Entertainment
The Best Medical Movies Based on True Stories
List Rules
Vote for the best movies inspired by true medical events.
What are the best medical movies based on true stories? This list includes great historical movies such as Philadelphia, Patch Adams, and Awakenings. All of these movies recount incredible stories about people and their ailments throughout history. Be it about disease, doctors, studies, or medical advancements, these stories are all based on true stories and touch viewers at their core.
Which movie inspired by real medical events is the best? That's up for the voters to decide. Vote up which movie you think is the best, and if you don't see your favorite on here, be sure to add it. This list is votable and rerankable, so have at it!
Ranked by
1Robin Williams, Daniel London, Monica Potter- Released: 1998
- Directed by: Tom Shadyac
After struggling with depression in a mental hospital, Hunter "Patch" Adams (Robin Williams) decides he wants to become a doctor. He enrolls at Virginia Medical University but is disillusioned by the ...more
2Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Jason Robards- Released: 1993
- Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Fearing it would compromise his career, lawyer Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) hides his homosexuality and HIV status at a powerful Philadelphia law firm. But his secret is exposed when a colleague spots ...more![One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]()
3Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Brad Dourif- Released: 1975
- Directed by: Milos Forman
When Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) gets transferred for evaluation from a prison farm to a mental institution, he assumes it will be a less restrictive environment. But the martinet Nurse ...more![A Beautiful Mind]()
4Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly- Released: 2001
- Directed by: Ron Howard
A human drama inspired by events in the life of John Forbes Nash Jr., and in part based on the biography "A Beautiful Mind" by Sylvia Nasar. From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, ...more![Erin Brockovich]()
5Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart- Released: 2000
- Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts) is a woman in a tight spot. Following a car accident in which Erin is not at fault, Erin pleads with her attorney Ed Masry (Albert Finney) to hire her at his law firm. ...more- 6Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino
- Released: 1988
- Directed by: Barry Levinson
When car dealer Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has an autistic older brother named Raymond (Dustin ...more ![Awakenings]()
7Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner- Released: 1990
- Directed by: Penny Marshall
The story of a doctor's extraordinary work in the Sixties with a group of catatonic patients he finds languishing in a Bronx hospital. Speculating that their rigidity may be akin to an extreme form ...more![Girl, Interrupted]()
8Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Clea Duvall- Released: 1999
- Directed by: James Mangold
Set in the changing world of the late 1960s, "Girl, Interrupted" is the searing true story of Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder), a young woman who finds herself at a renowned mental institution for ...more![The Elephant Man]()
9John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft- Released: 1980
- Directed by: David Lynch
Dr. Frederic Treves (Anthony Hopkins) discovers Joseph (John) Merrick (John Hurt) in a sideshow. Born with a congenital disorder, Merrick uses his disfigurement to earn a living as the "Elephant ...more![50 First Dates]()
10Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Rob Schneider- Released: 2004
- Directed by: Peter Segal
Playboy vet Henry sets his heart on romancing Lucy, but she has short-term memory loss; she can't remember anything that happened the day before. So every morning, Henry has to woo her again. Her ...more- 11
M*A*S*H (movie)
![Brian's Song]()
12James Caan, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Warden- Released: 1971
- Directed by: Buzz Kulik
Brian Piccolo (James Caan) and Gale Sayers (Billy Dee Williams) are teammates on the mid-1960s Chicago Bears. At a time when professional football still bears a certain amount of race-based ...more![Sybil]()
13Jessica Lange, JoBeth Williams, Tammy Blanchard- Released: 2007
- Directed by: Joseph Sargent
If you like this flick, check out our list of the best docudrama movies.
Sybil is a 2007 American docudrama directed by Joseph Sargent. The teleplay by John Pielmeier is based on the 1973 book of the same name by Flora Rheta Schreiber, which fictionalized the story of ...more![Lorenzo's Oil]()
14Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon, Peter Ustinov- Released: 1992
- Directed by: George Miller
True-life drama of a father and mother who battled against the odds to save their son's life. Augusto and Michaela Odone are dealt a cruel blow by fate: five-year-old Lorenzo is diagnosed with a rare ...more![Dallas Buyers Club]()
15Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto- Released: 2013
- Directed by: Jean-Marc Vallée
In mid-1980s Texas, electrician Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) is stunned to learn that he has AIDS. Though told that he has just 30 days left to live, Woodroof refuses to give in to despair. He ...more![The Karen Carpenter Story]()
16Louise Fletcher, Cynthia Gibb, Peter Michael Goetz- Released: 1989
- Directed by: Joseph Sargent, Richard Carpenter
The Karen Carpenter Story is an American television film about singer Karen Carpenter and the brother-and-sister pop music duo of which she was a part, The Carpenters. The film aired on the CBS ...more![Silkwood]()
17Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher- Released: 1983
- Directed by: Mike Nichols
This drama is based on the true story of Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep), who works at a nuclear facility, along with her boyfriend, Drew Stephens (Kurt Russell), and their roommate, Dolly Pelliker ...more![The Vow]()
18Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Sam Neill- Released: 2012
- Directed by: Michael Sucsy
Paige (Rachel McAdams) and Leo (Channing Tatum) are happily married newlyweds, but their idyllic life together suddenly shatters when a car accident leaves her in a coma. When Paige awakes, she has ...more![And the Band Played On]()
19Matthew Modine, Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin- Released: 1993
- Directed by: Roger Spottiswoode
In 1981, epidemiologist Don Francis (Matthew Modine) learns of an increased rate of death among gay men in urban areas. The startling information leads him to begin investigating the outbreak, which ...more![My Left Foot]()
20Daniel Day-Lewis, Ray McAnally, Brenda Fricker- Released: 1989
- Directed by: Jim Sheridan
No one expects much from Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis), a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a ...more- 21Chloë Grace Moretz, Jenny Slate, Thomas Mann
- Released: 2016
- Directed by: Gerard Barrett
Brain on Fire is a 2016 American-Canadian-Irish biographical drama film directed by Gerard Barrett, based on the memoir by Susannah Cahalan. A young, capable professional (Chloë Grace Moretz) cannot ...more ![Something the Lord Made]()
22Alan Rickman, Yasiin Bey, Mary Stuart Masterson- Released: 2004
- Directed by: Joseph Sargent
Although Vivien Thomas (Mos Def), a black man in the 1930s, is originally hired as a janitor, he proves himself adept at assisting the "Blue Baby doctor," Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman), with his ...more![The Three Faces of Eve]()
23Joanne Woodward, Lee J. Cobb, David Wayne- Released: 1957
- Directed by: Nunnally Johnson
Suffering from headaches and inexplicable blackouts, timid housewife Eve White (Joanne Woodward) begins seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Luther (Lee J. Cobb). He's stunned when she transforms before his ...more![Extraordinary Measures]()
24Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford, Keri Russell- Released: 2010
- Directed by: Tom Vaughan
John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) is a man on the corporate fast-track, with a beautiful wife (Keri Russell) and three children. Just as his career is taking off, he learns that his two youngest kids ...more![Angels in America]()
25Mary-Louise Parker, Jeffrey Wright, Justin Kirk- Released: 2003
- Directed by: Mike Nichols
The AIDS crisis in 1980s America.
