Brawl in Cell Block 99 is a 2017 American neo-noir prison action thriller film directed and written by S. Craig Zahler and starring Vince Vaughn with Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Udo Kier, Marc Blucas, and Tom Guiry.

Zahler wrote the script of Brawl in Cell Block 99 after watching several prison films, coming up with different elements to add to the genre.

Bradley distrusts one of Eleazar's henchmen, Roman, but accepts the job when Gil offers him three months' paternity leave.

The Placid Man commands Bradley to assassinate an inmate who is held in Cell Block 99 at Redleaf, a maximum-security prison.

[11] In an interview with The Verge, Zahler explained, "Prison is such a compelling place to set a movie, because you have a bunch of hard-edged dudes confined together, and all of them are going to have interesting backstories".

[13] Zahler wrote every moment of graphic violence into the script of Brawl in Cell Block 99, although he wondered if some scenes had gone too far.

[15] Zahler sold the script of Brawl in Cell Block 99 to several producers, but progress stalled until Bone Tomahawk was completed.

[11] Jack Heller and Dallas Sonnier brought back the script, allowing Zahler to have full creative control over the film.

[2][9] Carpenter was initially cast as the main female lead of Bone Tomahawk but was not able to appear due to scheduling conflicts.

[4] Zahler praised Vaughn's authenticity, engagement, and consistency in films like Swingers (1996), The Cell (2000), Old School (2003), and Hacksaw Ridge (2016).

Zahler also chose Vaughn for his imposing presence and physical profile as a large man standing at 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m).

[15][17][18] Vaughn had seen Bone Tomahawk, Zahler's first directed film, and agreed to perform in Brawl in Cell Block 99 after reading its script.

[2] Cinematographer Benji Bakshi, who previously collaborated with Zahler on Bone Tomahawk, worked on Brawl in Cell Block 99.

[12] Since Zahler did not want to use computer-generated imagery (CG) in Brawl in Cell Block 99, most of the violence and gore was done as physical special effects.

He explained: "I shoot violence in a really unvarnished way, without all this cinematic frosting, and there's no CG so there isn't that slight off, digital feel.

[14] The actors rehearsed and performed the fight scenes over multiple takes without stunt doubles, and they risked getting hurt if there was a mistake.

[2] While original songs feature on the soundtrack, the film has almost no score (musical accompaniment) as Zahler wanted to focus on the acting.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Brawl in Cell Block 99 rides a committed Vince Vaughn performance into the brutally violent—and undeniably entertaining—depths of prison-set grindhouse genre fare.

[29] Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised the film, calling it a "rare movie that truly evokes the grindhouse '70s" with its "exploitation made with vicious sincerity", a sentiment shared by Eric Kohn of IndieWire.

[29][30] Praise was also given to Vaughn's performance by Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times, Gleiberman of Variety, and Dan Buffa of KSDK News.

Gleiberman refers to Vaughn's character Bradley as "a big violent sad-eyed baby, and he connects to the audience in the direct emotional way that he has done only rarely since Swingers".

The picture was a New York Times Critic's Pick[37] and was screened at the Museum of Modern Art,[38] where it was added to the permanent collection.

[38] Brawl in Cell Block 99 was nominated for Best Thriller Film and Best Actor for Vaughn at the 44th Saturn Awards, but lost to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Mark Hamill for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, respectively.