Film

Papillon

Name: Papillon
Genre: Adventure, Crime, Drama
Released: 2017
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Rami Malek, Christopher Fairbank, Eve Hewson, Michael Socha

Other titles called Papillon: the 1973 film.

A French safecracker wrongly condemned to life in a brutal penal colony forms an unlikely bond with a fellow inmate. This is a strikingly intimate prison drama disguised as an escape adventure—less about the grand break-out than the friendship that makes survival worthwhile. For anyone who loves character-driven stories about dignity under inhuman conditions.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a prison escape story driven by the stubborn bond between two very different men, with brutal conditions and a lot of patient, grinding endurance on screen.

Skip it if you need a brisk, escape-every-five-minutes thriller; this one spends long stretches in the misery of the penal colony and lets its 134 minutes breathe.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a long, heavy watch that moves slowly through hardship, and give it your full attention, since much of its power comes from waiting and endurance rather than action.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Shawshank Redemption1994

A prisoner befriends a fellow inmate and together they nurture hope in a system designed to crush it. Like Papillon, it trusts quietness and finds transcendence in small acts of human connection and resourcefulness.

But It's been recommended to death and has become almost a comfort film. The obviousness of its emotional beats can feel manipulative if you're in the wrong mood.

Escape Plan2013

A former prison architect imprisoned in a brutal facility must use his knowledge to escape with a wrongly convicted cellmate. It has the same DNA as Papillon—wrongful conviction, an unlikely pair, and the ingenuity required to beat an impossible system—but leans harder into action spectacle.

But The Stallone-Schwarzenegger pairing feels like product. It prioritises set pieces over the quiet desperation that makes Papillon's struggle feel real.

A Prophet2009

A young man survives prison by becoming indispensable to powerful inmates. It has Papillon's focus on relationships as survival strategy, but shows prison as a ruthless education rather than a romance. Brilliantly acted and morally complicated.

But It's darker and far less romantic about friendship. There's no sense of transcendence—only power shifting hands. If you want uplift, this isn't it.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Papillon

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Solaris1972

Both are fundamentally about two men who cannot leave, learning to survive—and occasionally flourish—through the strength of connection to another person. The escape, in each case, is internal.

Tarkovsky's science-fiction masterpiece about isolation and human connection aboard a space station. Like Papillon, it's about two men confined in an inescapable place, forced to confront what remains of their humanity when external world falls away. It finds transcendence not in escape but in genuine meeting.

But It's a 167-minute meditative film with long sequences of silence and philosophical argument. If you need narrative momentum or visual spectacle, this will test your patience severely.

Cool Hand Luke1967

Paul Newman as a prisoner who refuses to break under a sadistic warden's regime. The spiritual ancestor of modern prison dramas, with a charismatic lead and a meditation on whether dignity survives captivity. Essential viewing.

But The pacing is languid even by 1960s standards. Some scenes feel padded, and the ending divides audiences sharply on what it actually means.

Midnight Express1978

An American student imprisoned in a Turkish jail for drug smuggling fights for his sanity and eventual escape. Visceral and propulsive in a way Papillon isn't—this is survival as a fever dream, the prison as a character itself.

But It's sensationalist and the moral portrait of Turkey is contested. The film prioritises sensation over the nuance Papillon brings to its characters.

The Count of Monte Cristo2002

A wrongly imprisoned man escapes and engineers the perfect revenge. Swashbuckling where Papillon is intimate, but they share a core idea: how a man rebuilds himself after the system destroys him, and what he owes his fellow sufferers.

But It's a Hollywood confection. The moral complexity gets smoothed away in favour of adventure-movie beats and romantic subplot satisfaction.

Fortress1992

Christopher Lambert as a man imprisoned in a futuristic facility, forced to ally with fellow inmates to escape. It's Papillon remixed through sci-fi paranoia, keeping the buddy dynamic and the wrongful conviction but trading period detail for dystopian dread.

But It's dated in a distracting way. The 90s action syntax and Christopher Lambert's accent make it harder to take seriously than its premise deserves.

Birdman of Alcatraz1962

Burt Lancaster as a long-term inmate who finds redemption through ornithology and forms a transformative mentorship. Quieter than Papillon but operating in the same register—how a human being survives inhumane conditions through intellectual and spiritual work.

But It moves slowly and makes little dramatic gesture toward excitement. If you're after action or kinetic energy, you'll find it glacial.

In Hell2003

Jean-Claude Van Damme in a Russian prison, learning to survive through combat and unlikely friendship. It has Papillon's focus on bonding under duress but filters it through Van Damme's particular intensity and a more brutal worldview.

But The Van Damme vehicle expectations collide messily with what the film actually tries to be. It's uneven and the English dialogue performances are strained.

Les Misérables2012

Both are stories about men destroyed by systems they did not deserve, and what it means to extend mercy and loyalty to another prisoner or outsider. Both believe that human connection is the only real escape.

A sweeping musical about justice, redemption, and the bonds forged between men in impossible circumstances. It covers similar terrain to Papillon—wrongful condemnation, the weight of survival, what one man owes another—but in soaring, emotional verse. Staggering in scale and emotional generosity.

But It's a three-hour musical adaptation. If you cannot abide the form—if sung dialogue feels ridiculous to you—the film's power will be entirely inaccessible. The sentimentality also divides viewers sharply.

The Railway Children1970

Both centre on people in confinement—literal or circumstantial—discovering that the bonds they forge become their actual freedom. Both quietly insist that gentleness and loyalty are not luxuries but necessities.

A quiet, humane drama about three children separated from their father and slowly learning to survive on their own terms. Nothing about it resembles a prison film, but it shares Papillon's faith that love and resourcefulness matter more than circumstance, and that bonds forged under adversity are unbreakable. It's deeply moving.

But It's a 1970s British family film without irony or modern sensibility. The pacing is deliberate, the emotional register domestic rather than dramatic. It can feel provincial if you're expecting contemporary film language.