Movies like Just Mercy (2019)
The best movies like Just Mercy (2019) are A Call to Spy (2020), I Want to Live! (1958) and Richard Jewell (2019). If Just Mercy hooked you with its drama and crime, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCatch Me If You Can (2002)8.0/10 from 17,861 votes
- NewestThe Legend of Van Dorn (2026)Released 2026
A Call to Spy (2020)
The story of Vera Atkins, a crafty spy recruiter, and two of the first women she selects for Churchill's "secret army": Virginia Hall, a daring American undaunted by a disability and Noor Inayat Khan, a pacifist. These civilian women form an unlikely sisterhood while entangled in dangerous missions to turn the tide of the war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Want to Live! (1958)
Brazen perpetual offender Barbara Graham tries to go straight but she finds herself implicated in a murder and sent to death row.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRichard Jewell (2019)
Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime by sloppy FBI work and sensational media coverage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGhosts of Mississippi (1996)
A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to bring a white supremacist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCry of the City (1948)
Petty crook and cop-killer Martin Rome, in bad shape from wounds in the hospital prison ward, still refuses to help slimy lawyer Niles clear his client by confessing to another crime. Police Lt. Candella must check Niles' allegation; a friend of the Rome family, he walks a tightrope between sentiment and cynicism. When Martin fears Candella will implicate his girlfriend Teena, he'll do anything to protect her. How many others will he drag down to disaster with him?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Corner (1997)
An American attorney on business in China, ends up wrongfully on trial for murder and his only key to innocence is a female defense lawyer from the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisQuiz Show (1994)
Herbert Stempel's transformation into an unexpected television personality unfolds as he secures victory on the cherished American game show, 'Twenty-One.' However, when the show introduces the highly skilled contestant Charles Van Doren to replace Stempel, it compels Stempel to let out his frustrations and call out the show as rigged. Lawyer Richard Goodwin steps in and attempts to uncover the orchestrated deception behind the scenes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRoman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)
Hard-nosed liberal lawyer Roman J. Israel has been fighting the good fight forever while others take the credit. When his partner – the firm's frontman – has a heart attack, Israel suddenly takes on that role. He soon discovers some unsettling truths about the firm – truths that conflict with his values of helping the poor and dispossessed – and finds himself in an existential crisis that leads to extreme actions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKnock on Any Door (1949)
An attorney defends a hoodlum of murder, using the oppressiveness of the slums to appeal to the court.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrute Force (1947)
Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRiot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
A prisoner leads his counterparts in a protest for better living conditions which turns violent and ugly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMichael Clayton (2007)
A law firm brings in its "fixer" to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multi-billion dollar class action suit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCatch Me If You Can (2002)
A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. An FBI agent makes it his mission to put him behind bars. But Frank not only eludes capture, he revels in the pursuit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisInsomnia (2002)
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShattered Glass (2003)
Stephen Glass is a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By the mid-90s, Glass' articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events - chronicled in Buzz Bissinger's September 1998 Vanity Fair article - suddenly stopped his career in its tracks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTill (2022)
The true story of Mamie Till Mobley's relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who, in 1955, was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe File on Thelma Jordon (1949)
Cleve Marshall, an assistant district attorney, falls for Thelma Jordon, a mysterious woman with a troubled past. When Thelma becomes a suspect in her aunt's murder, Cleve tries to clear her name.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Outfit (1973)
A two-bit criminal takes on the Mafia to avenge his brother's death. Earl Macklin is a small time criminal who is released from prison after an unsuccessful bank robbery only to discover that a pair of gunmen killed his brother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJFK (1991)
Follows the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy led by New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo One Would Tell (1996)
Shy sixteen-year-old Stacy Collins can't believe that the most popular guy in school, an attractive athlete named Bobby Tennison, is interested in her. At first she is flattered by his constant attention, but then he becomes possessive and jealous-telling her who she can speak to and what she can wear. Threats escalate into violence when Bobby thinks Stacy has stepped out of line. Soon she is walking on egg shells and living in fear. Having seen the tell-tale bruises, Stacy's best friend convinces her to break things off with Bobby-but in a moment of weakness, Stacy goes to meet him. It will be the last time she is seen alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnatomy of a Murder (1959)
Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Newton Boys (1998)
The story of the Newton gang, the most successful bank robbers in history, owing to their good planning and minimal violence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967)
Chicago February 14th 1929. Al Capone finally establishes himself as the city's boss of organised crime. In a north-side garage his hoods, dressed as policemen, surprise and mow down with machine-guns the key members of Bugs Moran's rival gang. The film traces the history of the incident, and the lives affected and in some cases ended by it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSon of the South (2021)
In civil rights era Montgomery, Alabama, Klansman's grandson Bob Zellner must choose which side of history to be on during the Movement. Defying his family and white Southern norms, he fought against social injustice, repression and violence to change the world around him
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNapoleon (1927)
A biopic of former Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican's career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant 1797 invasion of Italy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like this20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
Brash hoodlum Tom Connors enters Sing Sing cocksure of himself and disrespectful toward authority, but his tough but compassionate warden changes him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHitler at the Opera (2014)
Aaron is an Israeli singer who comes to Poland for a guest performance in a provincial theater. The artist is warmly welcomed by the management and the theater team. During one of the rehearsals, Aaron spots backstage what he thinks looks like Adolf Hitler. Attempts are stopped and the hosts are accused of anti-Semitism. A chain of absurd situations follows, and the revealed prejudices lead to an escalation of the conflict.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
The Founder (2016)
The true story of how Ray Kroc, a salesman from Illinois, met Mac and Dick McDonald, 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. He maneuvered himself into a position to be able to pull the company from the brothers and create a billion-dollar empire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Legend of Van Dorn (2026)
A brilliant but disgraced Civil War general gets a second chance in a quiet Tennessee town, but as his bold tactics win battles, a dangerous affair with a married woman, and her jealous husband’s vengeance, threatens to destroy him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Sergeant Rutledge (1960)
Respected black cavalry Sergeant Brax Rutledge stands court-martial for raping and killing a white woman and murdering her father, his superior officer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Just Mercy?
The closest matches to Just Mercy are A Call to Spy (2020), I Want to Live! (1958) and Richard Jewell (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Just Mercy?
Start with A Call to Spy (2020), the closest match to Just Mercy.
What is the highest-rated movie like Just Mercy?
Catch Me If You Can (2002), rated 8.0/10 by 17,861 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Just Mercy?
The Legend of Van Dorn (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Just Mercy?
Yes: A Call to Spy (2020), I Want to Live! (1958) and Richard Jewell (2019).
How are movies similar to Just Mercy chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Just Mercy, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.