Loosely based on true events, Midnight Express tells the story of Billy Hayes (Brad Davis), a young American caught for smuggling hashish out of Turkey in the early 1970s. When Hayes is sentenced to 30 years in prison, and subjected to prolonged physical and mental torture, he comes close to losing his sanity. At first, Hayes' hopes for release rest on the appeals made by his lawyer and the US government. With the appeals failing, his only other option is escape, but with fellow inmates acting as informants, and the punishment for unsuccessful escapes so severe, can he risk a "midnight express"?