Backdrop fallback

The Great Escape

The Great Escape

Share

The Great Escape

"Put a fence in front of these men... and they'll climb it!"

1963

2h 53m

7.9(2884 votes)

Adventure

Drama

War

Overview

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

Where to Watch

Stream

MGM Plus Amazon Channel

Buy

Apple TV Store

Rent

Apple TV Store

Amazon Video

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

United Artists

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen

Hilts 'The Cooler King'

James Garner

James Garner

Hendley 'The Scrounger'

Richard Attenborough

Richard Attenborough

Bartlett 'Big X'

James Donald

James Donald

Ramsey 'The SBO'

Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson

Danny 'Tunnel King'

Donald Pleasence

Donald Pleasence

Blythe 'The Forger'

James Coburn

James Coburn

Sedgwick 'Manufacturer'

Hannes Messemer

Hannes Messemer

Von Luger 'The Kommandant'

David McCallum

David McCallum

Ashley-Pitt 'Dispersal'

Gordon Jackson

Gordon Jackson

MacDonald 'Intelligence'

Creative team

Directed by: John Sturges
Written by: James Clavell
W.R. Burnett
Produced by: John Sturges
James Clavell

Similar Movies

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but both have sorely underestimated Mark Antony.

The Secret of Moonacre

The Secret of Moonacre

When 13 year old Maria Merryweather's father dies, leaving her orphaned and homeless, she is forced to leave her luxurious London life to go and live with Sir Benjamin, an eccentric uncle she didn't know she had, at the mysterious Moonacre Manor.

Varg Veum - Buried Dogs

Varg Veum - Buried Dogs

Racial tension is running high in Bergen after a young black asylum seeker dies at the hands of the Police. Shortly afterwards, a right-wing politician is targeted by a gunman at a public rally and his wife is fatally wounded. Another member of the right-wing party, Marit Holm, approaches private investigator Varg Veum, insisting she is being stalked.

People Don’t Know Everything

People Don’t Know Everything

During WWII, Dmitro Goritsvit, a partisan commander, fights against fascists and Barabolei in Ukraine, joined by villagers Marta, Ganusia, and injured Red Army commanders Savva Tur and Mikhail Sozinov.

The Elementary School

The Elementary School

The time is 1945-46. 10 year old Eda and his friend Tonda live in a small village outside Prague. In school, their class is so wild and indisciplined that their teacher quits and is replaced by the militant Igor Hnidzo. He is very strict – but also very fair. His weakness though, is his interest in young women.

Up Periscope

Up Periscope

Lieutenant Braden discovers that Sally, the woman he's been falling in love with, has actually been checking out his qualifications to be a U.S. Navy frogman. He must put his personal life behind him after being assigned to be smuggled into a Japanese-held island via submarine to photograph radio codes.

13 Rue Madeleine

13 Rue Madeleine

Bob Sharkey, an instructor of would-be spies for the Allied Office of Strategic Services, becomes suspicious of one of the latest batch of students, Bill O'Connell, who is too good at espionage. His boss, Charles Gibson confirms that O'Connell is really a top German agent, but tells Sharkey to pass him, as they intend to feed the mole false information about the impending D-Day invasion.

Midaq Alley

Midaq Alley

Heated tempers, frustrated desires and dashed hopes plague a diverse group of individuals whose lives cross paths in Mexico City. There is the bar-owner's son, Chava, who yearns to emigrate to America. A poor barber, Abel, is madly in love with the gorgeous Alma, who eventually becomes a high-class prostitute. Finally, there is Susanita, the desperate spinster who pursues many love affairs in hopes of finding a husband.

Passage to Marseille

Passage to Marseille

A freedom-loving French journalist sacrifices his happiness and security to battle Nazi tyranny.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Forks, Washington resident Bella Swan is reeling from the departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen, and finds comfort in her friendship with Jacob Black, a werewolf. But before she knows it, she's thrust into a centuries-old conflict, and her desire to be with Edward at any cost leads her to take greater and greater risks.

A Company of Heroes

A Company of Heroes

Easy Company, the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, fought their way through Europe, liberated concentration camps, and drank a victory toast in April 1945 at Hitler's hideout. Veterans from Easy Company, along with the families of three deceased others, recount their horrors and victories, bonds they made and the friends they lost.

Gino: A Child of War

Gino: A Child of War

An account of a young Italian boy who was taken in by a Canadian military unit during World War II.

Reds

Reds

An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed, who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of spreading its principles among the members of the American working class, and his troubled romantic relationship with the writer Louise Bryant.

Hoot

Hoot

A young man moves from Montana to Florida with his family, where he's compelled to engage in a fight to protect a population of endangered owls.

Mother Earth

Mother Earth

Tierre madre is based on the true story of Aidee Gonzalez, a woman determined to raise her children with her female partner in the Mexican border town of Tecate. Aidee works hard as an exotic dancer providing for her family. One day her girlfriend shares her desire to have a child of her own, and convinces Aidee to go on the hunt for a male to conceive a child.

China Cry

China Cry

Young Sung Neng Yee, who is brought as part of a wealthy Chinese family. She is eager to become part of Mao Tze Tung's "new society", but soon becomes disenchanted by the economic misery the changes bring to her family. Before long, the authorities become aware of Neng Yee's feelings and she is taken to a labour camp, overseen by the sadistic Colonel Cheng.

Happy Together

Happy Together

A couple travels from Hong Kong to Argentina to revive their relationship but experience turbulence when both men's lives drift in separate directions.

Silent Night

Silent Night

Fact-based World War II story set on Christmas Eve, 1944, finds a German Mother and her son seeking refuge in a cabin on the war front. When she is invaded by three American soldiers and then three German soldiers, she successfully convinces the soldiers to put aside their differences for one evening and share a Christmas dinner.

Leave Her to Heaven

Leave Her to Heaven

A socialite marries a prominent novelist, which spurs a violent, obsessive, and dangerous jealousy in her.

Colette

Colette

After marrying a successful Parisian writer known commonly as Willy, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette is transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendor of Paris. Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite for him. She pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. After its success, Colette and Willy become the talk of Paris and their adventures inspire additional Claudine novels.

Recommended Movies

The Way Back

The Way Back

A small band of multicultural convicts stages a daring escape from a WWII-era Siberian gulag, and embarks on a treacherous journey across five countries in a desperate race for freedom and survival.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.

Rescue Dawn

Rescue Dawn

A US Fighter pilot's epic struggle of survival after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War.

Empire of the Sun

Empire of the Sun

Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.

The Monuments Men

The Monuments Men

Based on the true story of the greatest treasure hunt in history, The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on seven over-the-hill, out-of-shape museum directors, artists, architects, curators, and art historians who went to the front lines of WWII to rescue the world’s artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners. With the art hidden behind enemy lines, how could these guys hope to succeed?

The Zone of Interest

The Zone of Interest

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin

Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin

As the world teeters on the brink of annihilation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer joins a deadly plot to assassinate Hitler, risking his faith and fate to save millions of Jews from genocide.

Seven Years in Tibet

Seven Years in Tibet

Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer journeys to the Himalayas without his family to head an expedition in 1939. But when World War II breaks out, the arrogant Harrer falls into Allied forces' hands as a prisoner of war. He escapes with a fellow detainee and makes his way to Lhasa, Tibet, where he meets the 14-year-old Dalai Lama, whose friendship ultimately transforms his outlook on life.

Where Eagles Dare

Where Eagles Dare

World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late.

The Zookeeper's Wife

The Zookeeper's Wife

The account of keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who helped save hundreds of people and animals during the Nazi invasion.

Dunkirk

Dunkirk

The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.

Escape to Victory

Escape to Victory

A group of POWs in a German prison camp during World War II play the German National Soccer Team in this powerful film depicting the role of prisoners during wartime.

Hitler: The Last Ten Days

Hitler: The Last Ten Days

Hitler: The Last Ten Days takes us into the depths of der Furher’s Berlin bunker during his final days. Based on the book by Gerhard Boldt, it provides a bleak look at the goings-on within, and without.

The Match

The Match

Inspired by true events from the spring of 1944 when the Nazis organized a football match between a team of camp inmates and an elite Nazi team on Adolf Hitler's birthday. A match the prisoners are determined to win, no matter what happens.

I Am David

I Am David

A 12-year-old boy manages to flee a Communist concentration camp on his own, through sheer will and determination. All he has in his possession is a loaf of bread, a letter to deliver to someone in Denmark, and a compass to help get him there.

A Hidden Life

A Hidden Life

Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter faces the threat of execution for refusing to fight for the Nazis during World War II.

The Boy in the Woods

The Boy in the Woods

The remarkable true-life survival story of a Jewish boy hiding and being hunted in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, based on Maxwell Smart's memoir.

The Longest Day

The Longest Day

The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"

Uprising

Uprising

In the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, Jews rise against the Nazis.

The Young Lions

The Young Lions

The lives of three young men, a German and two Americans, during WWII.