Highest-Rated Movies about 'Wrongful Imprisonment'

The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Modern Times (1936), Oldboy (2003), I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), In the Name of the Father (1993), Ben-Hur (1959), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Veer-Zaara (2004) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Wrongful Imprisonment movies.

#16. The Talk of the Town (1942)

Storyline: In suburban Lochester, New England, three people end up living together in high school teacher Nora Shelley's rental house. The first is her new tenant, renowned Harvard law professor Michael Lightcap, who has rented the house for the summer while he writes his new book. The second is Nora herself. Despite having an auspicious first meeting, Lightcap hires Nora to be his live-in cook and secretary for a week until his manservant Tilney arrives. The third is Joseph, the property's gardener, who is currently laid up with a sprained ankle. In reality, Joseph is Nora's childhood friend Leopold Dilg, who has just escaped from prison. Leopold was being tried for the arson of the factory where he worked, and for murder for the death of the factory foreman Clyde Bracken, whose body was never recovered but who is assumed to have died in the fire. Despite the danger to herself, Nora hides Leopold since she believes his story that although he, as an activist, did speak out about the dangerous conditions at the factory, he did not set the fire, which he assumes was done by the factory's owner, Andrew Holmes, to collect the insurance money, all the while having Leopold as a scapegoat. Nora campaigned to get the job with Lightcap if only to be able to better hide Leopold in the house. Leopold escaped if only because he knew he would not get a fair trial due to the rabble rousing being conducted by Holmes against him. Lightcap and who he knows as Joseph end up getting along famously, although activist Leopold believes Lightcap's view of the law is too clinical for him truly to be a great lawyer or great judge, those thoughts arising if only because Nora and Leopold learn clandestinely that Lightcap is being appointed to the Supreme Court. Nora, Leopold and Leopold's lawyer, Sam Yates, try to get Lightcap involved in helping Leopold by showing him that Leopold indeed will not get a fair trial. In the process, Lightcap may in turn show Leopold and Nora that his current way of thinking has much merit.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: screwball comedy, manhunt, lynch mob, political activist, love triangle, fugitive, frame up ...

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#17. Cape Fear (1991)

Storyline: Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte)is a small-town corporate attorney/"Leave It to Beaver" type family-man. Max Cady (Robert De Niro) is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, bible-quoting, 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 serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey, bibliophile Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

Plot Keywords: revenge, adultery, stalking, family in danger, movie theater, neo noir, dysfunctional family ...

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#18. Cube (1997)

Storyline: Six different people, each from a very different walk of life, awaken to find themselves inside a giant cube with thousands of possible rooms. Each has a skill that becomes clear when they must band together to get out: a cop, a math whiz, a building designer, a doctor, an escape master, and a disabled man. Each plays a part in their thrilling quest to find answers as to why they've been imprisoned.

Plot Keywords: maze, autism, mathematics, puzzle, allegory, claustrophobia, paranoia ...

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#19. Scream (1996)

Storyline: A year after her mother's death, Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell), and her friends started experiencing some strange phone calls. They later learned the calls were coming from a crazed serial killer, in a white faced mask and a large black robe, looking for revenge. His phone calls usually consist of many questions, the main one being: Whats your favorite scary movie? Along with many scary movie trivia, ending with bloody pieces of innocent lives scattered around the small town of Woodsboro.

Plot Keywords: slasher, serial killer, masked killer, damsel in distress, media coverage, husband wife relationship, near death experience ...

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#20. A Tale of Two Cities (1958)

Storyline: During the French Revolution, French national Lucie Manette (Dorothy Tutin) meets and falls in love with Englishman Charles Darnay (Paul Guers). He is, however, hiding his true identity as a member of the French aristocratic Evrémonde family, whom he has denounced in private. The Marquis St. Evrémonde (Sir Christopher Lee) in particular was a cruel man. Those he wronged have vowed to see the end of the family line at any cost. Lucie's father Dr. Alexandre Manette (Stephen Murray) was imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years because of actions of the Marquis. Into their lives comes English barrister Sydney Carton (Sir Dirk Bogarde), who enjoys his alcohol to excess. Carton earlier defended Darnay in a trial on trumped up charges of treason. Carton doesn't really like Darnay in part because Carton also loves Lucie, he realizing that that love is unrequited. But Carton does eventually learn of Darnay's true heritage at a critical time. Carton takes extraordinary measures to ensure Lucie's happiness during this time, which has the potential to be explosive if others also found out about Darnay's true identity.—Huggo

Plot Keywords: vengeance, based on novel, 18th century, self sacrifice, unrequited love, guillotine, french revolution ...

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#21. Life (1999)

Storyline: In the mid-1990s, two inmates bury the burned bodies of two lifers at Mississippi's infamous Parchman Farm; a third old-timer relates their story. They'd served 65 years for a murder they didn't commit, framed by a local sheriff while buying moonshine whiskey for a Manhattan club owner to whom they owed money. In flashbacks we see this odd couple thrown together (Ray is a fast-talking con man, and Claude is a serious man about to start work as a bank teller), the loss of Ray's watch (sterling silver, from his daddy), the murder and trial, the hardships of Parchman, and the love-hate relationship of Claude and Ray as they spend 65 years bickering and looking for a way to escape.

Plot Keywords: baseball, 1990s, affection, black humor, death, escape attempt, fat man ...

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#22. Stir Crazy (1980)

Storyline: Skip and Harry are framed for a bank robbery and end up in a western prison. The two eastern boys are having difficulty adjusting to the new life until the warden finds that Skip has a natural talent for riding broncos with the inter-prison rodeo coming up.

Plot Keywords: african american, prison escape, revolver, pistol, comedy team, wrongful arrest, robber ...

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#23. Passage to Marseille (1944)

Storyline: As French bomber crews prepare an air raid from a base in England, we learn the story of Matrac, a French journalist who opposed the Munich Pact. Framed for murder and sent to Devil's Island, he and four others escape. They are on a ship bound for Marseilles when France surrenders and fascist sympathizer Major Duval tries to seize the ship for Vichy.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Plot Keywords: reference to adolf hitler, historical event, newspaper headline, wrongful imprisonment, wrongful conviction, solitary confinement, redemption ...

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#24. Rio Lobo (1970)

Storyline: Bent on unearthing the cynical traitor who sold information to the enemy and caused the death of a dear brother-in-arms, the battle-tested former Union cavalry officer, Colonel Cord McNally, teams up with a pair of ex-Confederates after the Civil War. Now, as honest friends, the three companions ride into Rio Lobo--a dusty town in the middle of the desert overcome by corruption--to bring to justice the one who sold McNally out; however, the town is rife with the betrayer's murderous cut-throats. Can McNally avenge his bosom buddy and clean up Rio Lobo?—Nick Riganas

Plot Keywords: wrongful imprisonment, gash in the face, extortion, end of war, dynamite, deputy sheriff, horse and wagon ...

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#25. The A-Team (2010)

Storyline: Four American soldiers who are in Iraq are sent on a mission to recover plates for printing 100 dollar bills that were used to print a billion dollars. After doing the job and returning to the base their commanding officer is killed in an explosion and the plates are stolen by another operative. They would be court martialed and sent to different prisons. 6 months later, the leader, Hannibal Smith is visited by a CIA spook who tells him he knows where the man who took the plates is and wants him and his men to recover it. So he helps him escape and he breaks out the others and they go after the plates. But after doing it, they discover that the spook might not be ok. And a military intelligence officer who was involved with one of them is pursuing them.

Plot Keywords: cia agent, helicopter, plan, kissing in public, captain, prison, based on tv series ...

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#26. The Running Man (1987)

Storyline: In the year 2017, the world economy has collapsed. The great freedoms of the United States are no longer, as the once great nation has sealed off its borders and become a militarized police state, censoring all film, art, literature, and communications. Even so, a small resistance force led by two revolutionaries manages to fight the oppression. With full control over the media, the government attempts to quell the nation's yearning for freedom by broadcasting a number of game shows on which convicted criminals fight for their lives. The most popular and sadistic of these programs is "The Running Man," hosted by Damon Killian. When a peaceful protest of starving citizens gathers in Bakersfield, California, a police officer named Ben Richards is ordered to fire on the crowd, which he refuses to do. Subdued by the other officers, the attack is carried out, and Richards is framed for the murder of almost a hundred unarmed civilians. Following a daring jail break months later, Richards is...

Plot Keywords: game of death, oppression, government conspiracy, most dangerous game, dystopia, film starts with text, fictional game show ...

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#27. Demolition Man (1993)

Storyline: Frozen in 1996, Simon Phoenix, a convicted crime lord, is revived for a parole hearing well into the 21st century. Revived into a society free from crime, Phoenix resumes his murderous rampage, and no one can stop him. John Spartan, the police officer who captured Phoenix in 1996, has also been cryogenically frozen, this time for a crime he did not commit. In 2032, the former cities of Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Barbara have merged into peaceful, utopian San Angeles. Unable to stop him with their non-violent solutions, the police release Spartan to help recapture Phoenix. Now after 36 years, Spartan has to adapt himself to the future society he has no knowledge about.

Plot Keywords: totalitarianism, censorship, cyberpunk, cryonics, laser gun, m 16, ak 47 ...

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#28. Jisatsu sâkuru (2001)

Storyline: 54 high school girls throw themselves in front of a subway train. This appears to be only the beginning of a string of suicides around the country. Does the new all-girl group Desert have anything to do with it? Detective Kuroda tries to find the answer, which isn't as simple as one could hope.

Plot Keywords: miniskirt, short skirt, teenage girl, conspiracy, japanese schoolgirl, suicide, premarital sex ...

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#29. Man on a Ledge (2012)

Storyline: An ex-cop-turned-con threatens to jump to his death from a Manhattan hotel. The nearest New York Police Officer immediately responds to a screaming woman and calls dispatch. More officers arrive with SWAT and tactical command along with firefighters. The police then dispatch a police psychologist personally requested to talk him down from the ledge. However, things aren't as they seem.

Plot Keywords: police, diamond, negotiator, bell 206 jet ranger helicopter, fire extinguisher, surveillance camera, air duct ...

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#30. Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Storyline: Hercule Poirot, the best detective in the world decides to travel on the Orient Express. The train accidentally gets stopped because of a small avalanche. Little did he know that a murder was planned and that a person on this train was capable of committing such crime.

Plot Keywords: palestine, palestinian, train, based on novel, whodunit, shorthaired woman, 1930s ...

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