Papillon
Henri Charrière, a wrongly convicted safecracker known as "Papillon," forms a dangerous alliance with a wealthy convict in a brutal French Guiana prison, plotting an escape through the unforgiving jungle while risking everything to protect his friend.
“The greatest adventure of escape!”
Synopsis
A man forms a bond with another criminal as they begin serving their sentence on a harsh prison island, which leads him to devise a plan for escape.
Credits
Related titles
No curated related titles yet. Use the edit affordance to add "More from this director", "Same franchise", or "Adaptation source material" entries — every change goes through the wiki review queue.
How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 39
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Robert SwinkShot by Fred J KoenekampScored by Jerry GoldsmithDesigned by Anthony Masters
Box Office
1973 · Box office
💰 Box-office hit — grossed 4.4× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$53.3M
Full synopsis
Community tags
Be the first to tag this page — tags appear right away. Try a theme, capability, or subject (e.g. WWII, heist, slow burn, time travel, A24).
Cast & Crew
39 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Steve Mcqueen
as Henri 'Papillon' Charriere
Dustin Hoffman
as Louis Dega
Victor Jory
as Indian Chief
Don Gordon
as Julot
Anthony Zerbe
as Toussaint
Robert Deman
as Maturette
Woodrow Parfrey
as Clusiot
Bill Mumy
as Lariot
George Coulouris
as Dr. Chatal
Ratna Assan
as Zoraima
William Smithers
as Warden Barrot
Val Avery
as Pascal
Supporting cast
18Gregory Sierra
as Antonio
Vic Tayback
as Sergeant
Mills Watson
as Guard
Ron Soble
as Santini
Barbara Morrison
as Mother Superior
Don Hanmer
as Butterfly Trader
E J Andre
as Old Con
Richard Angarola
as Commandant
Jack Denbo
as Classification Officer
Len Lesser
as Guard
John Quade
as Masked Breton
Fred Sadoff
as Deputy Warden
Allen Jaffe
as Turnkey
Liam Dunn
as Old Trustee
Anne Byrne Hoffman
as Mrs. Dega (uncredited)
Dalton Trumbo
as Commandant (uncredited)
Richard Farnsworth
as Manhunter (uncredited)
Peter Brocco
as Doctor (uncredited)
Directors
1Writers
3Producers
2Other crew
5Parents Guide
AI Personalities
Advisory Bot AI
I keep the family-safety picture honest — community advisories, AI-moderated, summarized without spin.
Ratings & reviews
Official ratings
We’re attempting to crowdsource this data.
Please submit below if you know where it’s available in your region — accurate confirmations help everyone find what they’re looking for.
Where to watch
Not currently streaming on any platform we track.
Gallery
Add imageNo community images for Papillon yet
Add a still, a storyboard, or concept art — every image gets its own page where members can discuss it.
Trailers
No trailers logged for Papillon yet — add the first one below.
Spot a trailer we’re missing?
Add a trailer from any film, show, or game.
Media & Uploads
Scripts, set photos, storyboards, score sketches — community-curated reference material for film students and industry professionals.
Did you or a loved one work on Papillon?
Every stage matters — pitch decks and treatments from development, location scouts and table-reads from pre-production, set photos and crew anecdotes from production, edit-bay notes from post, and press kits, festival memories, or marketing ephemera from distribution. Any moment that didn't make the press tour, any document or photograph that's been sitting in a box — please share it so it's not lost to time.
We particularly welcome contributions from writers, producers, cast, crew, festival programmers, distributors, marketing teams, their families, and anyone who was there at any stage.
Sign in to contribute scripts, stills, photos, or behind-the-scenes stories.
Be the first to share something on Papillon.
Scripts, scans, photos, score sketches — anything that helps another reader study this work.
Memorable quotes
Browse all →No quotes logged for Papillon yet — add the first memorable line below.
Got a quote we’re missing?
Submit a line from any film, show, or game.
The conversation
Loading the conversation…
Comments (0)
on PapillonNo comments yet. Be the first to share what you think.
Edit history
Loading edit history…