The common theme throughout Cool Hand Luke is Good versus Evil but this battle has been narrowed down to a specific one that most of us know: the Bible. In this movie/book Luke is seen as the deity in the prison and the Captain with his bosses being the demons or a depiction of Satan. Evidence of this theme is found throughout this story with many connections to the Bible being present. Most of the connections can be overlooked and misread but others are plain as day.
- In the story Luke's prison identification number is thirty seven, this references a scripture from the Bible Luke chapter one verse thirty seven stating, "For with God nothing shall be impossible," and this is seen clearly with Luke and his impossible antics.
- A really difficult one to find would be a Cerberus reference. In Greek and Roman mythology Cerberus is the three headed "Hell-hound" that guards the underworld by keeping the dead in Hell and keeping the living out. When Luke runs away for the first time the screen changes and shows a set of three bloodhounds that were used to chase him down and capture him.
- Boss Godfrey is depicted as a demonic individual by him never establishing verbal contact to anyone. He also never shows his eyes and always wears sunglasses. This is thought to be an indicator because in some religions the eyes are a gateway to the soul in which demons do not have one.
- Luke makes a bet in which if he eats fifty eggs within an hour then he wins the amount bet. The number fifty is the number of inmates that are in the prison camp and this represents Jesus Christ being a martyr and sacrificing himself for the sins of his followers.
- After Luke consumes the fifty eggs he lays in a unique position that is remarkably close to how Jesus Christ looked upon the cross.
- After Luke escapes for the second time he is sent to dig a hole in the ground that resembles a grave just like how Jesus had to carry his cross before he was nailed to it and died.
- When Luke returns from digging the hole none of the other inmates attempts to help him instead they look distraught and cry. This is like when Jesus was carrying his cross, no one helped him but instead were sad that their hero had let someone beat him.
- When the movie is about to end the camera zooms out to show the prisoners working on a road where the conjoining four roads forms a cross.
- The Captain is depicted as Satan himself because of his high pitched voice. A low, loud booming voice is usually an aspect of someone with an assertive role whereas Captain is in an authoritative individual. This in total references to Satan having no direct physical control over others but instead sends out his demons(bosses) to carry out the dirty work. The only time Captain actually touches Luke is when Luke has the chains on, in other words when Captain already has a grip on him and some slight control over Luke.