Michael J. Scofield, played by Wentworth Miller, is a fictional character and one of the two protagonists of the American television series Prison Break. The character first appeared in the series pilot as a man who stages a bank robbery in order to get sent into the
prison where his older brother, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell), is being held until his execution. The
premise of Prison Break revolves
around the two brothers and Michael's
plan to help Lincoln escape his death
sentence. As the principal character,
Michael has been featured in every episode of the series. Although both
Lincoln and Michael are the main
protagonists of the series, Michael has
been featured more extensively than
Lincoln, especially in the first season
and the third. Various flashbacks from subsequent
episodes provide further insight into
the relationship between Michael and
his brother, and the reasons behind
Michael's determination in helping
Lincoln to escape his death sentence. In the episode flashbacks, the
younger Michael is played by Dylan Minnette. It is later revealed that Michael has Low Latent inhibition, a psychological condition in which the person sees the
world as pieces, rather than mere
objects. This allows Michael to create
plans and make complex and very
deliberate decisions rapidly. Background After his father, Aldo Burrows,
deserted the family, Michael took his
mother's maiden name because she
told him that his father was an
alcoholic which was later proved untrue.[1] Following his mother's death caused by a brain aneurysm Lincoln became his guardian and took
care of him and prevented Michael
from taking his own path into the life
of crime. They both traveled in and out
of different foster homes. Though they
were usually kept together, there were times when circumstances
required them to be placed separately. [2] One such instance occurred when Lincoln did a sentence in juvenile hall
on assault charges when Michael was
eleven. Michael was once placed with
an abusive foster father, who was later
killed by Aldo, where he rescued him,
though the murder itself was never solved. When Michael would wake up
in the mornings not knowing where
his brother was, there would be an origami crane next to his bed, a sign his brother was watching out for him.
In Niles North High School in Skokie, Illinois, Michael took an elective survey class in Arts and Crafts, which had a
section to origami. He was immediately
drawn to the precision and patience,
which fascinated him to an extent that
he began constructing a number of
cranes out of any material he could find; a habit which continued into adulthood.[3] He was a gifted student with an impeccable record, and
graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science and a Master of
Science in Civil Engineering from Loyola University Chicago, after which he became a successful structural engineer at the architectural firm of Middleton, Maxwell & Schaum in downtown Chicago.[4] The sixteenth episode of the series, "Brother's Keeper", reveals Michael and Lincoln's relationship three years before Lincoln
was imprisoned at Fox River and the
reason why Michael would go to such
extreme lengths to save his brother
from his death sentence. Michael's
discovery of his mis-perception of his brother and his brother's sacrifice for
him prompts him to change and help
Linc.

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