Movie · 2017 · Adventure, Crime, Drama · 2h 14m · R · English
Curator score: 1.5/10 (96.9K ratings)
The greatest escape adventure ever told
Overview
Henri “Papillon” Charrière, a safecracker from the Parisian underworld, is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana, where he forges a strong friendship with Louis Dega, a counterfeiter who needs his protection.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.5/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 52%
Metacritic: 51
TMDB: 7.3/10
Director
Michael Noer
Production
Red Granite Pictures, Czech Anglo Pictures, FishCorb Films
Cast
Charlie Hunnam, Rami Malek, Christopher Fairbank, Eve Hewson, Michael Socha, Brian Vernel, Nicholas Asbury, Louisa Pili, Antonio de la Cruz, Andre Flynn, Yorick van Wageningen, Nikola Kent, Mark Phelan, Michael Adams, Roland Møller, Slavko Sobin, Luka Peroš, Goran Navojec, Dragan Mićanović, Joel Basman
Curator Review
Verdict
A sturdy survival-prison drama with strong period texture and an appealing central friendship, but it’s more competent than transcendent and never fully escapes the shadow of better-known prison epics. The emotional core is the bond between the two leads, which gives the film its best momentum even when the plotting feels familiar.
Best for
viewers who like escape stories and prison dramas
fans of historical adventure with grit
audiences drawn to male-bonding stories under extreme pressure
people interested in endurance, punishment, and survival narratives
Skip if
you want a truly original or surprising prison film
you prefer lean, propulsive storytelling over a long ordeal
you’re expecting the emotional power of the classic prison-cinema canon
you dislike bleak, repetitive suffering as a narrative engine
Overview
Papillon is built around a simple, durable engine: a man determined to survive a system designed to erase him, and the unlikely friendship that helps him do it. The film leans into hardship, escape planning, and the physical misery of confinement, while also making room for a surprisingly tender partnership at its center. That relationship gives the movie its most memorable shape.
Worth noting
The production has a solid period look and enough momentum to keep the ordeal watchable, but it rarely rises above familiar prison-drama beats. It feels respectful and handsomely made rather than revelatory, with the emotional stakes carried more by the performances and the bond between the leads than by the script’s surprises.
Bottom line
If you’re in the mood for a grim, old-school survival story with a strong streak of loyalty and endurance, it works well enough. If you want the genre to feel freshly reinvented, this one may leave you admiring the effort more than feeling shaken by it.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Hannah Strong · 772 likes
The characters kept calling Charlie Hunnam Papi which is a big mood
brenna 🐝🌻 (3.5★) · 502 likes
Fellas is it gay to stick something that's been up your best friend’s butt inside your own butt?
leonard (3★) · 470 likes
ʸᵉᵃʰ ᶜᵃⁿ ⁱ ᵍᵉᵗ ᵘʰʰʰʰ rami malek in those glasses
yav (4★) · 319 likes
look i am well aware that this is “”based on a true story”” and what have you but this was romantic as hell so where’s the alternate ending where they kiss
rami malek my dms are open and so it my hand. please hold it
renee fournier (3.5★) · 312 likes
i relate to charlie hunnam's character because i, too, would want to protect rami malek at all costs