Prison Break: The Final Break - Unraveling the Timeline

The Creation of Prison Break: The Final Break

Following the (tentative) ending of Prison Break in 2009, Fox released a standalone made-for-television film, Prison Break: The Final Break. The movie takes place in the same universe as the drama series, but its place in the show's timeline is not as straightforward as it seems.

Prison Break The Final Break Screencap

The series, which stars Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield and Dominic Purcell as Lincoln Burrows, revolved around Michael trying to break his brother, Lincoln, out of prison after he was sentenced to death for a crime he was innocent of committing. Given its premise, there was only so much story for the Fox show to tell, but the network attempted to prolong its success as much as possible.

Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrow Looking Cross in Prison Break

Prison Break initially ran for four seasons, with its fourth season supposed to serve as its final run of episodes. However, that changed when Fox decided to take two additional episodes of the series — 'The Old Ball and Chain' and 'Free' — and combine them to make one film, Prison Break: The Final Break. The movie premiered a couple of weeks following the season 4 finale and wrapped up the show's storyline. However, the film's timeline, compared to the series, is a bit complicated.

The Final Break - A Timeline of Events

The events of Prison Break: The Final Break technically occur before the final moments of the season 4 finale. As fans recall, the finale featured Michael, Lincoln, Sara Tancredi, Fernando Sucre, Benjamin Miles 'C-Note' Franklin, and Alexander Mahone gaining immunity and Theodore 'T-Bag' Bagwell and General Jonathan Krantz getting arrested for their crimes. However, the celebration turned sour when Michael got a nosebleed, indicating that his cancer had returned. The episode then jumped ahead four years, and viewers learned that Michael died during those missing years.

Prison Break: The Final Break filled in some missing pieces from the season 4 finale. The movie takes place between the arrests of T-Bag and Krantz and the visit to Michael's grave. Michael and Sara get married in the film, but Sara, who is pregnant, gets arrested for murdering Christina Scofield. Of course, Michael devises a plan to break his wife out of jail, but it costs him his life. Michael dies when he is electrocuted while causing a short circuit to open a locked door, allowing Sara to escape. So, in the end, it wasn't the cancer that killed Michael (but it eventually would have).

Watching The Final Break and Prison Break

Although Prison Break: The Final Break takes place before the epilogue of the season 4 finale, it would be perfectly fine to watch the film after the episode since that was how Fox released it anyway. However, the show's revival in 2017 retconned much about the season 4 epilogue and the movie. Consequentially, it's important to distinguish the events of seasons 1 through 4 and the film and Prison Break season 5.

Prison Break is available to stream on Hulu and Prison Break: The Final Break is available to buy on Amazon Prime Video.