Last updated March 2024
In the mood for Best History Movies 2016 ? We put together 30 of the Best History Movies 2016 available, drawing top picks from IMDB ratings and user votes on our site. Cast your vote for favorite Best History Movies 2016 to guide fellow viewers toward quality content. User participation is what makes our platform so helpful.
Hacksaw Ridge (2016)
Plot Summary:
WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa, refuses to kill people and becomes the first Conscientious Objector in American history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor
Duration: 139 min
IMDB Rating: 8.1/10
IMDB Votes: 577000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Australia, USA, UK, China
Plot tags: world war two, war, soldier, conscientious objector, religion, combat, american soldier, u.s. army, us military, bible, military, father son relationship, pacifism, u.s. military, survival, anti war, blood, pacifist, flashback, courage, physician, life & death, religious, biopic, church
Airlift (2016)
Plot Summary:
When Iraq invades Kuwait in August, 1990, a callous Indian businessman becomes the spokesperson for more than 170,000 stranded countrymen
Duration: 130 min
IMDB Rating: 7.9/10
IMDB Votes: 58000
Genere: Action, Drama, History
Country: India
Plot tags: airplane, war, evacuation, patriot, aviation, military, patriotism, businessman, arab, husband wife relationship, refugee camp, indians, gulf war, indian war, genius, pilot, terrorism, intelligence, humanity, conflict, hindu, threat, political conflict, diaspora, tank
In This Corner of the World (2016)
Plot Summary:
Newlywed Suzu Urano moves to her new life in Kure City on the coast of Hiroshima Prefecture, where she perseveres through World War II with pluck and determination
Duration: 129 min
IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Animation, Drama, Family, History, War
Country: Japan
Plot tags: world war two, family relations, war, wedding, bombing, female protagonist, military, evacuation, anniversary, danger, couples, society, teenager, nazi, holocaust, art, gory, humanity, adaptation, world war, painting, bomber, cooking, marriage, dog
Hidden Figures (2016)
Plot Summary:
The untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson – brilliant African-American women working at NASA and serving as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history – the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit. The visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big
Duration: 127 min
IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
IMDB Votes: 249000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Plot tags: racism, mathematics, nasa, prejudice, african american, space program, sexism, stereotypes, strong female character, segregation, discrimination, genius, racial segregation, scientist, women, black history, african american woman, strong female lead, job promotion, feminist, biopic, black woman, science, female friendship, space race
Frantz (2016)
Plot Summary:
In the aftermath of WWI, a young German who grieves the death of her fiancé in France meets a mysterious French man who visits the fiance’s grave to lay flowers
Duration: 113 min
IMDB Rating: 7.5/10
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: France, Germany
Plot tags: world war one, guilty conscience, german soldier, french soldier, grave, nationalism, war veteran, sadness, death of loved one, casualty of war, mourning, soldier, post war, hotel, grief, friendship, happiness, lie, liar, world war one veteran, death of fiance, violinist, loss of son, life turned upside down, dancing
All the Way (2016)
Plot Summary:
Lyndon B. Johnson's amazing 11-month journey from taking office after JFK's assassination, through the fight to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and his own presidential campaign, culminating on the night LBJ is actually elected to the office – no longer the 'accidental President.'
Duration: 132 min
IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Plot tags: politics, racism, civil rights, president, u.s. president, african american, biopic, civil rights movement, election, usa president, propaganda, civil war, secret service, ethnic conflict, assassination, eccentricity, genocide, conspiracy, secrets, prejudice, presidential election, vietnam war, political campaign, activism, racial tension
The Innocents (2016)
Plot Summary:
Poland, 1945. Mathilde, a young French Red Cross doctor, is on a mission to help the war survivors. When a nun seeks for her help, she is brought to a convent where several pregnant sisters are hiding, unable to reconcile their faith with their pregnancy. Mathilde becomes their only hope
Duration: 115 min
IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: France, Poland
Plot tags: world war two, abbess, syphilis, religion, pregnant from rape, motherhood, priest, feminist, interracial relations, lie, secret, nazi, hospital, catholic, religious, snow, gay, women, holocaust, monk, feminism, genocide, church, post war, christian
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)
Plot Summary:
An American Ambassador is killed during an attack at a U.S. compound in Libya as a security team struggles to make sense out of the chaos
Duration: 144 min
IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
IMDB Votes: 157000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: USA, Malta, Morocco
Plot tags: war, cia, terrorism, swat team, rescue mission, mercenary, navy seal, courage, military, gunfight, commando, combat, battlefield, u.s. embassy, american abroad, embassy, politics, mission, cia agent, u.s. marine, soldier, heroism, brutality, survival, siege
Patriots Day (2016)
Plot Summary:
An account of Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis's actions in the events leading up to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the aftermath, which includes the city-wide manhunt to find the terrorists behind it
Duration: 133 min
IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
IMDB Votes: 111000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong, USA
Plot tags: terrorism, police, tragedy, terrorist, fbi, courage, surveillance, manhunt, investigation, violence, chase, hostage, murder, brutality, police investigation, gunfight, revenge, chief of police, terrorist plot, terrorist attack, police officer, murder investigation, crime investigation, heroism, bravery
Anthropoid (2016)
Plot Summary:
In December 1941, Czech soldier Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš parachute into their occupied homeland to assassinate Nazi officer Reinhard Heydrich
Duration: 120 min
IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
IMDB Votes: 53000
Genere: Action, Biography, Drama, History, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: UK, France, USA, Czech Republic
Plot tags: nazi, world war two, assassination, gestapo, nazi occupation, conspiracy, torture, friendship between men, suspicion, holocaust, ss, third reich, repression, war, brutality, betrayal, murderer, fascist, death, chase, wartime, world war, resistance fighter, resistance movement, european history
Silence (2016)
Plot Summary:
Two Jesuit priests travel to seventeenth century Japan which has, under the Tokugawa shogunate, banned Catholicism and almost all foreign contact
Duration: 161 min
IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
IMDB Votes: 121000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA, UK, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico
Plot tags: missionary, religion, christianity, religious persecution, culture clash, crisis of faith, faith, torture, doubt, betrayal, christian, clergy, martyr, martyrdom, loneliness, character study, brutality, japanese history, sword, priest, catholic, jesus, dialogue, atheism, society
The Siege of Jadotville (2016)
Plot Summary:
Irish Commandant Pat Quinlan leads a stand off with troops against French and Belgian Mercenaries in the Congo during in the early 1960s
Duration: 108 min
IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
IMDB Votes: 43000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: Ireland, South Africa
Plot tags: civil war, war, conflict, military, courage, politics, ethnic conflict, fight scenes, betrayal, survival, murder, conspiracy, justice, propaganda, stranded, storytelling, assassination, mercenary, revolution, un, great war, combat, world war two, holocaust, past
Allied (2016)
Plot Summary:
In 1942, an intelligence officer in North Africa encounters a female French Resistance fighter on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. When they reunite in London, their relationship is tested by the pressures of war
Duration: 124 min
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
IMDB Votes: 166000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: UK, USA
Plot tags: world war two, spy, nazi, female agent, double agent, espionage, love, betrayal, war, danger, husband wife relationship, moral dilemma, race against time, british secret service, female spy, secret service, military, assassination, resistance, prospector, secret mission, wartime, mission, surveillance, soldier
The Age of Shadows (2016)
Plot Summary:
Set in the late 1920s, The Age of Shadows follows the cat-and-mouse game that unfolds between a group of resistance fighters trying to bring in explosives from Shanghai to destroy key Japanese facilities in Seoul, and Japanese agents trying to stop them
Duration: 140 min
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Action, History, Thriller
Country: South Korea
Plot tags: japanese occupation, spy, resistance, japanese occupation of korea, protest, independence movement, war, world war one, partisan, politics, jazz, espionage, humanity, occupation, political intrigue, trust, recovery, collaboration, trial, man on a mission, world war, kickass, train, businessman, torture
The King's Choice (2016)
Plot Summary:
On 9 April 1940, German soldiers arrive in the city of Oslo. The King of Norway faces a choice that will change his country forever. The King's Choice is a story about the three most dramatic days in Norway's history, the royal family's escape and King Haakon's difficult choice after Nazi Germany's invasion of Norway
Duration: 133 min
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland
Plot tags: world war two, royal family, invasion, wehrmacht, evacuation, german occupation, democracy, king, hitler, crown prince, young soldier, nazi, world war, nazi germany, father son relationship, prime minister, grandfather grandson relationship, roadblock, parliament, war, royalty, nordic, holocaust, totalitarian state, air raid
Deepwater Horizon (2016)
Plot Summary:
A story set on the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which exploded during April 2010 and created the worst oil spill in U.S. history
Duration: 107 min
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
IMDB Votes: 179000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA, Hong Kong, China
Plot tags: disaster, natural disaster, survival, catastrophe, trapped, oil, sea, oil rig, courage, rescue, heroism, fire, ocean, destruction, panic, husband wife relationship, greed, explosions, evacuation, tragedy, water, captain, danger, employee employee relationship, oil industry
Free State of Jones (2016)
Plot Summary:
In 1863, Mississippi farmer Newt Knight serves as a medic for the Confederate Army. Opposed to slavery, Knight would rather help the wounded than fight the Union. After his nephew dies in battle, Newt returns home to Jones County to safeguard his family but is soon branded an outlaw deserter. Forced to flee, he finds refuge with a group of runaway slaves hiding out in the swamps. Forging an alliance with the slaves and other farmers, Knight leads a rebellion that would forever change history
Duration: 139 min
IMDB Rating: 6.9/10
IMDB Votes: 61000
Genere: Action, Biography, Drama, History, War, Western
Country: USA, China
Plot tags: american civil war, slavery, civil war, revolution, justice, u.s. civil war, racism, rebellion, wartime, courage, vengeance, society, black, revenge, segregation, social commentary, biopic, slave, war, american history, african american, military, civil rights, black man, black history
A United Kingdom (2016)
Plot Summary:
The inspiring true story of Seretse Khama, the King of Bechuanaland (modern Botswana), and Ruth Williams, the London office worker he married in 1948 in the face of fierce opposition from their families and the British and South African governments. Seretse and Ruth defied family, Apartheid and empire - their love triumphed over every obstacle flung in their path and in so doing they transformed their nation and inspired the world
Duration: 111 min
IMDB Rating: 6.9/10
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK, USA, France, Czech Republic
Plot tags: interracial marriage, forbidden love, racism, interracial romance, politics, royal family, equality, marriage, freedom, justice, reporter, democracy, biopic, british empire, african american, husband wife relationship, tradition, promise, women, black history, interracial, king, mother, feminism, post war
Neruda (2016)
Plot Summary:
It’s 1948 and the Cold War has arrived in Chile. In the Congress, prominent Communist Senator and popular poet Pablo Neruda accuses the government of betraying the Party and is stripped of his parliamentary immunity by President González Videla. The Chief of Investigative Police instructs inspector Óscar Peluchonneau to arrest the poet. Neruda tries to escape from the country with his wife, the painter Delia del Carril, but they are forced to go underground
Duration: 107 min
IMDB Rating: 6.8/10
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Chile, Argentina, France, Spain, USA
Plot tags: political repression, anti communism, poet, manhunt, writers, biopic, escape, politician, class differences, police investigation, police detective, exile, dictatorship, propaganda, senate, latinx lead, poetry, art, secret service, mission, publisher, latina, spanish history, art history, wanderlust
The Finest Hours (2016)
Plot Summary:
The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952
Duration: 117 min
IMDB Rating: 6.7/10
IMDB Votes: 70000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA
Plot tags: survival, natural disaster, ocean, shipwreck, disaster, forces of nature, storm at sea, coast guard, courage, daring rescue, sinking ship, fisherman, ship captain, catastrophe, boat, ship, danger, water, fishing boat, escapades, heroism, sea, storm, trapped, sailor
The Lost City of Z (2016)
Plot Summary:
A true-life drama in the 1920s, centering on British explorer Col. Percy Fawcett, who discovered evidence of a previously unknown, advanced civilazation in the Amazon and disappeared whilst searching for it
Duration: 141 min
IMDB Rating: 6.6/10
IMDB Votes: 98000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Plot tags: jungle, explorer, expedition, travel, survival, archaeology, journey, tribe, amazon jungle, world war one, biopic, lost civilization, obsession, courage, conquistador, destiny, self discovery, wilderness, adaptation, cave, forest, quest, rescue, father son relationship, bravery
Alone in Berlin (2016)
Plot Summary:
Berlin in June of 1940. While Nazi propaganda celebrates the regime’s victory over France, a kitchen-cum-living room in Prenzlauer Berg is filled with grief. Anna and Otto Quangel’s son has been killed at the front. This working class couple had long believed in the ‘Führer’ and followed him willingly, but now they realise that his promises are nothing but lies and deceit. They begin writing postcards as a form of resistance and in a bid to raise awareness: Stop the war machine! Kill Hitler! Putting their lives at risk, they distribute these cards in the entrances of tenement buildings and in stairwells. But the SS and the Gestapo are soon onto them, and even their neighbours pose a threat
Duration: 103 min
IMDB Rating: 6.5/10
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK, France, Germany
Plot tags: nazi germany, gestapo, world war two, war, nazi, suicide, death of son, holocaust, world war, murder, violence, torture, robbery, mechanic, bereavement, wartime, death, life & death, death of child, death in the family, christmas, women, military, intrigue, revolution
The Birth of a Nation (2016)
Plot Summary:
Nat Turner, a former slave in America, leads a liberation movement in 1831 to free African-Americans in Virgina that results in a violent retaliation from whites
Duration: 120 min
IMDB Rating: 6.5/10
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA, Canada
Plot tags: slavery, racism, civil war, rebellion, preacher, rape, torture, suffering, poverty, preaching, murder, starving child, abuse, illiterate, freedom, justice, revenge, violence, brutality, black, brother sister relationship, father son relationship, african american, death, massacre
Elvis & Nixon (2016)
Plot Summary:
In 1970, a few days before Christmas, Elvis Presley showed up on the White House lawn seeking to be deputized into the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs by the President himself
Duration: 86 min
IMDB Rating: 6.4/10
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Comedy, History
Country: USA
Plot tags: u.s. president, secret service, usa president, dialogue, eccentricity, singer, president, musician's life, art, photograph, white house, based on real people, rock and roll, intrigue, real life, american politics, hollywood, politician, airplane trip, airport, male protagonist, ex marine, elvis impersonator, chief of staff, elvis presley
Risen (2016)
Plot Summary:
Clavius, a powerful Roman military tribune, and his aide, Lucius, are tasked with solving the mystery of what happened to Jesus in the weeks following the crucifixion, in order to disprove the rumors of a risen Messiah and prevent an uprising in Jerusalem
Duration: 107 min
IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Mystery
Country: USA
Plot tags: christianity, roman empire, apostle, investigation, jesus christ, resurrection, interrogation, messiah, religion, jesus, religious, easter, christian, bible, crucifixion of jesus, faith, desert, roman soldier, tomb, manhunt, disciple, exhumation, church, race against time, soldier
Southside with You (2016)
Plot Summary:
Chronicles a single day in the summer of 1989 when the future president of the United States, Barack Obama, wooed his future First Lady on an epic first date across Chicago's South Side
Duration: 84 min
IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: USA
Plot tags: african american, love, lawyer, wooing, black, president, boyfriend girlfriend relationship, politics, u.s. president, one day, social issues, civil rights movement, biopic, african american protagonist, racism, jury, urban, first date, nobel prize winner, courtroom, black man, black history, black girl, trial, female leader
Mohenjo Daro (2016)
Plot Summary:
Village lad Sarman is drawn to big, bad Mohenjo Daro - and its mascot Chaani. But Chaani must wed Munja, son of Mohenjo Daro's ruler, Maham. Will Sarman find love - and more - in Mohenjo Daro?
Duration: 155 min
IMDB Rating: 5.6/10
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, History
Country: India
Plot tags: fight, love, village, revenge, violence, murder, arena, crocodile, antiquity, farmer, brutality, rebellion, vengeance, rivalry, disorder, knight, ancient, heroes, flood, death, villain, unicorn, rain, river, blood
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016)
Plot Summary:
The harrowing true story of the crew of the USS Indianapolis, who were stranded in the Philippine Sea for five days after delivering the atomic weapons that would eventually end WWII. As they awaited rescue, they endured extreme thirst, hunger, and relentless shark attacks
Duration: 128 min
IMDB Rating: 5.3/10
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Plot tags: world war two, warship, u.s. navy, sea, ocean, survival, shark, war, military, submarine, rescue, world war, stranded, disobeying orders, tragedy, disaster, danger, moral dilemma, top secret, tragic event, male camaraderie, trial, real life, mass death, friendly fire