20世纪40年代末，小有成就的青年银行家安迪（蒂姆·罗宾斯 Tim Robbins 饰）因涉嫌杀害妻子及她的情人而锒铛入狱。在这座名为肖申克的监狱内，希望似乎虚无缥缈，终身监禁的惩罚无疑注定了安迪接下来灰暗绝望的人生。未过多久，安迪尝试接近囚犯中颇有声望的瑞德（摩根·弗里曼 Morgan Freeman 饰），请求对方帮自己搞来小锤子。以此为契机，二人逐渐熟稔，安迪也仿佛在鱼龙混杂、罪恶横生、黑白混淆的牢狱中找到属于自己的求生之道。他利用自身的专业知识，帮助监狱管理层逃税、洗黑钱，同时凭借与瑞德的交往在犯人中间也渐渐受到礼遇。表面看来，他已如瑞德那样对那堵高墙从憎恨转变为处之泰然，但是对自由的渴望仍促使他朝着心中的希望和目标前进。而关于其罪行的真相，似乎更使这一切朝前推进了一步…… 
　　本片根据著名作家斯蒂芬·金（Stephen Edwin King）的原著改编。

Red: I have no idea to this day what those two In ladies were singin'about. Truth is, I don't want to know, Some things are best left unsaid. I like to think they were singin'about something so beautiful it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared. Higher and farther that anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away... and for the briefest of moments-every last man at Shawshank felt free. It pissed the warden off something awful.
Warden: Open the door. Open it up! Dufrense, open this door! Turn that offl I am warning you, Dufrense, turn that off!
Hadley: Dufrense, you are mine now.
Red: Andy got to weeks in the hole for that¨ittle stunt.
Hadlen: On your feet.
Con l: Hey, look who's here.
Con 2: Maestro
Hey wood: You, you couldn't plaY somethin'good, huh ? Like Hank Williams ?
Andy: They broke the door down before I could take requests.
Floyd : Was it worth two weeks in the hole ?
Andy: Easiest time I ever did.
Heywood: Oh, shit. No such thing as easy time in the hole A week in the hole is like a year.
Snooze: Damn straight.
Andy: I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company.
Red: So they let you tote that record player down there, huh ?
Andy: It was in here... in here. That's the beauty of music. They can't get that from you. Haven't you ever felt that way about music ?
Red: Well I pfayed a mean harmonica as a younger man Lost my interest in it, though. Didn't make much sense in here.
Andy: Here 's where it makes most sense. You need it so you don 't forget.
Red: Forget?
Andy: ForgBt that there are places in the world that aren 't made out of stone, that there's.. there's something inside that they can't get to and they can't touch. That's yours.
Red: What are you talking about ?
Andy: Hope.
Red: Hope. Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. lt's got no use on the inside. You 'd better get used to the idea.
Andy: Like Brooks did ?

瑞德：到今天我还不知道那两个意大利娘们在唱些什么，其实，我也不想知道，有些东西还是留着不说为妙。我像她们该是在唱一些非常美妙动人的故事，美妙得难以用言语来表达，美妙的让你心痛。告诉你吧，这些声音直插云霄，飞得比任何一个人敢想的梦还要遥远。就像一些美丽的鸟儿扑扇着翅膀来到我们褐色牢笼，让那些墙壁消失得无影无踪。就在那一刹那，肖申克监狱的每一个人都感到了自由，然而这却把监狱长激怒了。
监狱长：开门，开门！杜佛恩，开门！把音乐关了！我警告你，杜佛恩把那关了。
海德利：杜佛恩，我该收拾你了。
瑞德：因为这小小的壮举，安迪被关了两周的禁闭。
海德利：站起来！
囚犯甲：嗨，看看谁来了。
囚犯乙：原来是艺术大师。
海姆德：你说你就不能放点通俗的吗？比如汉克·威廉姆斯？
安迪：我还没来得及开始接受点歌，他们就把门砸开了。
佛罗伊德：在小屋里禁闭两周，值得吗？
安迪：那是我最轻松的一段时光。
海姆德：胡说。小黑屋里会有轻松时光吗，在那里可是度日如
年啊！
史努兹：完全正确。
安迪：我有莫扎特陪伴着我。
瑞德：他们让你把那录音机也扛进去了？
安迪：不，在我脑子里。音乐之美，是他们无法剥夺的。你们没有那种对音乐的体验？
瑞德：年轻的时候我吹过一段时间口琴，现在已经没兴趣了。在这干什么都没有意义。
安迪：在这儿音乐才最有意义。有了它你就不会忘记。
瑞德：忘记？
安迪：忘记世上还有不是用石头围起来的地方，忘记自己的内心还有你自己的东西，他们碰不到的东西。
瑞德：你在说什么？
安迪：希望。
瑞德：希望？哥们，我告诉你吧，希望是个危险的东西，希望能把你逼疯。在这里希望毫无意义，你最好接受这一点。
安迪：就像老布那样？

Red : He's got his fingers in a tot of pies, from what I hear.
Andy: What you hear isn't half of it. He's got scams you haven't dreamed of. Kickbacks on his kickbacks. There's a river of dirty money flowing through this ptace.
Red: Can be a problem having all that money. 'Cause sooner or (ater you ' re gotta have to explain where it came from.
Andy: That's where I come in. I channel it,fiIter it, funnel it... stocks, securities, taxfree municipals., t send that money out into the real world. And when it comes back.
Red : Clean as a virgin 's honeybunch ?
Andy: Cleaner. By the time Norton retires, I will have made him a millionaire.
Red: If they ever catch on him, he's gonna wind up here Wearing a number himself.
Andy: Oh Red, I thought you had a little more faith in me than that.
Red: I know you're good, but all that paper leaves a trail. Now anybody gets curious, FBI, IRS, whatever. lt's going to lead to somebody.
Andy: Sure it is. But not to me~ and certainly not to the warden.
Red: Allright, who?
Andy: RandaIIStevens.
Red: Who?
Andy: The "silent" silent partner. He's the guilty one~ your Honor.
The man with the bank accounts. lt's where the filtering process starts. They trace anything, it 's gonna lead to him.
Red: But who is he ?
Andy: He's a phantom, an apparition. Second cousin to Harvey the Rabbit, ( off Red's look ) I conjured him out of thin air. He doesn't exist... except on paper.
Red: Andy, you can't just make a person up.
Andy: Sure you can. if you know how the system works, and where the cracks are. lt's amazing what you can accomplish by mail.
Mr. Stevens has a birth certificate, driver's license, social security number.
Red: You ' re shitting me.
Andy: lf they aver trace any of those accounts, they'II wind up chasing a figment of my imagination.
Red: Well,l,II be damnedl Did I say you were good 7 Shit! You're Rembrandt.
Andy: The funny thing is on the outside, I was an honest man.
Strarght as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.

瑞德：据我所知，监狱长插手了不少这种交易。
安迪：你听说的只是很少的一部分，连一半都不够。他的勾当你做梦都想不到，回扣加回扣。那些脏钱像条臭河一样在这个地方
流过。
瑞德：钱多也是个麻烦啊，早晚会有人问这钱是从哪里来的7
安迪：所以他找了我。我疏通渠道，过滤脏钱，顺利通过，以各种形式，股票、证券、债券，我把钱投放到真实的社会上去，等钱回来的时候……
瑞德：就像处女那么纯洁？
安迪：比那还干净。通过我的运作，等监狱长退休的时候，就会成为百万富翁。
瑞德：可一旦被抓住，他也得到这里来穿上号服了？
安迪：哈，瑞德，你应该相信我的能力o
瑞德：我知道你很棒，但这些东西总会留下蛛丝马迹的，总会有人会觉得可疑，比如联邦调查局、国税局，总会查到的o
安迪：当然了。但不是我，也不会是监狱长。
瑞德：好吧，那会是谁呢？
安迪：罗德·史蒂文。
瑞德：谁？
安迪：沉默的沉默者。他才是有罪的人，法官，在银行开户的人，由他开始洗钱，所有的线索都会指向他。
瑞德：但是他是谁呢？
安迪：他是一个幻像，哈威的二表哥o我凭空想象出来的人，他根本不存在……只存在于文件中。
瑞德：安迪，你不可能凭空造出个人来。
安迪：当然可以，如果你明白整个机制是怎么运作的，存在什么弊端的话。通过邮件你就可以做到这一切，是不是很神奇？史蒂芬先生有自己的出生证明，驾驶执照，社保号码o
瑞德：你逗我呢吧？
安迪：如果他们真的追查起来，只不过是找到了我头脑中虚构的一个人物。
瑞德：我简直不敢相信这一切o我说过你很棒吗？你简直就是个艺术家！
安迪：有意思的是我没进来的时候，是一个正直诚实的人，宁折不弯，可到了这里面我却变成了诈骗犯。