The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015) Plot Summary Explained

Release, runtime and language

2015 · 122 min · English

#5,771 23

Directed by

Kyle Patrick Alvarez

Starring

Billy Crudup, Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan, Michael Angarano, Olivia Thirlby

A psychology professor conducts an experiment to simulate a prison environment, recruiting 24 college students as volunteers. Assigned roles as guards and inmates, the participants quickly succumb to the pressures of the situation, with the "guards" exhibiting increasingly authoritarian behavior and the "inmates" displaying distress and submission. The experiment explores the powerful effects of situational forces and the potential for ordinary people to behave in extreme ways when given authority and control.