Where is this Prison


It said that this prison was on some island. Was this a real prison or a fictional version of Alcatraz?

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Good question. I'm 90% sure Cascabel Island Prison never existed. The island is very small and I think it belongs to Mexico. The are no references to the prison on the web except in relation to the movie. The producers may have been afraid of annoying a real Federal prison so made this up. If anybody knows different please post.

from TCM (turner classic movies):
The film features some exterior footage of the Cascabel Island Prison, which was on Isla San Pedro MÃ¥rtir in the Gulf of Mexico. Hollywood Reporter news items and contemporary photographs indicate that the interior prison scenes were shot at McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary in Washington.

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[deleted]

The interior and immediate exterior shots were done indeed at Mc Neil Island.
Though, the long shots of the prison are a very obvious matte painting. There is NO Cascabel Prison anywhere.

As children, in So Cal, we had to sing the Spanish version of "Jingle Bells" for Xmas. The words standing in for "Jingle Bells" were, ahem, "Cascabel".....
In the film, actor Reed Hadley (the FBI agent and narrator)says "Cascabel" means rattlesnake - which is up for debate.
I can see how the rattle on a rattlesnake could be construed to sound like bells...but, having been around the real things I just don't get it.

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thanks

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Thank you VERY MUCH

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Could not have been a fictional Alcatraz since earlier in the movie, when he is introduced to his cellmates, one of them remarks "Why didn't they just send him to Alcatraz?"

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