7 sports movies based on true events

7. "Seabiscuit"

• 2003
• USA
• Drama, history
• Director: Gary Ross
• Starring: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, William Macy, Valerie Mahaffey
• IMDb Rating: 7.3

USA, 30s. The Great Depression is in full swing. Every day, discouraged people leave their homes in search of some kind of work. And some go to the racetrack to try their luck. The stakes are small, but there are plenty of them. A blind jockey (Tobey Maguire) undertakes to ride a horse unfit for racing and even decides to fight with him for the prize cup.

The plot of the movie is based on the popular book "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand, which tells the story of a famous horse that no one believed in, but eventually became Horse of the Year in 1938.

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6. "I, Tonya"

• 2017
• USA, UK, Qatar
• Biography, comedy, drama
• Director: Craig Gillespie
• Starring: Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, Allison Janney, Julianne Nicholson, Paul Walter Hauser
• IMDb Rating: 7.5

American Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) has been on skates since she was four years old. She is raised by an overbearing mother (Allison Janney) who dreams of her daughter becoming a great figure skater. However, Tonya only has to dream about her mother's real support. The athlete's path to glory is overshadowed by a failed marriage and a tragic incident, the consequences of which jeopardize Tonya's entire career.

"I, Tonya" is the winner of numerous international awards, including Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress (Allison Janney). The story is based on true events that took place during the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

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5. "King Richard"

• 2021
• USA
• Biography, Drama
• Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green
• Starring: Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Saniyah Sidney, Demi Singleton, Jon Bernthal 
• IMDb Rating: 7.5

Richard Williams (Will Smith) and his wife Oracene (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) are raising five girls: two girls in common and three daughters from the wife's first marriage. Even before the birth of his daughters Richard firmly decided that they will become the first racket of the world. The girls are waiting for a difficult path from home training to lessons with legendary mentors, from the first unsuccessful matches to dizzying contracts.

The movie tells about the childhood and formation of the greatest tennis players Serena and Venus Williams, who repeatedly became the first rackets of the world and won Grand Slam tournaments and Olympic Games. The role of the father of the athletes brought Will Smith his first Oscar.

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4. "The Iron Claw"

• 2024
• The Iron Claw 2024
• Drama, biography
• Directщк: Sean Durkin
• Starring: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Stanley Simons, Holt McCallany
• IMDb Rating: 7.7

The Von Erichs are a famous wrestling dynasty. All the sons follow in the footsteps of the tough champion father Fritz (Holt McCallany), not sparing themselves in training and in the ring. The sons' entire lives are scheduled to the minute and loaded with grueling sessions in the gym, which eventually bears fruit. Crowds of fans chant the name of the athletes. However, fate has prepared a despotic father and his entire family a very hard fate.

This is the real story of the complex and sad fate of the von Erich family. The movie in detail reveals the life of the brothers both in the ring and at home.

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3. "The Fighter"

• 2010
• USA
• Biography, Drama
• Director: David O. Russell
• Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Jack McGee
• IMDb Rating: 7.8

Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) was once a successful boxer, a star in the ring, but now he's a drug addict and a loser. He hangs around brothels and occasionally trains his brother Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg), who loses fight after fight. At one point, Micky decides to break out of the vicious cycle to become a champion.

The movie is based on the true story of boxer Micky Ward, who was popular in the 90s. Along with his brother Dicky Eklund, he trained hard to advance his athletic career. During the credits, you can see a family video of Micky and Dicky as kids.

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2. "Raging Bull"

• 1980
• USA
• Biography, Drama
• Director: Martin Scorsese
• Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Colasanto
• IMDb Rating: 8.1

Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) earned the nickname Raging Bull for his fury, strength and passion for fighting, which he lived up to not only in the ring. Jake constantly lost control of himself and became dangerous even to those closest to him. Anger, which partly led him to success in boxing, in time brings Jake to the very edge of the abyss.

The plot of "Raging Bull" is based on the book of the same name memoirs of the prototype of the main character, boxer Jake LaMotta. The real Jake saw the film, rated it very highly and admitted that only after that he realized what a monster he was in his youth.

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1. "Rush"

• 2013
• UK, USA
• Drama, biography
• Director: Ron Howard
• Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Bruhl, Olivia Wilde, Alexandra Maria Lara, Pierfrancesco Favino
• IMDb Rating: 8.1

Austrian Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl) and Briton James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) are the main rivals in all the world's key auto races. They scheming, hemming and hawing and trying to outsmart each other. So it goes on until one day Lauda gets into a terrible accident and is eliminated from the fight.

The movie is based on real events. Among the prototypes of the main characters of the movie saw only Lauda (Hunt died in 1993) — he was very pleased with the movie.

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