Movies like Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
The best movies like Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) are The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), Panther (1995) and BlacKkKlansman (2018). If Judas and the Black Messiah 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 ratedThe Untouchables (1987)7.8/10 from 6,438 votes
- NewestBy Any Means (2026)Released 2026
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.
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 thisBlacKkKlansman (2018)
Colorado Springs, late 1970s. Ron Stallworth, an African American police officer, and Flip Zimmerman, his Jewish colleague, run an undercover operation to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDetroit (2017)
A police raid in Detroit in 1967 results in one of the largest citizens' uprisings in the history of the United States.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEscape from Pretoria (2020)
South Africa, 1978. Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, two white political activists from the African National Congress imprisoned by the apartheid regime, put a plan in motion to escape from the infamous Pretoria Prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNickel Boys (2024)
Chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRob Peace (2024)
An underprivileged, gifted young black man from Newark reaches Yale University, only for shadows and injustices from his past to threaten his future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBy Any Means (2026)
In 1960s Mississippi, a young Black FBI agent is forced to partner with a notorious mafia hitman to investigate a wave of brutal civil rights murders.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Great Debaters (2007)
The true story of a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African-American college students into a historical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Man with the Iron Heart (2017)
With the Third Reich at its peak in 1942, the Czech resistance in London plans the most ambitious military operation of WWII – Anthropoid. Two young recruits are sent to Prague to assassinate the most ruthless Nazi leader – Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Security Main Office, the Gestapo and the architect of the Final Solution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Untouchables (1987)
Elliot Ness, an ambitious prohibition agent, is determined to take down Al Capone. In order to achieve this goal, he forms a group given the nickname “The Untouchables”.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Negotiator (1998)
The police try to arrest expert hostage negotiator Danny Roman, who insists he's being framed for his partner's murder in what he believes is an elaborate conspiracy. Thinking there's evidence in the Internal Affairs offices that might clear him, he takes everyone in the office hostage and demands that another well-known negotiator be brought in to handle the situation and secretly investigate the conspiracy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCapone (1975)
Young Al Capone catches the eye of Johnny Torrio, a criminal visiting New York from Chicago. Torrio invites Capone to move to Illinois to help run his Prohibition-era alcohol sales operation. Capone rises through the ranks of Torrio's gang and eventually takes over. On top, he works to consolidate his power by eliminating his enemies, fixing elections to his advantage and getting rich. In his spare time, Capone courts the principled Iris Crawford.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain (2021)
Based on the true story of the events that led to the death of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., an elderly African American veteran with bipolar disorder, who was killed during a conflict with police officers who were dispatched to check on him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCity Hall (1996)
The accidental shooting of a boy in New York City leads to an investigation by the Deputy Mayor, and unexpectedly far-reaching consequences.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMotherless Brooklyn (2019)
New York City, 1957. Lionel Essrog, a private detective living with Tourette syndrome, tries to solve the murder of his mentor and best friend, armed only with vague clues and the strength of his obsessive mind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlood Work (2002)
Still recovering from a heart transplant, a retired FBI profiler returns to service when his own blood analysis offers clues to the identity of a serial killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDriven (2019)
FBI informant Jim Hoffman lures troubled automobile magnate John DeLorean to an undercover sting for cocaine trafficking.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Alto Knights (2025)
Two of New York's most notorious organized crime bosses, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, vie for control of the city's streets. Once the best of friends, petty jealousies and a series of betrayals place them on a deadly collision course that will reshape the Mafia (and America) forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHangmen Also Die! (1943)
During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, surgeon Dr. Franticek Svoboda, a Czech patriot, assassinates the brutal "Hangman of Europe", Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, and is wounded in the process. In his attempt to escape, he is helped by history professor Stephen Novotny and his daughter Mascha.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGettysburg (1993)
In the summer of 1863, General Robert E. Lee leads the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with the goal of marching through to Washington, D.C. The Union Army of the Potomac, under the command of General George G. Meade, forms a defensive position to confront the rebel forces in what will prove to be the decisive battle of the American Civil War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Alamo (2004)
Based on the 1836 standoff between a group of Texan and Tejano men, led by Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, and Mexican dictator Santa Anna's forces at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisChariots of Fire (1981)
In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners train for the 1924 Paris Olympics. Eric Liddell, a devout Christian born to Scottish missionaries in China, sees running as part of his worship of God's glory and refuses to train or compete on the Sabbath. Harold Abrahams overcomes anti-Semitism and class bias, but neglects his beloved sweetheart in his single-minded quest.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNixon (1995)
A look at President Richard M. Nixon—a man carrying the fate of the world on his shoulders while battling the self-destructive demands from within—spanning his troubled boyhood in California to the shocking Watergate scandal that would end his Presidency.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sweet Hereafter (1997)
A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the survivors' and victims' families prepare a class-action suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence brought about by a different kind of damage.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Son of Africa: The Autobiography of a Slave (1996)
A documentary following the life of Olaudah Equiano, based on his autobiography "The Interesting Narration of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)
No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMission 90 Days (2007)
The prime minister of the nation gets killed and an efficient police officer, Sivaraman, gets appointed by the government to solve the murder mystery. He gets ninety days to accomplish the mission.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Barbershop (2002)
A day in the life of a barbershop on the south side of Chicago. Calvin, who inherited the struggling business from his deceased father, views the shop as nothing but a burden and waste of his time. After selling the shop to a local loan shark, Calvin slowly begins to see his father's vision and legacy and struggles with the notion that he just sold it out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHenry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Arriving in Chicago, Henry moves in with ex-con acquaintance Otis and starts schooling him in the ways of the serial killer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Judas and the Black Messiah?
The closest matches to Judas and the Black Messiah are The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), Panther (1995) and BlacKkKlansman (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Judas and the Black Messiah?
Start with The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), the closest match to Judas and the Black Messiah.
What is the highest-rated movie like Judas and the Black Messiah?
The Untouchables (1987), rated 7.8/10 by 6,438 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Judas and the Black Messiah?
By Any Means (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Judas and the Black Messiah?
Yes: The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), Panther (1995) and BlacKkKlansman (2018).
How are movies similar to Judas and the Black Messiah chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Judas and the Black Messiah, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.