What is Dead Man Walking about?
A death row inmate turns for spiritual guidance to a local nun in the days leading up to his scheduled execution for the murders of a young couple.
Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)
No. Brace yourself.
Dead Man Walking (1995)
A nun offers spiritual comfort to a condemned man as his tragic final days unfold.
Bleak and earnest. A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is devastating. Based on a book.
Streaming on Paramount+, MGM+, Kanopy (free), Hoopla (free), The Roku Channel (free), YouTube (free) and 1 more.
Dead Man Walking parents guide
Heads up on strong sex and nudity. That is past what the R on the box suggests. Beyond that, strong violence and some strong language.
- Scare
- Not scary
- Jump scares
- None noted
- Gore
- Light gore
- Some blood or injury, briefly.
- Violence
- Strong violence
- Violence is frequent or intense.
- Sex and nudity
- Strong
- Strong means explicit or repeated sex, extended nudity, or sexual assault shown on screen, attempted or completed, even partly off screen. Any one of these is enough.
- Language
- Moderate
- Some strong profanity, a few f-words.
How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.
Three questions
- How gory is Dead Man Walking?
- Light gore and strong violence.
- What is Dead Man Walking rated, and is it OK for kids?
- It is an R, with strong sex and nudity, strong violence, and some strong language. Keep it for adults.
Cast and crew
Directed byTim Robbins
StarringSusan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Robert Prosky, Raymond J. Barry, R. Lee Ermey, Celia Weston
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Dead Man Walking is on our Prison list.
More like this feeling
Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.
- “a movie that will make me cry”
- “a thriller with a twist, no spoilers”
- “funny but not stupid, under two hours”
Lists with the same feel: Tearjerkers.
Five more like Dead Man Walking
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Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.