Movies like Pay-Off In Pain (1948)
The best movies like Pay-Off In Pain (1948) are How to Make Money Selling Drugs (2012), Cocaine Cowboys (2006) and Heroin(e) (2017). If Pay-Off In Pain hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest rated13th (2016)7.8/10 from 821 votes
- NewestA Toxic Love Story (2026)Released 2026
How to Make Money Selling Drugs (2012)
Ten easy steps show you how to make money from drugs, featuring a series of interviews with drug dealers, prison employees, and lobbyists arguing for tougher drug laws.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCocaine Cowboys (2006)
In the 1980s, ruthless Colombian cocaine barons invaded Miami with a brand of violence unseen in this country since Prohibition-era Chicago - and it put the city on the map. "Cocaine Cowboys" is the true story of how Miami became the drug, murder and cash capital of the United States, told by the people who made it all happen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeroin(e) (2017)
This documentary follows three women — a fire chief, a judge, and a street missionary — as they battle West Virginia's devastating opioid epidemic.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe House I Live In (2012)
In the past 40 years, the War on Drugs has accounted for 45 million arrests, made America the world's largest jailer, and destroyed impoverished communities at home and abroad. Yet drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever. Where did we go wrong?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy (2021)
A cheap, powerful drug emerges during a recession, igniting a moral panic fueled by racism. Explore the complex history of crack in the 1980s.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhitney: Can I Be Me (2017)
The life and tragic death of Whitney Houston.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTake Your Pills (2018)
In a hypercompetitive world, drugs like Adderall offer students, athletes, coders and others a way to do more -- faster and better. But at what cost?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeep Web (2015)
Deep Web gives the inside story of one of the most important and riveting digital crime sagas of the century -- the arrest of Ross William Ulbricht, the 30-year-old entrepreneur convicted of being 'Dread Pirate Roberts,' creator and operator of online black market Silk Road. As the only film with exclusive access to the Ulbricht family, Deep Web explores how the brightest minds and thought leaders behind the Deep Web and Bitcoin are now caught in the crosshairs of the battle for control of a future inextricably linked to technology, with our digital rights hanging in the balance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIcarus (2017)
While investigating the furtive world of illegal doping in sports, director Bryan Fogel connects with renegade Russian scientist Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov—a pillar of his country's "anti-doping" program. Over dozens of Skype calls, urine samples, and badly administered hormone injections, Fogel and Rodchenkov grow closer despite shocking allegations that place Rodchenkov at the center of Russia's state-sponsored Olympic doping program.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCobain: Montage of Heck (2015)
Hailed as one of the most innovative and intimate documentaries of all time, experience Kurt Cobain like never before in the only ever fully authorized portrait of the famed music icon. Academy Award nominated filmmaker Brett Morgen expertly blends Cobain's personal archive of art, music, never seen before movies, animation and revelatory interviews from his family and closest friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmy (2015)
A documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, the immensely talented yet doomed songstress. We see her from her teen years, where she already showed her singing abilities, to her finding success and then her downward spiral into alcoholism and drugs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Toxic Love Story (2026)
A string of threatening emails escalates into a revenge plot involving a newly married US marshal and his ex-girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGrass (1999)
Marijuana is the most controversial drug of the 20th century. Smoked by generations to little discernible ill effect, it continues to be reviled by many governments on Earth. In this Genie Award-winning documentary, veteran Canadian director Ron Mann and narrator Woody Harrelson mix humour and historical footage together to recount how the United States has demonized a relatively harmless drug.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLet's Get Lost (1988)
Documentary about jazz great Chet Baker that intercuts footage from the 1950s, when he was part of West Coast Cool, and from his last years. We see the young Baker, he of the beautiful face, in California and in Italy, where he appeared in at least one movie and at least one jail cell (for drug possession). And, we see the aged Baker, detached, indifferent, his face a ruin. Includes interviews with his children and ex-wife, women companions, and musicians.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this13th (2016)
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTed Bundy: Mind of a Monster (2019)
New exclusive access and never before heard testimony gives a unique insight into the mind of America's most notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy. Breathtaking archive from the time and the voice of Bundy himself, reveals the monster inside the man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTime (2020)
Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNarco Cultura (2013)
To a growing number of Mexicans and Latinos in the Americas, narco-traffickers have become iconic outlaws and the new models of fame and success. They represent a pathway out of the ghetto, nurturing a new American dream fueled by the war on drugs. Narco Cultura looks at this explosive phenomenon from within, exposing cycles of addiction to money, drugs, and violence that are rapidly gaining strength on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElton John: Never Too Late (2024)
Sir Elton John looks back on his life and the astonishing early days of his 50-year career in this emotionally charged, full-circle journey. As he prepares for his final concert in North America at Dodger Stadium, Elton takes us back in time and recounts his struggles with adversity, abuse, and addiction, and how he overcame them to become the icon he is today.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl Model (2011)
A documentary on the modeling industry's 'supply chain' between Siberia, Japan, and the U.S., told through the experiences of the scouts, agencies, and a 13-year-old model.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKings of Coke (2022)
A ragtag gang of Irish bank robbers from Montreal rose to become one of North America's most feared criminal organizations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Dig! (2004)
A documentary on the once promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. The friendship between respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor, escalated into bitter rivalry as the Dandy Warhols garnered major international success while the Brian Jonestown Massacre imploded in a haze of drugs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAKA Tommy Chong (2006)
Documentary about Tommy Chong's federal prosecution under the Bush administration for selling bongs over the Internet.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
US (1970)
This experimental 1970 color documentary film, ostensibly designed to provoke classroom discussion employs a boldly unconventional approach to addressing the issues of drug addiction, featuring the music of Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn. The film eschews narration for montage effects and extended fly-on-the-wall scenes of various drug users in conversation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
High Landz (TBA)
High up in the Northern California mountains there is a place, where not too many get to visit. Its called - The Emerald Triangle, real mecca of Americas cannabis game. Follow a ukrainian journalist Luka on a journey that explores lifes of real growers and hustlers and the dangers that come with it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Run for Your Life! (2008)
He lived the junkie's life as a heroin addict. Triathlon transformed him. Biopic of the record breaking Ironman Andreas Niedrig.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Kush in Freetown (2025)
Kush, a relatively new and highly toxic synthetic drug is destroying lives and livelihoods in Sierra Leone. Reporter Geerard Adriaen travels to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone to investigate the epicenter of the Kush epidemic.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2018)
The life and career of the hailed Hollywood movie star and underappreciated genius inventor, Hedy Lamarr.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisToad to Nowhere (TBA)
Two filmmakers journey to Arizona's Sonoran Desert to find bufo alvarus, a psychedelic toad. TOAD TO NOWHERE is a documentary about healing, hallucinogens, and looking within to explore the unknown.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Picture Proof (2023)
Examines the intergenerational impact of addiction by chronicling the love, labor, loss, and uncertainty of one woman’s struggle to live a life of sobriety. Weaving together moments of glee, fulfillment, acceptance, sorrow, and disappointment, this documentary takes an intimate look at the bonds that hold one family together and a disease that threatens to tear them apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Pay-Off In Pain?
The closest matches to Pay-Off In Pain are How to Make Money Selling Drugs (2012), Cocaine Cowboys (2006) and Heroin(e) (2017). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Pay-Off In Pain?
Start with How to Make Money Selling Drugs (2012), the closest match to Pay-Off In Pain.
What is the highest-rated movie like Pay-Off In Pain?
13th (2016), rated 7.8/10 by 821 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Pay-Off In Pain?
A Toxic Love Story (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Pay-Off In Pain?
Yes: How to Make Money Selling Drugs (2012), Cocaine Cowboys (2006) and Heroin(e) (2017).
How are movies similar to Pay-Off In Pain chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Pay-Off In Pain, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.