Best Movies Based on a True Story
Audience favorites adapted from real events and real lives.
1. Michael (2026)
★ 8.6 · 4,565 votes · Music, Drama
The story of Michael Jackson, one of the most influential artists the world has ever known, and his life beyond the music. His journey from the discovery of his extraordinary talent as the lead of the Jackson Five, to the visionary artist whose creative ambition fueled a relentless pursuit to become the biggest entertainer in the world, highlighting both his life off-stage and some of the most iconic performances from his early solo career.
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2. Schindler's List (1993)
★ 8.6 · 18,037 votes · Drama, History, War
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
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3. GoodFellas (1990)
★ 8.5 · 14,877 votes · Drama, Crime
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
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4. City of God (2002)
★ 8.4 · 8,520 votes · Drama, Crime
In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.
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5. The Pianist (2002)
★ 8.4 · 10,530 votes · Drama, War
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
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6. The Intouchables (2011)
★ 8.3 · 18,936 votes · Drama, Comedy
A true story of two men who should never have met – a quadriplegic aristocrat who was injured in a paragliding accident and a young man from the projects.
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7. Clouds (2020)
★ 8.2 · 1,071 votes · Music, Drama
Young musician Zach Sobiech discovers his cancer has spread, leaving him just a few months to live. With limited time, he follows his dream and makes an album, unaware that it will soon be a viral music phenomenon.
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8. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
★ 8.2 · 17,916 votes · War, Drama, History
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.
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9. Green Book (2018)
★ 8.2 · 13,368 votes · Drama, Comedy, History
Tony Lip, a bouncer in 1962, is hired to drive pianist Don Shirley on a tour through the Deep South in the days when African Americans, forced to find alternate accommodations and services due to segregation laws below the Mason-Dixon Line, relied on a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book.
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10. Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
★ 8.2 · 15,409 votes · Drama, History, War
WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
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11. Togo (2019)
★ 8.1 · 2,378 votes · Adventure, History, Drama
The untold true story set in the winter of 1925 that takes you across the treacherous terrain of the Alaskan tundra for an exhilarating and uplifting adventure that will test the strength, courage and determination of one man, Leonhard Seppala, and his lead sled dog, Togo.
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12. Memories of Murder (2003)
★ 8.1 · 4,872 votes · Crime, Drama, Thriller
A sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race against time to unravel the violent mind of the killer in a futile effort to solve the case.
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13. Hidden Figures (2016)
★ 8.1 · 10,750 votes · Drama, History
The untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson – brilliant African-American women working at NASA and serving as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history – the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big.
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14. The Elephant Man (1980)
★ 8.1 · 4,088 votes · Drama, History
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity.
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15. My Name Is Khan (2010)
★ 8.0 · 1,517 votes · Drama, Romance
Rizwan Khan, a Muslim from the Borivali section of Mumbai, has Asperger's syndrome. He marries a Hindu single mother, Mandira, in San Francisco. After 9/11, Rizwan is detained by authorities at LAX who treat him as a terrorist because of his condition and his race.
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16. Lion (2016)
★ 8.0 · 7,099 votes · Drama
A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia; 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.
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17. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
★ 8.0 · 26,721 votes · Crime, Drama, Comedy
A New York stockbroker refuses to cooperate in a large securities fraud case involving corruption on Wall Street, corporate banking world and mob infiltration. Based on Jordan Belfort's autobiography.
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18. Amadeus (1984)
★ 8.0 · 4,964 votes · Drama, History, Music
Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
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19. Oppenheimer (2023)
★ 8.0 · 12,690 votes · Drama, History
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
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20. A Taxi Driver (2017)
★ 8.0 · 1,240 votes · Action, Drama, History
May, 1980. Man-seob is a taxi driver in Seoul who lives from hand to mouth, raising his young daughter alone. One day, he hears that there is a foreigner who will pay big money for a drive down to Gwangju city. Not knowing that he’s a German journalist with a hidden agenda, Man-seob takes the job.
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