Escape from Alcatrazis a 1979 American thriller film , directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood .It dramatizes possibly the only successful escape attempt from the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island . The film co-stars Fred Ward , and also features Patrick McGoohan as the suspicious, vindictive warden, and features the film debut of Danny Glover .

Frank Morris is sent to the prison on Alcatraz . There, he meets his old friends, brothers John and Clarence Anglin , and also makes the acquaintance of the prisoner in the cell next to his, Charlie Butts. After a series of negative experiences involving the warden of Alcatraz, Morris decides to escape and persuades the other three men to join him. The inmates dig through the walls of their cells with spoons, make papier-mâché dummies to act as decoys, and construct a raft out of raincoats. On the night of their escape, Butts gets frightened and does not go with the others. Morris and the Anglin brothers make it out of the prison and paddle their raft towards Angel Island , never to be seen again. Still, there is some hint at the end of the film that they made it to shore.