A fictionalized interpretation of an experiment by Stanford University in 1971 which asked for 24 male students to volunteer for a simulated prison experience as prisoners or guards to determine behavioral and psychological consequences. The film draws strongly from a novelization that was loosely based the Stanford experiment and which featured a generally invented version. The time frame of the original experiment was two weeks, however the experiment was terminated after six days and accounts indicate there was no actual violence. In the filmed version an assortment of ever-spiraling abuse and retaliation culminates in a prisoner rebellion that unleashes even more violent and inhuman urges as personal and professional control alike is lost or abandoned.