A French convict in the 1930s befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence in the South American penal colony on Devil's Island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
A semi-fictional account of Henri Charrière's time in the penal system in French Guyana - some of it spent on infamous Devil's Island - is presented. It's the early 1930s. Charrière - nicknamed Papillon because of his butterfly tattoo - and Louis Dega are two among many who have been convicted in the French judicial system, they now being transferred to French Guyana where they will serve their time, never to return to France even if they are ever released. A safe-cracker by criminal profession, Papillon is serving a life sentence for murdering a pimp, a crime for which he adamantly states he was framed. Dega is a wealthy counterfeiter, who expects his well-to-do wife eventually to get him released. On Papillon's initiative, Papillon and Dega enter into a business arrangement: Papillon will provide protection for Dega, while Dega will finance Papillon's escape attempt. As Papillon and Degas' time together lasts longer than either expects, their burgeoning friendship ends up being an important factor altering their original plans, needed as they work with and against others who are trying to achieve their own goals, sometime conflicting with Papillon and Dega's.—Huggo
Convicted as a murderer by the French court, safe-breaker Henri Charrière, alias Papillon because of the colourful butterfly tattoo adorning his chest, is left to rot in a penal colony somewhere in the heart of French Guiana. Sentenced to life imprisonment, before long, Henri Charrière strikes a mutually beneficial deal with fellow inmate, Louis Dega, France's most infamous counterfeiter, and starts planning their escape. Then again, plans often fail, and a lifetime of back-breaking prison labour, solitary confinement, and inhuman conditions await those who contemplate escape. But man is born free. And resilient, life-thirsty Papillon is determined to get away at all costs and live life to the fullest. However, what is the price of freedom?—Nick Riganas
Based on the true story of Henri Charriere, also known as Papillon, which is French for 'butterfly' (the character even sports a large tattoo of a butterfly). A petty criminal, Papillon is wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to life in a French penal colony in 'Guiane' (French Guiana, South America). Papillon is determined to escape but attempt after attempt meets with difficulty, resulting in eventual recapture. He continues his attempts to escape despite incarcerations in solitary confinement as punishment.—Reid Gagle
Henri Charriere (Steve McQueen) is a safe-cracker nicknamed "Papillon" because of the butterfly tattoo on his chest. In 1933 France, he is wrongly convicted of murdering a pimp and is sentenced to life imprisonment within the penal system in French Guiana, South America. En route, he meets a fellow convict, Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman), an infamous forger and embezzler who is convinced that his wife will secure his release. Papillon offers to protect Dega (Dega is rumored to be rich) if he will fund the former's escape once they reach Guiana (Dega initially dismisses him, but then one of the inmates sleeping next to Dega is killed at night on the transport ship. Dega thinks they were aiming for him and simply got the wrong man. Dega accepts Papillon's deal the next day). During the remainder of the trip Papillon saves Dega from more attempts on his life.
40% of inmates die in the first yr alone. The prison is in the middle of a swamp, 1000 miles from nowhere. A boat will cost 4500 francs. There are additional prisons on 3 islands, but One can't swim to the mainland as the current is very strong and will push you to where you started. The prisoners are taken to St Laurent and then sent to work camps or one of the Islands. Julot (Don Gordon) is a fellow prisoner who educates Papillon about the rules of prison life. First escape attempt gets 2 years in solitary and next attempt gets 5 years more (added to existing sentences). Warden Barrot (William Smithers) is tough and uncompromising.
Dega bribes a guard so that he and Papillon are not sent to the work camps or to one of the Islands. But the supervisor lost everything in Dega's counterfeit National Defense Bonds scheme of 1928 and allocates them to Kilo-40 (timber yard). Enduring the horrors of life in a jungle labor camp, the two eventually become friends.The prisoners are treated worse than animals. Bad food, hose downs for a bath, little space with no ventilation. A trader comes every couple of months to Kilo-40, to trade for blue Morphus butterflies. Their pigments are used as dye in US currency notes. He comes by boat. Papillon convinces him to arrange a boat for 4000 Francs, one week from that day.
One day, Papillon defends Dega from a sadistic guard and escapes into the jungle but is captured (the trader betrays him to the bounty hunters) and sentenced to two years in solitary confinement (on one of the Islands). In gratitude, Dega has extra food smuggled to Papillon. When the smuggling is discovered, the warden screens Papillon's cell in darkness for six months and halves his rations, believing that it will force him to reveal his benefactor. Half-insane and reduced to eating insects to survive, Papillon refuses to give up Dega's name. Due to decease in his gums, Papillon loses some of his teeth, they just come out of his mouth. Papillon is about to give up the name to the warden but relents at the last minute. The Warden figures Papillon is dying.He is eventually released and sent to the infirmary in St-Laurent-Du-Maroni to recover.
Papillon sees Dega again (Dega has managed to get out of Kilo-40 by bribing the warden with a new house, and Dega was made chief clerk of the prison) (Dega also informs Papillon that the principal witness against him is willing to change his story for a price. Papillon can be out in 3 years. But Papillon says that's too long) and asks him to arrange for another escape attempt.
Dega helps him meet an inmate doctor, who offers to secure him a boat on the outside with the help of a man named Pascal (Val Avery) (3000 francs to the doctor and 3000 francs to Pascal). Fellow prisoner Clusiot (Woodrow Parfrey) and a gay orderly named André Maturette (Robert Deman) (who is sexually assaulted by fellow prisoners at night) join the escape plot. Maturette's job is to keep an orderly happy for 10 mins while the others can escape and Clusiot was the one who introduced Papillon to the doctor. Papillon convinces Dega to join him, as he is not convinced that Dega's wife is doing everything to get him out.
During the escape, Clusiot is knocked unconscious by a guard; Dega is forced to subdue the guard and reluctantly joins Papillon and Maturette, climbing the walls to the outside. Dega fractures his ankle in the fall. The trio meet Pascal and they escape into the night. In the jungle the next day, Pascal delivers the prisoners to their boat, but after he leaves the convicts discover that it is fake (it's made out of Kindling). Maturette helps set Dega's ankle straight, so he can travel. They encounter a local trapper (John Quade) who has killed the bounty hunters that were waiting for them; he guides the three to a nearby leper colony, where they obtain supplies and a seaworthy boat (The leper test Papillon by making him smoke the same cigar as them (but they had dry leprosy, which wasn't contagious)).
The trio eventually land in Honduras (after 4 weeks. Dega's foot gets infected and Maturette has to perform a surgery in the boat to cauterize the wound, after Papillon gets him drunk) and are accosted by a group of soldiers, who open fire and wound Maturette. He is captured along with Dega, while Papillon is forced to flee. Papillon evades the soldiers and lives for a long period with a native tribe (he finds a native girl, falls in love. He has to make a butterfly tattoo for the village chief, just like he has); he awakens one morning to find them gone, leaving him with a small sack of pearls. Papillon pays a nun to take him to her convent where he asks the Mother Superior for refuge, but she instead turns him over to the authorities.
Papillon is brought back to French Guiana and sentenced to another five years of solitary confinement. He emerges a graying old man along with Maturette, whom he sees just before the latter dies. Papillon is then moved to the remote Devil's Island where he reunites with Dega, who has long given up all hope of being released (his wife married his attorney). From a high cliff, Papillon observes a small cove where he discovers that the waves are powerful enough to carry a man out to sea and to the nearby mainland. Papillon urges Dega to join him in another escape, and the men make two floats out of bagged up coconuts. As they stand on the cliff side, Dega decides not to escape and begs Papillon not to either. Papillon embraces Dega a final time, and then leaps from the cliff. Grasping his float, he is successfully carried out to sea.
A narrator states that Papillon made it to freedom and lived the rest of his life a free man. However, the prison did not survive.There are numerous differences between the book and the movie; in addition to truncating the story, Papillon did not report eating bugs in prison, and was not in total darkness in solitary.
