71 Must-Watch Movies Based on True Stories

Watch Now

King Richard is the story of Richard Williams, father of legendary tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams, at the very start of their careers. The Williams sisters were heavily involved in the making of the film—they wanted to make sure their father's was depicted accurately. Will Smith, who plays Richard, also wanted to make sure he got it right, saying when the film premiered, "I knew I wanted to show a father protecting a daughter... to the world."

Watch Now

Kristen Stewart stars in Pablo Larraín's Spencer as Princess Diana. The drama takes place over the three days in 1991 as the British royal family spends the Christmas holidays at Sandringham, the Queen's country retreat in Norfolk. Diana realizes that her marriage to Prince Charles has unraveled and reevaluates the direction her life has taken. Director Larraín describes the film as "a fable from a true story."

Watch Now

Kenneth Branagh's moving semi-autobiographical drama Belfast is based in part on Branagh's own childhood in the Northern Irish capital. It follows 9-year-old Buddy as his working-class Protestant family lives through The Troubles, and features the August 1969 riots, when a group of Protestant loyalists attacked Catholics. Branagh was born in 1960 in Belfast, and like Buddy, was been 9 years old in 1969. Like Buddy, his family, too, moved to England to escape The Troubles.

Watch Now

In 18th-century England, Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is on the throne. Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and her cousin Abigail Masham (Emma Stone) both vie to be Anne's favorite. Queen Anne was, in all likelihood, interested in women—and the film centers on a lesbian love triangle.

The Favourite is based on a largely true story. Sarah Churchill, the eventual Duchess of Marlborough, was indeed childhood friends with then-Princess Anne. The nature of their relationship is subject to interpretation, but Sarah did really threaten to blackmail Anne with their letters. And Abigail Masham did work her way up to be a woman of the bedchamber for Queen Anne, and ultimately supplanted Sarah as the monarch's favorite.

Watch Now

Directed by Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman tells the true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first Black detective in Colorado Springs, Colorado, who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan and begins regular conversations with KKK leader David Duke. He recruits his Jewish coworker, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), to impersonate him for the in-person meetings. It's based on a true story, and only dramatizes it slightly—his coworker wasn't Jewish, and his actual investigation occurred between 1978 and 1979, though the film is set in 1972.

Watch Now

In this moving film, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), an elderly Jewish refugee, takes on the Austrian government with the help of lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds) to recover a painting that belongs to her family. In flashbacks, we see a young Maria (Tatiana Maslany) as she attempts to escape Nazi-occupied Austria.

The Woman in Gold is based on the true story surrounding Gustav Klimt's iconic painting of Adele Bloch-Bauer, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Altmann's aunt was Adele Bloch-Bauer, and the painting was stolen by Nazis in Vienna just before the start of World War II. In real life, Altmann took her legal battle to the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled on the case Republic of Austria v. Altmann (2004), allowing Altmann to proceed with civil action against Austria. The painting is now displayed at the Neue Galerie in New York City.

Watch Now

The Irishman is based on a true story of mob hitman and World War II veteran Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran. Clocking in at three and a half hours, this epic Netflix film by Martin Scorcesse centers on Sheeran (Robert De Niro) as he looks back on the secrets he kept as a loyal member of the Bufalino crime family. Sheeran, initially a truck driver, becomes involved with with mobster Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) and Teamster Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). According to The Irishman, Sheeran murdered Hoffa—but Hoffa's disappearance on July 30, 1975, is still unsolved.

Watch Now

I, Tonya is loosely based on actual events—the life of figure skater Tonya Harding and her connection to the 1994 attack on her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan. Starring Margot Robbie as the titular Tonya, the film traces her rise in the figure skating world and the sabotage of Nancy Kerrigan. Tonya's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan)'s friend Shawn Eckardt (Paul Walter Hauser) is behind the attack on Kerrigan, and the movie tries to unpack whether or not Tonya knew.

Watch Now

Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut tells the story of playwright Jonathan Larson (played by Andrew Garfield). Larson, an American composer and lyricist best known for Rent, died the day of Rent's first Off-Broadway. The film, however, does not cover his death—but is based on the stage musical of the same name by Larson, a semi-autobiographical work about Larson writing a musical.

Watch Now

Before Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the "Notorious RBG," she was a young lawyer fighting for equal rights. On the Basis of Sex, written by the late Justice's nephew Daniel Stiepleman, stars Felicity Jones as Ginsburg and focuses on the case Moritz v. Commissioner. In the case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit "held that discrimination on the basis of sex constitutes a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution." Armie Hammer played Ginsburg’s beloved husband Marty, and RBG saw the film multiple times because "she gets Marty back for a couple hours."

Watch Now

One Night in Miami... is a fictionalized account of a February 1964 meeting of Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Muhammad Ali (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.). Directed by Regina King, the film is based entirely on true events—the four men really did spend time together one night, after Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) beat Sonny Liston in Miami.

"I was a journalist in my former life, and this was just a paragraph in a book that I'd been reading on the intersection between sports and the Civil Rights Movement," Kemp Powers, who wrote the screenplay for the film, explained. "There was one paragraph in the book that mentioned that the night Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston, February 25, 1964, he went back to Malcom X’s hotel room with his friends, Malcolm, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown. And the next morning is when he announced to the world that he was in the nation of Islam. So that was like, whoa! Could you imagine the night of conversation these men must have had?"

Watch now

This Sofia Coppola film follows a group of teens who decide to rob celebrities' homes in Los Angeles. The Bling Ring, also known as Hollywood Hills Burglar Bunch, The Burglar Bunch, and the Hollywood Hills Burglars, were a real group of seven teenagers. They even robbed Paris Hilton, whose home makes a cameo in this film.

Watch now

Ben Affleck's film Argo tells the tale of a CIA rescue of six Americans stuck in Tehran after they escape the US embassy following a militant takeover. The movie hews closely to what really happened; the real Tony Mendez, a CIA agent who ran the mission, even said Argo was pretty spot on.

Watch now

Baz Luhrmann's 2022 biopic explores the life of Elvis Presley, starring Austin Butler as the titular Elvis. Elvis is based on the real Elvis's life, and his family approves of the depiction.

Luhrmann said, "No critique, no review was ever going to mean more to us than the one from the woman who was married to him. [Priscilla] said: ‘If my husband was here today, he’d say ‘Hot damn, you are me’…it was the best review I’ve ever had."

Watch now

This thriller stars John Boyega as Brian Bowen-Easley, a Marine Corps veteran in financial trouble who robs a bank. Bowen-Easley was a real person, and his story was tragic and true; he died after issuing a bomb threat in a bank. Breaking also features Michael K. Williams in one of his last roles.

Watch Now

Kathryn Bigelow's 2012 masterwork is a gripping action film depicting the decade-long CIA manhunt for Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While Jessica Chastain's character is a fictional CIA operative meant to be a composite of various agents who worked on the case, all the events in the movie are very much real.

Watch Now

Inspired by American savant Laurence Kim Peek, Rain Man tells the story of car dealer Charlie Babbitt (played by Tom Cruise), who discovers that his recently deceased (and estranged) father left his $3 million fortune to the mental institution that his brother—who he never knew—lives. Babbitt is initially motivated by the money, so checks his brother Raymond out of the institution to return to LA, only to embark on a life-changing road trip, where the two brothers form an incredible bond.

Watch Now

Based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir of the same name, Eat Pray Love chronicles Gilbert’s post-divorce journey around the world, where she embarks on the “search for everything,” from indulging in Italy’s culinary delights to mastering prayer in India.

Watch Now

Based on the true story of Chris Gardner, a homeless father who raised his son while aspiring to be—and eventually become—a stock broker. The Pursuit of Happyness is a heart-wrenching film that details how this one man battled with losing his home, navigating a new career, and keeping his son in good spirits amidst the chaos of life.

Watch Now

Based on Michael Lewis's 2003 book, Moneyball tells the story of how the Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane (played Brad Pitt), joins forces with Ivy Leaguer Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill) to transform the struggling team despite its limited budget. By using a “sabermetric” approach to scouting players (basically shifting focus to cold hard statistics), the two pull together an underdog team of game winners.