has got to be the most agonizing. A triple-max prison drilled into the surface of a harsh landscape, escape is impossible because the surface of the planet is incapable of supporting life, as one would be incinerated in the sunlight, or frozen to death at night. To add to that, on Crematoria, days are 52 hours long, so human inmates such as Riddick would have to evolve significantly in order to adapt to this terrifying planet. Inmates enter the facility by being transported there by a railway, then lowered into the prison, where they are free to roam around. If the prison goes into lockdown, deadly genetically engineered creatures called Hellhounds are released, which devour the inmates if they do not make it to their cells and lock the doors fast enough. Welcome to Hell.
Do you agree with my list? Which movie prison would you not want to be sentenced to? This is Toby Gold, bidding you farewell until we meet again.
10. Erewhon Prison -- Face/Off (1997)
FBI agent Sean Archer uses an experimental plastic surgery procedure to disguise himself as his nemesis, terrorist mastermind Castor Troy, and infiltrate his gang. However, Troy uses the same procedure to disguise himself as Archer and infiltrates the latter's family while Archer-as-Troy is sent to Erewhon Prison, a high-tech private prison where the Geneva Convention does not apply. Erewhon, which is an anagram for "nowhere," is a giant magnetic field with miles of water surrounding it, where the inmates wear metal boots to track their every movement. When inmates get out of line, the guards "lock them down," rendering them immobile for violent punishment and electric brain torture. However, the only time the guards take off the inmates' boots is when they fry their brains. With that knowledge, Archer-as-Troy escapes by inciting a riot, kicking a guard's head in with his boots, and jumping into the ocean to evade a law enforcement helicopter. With those boots on their feet, one might wonder how the inmates take a shower or change in and out of their jumpsuits.
9. The Tomb -- Escape Plan (2013)
Designed to be the most inescapable prison ever built, the Tomb consists of a series of transparent cells made of glass and steel illuminated by powerful halogen lights, which are used to disorient and dehydrate the prisoners. With no outside windows to indicate the aptly-named Tomb's location, escape artist Ray Breslin teams up with fellow inmate Emil Rottmayer to escape from their classified, off-the-grid prison. As Breslin and Rottmayer later find out, the Tomb is actually a massive cargo ship in the middle of the ocean, which makes escape impossible. However, Breslin convinces the prison's doctor to send a message to master criminal Victor Mannheim, aka Rottmayer himself, who sends a helicopter to the Tomb, allowing Breslin to escape. Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger may be old, but they're not people you want to mess with, especially in prison.
8. Manhattan Island -- Escape from New York (1981)
In the bleak, futuristic year of... 1997, Manhattan Island has been converted into a giant maximum-security prison in which the inmates serve life sentences, enclosed by a 50-foot wall and separated from the rest of society. In John Carpenter's false perception of the future, New York City has been devastated by nuclear war, but there is an active taxi service in the massive prison. However, escape is nearly impossible due to the bridge that serves as the only way in and out being lined with landmines. The unofficial leader of Manhattan Island is a crime boss known as the Duke, who takes the President hostage when the commander-in-chief crash-lands in the city after Air Force One is hijacked. Snake Plissken, a former Special Forces soldier turned convicted bank robber, is sent into the city to rescue the PotUS, triggering a kill-or-be-killed fight for survival in the sea of anarchy that is New York. My aunt and uncle live in 21st century New York City, but fortunately, they don't have to live amongst grotesque criminals led a tinpot Isaac Hayes.
7. Chorh-Gom Prison -- Kung Fu Panda (2008)
After being denied the Dragon Scroll, snow leopard kung fu master Tai Lung went on a rampage and tried to take the scroll by force, but Grand Master Oogway stopped him in his tracks. Tai Lung was then imprisoned in Chorh-Gom Prison, an impenetrable fortress located on the outskirts of Mongolia built specifically to hold him, guarded by an army of 1,000 Javan rhinos. With one way in, one way out, and a tortoise shell-like restraining device preventing Tai Lung from escaping, it was almost certain that escape was impossible. But wait! After learning from Oogway that his corrupted foster son will escape, Master Shifu sends Zeng, a servant at the Jade Palace, to tell Commander Vachir to double the prison's security. Ironically, this enables Tai Lung to escape, as one of Zeng's feathers gets dislodged and is used by the snow leopard to pick the lock on his restraints before using the prison's defences against the rhino guards in a brutal prison escape. Chorh-Gom Prison may be inescapable, but as Oogway said, "one often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it."
6. The Pit -- The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
Talk about a literal hellhole. In an ancient part of the world, there is an underground prison where people are sent to suffer. Long ago, Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Bruce Wayne's former mentor, Ra's al Ghul, was born in the aptly-named Pit to the daughter of a warlord, who was killed by the inmates. However, Talia escaped with the help of a fellow prisoner known as Bane, who was disfigured in the process. How did she escape? Well, the entrance to the Pit is a well-like structure where inmates are free to climb out if they please. Sounds easy, right? Well, not really, because numerous attempts to escape have failed due to the large gap between the two ledges at the top of the Pit. However, the only way to successfully escape is to use adrenaline to boost the human body's capabilities to superhuman levels. The trick is to climb without using a rope, causing the fear of death to give you the adrenaline you need to jump the gap and climb out into the light. Gotham City District Attorney turned scarred vigilante Harvey Dent once said, "the night is dark just before the dawn," but he meant that figuratively, whereas his words are literal in the Pit.
5. Sunnyside Daycare -- Toy Story 3 (2010)
Daycare is a fun place for a child to be, but the 2010 Oscar-winning animated threequel Toy Story 3 portrayed a daycare centre as a nightmare. After his owner abandoned him, Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear, a depraved pink bear who smells like strawberries, took over Sunnyside Daycare and turned it into a concentration camp for toys, including Sheriff Woody and the remnants of the toy box that got the Pixar ball rolling. Sunnyside is divided into two rooms, the Caterpillar Room and the Butterfly Room. Lotso's modus operandi is to assign new toys in the Caterpillar Room, where they are subjected to rough and destructive playtime by the toddlers, while the twisted bear and his inner circle enjoy the gentle embrace of the older kids in the Butterfly Room. Now, the toys Lotso imprisons in the Caterpillar Room are not toddler-friendly, so when the toddlers have their way with them, they are thrown in the dumpster. Night is no better, as Lotso's associates patrol the hallways at night, making sure the toys stay imprisoned. When the toy inmates don't cooperate, they are sent to "the Box," a sandbox used by Lotso and his gang as a form of solitary confinement. This may sound like escape is hard, but it's actually not. In order to escape, one must incapacitate "the Monkey," a cymbal-banging monkey who monitors the daycare's security cameras and viciously screeches to alert Lotso's crew to any escape attempts. Eventually, Lotso is ousted from Sunnyside, and the daycare's resident toys then turn the place into a paradise where although they are still tortured by the toddlers, they rotate between rooms to ensure that everyone gets an equal share of playtime. At least this prison experienced some reforms.
4. The Kyln -- Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
In Marvel's 2014 out-of-this-world box office hit, the scum of the galaxy are imprisoned in the Kyln, an interstellar prison facility run by an elite intergalactic police force called the Nova Corps. The Kyln is laid out similarly to a panopticon, a type of prison in which a central watch tower gives the guards a 360-degree view of all of the criminals and miscreants at once. The inmates wear yellow jumpsuits, the number of stripes on which indicate the number and type of crimes of which they have been convicted. The watchtower is powered by a Quarnyx Battery, the removal of which causes the prison to go into emergency mode. In the words of Guardian of the Galaxy and former inmate Rocket, "they call the Kyln the stomach of the prison system: No matter how good you are going in, you come out pretty freakin' bad," and given the physical appearances of many of the inmates, he's right about that.
3. Cold Mountain Penitentiary -- The Green Mile (1999)
Unlike most of the other prisons on this list, Cold Mountain Penitentiary challenges many negative stereotypes when it comes to correctional facilities. In the 1930s, John Coffey, a physically large but gentle black man, is sentenced to the facility's death row, nicknamed the "Green Mile," where he is found to possess supernatural healing powers. The facility's warden, Hal Moores, is a benevolent man compared to many portrayals of his position who allows Coffey to use his powers to cure his ailing wife. Both the guards and inmates are a sympathetic bunch, except for Percy Wetmore, a sadistic young guard who enjoys harassing the inmates, and William Wharton, a troublesome inmate whose refusal to cooperate comes to a head when he is found to have committed the crimes for which Coffey was condemned. When it comes to execution, it is done by using a sponge to conduct electricity from an electric chair to the death row inmate's head, giving them a swift and painless execution, unless the sponge is not soaked. If you have been sentenced to prison, it's better to be in the company of friendly guards and inmates compared to what Frank Darabont's other prison film based on a Stephen King novel, The Shawshank Redemption, had to offer.
2. Azkaban Prison -- Harry Potter film series (2001-2011)
The Wizarding World may be magical, but it also has its faults as a society. One of those faults is Azkaban, a fortress in the middle of the North Sea where the scum of Great Britain's magical community are imprisoned. The prison is guarded by soul-sucking wraiths known as Dementors, who feed off of human misery, causing many of the inmates to literally die of despair. After Lord Voldemort's downfall, the Ministry of Magic rounded up his followers and sentenced them to Azkaban without a trial, resulting in the wrongful conviction of Order of the Phoenix member Sirius Black. However, despite the magical defences of the prison, escape is not impossible. If you are an Animagus, a wizard or witch capable of turning into an animal at will, then you can use your animal form to sneak past the Dementors undetected. When Voldemort returned from years of incapacitation, he recruited the Dementors to his cause, allowing the Dark Lord's human followers to easily escape from the facility. Let us hope that after Voldemort's downfall, the psychological torture of Azkaban was removed and replaced with a more humane security system.
Before I reveal my top choice, here are some honourable mentions.
- Camp Green Lake -- Holes (2003)
- CryoPrison -- Demolition Man (1993)
- Shawshank State Prison -- The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- Fiorina "Fury" 161 -- Alien 3 (1992)
- Rura Penthe -- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
1. Crematoria Slam Facility -- The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)
The Slam Facility on the planet Crematoria may not be Richard B. Riddick's first stint in prison, but it has got to be the most agonizing. A triple-max prison drilled into the surface of a harsh landscape, escape is impossible because the surface of the planet is incapable of supporting life, as one would be incinerated in the sunlight, or frozen to death at night. To add to that, on Crematoria, days are 52 hours long, so human inmates such as Riddick would have to evolve significantly in order to adapt to this terrifying planet. Inmates enter the facility by being transported there by a railway, then lowered into the prison, where they are free to roam around. If the prison goes into lockdown, deadly genetically engineered creatures called Hellhounds are released, which devour the inmates if they do not make it to their cells and lock the doors fast enough. Welcome to Hell.
Do you agree with my list? Which movie prison would you not want to be sentenced to? This is Toby Gold, bidding you farewell until we meet again.
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