In the vast universe of cinema, there exists a special category of films that do more than just entertain—they inspire, motivate, and ignite a fire within us to pursue our dreams and overcome obstacles. These films, spanning genres from underdog stories to biographical dramas, have the power to transform our outlook on life and push us toward greatness.
Let’s explore 21 motivational movies that have left an indelible mark on audiences around the world. From the gritty determination of a boxer fighting for one last shot at glory to the innovative minds revolutionizing industries against all odds, these films showcase the resilience of the human spirit.
Whether you need a push to chase your entrepreneurial dreams, a reminder of the power of persistence, or just a dose of feel-good inspiration, this curated list promises to be a beacon of motivation. So grab some popcorn, settle in, and let these cinematic masterpieces uplift and inspire you to reach for the stars.
Enough suggestions to take you through a long winter of dark evenings and weekends or the next pandemic.
The Accountant (2016)
Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is a mathematics savant with more affinity for numbers than people. Using a small-town CPA office as a cover, he makes his living as a freelance accountant for dangerous criminal organizations. With a Treasury agent (J.K. Simmons) hot on his heels, Christian takes on a state-of-the-art robotics company as a legitimate client. As Wolff gets closer to the truth about a discrepancy that involves millions of dollars, the body count starts to rise.
The Big Short (2015)
In 2008, Wall Street guru Michael Burry realized that a number of subprime home loans were in danger of defaulting. Burry bets against the housing market by throwing more than $1 billion of his investors’ money into credit default swaps. His actions attract the attention of banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling), hedge-fund specialist Mark Baum (Steve Carell), and other greedy opportunists. Together, these men make a fortune by taking full advantage of the impending economic collapse in America.
Boiler Room (2000)
A student quits college and begins to work at an investment firm, which gives him a lot of success. However, his accomplishments cloud his judgment, drawing him into a world of corruption and greed.
Burnt (2015)
Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) was once a top chef in Paris until drugs and alcohol led to a meltdown that put his career on hold. After moving from New Orleans to London, Adam gets a shot at redemption when his former maitre d’ (Daniel Brühl) reluctantly hires him as the head chef of his fine-dining restaurant. Demanding perfection from his newly formed staff (Sienna Miller, Omar Sy), the acerbic and temperamental Jones gets a second chance to fulfill his dream of earning a third Michelin star.
Croupier (1998)
Jack Manfred is a croupier who works by night and writes by day. His girlfriend Marion becomes increasingly frustrated by his seemingly aimless life, but he becomes focused when glamorous South African Jani de Villiers arrives in his casino, and then his bed, with a plan to defraud the house – but is she playing with a straight deck of cards?
Field of Dreams (1989)
When Iowa farmer Ray (Kevin Costner) hears a mysterious voice one night in his cornfield saying “If you build it, he will come,” he feels the need to act. Despite taunts of lunacy, Ray builds a baseball diamond on his land, supported by his wife, Annie (Amy Madigan). Afterward, the ghosts of great players start emerging from the crops to play ball, led by “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. But, as Ray learns, this field of dreams is about much more than bringing former baseball greats out to play.
Moneyball (2011)
Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), general manager of the Oakland A’s, one day has an epiphany: Baseball’s conventional wisdom is all wrong. Faced with a tight budget, Beane must reinvent his team by outsmarting the richer ball clubs. Joining forces with Ivy League graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), Beane prepares to challenge old-school traditions. He recruits bargain-bin players whom the scouts have labeled as flawed, but have game-winning potential. Based on the book by Michael Lewis.
The Founder (2016)
The true story of how Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a struggling salesman from Illinois, met Mac (John Carroll Lynch) and Dick McDonald (Nick Offerman), who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. Kroc was impressed by the brothers’ speedy system of making the food and saw franchise potential. Kroc soon maneuvers himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a multi-billion dollar empire.
Free Solo (2018)
Professional rock climber Alex Honnold attempts to conquer the first free solo climb of famed El Capitan’s 900-metre vertical rock face at Yosemite National Park.
Gattaca (1997)
Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) has always fantasized about traveling into outer space, but is grounded by his status as a genetically inferior “in-valid.” He decides to fight his fate by purchasing the genes of Jerome Morrow (Jude Law), a laboratory-engineered “valid.” He assumes Jerome’s DNA identity and joins the Gattaca space program, where he falls in love with Irene (Uma Thurman). An investigation into the death of a Gattaca officer (Gore Vidal) complicates Vincent’s plans.
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
When an office full of New York City real estate salesmen is given the news that all but the top two will be fired at the end of the week, the atmosphere begins to heat up. Shelley Levene (Jack Lemmon), who has a sick daughter, does everything in his power to get better leads from his boss, John Williamson (Kevin Spacey), but to no avail. When his coworker Dave Moss (Ed Harris) comes up with a plan to steal the leads, things get complicated for the tough-talking salesmen.
Joy (2015)
A story of a family across four generations centered on the girl who becomes the woman who founded a business dynasty and becomes a matriarch in her own right. Facing betrayal, treachery, the loss of innocence, and the scars of love, Joy becomes a true boss of family and enterprise in a world of unforgiving commerce. Allies become adversaries and adversaries become allies, both inside and outside the family, as Joy’s inner life and fierce imagination carry her through the storm she faces.
The Illusionist (2006)
In 1900s Vienna, mesmeric entertainer Eisenheim’s magical abilities are wowing the crowds, with an act that ranges from mere tricks to an apparent capacity to raise the dead. However, he has also long been in love with Duchess Sophie von Teschen, which puts him in dangerous competition with the violent, scheming Crown Prince Leopold, who jumps at the opportunity to have the magician arrested on grounds of necromancy.
Limitless (2011)
Facing unemployment and his girlfriend’s rejection, writer Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is sure that he has no future. That all changes when an old friend gives him a drug that produces enhanced mental acuity. Stoked on the untested chemical, Eddie rises to the top of the financial world and attracts the attention of a tycoon (Robert De Niro) who intends to use him to make a fortune. But terrible side effects and a dwindling supply threaten to collapse Eddie’s house of cards.
Matchstick Men (2003)
Roy (Nicolas Cage), a depressed con artist with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Frank (Sam Rockwell), his partner, find their line of work complicated by the arrival of Roy’s teenage daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman). Angela brings some spirit back into Roy’s life, and some of his disorder symptoms seem to disappear. But when Angela wants to learn the family business, and Roy allows her to assist in a big scam concerning a businessman (Bruce McGill), he reconsiders his parenting techniques.
Miss Sloane (2016)
Willing to bend the rules for her clients, Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain) remains one of the most sought-after lobbyists in Washington, D.C. When asked to help oppose a bill that imposes regulations on firearms, she instead joins a scrappy boutique firm that represents the backers of the law. Her defiant stance and determination to win now make her the target of powerful new enemies who threaten her career and the people she cares about.
Molly’s Game (2017)
The true story of Molly Bloom, a beautiful, young, Olympic-class skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans, and finally, unbeknown to her, the Russian mob. Her only ally was her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey, who learned there was much more to Molly than the tabloids led people to believe.
Nightcrawler (2014)
Los Angeles denizen Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) survives by scavenging and petty theft. He stumbles into a new career as a cameraman and — armed with a camcorder and police scanner — begins nocturnal forays across the city in search of shocking and grisly crimes. When he catches the eye of a shopworn news director (Rene Russo) who welcomes the chance to raise her station’s ratings, Louis goes to increasingly greater lengths to catch the “money shot.”
Pumping Iron (1977)
This partly real and partly scripted film documents what many consider to be the golden age of bodybuilding that occurred in the 1970s. It depicts two major competitions: Mr. Universe, which is for amateur participants, and Mr. Olympia, which is for pros. In the former, Mike Katz and Ken Waller are profiled, while in the latter, the chief contenders are Lou Ferrigno, Franco Columbu, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is hoping to take home a sixth win.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison for the murders of his wife and her lover and is sentenced to a tough prison. However, only Andy knows he didn’t commit the crimes. While there, he forms a friendship with Red (Morgan Freeman), experiences the brutality of prison life, adapts, helps the warden, etc., all in 19 years.
The Social Network (2010)
In 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer genius Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) began work on a new concept that eventually turned into the global social network known as Facebook. Six years later, he is one of the youngest billionaires ever, but Zuckerberg finds that his unprecedented success leads to both personal and legal complications when he ends up on the receiving end of two lawsuits, one involving his former friend (Andrew Garfield). Based on the book “The Accidental Billionaires.”
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
In 1987, Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) takes an entry-level job at a Wall Street brokerage firm. By the early 1990s, while still in his 20s, Belfort founded his own firm, Stratton Oakmont. Together with his trusted lieutenant (Jonah Hill) and a merry band of brokers, Belfort makes a huge fortune by defrauding wealthy investors out of millions. However, while Belfort and his cronies partake in a hedonistic brew of sex, drugs, and thrills, the SEC and the FBI close in on his empire of excess.
Wall Street (1987)
On Wall Street in the 1980s, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) is a stockbroker full of ambition, doing whatever he can to make his way to the top. Admiring the power of the unsparing corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), Fox entices Gekko into mentoring him by providing insider trading. As Fox becomes embroiled in greed and underhanded schemes, his decisions eventually threaten the livelihood of his scrupulous father (Martin Sheen). Faced with this dilemma, Fox questions his loyalties.
The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
Bored billionaire Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) decides to entertain himself by stealing a Monet from a reputed museum. When Catherine Banning (Rene Russo), an investigator for the museum’s insurance company, takes an interest in Crown, a complicated back-and-forth game with romantic undertones begins between them. In an attempt to find out where Banning’s loyalties lie, Crown returns the painting and essentially turns himself in, hoping that Banning’s feelings for him will lead to an escape.
Rudy (1993)
Rudy Ruettiger (Sean Astin) wants to play football at the University of Notre Dame but has neither the money for tuition nor the grades to qualify for a scholarship. Rudy redoubles his efforts to get out of the steel mill where his father works when his best friend (Christopher Reed) dies in an accident there. Overcoming his dyslexia thanks to his friend and tutor, D-Bob (Jon Favreau), Rudy gains admission to Notre Dame and begins to fight his way onto the school’s fabled football team.
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Life is a struggle for single father Chris Gardner (Will Smith). Evicted from their apartment, he and his young son (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith) find themselves alone with no place to go. Even though Chris eventually lands a job as an intern at a prestigious brokerage firm, the position pays no money. The pair must live in shelters and endure many hardships, but Chris refuses to give in to despair as he struggles to create a better life for himself and his son.
What are your thoughts on this list? Any suggestions? Please comment!