10 Most Ominous Cinematic Prisons

An underground prison in a faraway land, this hellhole is impossible to escape… but two people manage.

One is Ra’s al Ghul’s child, who was born and raised in the prison. The other one is Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), who ends up in the Pit after Bane (Tom Hardy) and Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) set him up.

The particular sadism of this prison is the view of the sky from its impossible-to-scale entrance, at once tempting hope and taking it away. Anyone can try and climb their way out of the Pit, but everyone fails… that is, until Wayne becomes the second inmate to triumph and bring precious hope to the other prisoners.

However, not even Batman can escape this prison on the first try. It takes him three attempts and, on the third, he does not use the rope. On the advice of another prisoner, he simply uses the fear of death to steer him.

In a wonderfully symbolic turn of events, a group of bats flies out of the walls, but Wayne is unfazed. He gathers his courage and takes the faithful leap, one that leads him out. He has conquered his demons and circled from a broken man at the film’s beginning to a hero reborn.

The Pit prison is a unique location among many unique locations that Christopher Nolan has used in his epic Batman trilogy, adding an emotional punch to the final entry.