50+ Motivational Movies for Entrepreneurs

At ProductivityREX, we talk a lot about improving the efficiency with which you work and getting things done faster. The backbone of productivity and efficiency is motivation. The sad truth is that motivation doesn’t last long for most people. It comes with planning, discipline and passion over time. What do you do in the mean time. It’s okay to take breaks to refresh ourselves and work a lot more focused and motivated than doing sloppy work for hours together.

Below are a list of 50+ movies that will help you stay motivated during your breaks. I haven’t listed what you can learn from a movie, I leave it to your own conscience.

#1 Startup.com (2001)

IMDb Rating: 7.1

Plot: The movie documents the rise and fall of a tech company during the infamous .com bubble in the turn of the century, which was a similar fate to numerous other internet companies of the time. The struggles and internal politics they face while selling the idea and developing the product is what the movie is all about.

#2 Flash of Genius (2008)

IMDb Rating: 7.0

Plot: Based on a true story, this is a classic David vs Goliath story. The protagonist invents a device which will eventually be used by every car in the world. The auto-giants refuse to give credit to the inventor, the fight he takes on to ensure the credit is what the film is all about.

#3 Gosford Park (2001)

IMDb Rating: 7.3

Plot: The lives of upstairs guests and downstairs servants at a party in 1932 in a country house in England as they investigate a murder involving one of them.

#4 The Godfather (1972)

IMDB Rating: 9.2

Plot: The aging head of the Corleone mafia family decides to transfer powers to his successors. A set of unfortunate events unfold in the family leading to a war spanning the mafias. A tale of the transfer of powers to the deserving successor.

#5 There Will Be Blood (2007)

IMDB Rating: 8.1

Plot: A story of greed, oil, madness and hatred. The protagonist, Daniel Plainview is trying to reap in money from discovered oil in the early 20th century. This is the story of the oil man and his greed and how it affects the people and his family.

#6 The Aviator (2004)

IMDB Rating: 7.5

Plot: A biopic portraying the early years of film maker and aviator Howard Hughes, son of a Texan inventor. This is the story of how young Hughes grew the small fortune he inherited from his father to become a billionaire.

#7 Office Space (1999)

IMDB Rating: 7.8

Plot: The protagonist is depressed because of his unsatisfied personal and professional life. He works in a tech firm. Left in a state of hypnotized bliss by his psychotherapist, his actions make him more valuable to the company. He goes on to scheme to embezzle money from the company with his friends. Drama ensues.

#8 Steve Jobs: One Last Thing (2011)

IMDB Rating: 6.8

Plot: It’s a documentary that covers Steve Jobs, the genius co founder of Apple’s viewpoints on things through interviews.

#9 Risky Business (1983)

IMDB Rating: 6.8

Plot: Tom Cruise acts as a teenager out of the wealthy parts of suburban north Chicago. When he is in need of some money at the end of a sequence of events, he comes up with creative ways to raise them in a short term.

#10 Beer Wars (2009)

IMDB Rating: 6.9

Plot: A documentary that gives us an inside look at the modern day David and Goliath story of the American Beer industry.

#11 Up in the Air (2009)

IMDB Rating: 7.4

Plot: George Clooney acts as a man who lives out of his suitcase and fires people as a part of his job, flying around the country 320 days a year. He meets the women of his dreams and it leads to certain things making him think about his lifestyle.

#12 Session 9 (2001)

IMDB Rating: 6.5

Plot: An asbestos abatement crew is on a job to an abandoned mental asylum. Film revolves around the personal lives of the crew members and the eeriness of the place they are working at.

#13 The Call of the Entrepreneur (2007)

IMDB Rating: 7.0

Plot: A documentary, talks about the entrepreneurial quests of a dairy farmer, a merchant banker and a refugee from china.

#14 Cocktail (1988)

IMDB Rating: 5.8

Plot: Another Tom Cruise flick in this list, talks about an ex-army man trying to get a job in the marketing sector at Big Apple. Without a college degree, he ends up being a bartender and becomes the best one in the city. In order to raise funds to start his own bar, he goes to Jamaica and a series of events results him in being at the receiving end of the wrath of his new girlfriend.

#15 October Sky (1999)

IMDB Rating: 7.8

Plot: Son of a coal mine worker, deters from following the footsteps of his father and is inspired by the launch of the first satellite to space – the sputnik. He and his friends are working to build a rocket themselves and the resulting events form the story.

#16 Tommy Boy (1995)

IMDB Rating: 7.0

Plot: When the owner of an auto parts factory passes away, the ownership goes to his dimwitted son. While, the rest of the family wants to sell the factory to a corporation, which plans on shutting the factory down, it’s up to Thomas Callahan junior to save the company.

#17 Something Ventured (2011)

IMDB Rating: 7.0

Plot: This documentary talks about how some of the biggest names in the tech and bio-tech industries came into existence because of a few lesser known venture capitalists. This was well before VCs were all the rage.

#18 Boiler Room (2000)

IMDB Rating: 7.0

Plot: Working in a sub urban investment firm as a college drop out, Seth Davis is on a fast track to success to impress his father. However, the morally solid Seth finds that his job might not be as legitimate as he had thought so. 

#19 The ShawShank Redemption (1994)

IMDB Rating: 9.4

Plot: A successful banker is in prison for a crime he did not commit. The movie chronicles his experiences in the jail house and how he uniquely faces the new lifestyle that he is in with no way out.

#20 The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

IMDB Rating: 8.0

Plot: Based on Chris Gardner’s true story. He is a door to door salesman of a medical device which is just marginally better than a previous version with a huge price. As he struggles to sell the devices, his personal life comes breaking down and he fights against all odds and learns to be a stock broker after six months of training while trying to sell devices and take care of his son with almost no income.

#21 Moneyball (2011)

IMDB Rating: 7.6

Plot: Based on a true story, this movie talks about the efforts of Oakland A, baseball team’s general manager as he uses statistical data to analyse and end up turning baseball on it’s ear.

#22 The Game (1997)

IMDB Rating: 7.8

Plot:  A wealthy San Francisco banker is also a loner with no family with him. On the day of his 48th birthday, he receives a gift from his long gone brother, succumbing to curiosity, he is now a part of a live action game.

#23 Jerry Maguire (1996)

IMDB Rating: 7.3

Plot: A typical sports agent gets an epiphany one fine day and is promptly fired for expressing it. He sets out to put his philosophy to test with an ego-maniacal football player.

#24 Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)

IMDB Rating: 7.3

Plot: A biopic looking at the early days of two tech behemoths, Apple and Microsoft. The film compares the operations of the two firms and the contrast between the founders.

#25 Forrest Gump (1994)

IMDB Rating: 8.8

Plot: The protagonist Forrest Gump is a dimwitted simpleton. His mother teaches him the ways of life. He is on a serendipitous journey of life to become many things in his life.

#26 It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

IMDB Rating: 8.6

Plot: Young George Bailey dedicates his entire life to the folk of Bedford falls. He wants to travel the world, but couldn’t as it would enable the evil rich man of the town to own the entire town. As an unfortunate set of events results him in being in a very bad situation professionally, he contemplates suicide and thinks it would’ve better if he had never born. An angel shows up shows him the world if he had never born, he understands the impact he had on a lot of lives and continues to solve his problems.

#27 The Corporation (2003)

IMDB Rating: N/A

Plot: A documentary that looks at the concept of corporation since it’s inception to the modern times.

#28 Glengary Glen Ross (1992)

IMDB Rating: 7.8

Plot: In a Chicago based real estate office, four salesman are put to a contest by the boss. Winner gets a Cadillac, while the loser is sacked. There is high pressure to succeed. A robbery is committed and it affects the life of all the contestants.

#29 Wall Street (1987)

IMDB Rating: 7.4

Plot: A wall street stock broker with a burning fire to reach the top, works with a successful broker. With a help of insider information, they take in huge profits. It finally comes to his own backyard, the company his father works under is targeted by Gecko and Bud Fox is in a dilemma. Money and success or family and morality.

#30 The Social Network (2010)

IMDB Rating: 7.7

Plot: Based on the life of Mark Zuckerberg during his college days and how he built the largest social network in the world – Facebook. It involves stories of friendship, betrayal and what not.

#31 Citizen Kane (1941)

IMDB Rating: 8.4

Plot: A millionaire newspaper tycoon dies uttering his last word: ‘rosebud’. Reporters are trying to make sense of it by digging through his past. The movie reveals his rise to fame and eventually his fall through that.

#32 Rocky (1976)

IMDB Rating: 8.1

Plot: A kind-hearted local boxer is looking for a chance to achieve his dreams, while working as a debt collector for the local goons. He gets his break when he is asked to fight against the reigning champion due to a fortunate turn of events.

#33 Nightcrawler (2014)

IMDB Rating: 7.9

Plot: An obsessed Jake Gyllenhaal finds that there is oppurtunity to grow as a freelance news reporter. He would do anything to be the top of the bunch and his antics forms the story.

#34 Ctrl-Alt-Complete (2011)

IMDB Rating: 5.6

Plot: A documentary film produced by Microsoft, this movie features tech entrepreneurs of growing startups and tells their growth stories.

#35 Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

IMDB Rating: 7.3

Plot: Two big and small time con men are working in a same town. When they realise that there is no room for the two of them, they get into a contest. Loser leaves the town. The bet being who will be the first to milk $50,000 from a woman.

#36 The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

IMDB Rating: 8.5

Plot: 8 years after the Joker and Harvey Dent, Batman returns to curb the menace of Bane. He is faced by betrayals and failure. The dark knight should rise from it to save Gotham city from its path to destruction.

#37 Joy (2015)

IMDB Rating: 6.6

Plot: Based on a real story. Joy is an inventor from childhood. This is the story of how she rose against all odds and unshackled all the chains of the society, that tied her to chains of family responsibilities and rise to become the inventor/entrepreneur of her dreams.

#38 The Commitments (1991)

IMDB Rating: 7.6

Plot: Jimmy Rabbitte pulls together a band of working class white men to create ‘The Commitments’ – a soul band, with a vision to make the ‘hardest working  band’ in the world. The movie documents the rise and fall of the titular band.

#39 Results (2015)

IMDB Rating: 5.5

Plot: This movie deals with the personal conflicts of a Gym owner and it’s trainer who develop romantic feelings for one other, but have ideological differences towards healthy well being. Everything is up for stakes when a wealthy new client joins the Gym.

#40 Bloodsucking Bastards (2015)

IMDB Rating: 5.6

Plot: A overworked employee works with his girlfriend and a slacker friend at an evil corporation, where the boss is a blood-sucking vampire. When his girl friend dumps him and his nemesis gets the promotion that the protagonist was supposed to get, it starts a series of action from the hero’s part. Drama ensues.

#41 The Big Short (2015)

IMDB Rating: 7.8

Plot: Four outsiders saw what banks and governments couldn’t see and guessed the economic downfall of 2008. They not only guessed, but made millions out of it. Based on a true story.

#42 The Prestige (2006)

IMDB Rating: 8.5

Plot: Two magicians compete to become the number one. With their obsession for perfection, both of them goes to extreme lengths to achieve their goal. The movie ends with a dark twist revealing the better magician of the two.

#43 Unfinished Business (2015)

IMDB Rating: 5.4

Plot: One small business owner and two of his associates go to Europe to close a very important deal for their business. It leads to a series of unexpected twists.

#44 Steve Jobs (2015)

IMDB Rating: 7.3

Plot: Starring Michael Fassbender, this movie focuses on the personal struggles of the iconic CEO. It talks about the behind the scenes of those clearly choreographed Apple releases, ending with the release of the iMac in 1998.

#45 A Faster Horse (2015)

IMDB Rating: 6.9

Plot: This documentary focuses on David Gelb tackling another venerable, beloved, and long-standing institution: the Mustang, crown jewel of the Ford fleet.

#46 Burnt (2015)

IMDB Rating: 6.6

Plot: Bradley Cooper portrays a passionate but short-tempered chef who had it and lost it all due to his drug issues. He comes clean and sets up his own restaurant and with struggle tries to become a three star Michelin chef.

#47 The Intern (2015)

IMDB Rating: 7.2

Plot: Robert DeNiro is a senior citizen joining a new age startup as an intern. His work ethics and knowledge comes to help the firm and the CEO in a lot of interesting ways.

#48 Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015)

IMDB Rating: 6.8

Plot: Another documentary in this list focusing on the personal and private life of the late Apple CEO, Steven Paul Jobs.

#49 Limitless (2011)

IMDB Rating: 7.4

Plot: An aspiring writer, is exposed to a super pill, that can give him crazy mental abilities. He is exposed to a lot of powers and a proportional amount of danger as well.

#50 The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

IMDB Rating: 8.2

Plot: Based on the true story of Jordan Belfort. His rise and fall in the wall street involving drugs, crime and the government.

Do let us know your suggestions and we would add those movies to the list as well. Bookmark it and share the article, if you found it useful. Do let us know how many of these movies you’ve already seen in the comments below.