Films And TV Shows Based On Historical Events That Changed The World

Movies and TV shows have been making drama out of historical events since the dawn of the business. Some of the best movies and TV shows of all time have focused on events that literally changed the world, like D-Day in Saving Private Ryan or the fall of the Roman Republic in Rome. This list is all about those projects and those important events. Take a read, you could even learn something like we did!

Braveheart

While Braveheart isn't the most historically accurate movie of all time, it does try to tell the true story of the Battle of Stirling Bridge. It was a huge turning point in the Scottish/English war. Ever since, many in Scotland have used it as a rallying point for independence.

Chernobyl

The 1986 nuclear meltdown of the power plant in Chernobyl, USSR (now Ukraine), was one of the most important and scariest events of the 1980s. There was already a fear of nuclear power, and the meltdown not only helped show just how technologically messed up the USSR was, but it was also used as a rallying cry by anti-nuke protestors in the West. The HBO miniseries from 2019 tells the amazing story in all its terrifying details and was pretty historically accurate.

Selma

It's hard to put into context just how important the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the US was historically, all over the world, not just in America. It's a movement that is impossible to tell the complete story of in one movie or TV show, but Selma does a great job in focusing on one of the most significant events of the movement.

The Passion of the Christ

Setting aside the politics of Mel Gibson's controversial The Passion of the Christ, there really isn't a more earth-shattering event than the crucifixion of Jesus. Even if you are a nonbeliever, there isn't a story ever told that has had such a profound effect on human history.

Oppenheimer

The winner of the 2024 Oscar for Best Picture (and a bunch more), Oppenheimer, tells the story of the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb and not only did it's terrifying effects help end World War II, but it cast a pall over the rest of the 20th Century as the USA and the USSR locked horns in the Cold War and an arms race that threatened to end the world.

Thirteen Days

During the Cold War, the closest it ever came to becoming a hot war was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was a harrowing time, and had cooler heads not prevailed, things on this planet might be very different. Thirteen Days tells the story from inside the White House during that history-changing event.

Zero Dark Thirty

The hunt for Osama Bin Laden after 9/11 affected every corner of the globe, and for almost a decade, it was front-page news. Zero Dark Thirty takes audiences behind the scenes in that hunt, leading to his death in 2011. It's a fantastic movie and one that tells the story in a pretty accurate way, though, like many of these movies, it shouldn't all be taken as fact.

Waterloo

The Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th Century reshaped politics all over the globe. Obviously, the most acute effects were felt in Europe, but without them, the US wouldn't have made the Louisiana Purchase, so the long-ranging effects were all over. It all ended with the Battle of Waterloo, where the English and other European powers finally ended Napoleon's campaign to rule the world. The movie Waterloo is one of the best war movies ever made and is a must-see for history buffs.

The Right Stuff

In the mid-20th Century, as a biproduct of the Cold War, the US and the USSR found themselves racing each other to space. The Soviets won the race, but it wasn't because the US didn't make a valiant effort. The story of the Mercury Seven, the first Americans in space, is told wonderfully in The Right Stuff, with an all-star cast and based on a book by Tom Wolfe.

The Big Short

The 2008 financial meltdown had ripple effects all over the world. The largest economies in the world were brought to their knees due to the wild speculation and lawlessness of the US housing and stock markets. It's a completed series of events that led to the meltdown, and The Big Short does an incredible job of uncomplicating it.

Saving Private Ryan

The main story of Saving Private Ryan, the rescue of one soldier among millions, isn't what changed the world, but let's be honest, what most people remember first about the movie, the storming of Normandy Beach on D-Day, did certainly change it. World War II was essentially won in those days, though it would take almost another year for the war to finally come to a close.

Schindler's List

Like other movies here, Schindler's List takes on one of the most complicated and enormous stories in the history of humankind. It is impossible to tell the whole story, but Steven Spielberg's masterpiece doesn't have to tell the whole story to find the emotion and horror of the holocaust in his story about Oskar Schindler. It's a movie many can't watch more than once, but it's a movie everyone should see.

World Trade Center

For anyone alive in the late '90s and early 2000s, there was before 9/11, and there was after. Everything changed on that day, everywhere. It started wars that lasted decades and forever changed the way countries, especially the United States, handled security. So much changed that day that it's hard to put it into words, and Oliver Stone's focus on the events of the day in World Trade Center reminds us all of the horrors and the aftermath.

Dunkirk

World War II had a profound effect on everything that has come since. From the Cold War to the decolonization of Africa and Asia, it upended the whole world order. It's important to remember that it might have ended much differently had the evacuation of the British Army at Dunkirk not been as successful as it was, and Christopher Nolan's brilliant and engaging Dunkirk does an incredible job telling the story.

Band Of Brothers

HBO's iconic miniseries Band Of Brothers is a little bit of a cheat on this list, as it tells the events of a few important moments in World War II, including D-Day, Operation Market Garden, and the Battle of The Bulge, but it belongs on this list as it does one of the best jobs of any movie or TV show telling the whole story of the last year of World War II.

Darkest Hour

Like Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, Darkest Hour tells the same story, or at least the same time, as the British evacuation from France at the beginning of World War II. Darkest Hour sees Churchill, played wonderfully by Gary Oldman, rallying the British public (and the politicians) to stay in the fight when the evacuation could've ended everything.

The Insider

This one might not seem so obvious, but the story told in The Insider changed a lot. Anyone who grew up in the 20th Century can tell you just how prevalent smoking cigarettes was. It was allowed everywhere and hardly discouraged by anyone. Jeffrey Wigand, played by Russell Crowe in the movie, blew the whistle on the whole tobacco industry and forever changed the public's perception of the habit, and that has changed everyday life for everyone.

Bridge Of Spies

Though it is just one story of many from the Cold War, Bridge of Spies, which is essentially about a prisoner exchange between East and West, does have a few moments in it that profoundly affected life in the world. Especially the scene when Tom Hanks' character travels from West Berlin to East and audiences see the early days of the Berlin Wall, and, in effect, the Iron Curtain in its most physical form.

All The President's Men

The Watergate Scandal might seem like a moment that only affected United States politics, but the ripple effects go much further. All The President's Men tells the story of the two reporters who broke the story and their work forever changed how politics are covered by the media not just in the US, but everywhere. It's one of the best movies about politics, covering a moment that changed the world.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Elizabeth: The Golden Age, the follow-up to Elizabeth, both starring Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth, is, honestly, a mess, historically. It's not a very good movie, either. However, it is one of the rare movies that depicts the Battle of Gravelines, when the English Navy defeated the Spanish Armada and the balance of power in Europe, and worldwide, changed forever.

From The Earth To The Moon

The exploration of space in the mid and late 20th Century affects everyone on earth. Where would we be without satellites, jet propulsion, or any of the other things we take for granted that are a result of the space race? The HBO miniseries From The Earth To The Moon is a great starting place to learn more about it.

JFK

Oliver Stone's conspiratorial JFK might not be the most historically accurate telling of the assassination of John F. Kennedy - or maybe it is, depending on your point of view - but it is the most in-depth discussion of one of the most consequential moments of the 20th Century.

Charlie Wilson's War

Like others on this list, Charlie Wilson's War doesn't seem like a movie portraying a moment that changed everything, but, of course, it did. The Tom Hanks movie shows the beginning of the USA's involvement with the Afghan mujahideen in their fight against the Soviets. There is a direct through-line from the collapse of the USSR, 9/11, and the USA's War on Terror that all began there.

The Death of Stalin

Sure, The Death of Stalin is a comedy, and a brilliant one at that, but the event it depicts, from the actual death of the brutal dictator Stalin to the internal battle for power it created, completely changed the direction of the Cold War, which would continue for another four decades after his death.

The Ten Commandments

It may be controversial to put Biblical movies on this list, depending on your belief system, but whether fable or true story, the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments has been something that changed the world more than maybe any other single story. Charlton Heston's starring role as Moses in The Ten Commandments is still one of the most beloved performances of all time in Hollywood.

The King's Speech

It's fair to say that this movie is a little heavy on World War II moments, but it's a war that has had a profound effect on everything that has come after it. The King's Speech isn't a war movie in a traditional sense, but it does tell a story that until it, was somewhat untold and that's how important King George VI's speech was for moral for the British and indeed, all the Allies in the war.

A Bridge Too Far

It's rare that a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster with a giant cast of legends like A Bridge Too Far tells the story of an infamous battle disaster like Operation Market Garden. Had the battle gone differently, as the British General Bernard Montgomery had intended with his plan, the war might have ended earlier, and who knows how that might have affected the rest of history.

Rome

The transition of Rome from a Republic led by its senate to an Empire led by a series of all-powerful emperors was a major turning point in Western culture and had profound effects on the historical development of Europe and, in effect, the world. That story, the rise of Caesar and the fall of the Republic, is told brilliantly in HBO's ill-fated, but still great, Rome.

Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi and his belief in non-violent opposition and protest brought the British Empire to its knees in India, just as is shown in the amazing movie simply Gandhi. Gandhi's approach has changed the way the world has tried to change the world and had a major influence on the likes of Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others.

Midway

The War in the Pacific in World War II is not told as often as the War in Europe, but Midway, while not the greatest movie of all time, accurately (mostly) depicts the most important battle of that theater. It's a battle that reversed the Japanese aggression and, ultimately, led to the Allied victory.

Downfall

In a war full of consequential moments, maybe the most important moment came in that bunker in Berlin when Hitler did what no one else had been able to do: kill Hitler. Downfall is simply an incredible look inside the bunker and the last days of the war.

300

The profound effects of Greek culture on the Western world are well understood by anyone who has ever taken even the most basic history class in junior high. While 300 is more fantasy than reality, it does (kind of) tell the story of how the Greek culture survived when under literal attack from the East.