Movies like Patty Hearst (1988)
The best movies like Patty Hearst (1988) are The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998) and I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). If Patty Hearst hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBelieve Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey (2018)8.0/10 from 724 votes
- NewestPiggy (2022)Released 2022
The Handmaid's Tale (1990)
In a dystopian, polluted right-wing religious tyranny, a young woman is put in sexual slavery on account of her now rare fertility.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Shot Andy Warhol (1996)
The story of Valerie Solanas, a '60s radical who preached misandry in her "SCUM" manifesto. She wrote a screenplay for a film that she wanted Andy Warhol to produce, but he repeatedly ignored her. So she shot him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Pastoral (2016)
Set in postwar America, a man watches his seemingly perfect life fall apart as his daughter's new political affiliation threatens to destroy their family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpeak (2004)
Freshman high-school student Melinda has refused to speak ever since she called the cops on a popular summer party. With her old friends snubbing her for being a rat, and her parents too busy to notice her troubles, she folds into herself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPrecious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (2009)
In Harlem in 1987, Claireece "Precious" Jones is a 16-year-old African American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father, and at home she must wait hand and foot on her mother, an angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is chaotic and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and a secret – she can't read.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGirl in the Bunker (2018)
When Elizabeth is abducted by a fugitive sexual predator, she realizes she must take matters into her own hands and plot her escape. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCleveland Abduction (2015)
A single mother becomes Ariel Castro's first kidnapping victim, and finds herself trapped in his home with two other women for 11 years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisArgo (2012)
As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA 'exfiltration' specialist concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009)
A rich man's daughter is held captive in an abandoned apartment by two former convicts who abducted her and hold her ransom in exchange for her father's money.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCape Fear (1991)
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)
Young Jeremiah lives in a stable environment with loving foster parents until the day his troubled mother, Sarah, returns to claim him. Jeremiah becomes swept up in his mother's dangerous world of drugs, seedy hotels, strip joints and revolving lovers. Salvation comes in the form of the boy's ultrareligious grandparents, but soon Jeremiah's mother returns. Maternal love binds the pair together on the road until Sarah's desperate and depraved lifestyle finally consumes her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies 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 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Mauritanian (2021)
The true story of the Mauritanian Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was held at the U.S military's Guantanamo Bay detention center without charges for over a decade and sought help from a defense attorney for his release.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAuto Focus (2002)
A successful TV star during the 1960s, former "Hogan's Heroes" actor Bob Crane projects a wholesome family-man image, but this front masks his persona as a sex addict who records and photographs his many encounters with women, often with the help of his seedy friend, John Henry Carpenter. This biographical drama reveals how Crane's double life takes its toll on him and his family, and ultimately contributes to his death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoom (2015)
Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Only Living Boy in New York (2017)
When a young man learns that his overbearing father is having an affair, he tries to stop it, only to be seduced by the older woman as well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 thisTouching the Void (2003)
The true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' disastrous and nearly-fatal mountain climb of 6,344m Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Ninth Day (2004)
During WWII, head priest Henri Kremer is mysteriously freed from Dachau. He learns that he can return home to Luxembourg, for only nine days, during which he'll have to face a persuasive Gestapo chief who will put his faith to the test.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)
In 1965, a young woman with dreams of becoming a writer has a son at the age of 15 and struggles to make things work with the drug-addicted father.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZnásilnění (2001)
A career woman's struggle and fight against a male dominated society.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Zodiac (2005)
An elusive serial killer known as the Zodiac terrorizes the San Francisco Bay in the late 1960s, while detectives aim to stop him before he claims more victims. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisPiggy (2022)
A bullied overweight teenager sees a glimpse of hope when her tormentors are brutally abducted by a mesmerizing stranger.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrost/Nixon (2008)
For three years after being forced from office, Nixon remained silent. But in summer 1977, the steely, cunning former commander-in-chief agreed to sit for one all-inclusive interview to confront the questions of his time in office and the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency. Nixon surprised everyone in selecting Frost as his televised confessor, intending to easily outfox the breezy British showman and secure a place in the hearts and minds of Americans. Likewise, Frost's team harboured doubts about their boss's ability to hold his own. But as the cameras rolled, a charged battle of wits resulted.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuzhou River (2000)
After getting out of prison, small-time crook Mardar stumbles upon a woman who looks exactly like his long-lost lover, who he attempted to kidnap 3 years ago.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGoya's Ghosts (2006)
Painter Francisco Goya becomes involved with the Spanish Inquisition after his muse, Inés, is arrested by the church for heresy. Her family turns to him, hoping that his connection with fanatical Inquisitor Lorenzo, whom he is painting, can secure her release.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInvincible (2006)
Inspired by the true story of Vince Papale, a man with nothing to lose who ignored the staggering odds and made his dream come true. When the coach of Papale's beloved hometown football team hosted an unprecedented open tryout, the public consensus was that it was a waste of time – no one good enough to play professional football was going to be found this way.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like Patty Hearst and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Patty Hearst?
The closest matches to Patty Hearst are The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998) and I Shot Andy Warhol (1996). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Patty Hearst?
Start with The Handmaid's Tale (1990), the closest match to Patty Hearst.
What is the highest-rated movie like Patty Hearst?
Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey (2018), rated 8.0/10 by 724 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Patty Hearst?
Piggy (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Patty Hearst?
Yes: The Handmaid's Tale (1990), Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998) and I Shot Andy Warhol (1996).
How are movies similar to Patty Hearst chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Patty Hearst, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.