Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield
At the time of his arrest, Michael Scofield was employed as a structural engineer at the prestigious firm of Middleton, Maxwell and Schaum located in Chicago, Illinois. Michael was convicted of armed robbery after attempting to steal over half a million dollars from the downtown Chicago branch of United Savings Bank.
Nobody expected that Michael would share the same fate as his brother, Lincoln Burrows. To his small number of close family and friends, his actions came as a surprise, not only because he was such a promising individual, but also because he was already quite wealthy and successful. Having graduated magna cum laude from Loyola University, his education in Civil Engineering ensured him a bright future. The question on everyone’s mind was, “Why did he do it?”
The reason became quite clear to his childhood friend, Veronica Donovan. A real estate lawyer, Veronica tried hard to defend Michael during his trial, but since Michael pleaded guilty, she couldn’t do much to save him from prison. She knew that the only reason Michael wanted to get incarcerated was to try to stop Lincoln’s death sentence from being carried out. Initially, Michael was the only one convinced of his brother’s innocence. When he entered the prison, he hatched an elaborate plan, which involved seemingly innocent yet intricate tattoo on the upper part of his body. Later on, when Michael got the chance to talk to his Lincoln, he told him that the tattoo was actually the blue print of the prison, and they were going to use it to map their way out. Being highly calculated and precise, Michael made sure to enlist the help of certain people in the prison. He befriended his cellmate, Fernando Sucre, and made alliances with John Abruzzi and D.B. Cooper. He even faked being diabetic, in order to get to the infirmary, which would serve as their main exit, everyday. However, because of unforeseen circumstances, Michael was forced to include other people into his plan, one of which was Dr. Sara Tancredi, the prison doctor and daughter of the Governor Frank Tancredi. He ended up falling for Sara, and eventually got her to help him, Lincoln and the others to escape by leaving the infirmary door open.
When Michael and the group successfully broke out, Michael’s supposed tight plan to disappear temporarily in order to buy Lincoln some time was again broken down by the work of Agent Alexander Mahone. Alexander has his own skeletons in the closet, and he has desperately pursued Michael and Lincoln, killing some of the other escapees in the process. After many days of running and collecting evidence, which includes an audio file of a conversation between President Reynolds and Steadman, Michael and Lincoln headed off to Panama without Sara, who got arrested for helping the escaped convicts.
(Photo courtesy of FOX)