
            The movie opens with an official explaining the facts of life to a group of prisoners. The scene switches to a French city where a large group of men are being paraded at gunpoint through a street crowded with onlookers, police and media. A wealthy woman waves forlornly to a man wearing glasses. They board a freighter and are put in cells in the ship's hold.The men begin to talk about the short bespectacled man, Dega, who is said to be a renowned counterfeiter, who may have a lot of concealed money. The prisoners begin their voyage and are shown in various daily routines. The blue-eyed man with a large butterfly tattoo, Papillon, has a knife, decides to befriend Dega and promises to protect him. Some men are seen to be getting ill and weak in the heat as the ship travels south. Papillon is tanned, fit, and confident looking. Two men attempt to assault Dega during the night. Papillon manages to fight them off but is placed in irons. Finally the ship arrives at its destination in French Guiana, the men see three small islands in the distance and mention they are high security prisons. One is the real-life but long abandoned Prison of St-Laurent-du-Maroni (Bagne de Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni), where some scenes were filmed.While lining up to disembark one prisoner, Julot, a "two time loser", asks for Papillon's shiv and cuts his own knee, he pretends to fall down the gangplank and he is carried off on a stretcher. A young man walks into the ocean and is summarily shot and killed. The prisoners are marched through a town of onlookers, assembled at the main camp, the Pénitencier, and told that if they try to escape they will get two years in solitary, a second attempt means five years solitary confinement, and a third attempt means the guillotine. They are issued red and white striped uniforms. In the barracks an older prisoner/trustee recognizes Dega and explains that an easy job is available for a price. A struggling prisoner is brought in front of the assembled camp and is guillotined. Papillon and Dega stick together, they have a medical exam and just before they are assigned to the easy work a senior guard says Dega's counterfeiting cost his family a lot of money and assigns them to a hard labor logging detail in the swamp.One day a crocodile attacks the group, Papillon and Dega are told to get it with their bare hands. They meet another prisoner, Clusiot, at lunch break who shares some quinine anti-malaria medicine. Next, the prisoners chase butterflies with nets. Dega catches a big blue one. Papillon approaches the butterfly buyer and asks for help to escape. Arrangements are made for two weeks later. Papillon tries to convince Dega to come also. Julot's corpse is brought in with his throat slit, Dega is sickened and causes a commotion, Papillon escapes. Dega gets new bifocal glasses. Papillon comes to the butterfly buyer's camp and is immediately taken at gunpoint, betrayed.He is taken to "Reclusion" and told the rules. He is placed in a small cell 5 paces wide and starts walking back and forth and do push ups. His food and water are passed in through a small hatch, despite the poor food he vows to eat all. One day he finds a piece of coconut in his water bucket and a note from Dega. Eventually the guards discover the extra food and try to find out from Papillon who arranged it for him. He refuses to talk and is placed on half-rations. Then his ceiling is covered and he is placed in almost complete darkness. Over time Papillon gets very weak and hallucinates, thinking back on a wasted life, later fantasizing about a triumphant return to France with Dega. He is near death and reduced to eating insects when suddenly he is released as his solitary period is ended. He is taken back to the main camp.Slowly regaining his strength he renews his friendship with Dega, who appreciates that Papillon never gave him up. In the hospital ward he notices a young prisoner, Maturette, who is molested by a trustee. Maturette admits he is homosexual and will help Papillon if he can come too. Papillon starts planning a new escape with the Maturette and Clusiot. A prisoner doctor says he can make suitable arrangements for a price. Dega refuses to go along but gives Papillon money and a map. During a band concert night the three try their escape, a guard is alerted and Clusiot is hurt. Papillon and Maturette get over the wall and encourage Dega to join them. Dega breaks his ankle when falling over the wall.The three escape into the jungle. They paid 3,000 francs to buy a boat but find the boat is useless. A trapper with strange facial tattoos shows them he killed two men who had been waiting for the three escapees. He helps them escape down the river to a leper colony. At the leper colony the leader tests Papillon by telling him to smoke his cigar. Papillon does so and the man says he has non-contagious leprosy. The lepers give the three escapees a boat and some money and the three sail off toward the Honduras.At sea they scavenge water and eat turtles, endure storms and heat. Dega's broken ankle gets worse, Maturette knows some medicine and tries to do first aid . Eventually they land on a sandy beach and are immediately confronted by a small group of Spanish-speaking soldiers. Dega lies there in the sand and the other two scatter. Papillon meets a Spanish prisoner and together they run off deeper into the jungle. The Spanish prisoner is impaled on a booby trap and Papillon is hit with a blowgun dart and falls into a river.He awakes in a village of primitive natives. They live in thatch huts on a beach, fish for pearls and a nubile young woman helps Papillon regain his strength. The chief has Papillon give him a butterfly tattoo like that of Papillon. One day he wakes up and the natives are all gone but have left him a small bag with some pearls. Somewhere he gets newer clothes and appears to be a regular European tourist. At a border crossing he tries to join a religious caravan, they let him join them to cross. At the church, Papillon declares to the Mother Superior he is an innocent man who never killed anyone and gives her his pearls in a show of good faith. Asleep on a clean bed, he is rousted awake and taken at gunpoint. The nun has betrayed him.Five years (or more) later, Papillon is released from "Reclusion" with white hair, looking very old. He meets a dying Maturette in the courtyard. He is taken to Devil's Island and assigned a cabin where he is told to fend for himself. He meets Dega, who is also on the island, and has a tidy cabin, carrot garden and a few pigs, but is a bit off, mentally. Papillon begins observing the waves and currents and begins planning another escape. He figures out that every seventh wave is big enough to carry a floating object out to sea. He fashions two large floats and seems to have Dega convinced to escape with him. When it is time to go Dega changes his mind. The two friends hug and Papillon jumps off a cliff into the ocean timing to meet the 7th wave. He is carried out to sea clinging to his float.A voice-over announces that Papillon made it to freedom and outlived the prison. The final scenes are of the abandoned prison overgrown by the jungle.
    

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