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The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Thriller · Drama · History · 2015

In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.

Movie details

The Stanford Prison Experiment

“They were given 2 weeks. It lasted 6 days.”

2015 Thriller · Drama · History 2h 2m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.8 / 10

47.6K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

84 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

67 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.8 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Stanford Prison Experiment?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Escape from Sobibor

Escape from Sobibor

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Lost Highway

Lost Highway

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A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

Chopper

Chopper

Crime · 2000

The true and infamous story of Australia's notorious criminal Mark 'Chopper' Read and his years of crime, interest in violence, drugs and prostitutes.

Unthinkable

Unthinkable

Drama · 2010

The government gets wind of a plot to destroy America involving a trio of nuclear weapons for which the whereabouts are unknown. It's up to a seasoned interrogator and an FBI agent to find out exactly where the nukes are.

Fight Club

Fight Club

Drama · 1999

A ticking-time-bomb insomniac and a slippery soap salesman channel primal male aggression into a shocking new form of therapy. Their concept catches on, with underground "fight clubs" forming in every town, until an eccentric gets in the way and ignites an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.

Extremities

Extremities

Thriller · 1986

A woman escapes from the man who is about to rape her, but leaves her purse behind. Afraid that her attacker might come after her, she goes to the police, but with no proof of the incident, they can do nothing. In fact, the man does use the information in her bag and comes to her apartment with the intent of rape, but she sprays him in the face with insect repellent, and then holds him captive. She is then faced with deciding whether to go to the police who might not believe her and release him, or to kill him.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Kyle Patrick Alvarez

Written by

Tim Talbott

Billy Crudup

Billy Crudup

Dr. Philip Zimbardo

Michael Angarano

Michael Angarano

Christopher Archer

Ezra Miller

Ezra Miller

Daniel Culp / Prisoner 8612

Tye Sheridan

Tye Sheridan

Peter Mitchell / Prisoner 819

Olivia Thirlby

Olivia Thirlby

Dr. Christina Maslach

Nelsan Ellis

Nelsan Ellis

Jesse Fletcher

Moisés Arias

Moisés Arias

Anthony Carroll

Court is in session

Put The Stanford Prison Experiment on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.