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
All selections- War moviesNot about victories — about the people inside them.
- Movies about business and moneyTrading floors, start-ups and ambition that always comes with a bill.
- Medieval moviesCastles, tournaments, sieges and kings you should not trust.
- Sports moviesTraining, defeats and one final match.
- Movies about magic and wizardsSchools of magic, spellbooks and worlds you would gladly move to.
- Movies about music and musiciansRehearsals, tours and the price of a life on stage.