Selection
Based on a true story
Stories that actually happened.
Films drawn from real events hold attention differently: you already know it happened, so you watch how rather than what. Biographies, legal and journalistic investigations, disasters and rescues.
Results
Frequently asked
- How accurate are these films?
- Events are almost always compressed: several people become one character, months become a single evening. Watch the wording — "based on" allows far more licence than "dramatised reconstruction".
- Where should I start?
- With the highly rated investigations and biographies. This list has a raised IMDb threshold, so the first entries are usually the strongest in the field.
Related selections
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- Smart science fictionContemplative, visually exact — and no superheroes.
- Time travel moviesLoops, paradoxes and attempts to fix the past.
- Artificial intelligence moviesMachines that start to think — and what follows.
- Post-apocalyptic moviesThe world after the end, and whoever is left in it.
- Heist moviesThe plan, the crew and the moment it all goes wrong.