Terminal Island, released theatrically in the UK as Knuckle Men, is a 1973 American action–drama thriller film directed by Stephanie Rothman.

They tell Carmen that her duties will include servicing the sexual needs of the male prisoners and working in the fields.

The rebels fight the larger group, and a large battle ensues in which men on both sides are killed, including Cornell and Dylan.

Stephanie Rothman started directing films for Roger Corman at New World Pictures, The Student Nurses and The Velvet Vampire.

She and her husband Charles Swartz received an offer from Larry Woolmer to join a new company, Dimension Pictures, for which Rothman made Terminal Island.

She says she and her husband decided to make a film about women and men in prison and Woolner wanted it to have black characters to appeal to the blaxploitation audience.

"[6] Rothman said the film "was the first opportunity I had to deal with major action sequences and a large cast of characters.

Ena Hartman sprained her ankle early during filming, meaning her role had to be truncated as she was unable to do action scenes.

"[12] Rothman said the film "ultimately... did make money, but initially it did not do that well... it did well in certain cities but not well in others... it may have been the publicity campaign was wrong.

It may have been there just wasn't a public interest in that kind of subject matter at the time....I know it sold to Italy and Spain and Mexico and England.

"[1] The Los Angeles Times said "this slick saga offers enough sadism, sex and violence to divert anyone who gets bored trying to figure out if this film is trying to make a statement about capital punishment, race relations, woman's lib, man's inhumanity or the advantages of living primitively...

"[13] Film critic Roger Ebert rated Terminal Island one star out of four, dismissing it as "the kind of movie that can almost be reviewed by watching the trailer.

"[14] Dannis Peary called it "the most democratic— and “unisexual”—movie in memory: the women and men renegades are interchangeable, sharing in all the action, the danger, the plotting of war strategy.

"[6] According to writer Pam Cook, "Like Rothman's other films, Terminal Island includes numerous feminist jokes, many of which depend on role reversal, or on women turning the tables against male aggressors.

The location is cheap (forest), everyone's costume is the same (a jean ensemble) and the gore simple (bloody stab wounds).

The characters are distinct (the mute, the cocky one, the new girl) and they are developed in a way that makes you care if they get killed, without ever wallowing in any of their back stories.