History Series / Prisonbreak

* WomanInWhite: Christina Rose Scofield. [[spoiler: Don't be fooled into thinking she's benevolent]].

* {{Fanservice}}: Michael has several shirtless scenes in the early seasons, ostensibly to showcase his tattoos, but it also treated viewers to some very quality shots of his naked upper body. And that scene in the showers with the towel was obviously this.

* Hey!IResembleThatRemark: A non-verbal example happens with T-Bag when he sees his mugshot on the news. It's weirdly funny how offended he is.
--> '''[[TheSociopath T-Bag]]''': That picture makes me look like a sociopath.

* ShoutOut: Sucre's subplot in "The Message", in which he has dinner with an old man in Mexico, steals a car from him that night, gets caught and brought back to him only for the man to claim that he gave him the car to begin with before giving him monkey for gas, is a clear reference to ''Literature/LesMiserables'', specifically Jean Valjean's encounter with Bishop Myriel.

** A major part of the plan is how Micahel is convinced Westmoreland is legendary hijacker D.B. Cooper and his hidden money is key to the escape. Too bad Westmoreland has a perfect alibi for when Cooper's hijacking took place. [[spoiler: subverted as a dying Westmoreland does confess he was indeed Cooper]].
** The initial escape looks to be going great and just like Micahel planned...until he discovers that the water pipe that he weakened to create the escape tunnel has been replaced by a new and stronger pipe.
** Michael had planned just a minor distraction for the initial escape...only for it to turn into a full-blown prison riot. During which, T-Bag stumbles onto the plot and forces his way onto the team which creates numerous spanners down the road.

* GreatEscape: The first season revolves around [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin an honest-to-god prison break]] with a cast composed almost entirely of stock characters ripped from classic prison movies, and the second season continues it with the escaped inmates on the run from the FBI. By the end of the second season, the escapees have all successfully evaded the law [[spoiler: (the few that survived, at least...)]] but the writers manage to justify the title by having the main characters all [[AssPull rounded up for random reasons]] and [[FromBadToWorse sent to a new, even worse prison in Panama]]. Then the final season rolls around, and the whole series morphs into some weird cross between ''Series/MacGyver'' and ''Film/TheBourneSeries'' about the main cast trying to take down some [[MegaCorp evil shadow corporation]] using zany schemes whipped together with loot from the Dollar Store.

* HeKnowsTooMuch: T-Bag kills a guard in Fox River after he sees the hole in Michael and Sucre's cell.
** This is the main reason for most deaths ordered by the Company.

The first season follows Michael and Lincoln as they assemble an escape team, avoid the suspicions of the prison staff -- including Sara, the prison doctor who unexpectedly becomes integral to the scheme and Michael himself -- and put Michael's plan into action. Meanwhile, [[TwoLinesNoWaiting their lawyer friend]] [[HelloAttorney Veronica]] tries to uncover the conspiracy that's framing Lincoln. Seasons two through four involved the characters becoming fugitives, breaking out of other prisons and eventually taking on [[TheSyndicate "The Company"]], a shadowy cabal responsible for framing Lincoln in the first place. The 2017 series, dubbed ''Prison Break: Resurrection'', [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] the GrandFinale in season four, and [[TropesAreNotBad brought the characters back together once again]] to take on a rogue [=CIA=] faction known as 21-Void. As of 2018, a sixth season is in development.

* AbortedArc: There are far too many to mention (it was taken to ridiculous extremes in the last season). A notable example is the romance between Lincoln and Veronica which is promptly forgotten about when [[spoiler: Veronica is killed]]. Pretty much any lesser plot-line from the first season is dead and gone by the third. The producers have also said there was far more planned for President Reynolds but were [[RealLifeWritesThePlot prevented due to Patricia Wettig joining the cast of]] ''Series/BrothersAndSisters''.

* ArtisticLicense: The Illinois corrections officers are portrayed as poorly paid (e.g., a veteran officer saying "I ain't a hero for $14 an hour"). In reality for Illinois, because of the poor working conditions the pay is not bad for a job requiring only a high school education: about $24 an hour fresh out of the academy.

* DeadManWriting: The final scene of ''The Final Break'', and a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming, is [[spoiler:Michael's]] posthumous message to Lincoln and Sara.

* DownerEnding: The epilogue of the Season 4 finale (amazingly enough, the same event gets turned into a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming in ''The Final Break'').

* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Several characters share their names. Not really a problem because they're either never seen together, they're called by their last names, and/or one has a nickname.

** Subverted for the name Susan. First there's T-Bag's ex-girlfriend, Susan Hollander, a.k.a. Susy-Q. Then there was Susan B. Anthony, whose real name turned out to be Gretchen.

* PrisonRape: Tweener's a victim. T-Bag is a regular perpetrator.

''Prison Break'' is a US TV series that ran for four seasons on the Fox Network between 2005 and 2009, concluding with a direct-to-DVD movie, 'The Final Break'. It was later revived for a nine episode fifth season which aired in the spring of 2017, with most of the original cast members returning. The first season follows Michael and Lincoln as they assemble an escape team, avoid the suspicions of the prison staff -- including Sara, the prison doctor who unexpectedly becomes integral to the scheme and Michael himself -- and put Michael's plan into action, [[TwoLinesNoWaiting while their lawyer friend]] [[HelloAttorney Veronica]] tries to uncover the conspiracy that's framing Lincoln. Seasons two through four involved the characters becoming fugitives, breaking out of other prisons and eventually taking on [[TheSyndicate "The Company"]], a shadowy cabal responsible for framing Lincoln in the first place. The fifth season [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] the GrandFinale in season four, and [[TropesAreNotBad brought the characters back together once again]] to take on a rogue [=CIA=] faction known as 21-Void.

* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese dub uses [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x44cjg_namie-amuro-prison-break-japanese-c_shortfilms "Top Secret"]] by Namie Amuro for the theme song of the second season.[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FASU8r52kN8 "Evolution"]] by Exile was the first theme song for the third season and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjmhNCkxjUo "Be On Top"]] is the second theme song. [[http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/s-v9SK7cwfQ/ "Change"]] by YU-A as the ending theme song for the final season.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: We see Michael laying the groundwork for several steps of his plan during 'Brother's Keeper', but don't learn what they are until they're utilized in season two.

* FriendInTheBlackMarket: C-Note (season 1).
* FunctionalAddict: Mahone still manages to be a WorthyOpponent for Michael and figure out every step from his plan, despite being a drug addict.

* GambitPileup: Throughout the series, but especially in season 4.
* GenreShift: Season 1 is a classic jailhouse drama with a GreatEscape plot, and its cast is filled with classic prison StockCharacters. The Season 2 is a SternChase centered on the characters evading the law, Season 3 is a thriller set in a HellholePrison (though with a GreatEscape still worked into the plot), and Season 4 is a conspiracy thriller about the characters MacGyvering their way out of scrapes with TheSyndicate.

* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Invoked by Michael as a ploy to get himself moved out of solitary confinement and into the psych ward.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Most of the goriest moments in the show happen off-screen, such as [[spoiler: [[BoomHeadshot Nick Savrinn getting shot]] and T-Bag having his hand chopped off with an axe.]]

* FinishHim: The whole point of Sona's chicken-foot fights, from which only one man can come out alive. Michael gets touched by his nobility in his first duel: after seriously damaging his opponent, the former wants to quit, but is not allowed to by the crowd demanding him to finish the job, which allows the latter to come back and [[spoiler: almost kill Scofield, had it not been for Mahone]].
** Happens to Michael, when he holds enemies (which almost always are objectively-bad people) at a gunpoint, but ultimately refuses to kill them, making him the most upstanding, sensitive, and also somewhat-stupid character in the series. It usually bears the same consequences for him as those in his Sona fight. People whose lives he saves oftentimes return later to harm him even more, like [[spoiler: T-Bag]], causing a lot of trouble along the way only to eventually [[spoiler: start working with the Company and almost rape Sara]], or [[spoiler: General Krantz, who — while incarcerated — orders dr. Tancredi's death]]. Scofield's attitude seems to shift in certain points of the plot, though. At the end of Season 2 he wounds [[spoiler: Bagwell to let the Panamanian police get to him]], whereas in Season 4 he tries to put [[spoiler: his mother]] to death twice, including a shooting attempt failed only by an empty magazine.
** Linc occasionally jumps on the mercy bandwagon, too. In Season 4, when Gretchen intends to sell her [[StealthPun company]], he doesn't pull the trigger despite Self trying to convince him that she deserves it. In the Season 2 finale, when pointing the gun at Mahone, he's unable to kill him. Alex then breaks the deadlock and handcuffs Burrows.

* FinishHim: Strongly [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] with Michael. The undoubtedly-bad guys he ''should'' kill (like [[spoiler: T-Bag or the General]]) will most of the times manage to cause a lot of trouble for him — with the direct example from the first chicken-foot fight in Sona, when the prisoner he refuses to finish was about to put Scofield to death, [[spoiler: but fortunately for him, Mahone stepped up and saved him]]. Lincoln and few other main characters jump on the mercy bandwagon, too.
** Whistler is about to kill Michael when their failed escape plan is found and the guards come storming in.