Movies like The Girl with the Needle (2024)
The best movies like The Girl with the Needle (2024) are Oranges and Sunshine (2010), Adventures of a Mathematician (2021) and The Secrets We Keep (2020). If The Girl with the Needle hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSchindler's List (1993)8.6/10 from 18,182 votes
- NewestBrave Without Boundaries (2026)Released 2026
Oranges and Sunshine (2010)
The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdventures of a Mathematician (2021)
The warmhearted story of Polish immigrant and mathematician Stan Ulam, who moved to the U.S. in the 1930s. Stan deals with the difficult losses of family and friends all while helping to create the hydrogen bomb and the first computer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secrets We Keep (2020)
In post-World War II America, a woman, rebuilding her life in the suburbs with her husband, kidnaps her neighbor and seeks vengeance for the heinous war crimes she believes he committed against her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Krays (1990)
Twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray are raised in east London, under the influence of their hateful but doting mother Violet. As they grow up, Ronnie's violent nature takes over, and Reggie follows his brother's lead. The two become notorious crime lords who rule over the East End club scene. But at the height of their power, the brothers veer into different lives, giving the older crime bosses a chance to reclaim what the Krays took from them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNuremberg (2025)
In postwar Germany, an American psychiatrist must determine whether Nazi prisoners are fit to go on trial for war crimes, and finds himself in a complex battle of intellect and ethics with Hermann Göring, Hitler's right-hand man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Promised Land (2023)
Denmark, 1755. Captain Ludvig Kahlen sets out to conquer a Danish heath reputed to be uncultivable, with an impossible goal: to establish a colony in the name of the king, in exchange for a royal title. A single-minded ambition that the ruthless lord of the region will relentlessly seek to put down. Kahlen's fate hangs in the balance: will his endevours bring him wealth and honour, or cost him his life...?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuffragette (2015)
Based on true events about the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPanther (1995)
In this sprawling, fictionalized history of the Black Panthers, 1960s Oakland becomes a war zone as the Panthers battle for the right to exist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like this7 Women (1965)
In a mission in China in 1935, a group of women are preyed on by Mongolian bandits, led by Warlord chief Tunga Khan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOutlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSchindler's List (1993)
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
In 1971, Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo conducts a controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards, but the proceedings soon get out of hand. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOslo (2021)
The true story of negotiations between implacable enemies — the secret back-channel talks, unlikely friendships and quiet heroics of a small but committed group of Israelis, Palestinians and one Norwegian couple that led to the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Experiment (2010)
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisImperial Dreams (2014)
A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBelieve Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey (2018)
On the night she plans on taking her own life, 17-year-old 'Lisa McVey' is kidnapped and finds herself fighting to stay alive and is raped. She manages to talk her attacker into releasing her, but when she returns home, no one believes her story except for one detective, who suspects she was abducted by a serial killer. Based on horrifying true events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBleeder (1999)
Two stories for the price of one: a video store clerk tries to get acquainted with a waitress; a man beats his pregnant wife, unaware that her brother is a violent racist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)
A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStrange Weather (2016)
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisJudy (2019)
Thirty years after starring in 'The Wizard of Oz', beloved actress and singer Judy Garland arrives in London to perform sold-out shows at the Talk of the Town nightclub. While there, she reminisces with friends and fans and begins a whirlwind romance with musician Mickey Deans, her soon-to-be fifth husband.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrave Without Boundaries (2026)
Based on the true story of Luo Shengjiao — one of “100 Touching Chinese Figures” since the founding of the PRC. During the Korean War, Luo, a company clerk, and his fellow volunteers fought fierce battles, endured extreme shortages, and braved brutal cold.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Gie (2005)
Indonesian activist Soe Hok Gie experiences a political awakening during the tumultuous regimes of Soeharto and Soekarno.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019)
Against all the odds, a thirteen year old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisNed Kelly (1970)
Unable to support his family in the Australian outback, a man turns to stealing horses in order to make money. He gets more deeply drawn into the outlaw life, and eventually becomes involved in murders. Based on the life of famed 19th-century Australian outlaw Ned Kelly.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rockers (2003)
Guitarist Ko-chan is a mess of sexual repression after a childhood at the mercy of two elder sisters eager to use him as a guinea pig for their make-up skills. Bassist Gaku-chan keeps a bucket in the wings for whenever his nerves get the better of him, and drummer Momo-chan is doomed to forever carrying the botched childhood attempts at self-tattooing. It's not until this foursome is forced to look for an additional guitar player after Jin's dad burns his Stratocaster, that attitude and musical ability enter into the equation. Leather-clad, shade-wearing Tani (Tamaki), inseparable from his black Les Paul, is introduced as the king of R'n'R cool and Jinnai keeps him firmly seated on his throne throughout the film, retroactively proclaiming the guitarist, rather than himself, as the band's true hero.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Secrets of the City (1955)
An industrial plant gets into difficulties. The factory owner then decides to sell the company and makes all the employees redundant. How do the dismissed employees deal with the new situation?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Downsizing (2017)
A kindly occupational therapist undergoes a new procedure to be shrunken to four inches tall so that he and his wife can help save the planet and afford a nice lifestyle at the same time.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisMcVicar (1980)
John McVicar was a London Bad Boy. he graduated to armed bank robbery and was Britain's "Public Enemy No. 1". He was captured and put into a high security prison. Will even the highest security prison be able to hold him? This is the true story of his life, his criminal exploits and his eventual rehabilitation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Tarnished Angels (1957)
In the 1930s, once-great World War I pilot Roger Shumann performs as a daredevil barnstorming pilot at aerial stunt shows while his wife, LaVerne, works as a parachutist. When newspaper reporter Burke Devlin arrives to do a story on the Shumanns’ act, he quickly falls in love with the beautiful--and neglected--LaVerne.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Girl with the Needle?
The closest matches to The Girl with the Needle are Oranges and Sunshine (2010), Adventures of a Mathematician (2021) and The Secrets We Keep (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Girl with the Needle?
Start with Oranges and Sunshine (2010), the closest match to The Girl with the Needle.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Girl with the Needle?
Schindler's List (1993), rated 8.6/10 by 18,182 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Girl with the Needle?
Brave Without Boundaries (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Girl with the Needle chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Girl with the Needle, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.