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36 Best Movies Based on a True Story to Watch in 2022

Amy Renner Amy Renner

5 days ago

List of the top movies based on a true stories and/or inspired by real life events... more »

List of the top movies based on a true stories and/or inspired by real life events released in 2018.

2022

Mar. 27, 2022 5 min read

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State trooper Dan (Grant Gustin) dreams of joining the K-9 Search & Rescue team, but no one will give him the chance. Shelter dog Ruby dreams of having a home, but is running out of hope. When fate brings Dan and Ruby together, it's their unshakable bond that helps them face their toughest challenge yet.

Drama Family 1 hr, 30 mins

  • 4.8

88%

12%
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Tells the inspiring true story behind the beloved Christmas carol and its author, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Known as America’s Poet, Henry leads an idyllic life – until the day his world is shattered by tragedy. With a nation divided by Civil War and his family torn apart, Henry puts down his pen, silenced by grief. But it’s the sound of Christmas morning that reignites the poet’s lost voice as he discovers the resounding hope of rekindled faith. 

PG Drama Holiday 1 hr, 50 mins

  • 4.1

90%

10%

Based on a true story, Father Stu is an unflinchingly honest, funny and ultimately uplifting drama about a lost soul who finds his purpose in a most unexpected place. When an injury ends his amateur boxing career, Stuart Long moves to L.A. dreaming of stardom. While scraping by as a supermarket clerk, he meets Carmen, a Catholic Sunday school teacher who seems immune to his bad-boy charm. Determined to win her over, the longtime agnostic starts going to church to impress her. But surviving a terrible motorcycle accident leaves him wondering if he can use his second chance to help others find their way, leading to the surprising realization that he is meant to be a Catholic priest. Stu pursues his vocation with courage and compassion, inspiring not only those closest to him but countless others along the way.

PG-13 Drama True Story

  • 4.5

84%

16%

In 1909, Denmark’s Arctic Expedition led by Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) was attempting to disprove the United States’ claim to Northeast Greenland. This claim was based on the assumption that Greenland was broken up into two different pieces of land. Leaving his crew behind with the ship, Mikkelsen embarks on a journey across the ice with his inexperienced crew member, Iver Iversen (Joe Cole). The two men succeed in finding the proof that Greenland is one island, but returning to the ship takes longer and is much harder than expected. Battling extreme hunger, fatigue and a polar bear attack, they finally arrive to find their ship crushed in the ice and the camp abandoned. Hoping to be rescued, they now must fight to stay alive. As the days grow longer, their mental hold on reality starts to fade, breeding mistrust and paranoia, a dangerous cocktail in their fight for survival.

Drama Adventure

  • 3.8

77%

23%
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Devotion, an aerial war epic based on the bestselling book of the same name, tells the harrowing true story of two elite US Navy fighter pilots during the Korean War. Their heroic sacrifices would ultimately make them the Navy's most celebrated wingmen.

PG-13 Drama Action

  • 2

87%

13%

Inspired by a remarkable true story, when her husband has a mental breakdown and goes missing, a determined woman and her young son set out to find him on the streets, sparking a movement of compassion towards those in need and inspiring a city.

Drama True Story

  • 4.4

71%

29%
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Chicago, 1968. As the city and the nation are poised on the brink of political upheaval, suburban housewife Joy (Elizabeth Banks) leads an ordinary life with her husband and daughter. When Joy’s pregnancy leads to a life-threatening heart condition, she must navigate an all-male medical establishment unwilling to terminate her pregnancy in order to save her life. Her journey for a solution leads her to Virginia (Sigourney Weaver), an independent visionary fiercely committed to women’s health, and Gwen (Wunmi Mosaku), an activist who dreams of a day when all women will have access to abortion, regardless of their ability to pay. Joy is so inspired by their work, she decides to join forces with them, putting every aspect of her life on the line.

R Drama True Story 2 hrs, 2 mins

  • 4

83%

17%

To show support for his neighborhood friends serving in Vietnam, Chickie Donohue (Zac Efron) decides to do something totally outrageous: travel to the frontline by himself to bring the soldiers a little piece of home — their favorite can of American beer. However, what started as a well-meaning journey quickly turns into the adventure of a lifetime as Chickie confronts the reality of this controversial war and his reunions with his childhood buddies thrust him into the complexities and responsibilities of adulthood.

Drama War

  • 3

71%

29%
  • 4.5

90%

10%

The Tender Bar tells the story of J.R. (Sheridan), a fatherless boy growing up in the glow of a bar where the bartender, his Uncle Charlie (Affleck), is the sharpest and most colorful of an assortment of quirky and demonstrative father figures. As the boy’s determined mother (Rabe) struggles to provide her son with opportunities denied to her — and leave the dilapidated home of her outrageous if begrudgingly supportive father (Christopher Lloyd) — J.R. begins to gamely, if not always gracefully, pursue his romantic and professional dreams — with one foot persistently placed in Uncle Charlie’s bar.

R Drama Biography 1 hr, 44 mins

  • 3.9

89%

11%
Limited Oscar Run

The film follows the novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame) as she attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama’s convictions and call into question our own judgment.

PG-13 Drama True Story 2 hrs, 2 mins

  • 5

38%

63%

The Swimmers tells the true story of swimming sisters Yusra and Sarah Mardini’s miraculous journey as refugees from war-torn Syria, all the way to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

PG-13 Drama Biography

  • 5

77%

23%

Set in wild 1989 Panama, James Becker, a rugged, decorated ex-marine, is sent undercover by his former commander Stark to execute a high-value deal with untrustworthy adversaries. While navigating through the chaos of the local civil war, Becker must fight assassins, court femmes fatales and negotiate with the enemy in order to complete his mission. With Stark always by his side, Becker perseveres against all odds in hopes of making it home alive.

Action True Story

  • 2.1

80%

20%

Set in 1961 when Kempton Bunton, a 60-year old taxi driver, stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government agreed to provide television for free to the elderly. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only 50 years later did the full story emerge – a startling revelation of how a good man set out to change the world and in so doing saved his son and his marriage.

R Drama Comedy 1 hr, 35 mins

  • 4.4

88%

12%

Bezos chronicles the true-life story of Jeff Bezos-a humble yet awkward entrepreneur on his mission to create Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce company, and turn himself into the richest man in the world.

R Drama Adaptation 1 hr, 30 mins

  • 3.4

48%

52%

CHARLOTTE is an animated drama that tells the true story of Charlotte Salomon, a young German-Jewish painter who comes of age in Berlin on the eve of the Second World War. Fiercely imaginative and deeply gifted, she dreams of becoming an artist. Her first love applauds her talent, which emboldens her resolve. But the world around her is changing quickly and dangerously, limiting her options and derailing her dream. When anti-Semitic policies inspire violent mobs, she leaves Berlin for the safety of the South of France. There she begins to paint again, and finds new love. But her work is interrupted, this time by a family tragedy that reveals an even darker secret. Believing that only the extraordinary will save her, she embarks on the monumental adventure of painting her life story.

NR Drama Historical

  • 4

89%

11%

Following the unexpected success of the band’s debut album “No Hopers, Jokers and Rogues” we re-join them almost a year later, struggling with the pressures, pitfalls and temptations of their newfound fame.

PG-13 Comedy Sequel 1 hr, 54 mins

  • 5

50%

50%

The Woman King is the remarkable story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen. Inspired by true events, The Woman King follows the emotionally epic journey of General Nanisca (Oscar®-winner Viola Davis) as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life. Some things are worth fighting for…

PG-13 Drama Historical

  • 4.2

81%

19%

When Marine Veteran Brian Brown-Easley is denied support from Veterans Affairs, financially desperate and running out of options, he takes a bank and several of its employees hostage, setting the stage for a tense confrontation with the police. Based on the true story.

PG-13 Drama True Story 1 hr, 43 mins

  • 3.7

76%

24%

In Elegance Bratton's retelling of his own story, a young, gay Black man, rejected by his mother and with few options for his future, decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside. But even as he battles deep-seated prejudice and the grueling routines of basic training, he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength, and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of belonging that will shape his identity and forever change his life.

Drama Romance

  • 5

63%

38%

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