Movies like The Wave
If The Wave's mix of high school, experiment and dictator stayed with you, start here. Each film below was picked from what The Wave's fans love most, with the reason it belongs on this list.
- 1
Before the Fall
2004 · Directed by Dennis Gansel · 117 min7.1
Why you'll like itAlso directed by Dennis Gansel · With Max Riemelt · Also a German drama · From the same decade (2000s)
In 1942, Friedrich Weimer's boxing skills get him an appointment to a National Political Academy (NaPolA) – high schools that produce Nazi elite. Over his father's objections, Friedrich enrolls.
- 2
The Experiment
2001 · Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel · 120 min7.4
Why you'll like itShares: experiment, dramatic · Also a German drama · From the same decade (2000s)
20 volunteers agree to take part in a seemingly well-paid experiment advertised by the university. It is supposed to be about aggressive behavior in an artificial prison situation.
- 3
Nineteen Eighty-Four
1984 · Directed by Michael Radford · 113 min6.8
Why you'll like itShares: fascism, anarchist · Also drama and thriller
Winston Smith is a government employee whose job involves the rewriting of history in a manner that casts his fictional country's leaders in a charitable light.
- 4
The Stanford Prison Experiment
2015 · Directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez · 122 min6.8
Why you'll like itShares: experiment · Also thriller and drama
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.
- 5
One Eight Seven
1997 · Directed by Kevin Reynolds · 119 min6.7
Why you'll like itShares: high school · Also drama and thriller
When a Brooklyn high school student writes the police code for homicide, 187, inside a textbook owned by teacher Trevor Garfield, Garfield feels threatened.
- 6
The Experiment
2010 · Directed by Paul T. Scheuring · 96 min6.4
Why you'll like itShares: experiment · Also thriller and drama
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
- 7
V for Vendetta
2006 · Directed by James McTeigue · 132 min7.9
Why you'll like itShares: fascism · From the same decade (2000s)
In a world in which Great Britain has become a fascist state, a masked vigilante known only as “V” conducts guerrilla warfare against the oppressive British government.
- 8
Equilibrium
2002 · Directed by Kurt Wimmer · 107 min7.1
Why you'll like itShares: fascism · From the same decade (2000s)
In a dystopian future, a totalitarian regime maintains peace by subduing the populace with a drug, and displays of emotion are punishable by death. A man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.
- 9
Toy Soldiers
1991 · Directed by Daniel Petrie Jr. · 112 min6.5
Why you'll like itShares: high school
After federal agents arrest a drug czar and put him on trial, the cartel leader's vicious son storms a prep school and takes its students hostage.