
Felon stars Stephen Dorff as Wade Porter, Val Kilmer as John Smith, Harold Perrineau (he played in the Prison series Oz) as Lieutenant Jackson, Marisol Nichols as Wade Porter's fiancee Laura, Anne Archer as Laura's mother, and your usual list of ruffians that go in a prison movie.
Wade and Laura wake up one night and find that they have an intruder in their home. It happened fast: Wade tracks the burglar outside with a baseball bat, the burglar reaches for something (maybe a weapon) and Wade hits him in the head with the baseball bat and kills him. Wade finds out that the burglar didn't have a weapon on him, since Wade killed him outside of his home, he is charged with murder. Wade has to do prison time.
Porter arrives in prison, a dark world where it is survival of the fittest. There are gangs everywhere and you learn to trust nobody. Wade finds out that the whole prison is corrupted by the prison guards, where they place bets on yard fights.
Wade befriends his new cell mate, John Smith, who the other prisoners leave alone. Smith teaches Porter how to survive in prison.
This is one powerful movie and performances by the actors are very outstanding. An instant classic!