Movies like Merchants of Doubt (2014)
The best movies like Merchants of Doubt (2014) are Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Citizenfour (2014). If Merchants of Doubt hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Cove (2009)8.0/10 from 705 votes
- NewestPlanet of the Humans (2019)Released 2019
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
A documentary about the Enron corporation, its faulty and corrupt business practices, and how they led to its fall.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAn Inconvenient Truth (2006)
A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCitizenfour (2014)
In June 2013, Laura Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThis Changes Everything (2015)
Based on Naomi Klein's book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, a look at how people in various communities around the world play a role in the ongoing climate change debate and how they're affecting change in trying to prevent the environmental destruction of our planet.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Gasland (2010)
It is happening all across America-rural landowners wake up one day to find a lucrative offer from an energy company wanting to lease their property. Reason? The company hopes to tap into a reservoir dubbed the "Saudi Arabia of natural gas." Halliburton developed a way to get the gas out of the ground-a hydraulic drilling process called "fracking"-and suddenly America finds itself on the precipice of becoming an energy superpower.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInequality for All (2013)
Based on Reich's 2010 book Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, the film examines widening income inequality in the United States. U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich tries to raise awareness of the country's widening economic gap. He publicly argued about the issue for decades, and producing a film of his viewpoints was a "final frontier" for him. In addition to being a social issue documentary, Inequality for All is also partially a biopic regarding Reich's early life and his time as Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton's presidency. Warren Buffett and Nick Hanauer, two entrepreneurs and investors in the top 1%, are interviewed in the film, supporting Reich's belief in an economy that benefits all citizens, including those of the middle and lower classes.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEthos (2011)
Hosted by twice Oscar nominated actor and activist Woody Harrelson, Ethos lifts the lid on a Pandora's box of systemic issues that guarantee failure in almost every aspect of our lives; from the environment to democracy and our own personal liberty: From terrifying conflicts of interests in politics to unregulated corporate power, to a media in the hands of massive conglomerates, and a military industrial complex that virtually owns our representatives. With interviews from some of todays leading thinkers and source material from the finest documentary film makers of our times Ethos examines and unravels these complex relationships, and offers a solution, a simple but powerful way for you to change this system!
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Corporation (2003)
Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Scientology Movie (2016)
After being denied access to the Church of Scientology's headquarters, documentarian Louis Theroux teams up with ex-Scientology official Marty Rathbun to stage re-enactments of alleged abuses within the organization. Theroux soon discovers that the church is watching his every move.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAn Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017)
A decade after An Inconvenient Truth brought climate change into the heart of popular culture comes the riveting and rousing follow-up that shows just how close we are to a real energy revolution. Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight, traveling around the world training an army of climate champions and influencing international climate policy. Cameras follow him behind the scenes—in moments private and public, funny and poignant—as he pursues the empowering notion that while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBill Nye: Science Guy (2017)
Bill Nye is retiring his kid show act in a bid to become more like his late professor, astronomer Carl Sagan. Sagan dreamed of launching a spacecraft that could revolutionize interplanetary exploration. Bill sets out to accomplish Sagan's mission, but he is pulled away when he is challenged by evolution and climate change contrarians to defend the scientific consensus. Can Bill show the world why science matters in a culture increasingly indifferent to evidence?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret (2014)
Follow the shocking, yet humorous, journey of an aspiring environmentalist, as he daringly seeks to find the real solution to the most pressing environmental issues and true path to sustainability.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlanet of the Humans (2019)
Forget all you have heard about how “Renewable Energy” is our salvation. It is all a myth that is very lucrative for some. Feel-good stuff like electric cars, etc. Such vehicles are actually powered by coal, natural gas… or dead salmon in the Northwest.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Yes Men Are Revolting (2014)
Activist-pranksters Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano pull the rug out from under mega-corporations, government officials and a complacent media in a series of outrageous stunts designed to draw awareness to the issue of climate change.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Cove (2009)
The Cove tells the amazing true story of how an elite team of individuals, films makers and free divers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate the hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The shocking discoveries were only the tip of the iceberg.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWordplay (2006)
From the masters who create the mind-bending diversions to the tense competition at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, Patrick Creadon's documentary reveals a fascinating look at a decidedly addictive pastime. Creadon captures New York Times editor Will Shortz at work, talks to celebrity solvers -- including Bill Clinton and Ken Burns -- and presents an intimate look at the national tournament and its competitors.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Yes Men Fix the World (2009)
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world's most outrageous pranks.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWho Killed the Electric Car? (2006)
In 1996, electric cars began to appear on roads all over California. They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust, and ran without gasoline... Ten years later, these cars were destroyed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisConsuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (2007)
Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Alive Inside (2014)
Five million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease and dementia—many of them alone in nursing homes. A man with a simple idea discovers that songs embedded deep in memory can ease pain and awaken these fading minds. Joy and life are resuscitated, and our cultural fears over aging are confronted.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone (2016)
Vancouver-based filmmaker and TV news veteran Fred Peabody explores the life and legacy of the maverick American journalist I.F. Stone, whose long one-man crusade against government deception lives on in the work of such contemporary filmmakers and journalists as Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, David Corn, and Matt Taibbi.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Net (2003)
Explores the incredibly complex backstory of Ted Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber. This exquisitely crafted inquiry into the rationale of this mythic figure situates him within a late 20th century web of technology—a system that he grew to oppose. A marvelously subversive approach to the history of the Internet, this insightful documentary combines speculative travelogue and investigative journalism to trace contrasting countercultural responses to the cybernetic revolution.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Deprogrammed (2015)
Ted "Black Lightning" Patrick's practice of "deprogramming," also known as "reverse brainwashing," started in the early 1970s and quickly snowballed into a vast underground movement composed of concerned parents, ex-cultists-turned-deprogrammers and some sympathetic law-enforcers whose mission was to physically and mentally remove individuals from cults.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Jesus Camp (2006)
A documentary on kids who attend a summer camp hoping to become the next Billy Graham.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFinders Keepers (2015)
In this documentary, recovering addict and amputee John Wood finds himself in a stranger-than-fiction battle to reclaim his mummified leg from Southern entrepreneur Shannon Whisnant, who found it in a grill he bought at an auction and believes it therefore to be his rightful property.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPandora's Promise (2013)
The atomic bomb, the specter of a global nuclear holocaust, and disasters like Fukushima have made nuclear energy synonymous with the darkest nightmares of the modern world. But what if everyone has nuclear power wrong? What if people knew that there are reactors that are self-sustaining and fully controllable and ones that require no waste disposal? What if nuclear power is the only energy source that has the ability to stop climate change?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)
The film profiles eight former members of the Church of Scientology, shining a light on how they attract true believers and the things they do in the name of religion.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPump (2014)
PUMP is a documentary that tells the story of America’s addiction to oil, from its corporate conspiracy beginnings to its current monopoly today, and explains clearly and simply how we can end it — and finally win choice at the pump. Today, oil is our only option for transportation-fuel at the pump. Our exclusive use of it has drained our wallets, increased air pollution and sent our sons and daughters to war in faraway lands. PUMP shows how, through the use of a variety of replacement fuels, we will be able to fill up our cars — cheaper, cleaner and American made — and in the process create more jobs for a stronger, healthier economy. Narrated by Jason Bateman and featuring notable experts such as John Hofmeister former President of Shell Oil, and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, PUMP will forever change the way you think about your car — and the fuel that powers it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Real Dirt on Farmer John (2006)
An outcast in his community, Farmer John bravely stands amidst a failing economy, vicious rumors, and violence. By melding the traditions of family farming with the power of art and free expression, this powerful story of transformation and renewal heralds a resurrection of farming in America. Through highly personal interviews and 50 years of beautifully textured footage, filmmaker Taggart Siegel shares Farmer John’s haunting and humorous odyssey, capturing what it means to be wildly different in a rural community.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The English Surgeon (2007)
This documentary offers a glimpse into the life of an English neurosurgeon, Henry Marsh, situated in Ukraine, as we are exposed to the overwhelming dilemmas he has to face and the burden he has to carry throughout his profession.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Like Merchants of Doubt and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Merchants of Doubt?
The closest matches to Merchants of Doubt are Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Citizenfour (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Merchants of Doubt?
People who watched Merchants of Doubt most often go on to Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Citizenfour (2014).
What is the highest-rated movie like Merchants of Doubt?
The Cove (2009), rated 8.0/10 by 705 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Merchants of Doubt?
Planet of the Humans (2019) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Merchants of Doubt?
Yes: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Citizenfour (2014).
How are movies similar to Merchants of Doubt chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Merchants of Doubt, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.