Thrillers often take on a new level of meaning when they are based on real life, and their stories can be even more exciting. While it’s not too uncommon to see horror movies or crime movies based on real life, there are surprisingly few which can deliver the kind of ecstatic entertainment of a true thriller. Any movie based on a true story invariably has to balance its dedication to the truth with its dedication to entertaining its audience. Not many movies succeed in both areas.
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A good thriller needs to keep up the excitement throughout, and it should always have a dynamite ending. Real life rarely works out so neatly. The best thrillers based on true stories have taken stories from unusually intense settings, like bank robberies, clandestine military operations and serial murder investigations. Real life can offer cinematic thrills if the filmmakers know where to look.
Related 10 Thriller Movies That Are Nearly Perfect
These great thriller movies are almost perfect but mishandled some things concerning their style or themes that keeps them from true greatness.
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10 Zodiac (2007)
Based On The Zodiac Killer
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10/10 9.2/10 Zodiac
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*Availability in US Director David Fincher Release Date March 2, 2007 Cast Robert Downey Jr. , Jake Gyllenhaal , Anthony Edwards , Mark Ruffalo , Brian Cox
Zodiac is one of David Fincher’s best movies, and it may represent the peak of his artistic examination of criminal pathology. He creates a tense atmosphere in a beautifully constructed vision of 1960s and 1970s San Francisco, as a newspaper cartoonist becomes obsessed with the case of the Zodiac killer. Zodiac is unlike most other crime movies, because the focus isn’t on the victims, the killer, or even the police really. It shows how mysteries can take hold of the public imagination, and how paranoia and fear are linked to morbid curiosity.
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Zodiac recreates some of the murders with a keen attention to detail, but most of the story follows Robert Graysmith’s prevailing theory that the killer was a man named Arthur Leigh Allen. Zodiac follows Graysmith over the years as he becomes more obsessed by the case, and he ultimately puts himself in physical danger just to get an answer. Like the real-life case, Zodiac provides no definitive answers, ensuring that the audience is left just as frustrated and intrigued.
9 Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
Based On The Barrow Gang
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Bonnie and Clyde
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*Availability in US Director Arthur Penn Release Date July 18, 1967 Cast Warren Beatty , Faye Dunaway , Michael J. Pollard , Gene Hackman , Estelle Parsons , Denver Pyle
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Bonnie and Clyde represented a big shift in American filmmaking, and it has since been recognized as a catalyst for the New Hollywood era. Audiences weren’t accustomed to seeing such graphic depictions of sex and violence at the time. Over 50 years later, the death scene is still a shocking sight.Bonnie and Clyde is also noteworthy for the sympathetic and nuanced way that it presents its criminal characters.
Bonnie and Clyde simplifies some details of the true story of the Barrow gang, and its depiction of some key law enforcement individuals strays far from reality. The movie uses the story of two famous outlaws from the 1930s to reimagine the gangster films of the era. It’s very much a Hollywood fabrication, and a gloriously entertaining one at that, but the broad strokes of Bonnie and Clyde’s ill-fated crime spree are true.
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8 Captain Phillips (2013)
Based On The 2009 Maersk Alabama Hijacking
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9/10 8/10 Captain Phillips
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*Availability in US Director Paul Greengrass Release Date October 11, 2013 Cast Tom Hanks , Barkhad Abdi , Barkhad Abdirahman , Catherine Keener , Faysal Ahmed , Mahat M. Ali , Michael Chernus , David Warshofsky
Tom Hanks is on top form in Captain Phillips, a nautical thriller based on a hostage situation which took place off the coast of Somalia in 2009. The other standout actor is Barkhad Abdi, who earned a string of award nominations for his film debut as the leader of the Somali pirates. Paul Greengrass’ shaky handheld camera movements and close-ups create an almost oppressively intense atmosphere, as the cargo ship acts like a pressure cooker.
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Captain Richard Phillips himself has praised the accuracy of the movie based on his own experiences, but some other members of the crew have criticized his portrayal. There have been some dissenting voices that have suggested that Phillips, along with the shipping company, didn’t protect their crew as best as they could, knowing that pirates were active in the area. The movie doesn’t explore this angle, as it’s more concerned with the frantic tension of the hostage situation.
7 All The President’s Men (1976)
Based On The Watergate Scandal
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All the President’s Men
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*Availability in US Director Alan J. Pakula Release Date April 4, 1976 Cast Dustin Hoffman , Robert Redford , Jack Warden , Martin Balsam , Hal Holbrook , Jason Robards
There are plenty of fascinating stories that could be told about the Watergate scandal, and All the President’s Men focuses on the two Washington Post reporters who broke the news. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman make a compelling duo as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, following the money all the way to the White House. All the President’s Men is a classic political thriller, and worthy of its subject.
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All the President’s Men has been cited as one of the most historically accurate movies ever made. It helps that there were just four years separating the actual scandal from the movie, and there were countless documents, photographs and audio recordings for the filmmakers to pore over. The attention to detail was so precise that the studio bought the exact same kinds of desks that were used in the Washington Post’s offices, and they were painted with the same brand of paint.
6 Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Based On The Hunt For Osama Bin Laden
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7/10 Zero Dark Thirty
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*Availability in US Director Kathryn Bigelow Release Date December 19, 2012 Cast Joel Edgerton , Jessica Chastain , Jason Clarke , Kyle Chandler , Chris Pratt2 , Jennifer Ehle
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Zero Dark Thirty mixes political drama with hair-raising action, as it tracks the international manhunt of Osama bin Laden over the years. Jessica Chastain stars as a CIA analyst who heads the manhunt, placing herself in danger as she gets closer and closer to uncovering the truth. It’s a riveting thriller, and a superb display of Kathryn Bigelow’s mastery of show-stopping action. Zero Dark Thirty was popular with both critics and audiences.
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Zero Dark Thirty often plays fast and loose with the truth. It imagines certain details which remain highly-classified government secrets, and it invents or combines some key characters to streamline the narrative. Jessica Chastain’s analyst, for example, is a composite of many different people involved in the manhunt. Zero Dark Thirty handles some extremely sensitive political topics, like the use of torture and America’s military activities overseas. It’s been the topic of heated political debate ever since its release.
5 Memories Of Murder (2003)
Based On The Hwaesong Serial Murders
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Memories of Murder
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*Availability in US Director Bong Joon Ho Release Date May 2, 2003 Cast Kang-ho Song , Sang-kyung Kim , Roe-ha Kim , Jae-ho Song , Hie-bong Byeon , Seo-hie Ko
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Movies about serial killers often take some inspiration from real-life murderers, like in Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs. However, they take on a different complexion when they directly tell the story of notorious serial killers. Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder details the investigation into South Korea’s first confirmed serial killer. The phenomenon of serial killing is much less common in South Korea than it is in America, so the case was especially impactful.
At the time that Bong made Memories of Murder, the culprit of the Hwaesong serial murders remained unknown. Memories of Murder ends on the uneasy note that the detectives never managed to close the case. Lee Chun-jae was eventually identified as the killer in 2019, decades after his last murder. Memories of Murder recreates some of the most disturbing details of his crimes.
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4 The Untouchables (1987)
Based On Eliot Ness’ Efforts To Enforce Prohibition In Chicago
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9.3/10 The Untouchables
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*Availability in US Director Brian De Palma Release Date June 3, 1987 Cast Kevin Costner , Sean Connery , Charles Martin Smith , Andy Garcia , Robert De Niro , Richard Bradford , Jack Kehoe , Brad Sullivan
Brian De Palma’s mastery of the crime genre shines through once again in The Untouchables, a riveting drama about Eliot Ness’ efforts to enforce prohibition laws and take down Al Capone. Kevin Costner stars as the conflicted Ness, and he is supported by a great cast that includes Robert De Niro chewing the scenery as Capone and Sean Connery in an Oscar-winning performance as a humble beat cop who acts as a guardian angel.
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The real story behind The Untouchables is just as fascinating, and it’s detailed in Ness’ book of the same name. Ness had a taste for the spotlight, aiming to present himself as a hero cop cleaning the streets. Capone was also a prominent face in the media, so their battle played out all over the tabloids. David Mamet’s script adds a few dramatic flourishes to the tale, but the bloodshed and the spectacle are all taken straight from history.
3 The Fugitive (1993)
Based On Sam Sheppard’s Murder Trial In The 1950s
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7/10 The Fugitive
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*Availability in US Director Andrew Davis Release Date August 6, 1993 Cast Joe Pantoliano , Sela Ward , Julianne Moore , Tommy Lee Jones , Harrison Ford
The Fugitive is one of Harrison Ford’s best movies, as he stars in a cross-country game of cat-and-mouse with Tommy Lee Jones. Ford plays a heart surgeon falsely convicted of his wife’s murder, while Jones is the no-nonsense US Marshal hunting him down after he escapes from custody. It’s a non-stop thrill ride with shades of Alfred Hitchcock and an element of mystery that gives the action another dimension.
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The Fugitive is based on a TV show from the 1960s, but this show initially took inspiration from the real-life case of Sam Sheppard, an osteopath accused of murdering his wife in the 1950s. The trial turned into a national media circus, and Sheppard was convicted before being acquitted by the Supreme Court many years later. The Fugitive takes this starting point and spins an original story from it that imagines what might have happened if Sheppard had escaped. It’s a very loose connection, but a vital one nevertheless.
2 Argo (2012)
Based On The Canadian Caper
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8/10 7/10 Argo
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*Availability in US Director Ben Affleck Release Date October 12, 2012 Cast Ben Affleck , Bryan Cranston , Alan Arkin , John Goodman , Victor Garber , Tate Donovan
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The term “caper” is often used to describe some lighthearted scheme on-screen, but Argo‘s depiction of the Canadian Caper trades in nerve-shredding tension instead. Ben Affleck delivers his finest directorial effort yet, and he also stars as the CIA Officer who puts his life on the line to rescue six American fugitives from Iran after the embassy was raided. The airport sequence is excruciatingly nervy, and it delivers on the anxiety that builds throughout Argo.
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The idea that the Americans could be extracted from Iran by pretending to be filmmakers scouting locations for a Star Wars-style sci-fi movie is almost laughable, but this is exactly how the operation took place. Argo has been accused of a few historical inaccuracies, such as downplaying the role of Canadian intelligence in favor of building up the role of the CIA. Despite a few factual flaws, Argo is still a masterful thriller.
1 Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Based On John Wojtowicz And Salvatore Naturile’s 1972 Bank Robbery
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Dog Day Afternoon
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*Availability in US Director Sidney Lumet Release Date December 25, 1975 Cast Al Pacino , John Cazale , Penelope Allen , Carol Kane , Marcia Jean Kurtz
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Al Pacino was initially reluctant to star in Dog Day Afternoon after filming The Godfather Part II. Rather than dropping out, he channeled his exhaustion into one of his greatest performances. He plays Sonny, a man who plans a simple in-and-out robbery of a New York City bank. Before too long, the heist attracts hundreds of police officers and a media circus. There aren’t many heist movies based on real life, but Dog Day Afternoon is an exception to that rule.
Although Sidney Lumet gradually ratchets up the tension, Dog Day Afternoon starts out as a comedy. In the first half, Pacino’s ball of nervous energy is hilarious to watch, as he slides around the bank trying desperately to turn the tide of fate. It’s only when the laughs gradually die out that the real danger of Dog Day Afternoon starts to sink in. This is when the movie reminds its audience that the events depicted genuinely took place in Brooklyn in 1972, and real lives were under threat.
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