Movies based on real-life events often carry a special weight. They provide viewers with an opportunity to experience stories that have shaped the world, offering emotional and historical depth. Here are five incredible movies based on true stories that will leave a lasting impact.

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1. 12 Years a Slave (2013)

Director: Steve McQueen
Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Paulson

12 Years a Slave is a gut-wrenching drama based on Solomon Northup’s memoir, that of a free Black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the 1840s. Northup, a musician, was residing with his family in New York when he was deceived into traveling to Washington, D.C. There, he was drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery under an assumed name. While Northup undergoes unimaginable brutality and misery on Southern plantations, he holds on to hope and fantasies of freedom.

The movie chronicles his fight to survive in a harsh world, his attempts to remain tied to his identity, and his ultimate escape. Assisted by a sympathetic Canadian abolitionist, Northup is able to communicate with his family and gain his freedom after twelve long years of slavery. The film depicts not only the atrocities of slavery, but the amazing resilience of the human spirit in the face of institutionalized oppression.

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2. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Director: Gabriele Muccino
Stars: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Thandie Newton

The Pursuit of Happyness is the inspiring true story of Chris Gardner, a struggling stockbroker in San Francisco who, having lost his wife and apartment, finds himself homeless with his son. The film opens as Gardner spends his entire life savings on a portable bone-density scanner which he thinks will be his ticket to the big time, and then discovers he’s made the wrong business move. As money troubles increase, Gardner’s marriage to his wife breaks down, and he has nowhere else to turn.

The movie tracks his resolve to create a better life for his son, Christopher. In the face of overwhelming adversity and being homeless, Chris never loses hope and finally gets an internship at a high-end stock brokerage. Years later, his persistence and determination bear fruit as he becomes a successful stockbroker and finally opens his own firm. The movie is a powerful tribute to grit and the strength of a parent’s love.

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3. The Social Network (2010)

Director: David Fincher
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake

The Social Network is the story of Facebook’s birth and the messy lawsuits that ensued with its rise to international prominence. The movie opens in 2003, with Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard University student, designing a site named “Facemash” where he ranked female students on attractiveness. This gives rise to the start of his quest to design a social networking site, which eventually culminates in Facebook’s launch in 2004.

The movie explores the feud between Zuckerberg and his former best friend, Eduardo Saverin, who funded Facebook’s early years but was eventually ousted from the company. While Zuckerberg manages the explosive development of Facebook, he is served with several lawsuits by both Saverin and the Winklevoss twins, accusing him of stealing their concept. The movie delves into ambition, betrayal, and the cost of success in the technology industry, all against the background of one of the most groundbreaking inventions of the 21st century.

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4. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Director: Ron Howard
Stars: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris

A Beautiful Mind is a biographical drama of John Nash, a mathematical genius who received the Nobel Prize in Economics while suffering from schizophrenia. The movie starts in the late 1940s when Nash enrolls at Princeton University as a young and promising scholar. Nash’s brilliance is, however, soon overshadowed by the onset of paranoid schizophrenia, which makes him form delusional notions that people are plotting against him.

With the worsening of Nash’s mental state, he begins to face a hard time managing his personal life and academic life. His wife, Alicia, is with him throughout the highs and lows and remains supportive of him as he struggles with his condition. Through time, Nash becomes accustomed to managing his delusions, regaining his focus academically in the long run and earning a Nobel Prize for his exceptional contribution to the development of game theory. The movie emphasizes his personal struggles and successful recovery, hailing his mathematical legacy.

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5. Schindler’s List (1993)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes

Schindler’s List is a moving historical drama based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who rescued more than 1,100 Jewish lives from the brutality of the Holocaust. The movie starts in 1939 when Schindler arrives in Krakow at the start of World War II. At first, Schindler is motivated by self-interest and aims to gain from the war by operating a factory that uses Jews, but for their own exploitation.

But with the war raging on and the Nazi brutality unfolding before his eyes, Schindler starts to transform. He gets to see the horrors of the Holocaust up close, and his insight that he can make a difference by saving lives makes him gamble everything. With the assistance of his Jewish accountant, Itzhak Stern, Schindler bribes Nazi officials and uses his money to save the lives of his workers, ending up saving more than a thousand individuals from the concentration camps. The film depicts the atrocities of the Holocaust and at the same time commemorates the humanity and bravery of the people who struggled to save lives.

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