Bronson (2008) – What Have You Got?

 

There is a man in a cage. Naked, covered in filth and blood, circling, fists ready.  “I always knew I was made for better things.  I had a calling.” The skin-headed, straight-faced Bronson (Tom Hardy) tells us, direct to camera.  The gates open, and riot police pile into the tiny cell.  The naked man launches himself into battle.  He isn’t trying to escape, he’s fighting because he has anger and violence built into him, and he sees himself as an artist of mayhem.

Runaway Train (1985) – The Title Doesn’t Say it All…

A prison break and runaway locomotive thriller as harsh and unforgiving as its bleak Alaskan setting, Runaway Train overcomes the unimaginative title to become a  hard-bitten, brutal, intelligent mini classic.

Jon Voight stars as Oscar “Manny” Manheim, a ferocious murderer and bank robber welded into a solitary confinement cell for three years by his nemesis, warden Rankin (John P Ryan).