20 Fascinating Historical Events That Should Be Turned Into A Movie

History is full of mysteries, thrilling incidents, and inspiring stories. Some of those stories are so amazing that they can be turned into full-fledged movies.

#1

Image source: mr__n0vember, NASA

“There was an engineer at NASA named Roger Boisjoly who knew the Challenger was going to explode and he tried to tell people but nobody would listen to him. The movie should be called The Man Who Knew.”

#2

Image source: Grey_Gryphon, imdb

“Syndrome K.

in 1943, a hospital in Rome located next to a Jewish ghetto, let Jews fleeing Nazi raids hide there. The professors in charge admitted Jews under the fake diagnosis of “Syndrome K”, described as a highly contagious and dangerous disease. This successfully kept the Nazis out of the quarantine wards and the Jews safe for the duration of the war.”

#3

Image source: Bertbrekfust, harkaroundthegreats.wordpress.com

“Mariya Oktyabrskaya sold everything she had to buy a tank and kill Nazis after they killed her husband.

If that’s not a baller move worthy of a movie, I don’t know what is.”

#4

Image source: thefacilitymanager, Unknown author

“The Halifax explosion in 1917.”

#5

Image source: jaz1919, Finnish Military Archivesderivative work

“The adventures of Simo Häyhä.

Usually in Finland we don’t put war heroes on a pedestal, but Häyhä has gotten so much attention thanks to YouTube that his story could be quite interesting.

jicty replied:

Yes!
He is one of my favorite historical figures. Around 500 kills with only a sub machine gun and a sniper rifle with no scope because he didn’t want glare on the lens to give his position away. Also he laid in the snow eating snow and ice to keep his mouth cold so he didn’t breathe steam. Russians moved artillery just to try and kill this one man. He almost died by getting shot in the face with an exploding shell and woke up in the hospital with a permanently disfigured face and instantly requested to be sent back to the front lines! All this and he was just a farmer who volunteered for the war!”

#6

Image source: bigred49342, Aero Icarus

“The story of the Pan Am flight that got caught in New Zealand at the start of WWII and couldn’t fly back home by going east because it was too dangerous. So instead they took their flying boat and flew west on routes they had to figure out from maps pulled from borrowed encyclopedias, dodging the Japanese, and trying to find enough fule to keep the plane going. The whole thing took months culminating in taking off from a river in the Congo and having to skim along through a canyon to build up speed since they were too heavy in order to even have a chance of crossing the Atlantic. The whole thing is tailor made for TV or a Film. There’s a fantastic book written about the whole story called “The Long Way Home” and was written with the Captain of the flight.”

#7

Image source: doublestitch,Jules Porreau

“Sophie Blanchard was the world’s first woman to become a professional aeronaut: she had an appointment from Napoleon Bonaparte.

Her husband had been trying to make a living as a balloonist but fell to his death deep in debt. Sophie had a knack for it, giving shows and crossing the Alps in a balloon. She specialized in night flights and set off extremely dangerous fireworks beneath her hydrogen balloon.

At one point she nearly froze to death when her balloon went too high, then she nearly drowned when her balloon landed in a swamp near Naples. After a 15 year career she died in an aviation accident when her balloon caught on fire.”

#8

Image source: Zealousideal-Way-838, National Park Service

“The story of Bass Reeves. Easily the most badass wild west sheriff who was also black. Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, or Denzel Washington would do a great job. I think the new movie “The Harder They Fall” takes a couple beats from his story, but just a replay of actual historical events of Reeves’ story akin to the way “Tombstone” was done would be fantastic.”

#9

Image source: Mattiebfc, Phaidon Verlag

“A biopic on Hannibal would be really good. The visuals of crossing the Alps with elephants would be stunning.”

#10

Image source: GBBanditt, Mathew Benjamin Brady

“Robert Smalls

A black slave that stole a confederate transport ship, freed the slaves aboard, and sailed it to the union to be converted into a warship. Oh and then he became a congressman in South Carolina.”

#11

Image source: cinemachick, U.S. Army

“Richard Rescola, the man who singlehandedly saved 2700 people in the South Tower during 9/11. A Vietnam vet, he was an adventure-seeker before settling down at Morgan Stanley’s WTC offices. He regularly held evacuation drills after predicting the previous explosives attack on the WTC, so he was prepared for 9/11. He evacuated his entire office against protocol and saved everyone but himself – he went back up shortly before the towers collapsed in search of survivors. Can’t think of anyone better suited to play him than Tom Hanks, I hope this movie is made someday!”

#12

Image source: SGum, Se vend à Paris, chez Trouvain

“Julie D’Aubigny was a 17th-century bisexual French opera singer and fencing master who killed or wounded at least ten men in life-or-death duels, performed nightly shows on the biggest and most highly-respected opera stage in the world, and once took the Holy Orders just so that she could sneak into a convent and bang a nun.”

#13

Image source: Signal-Opportunity-2, Alvin C. Krupnick

“The 1921 Tulsa Massacre… To this day they still haven’t found where these demonic savages buried the 400+ bodies of their victims..

w the assist of the US gov & National Guard , whites from surrounding towns slaughtered an entire town of wealthy Black families, children. professors, war veterans, doctors, architects etc…. then burned their beautiful homes, hospitals, schools to the ground.

Survivors were rounded up and put in camps for no reason other than white racist hate

US literally dropped BOMBS from above..the ONLY time in history the US gov attacked and bombed a US city.

An atrocity so shocking… It was not even talked about afterwards.. Most Americans had no idea it even occurred til 5 yrs ago.”

#14

Image source: Mr_Frible, Douzeff

“Night witches ~ Russian female pilots that flew night bombing raids in world war 2.

HalfPint1885 replied:

This is what I came here to say! They were epically badass.

They would fly in, in wooden planes, and cut their engine to get over their target so they wouldn’t be heard. They were called Witches because all you could hear was the wooshing sound of the wind over their wooden planes. They’d drop their bomb and then restart it. Sometimes their bombs would stick and not drop from their location on the wing so they’d climb onto the wing in midair and release it. They didn’t even have parachutes in their planes. The cockpits were open air so it was freezing cold. And of course they were treated like absolute sh** by everyone, especially the male fighters.

I. Want. This. Story.”

#15

Image source: randomguy987654321, thefemalesoldier.com

“Unless it’s been done already, the life story of Ching Shih. She was a Chinese prostitute that because the deadliest pirate of all time.

At the height of her power, she commanded over 800 large ships, 1000 smaller vessels and over 70,000 pirate crew, comprised of both men and women.”

#16

Image source: daschle04, Unknown author

“I always wondered if babies were born in concentration camps during WWII. Indeed there were and there is a nurse named Stanislawa Leszczyńska who tried to save those babies and she has an amazing story.”

#17

I’m still shocked there hasn’t been a modern movie about the WASPs of wwii. These were the women who delivered airplanes to the theatre of war straight from the factory. Flying brand new airplanes off the production line, often with known issues that had to be corrected in the field (easier to have the mechanics fix stuff than constantly stop the assembly line). Fighting bad weather in the north Atlantic, dangerous landings, airplane issues, and of course being women. Seems like a gimme for a women’s empowerment movie. Especially today with the shortage of pilots, it could be a very inspiring movie. Or… You know…. Completely f****d up with cgi and over the top b******t.

Image source: mustang__1

#18

Image source: Hour_Department6738, Engraving by George Graham

“Deborah Sampson. Real life American Mulan – she disguised herself as a man in order to fight in the American Revolution. Not because of her father or anything. She just fervently believed in the cause. And she was friends with Paul Revere.”

#19

Image source: Kangermu, BPL

“Not sure how there hasn’t been a summer disaster blockbuster flick about The Great Molasses Flood.”

#20

Image source: -eDgAR-, sofrep.com

“In 1956 a man named Tommy Fitzpatrick stole a small plane from New Jersey for a bet and then landed it perfectly on the narrow street in front of the bar he had been drinking at in Manhattan. Two years later, he did it again after someone didn’t believe he had done it the first time.

I feel like it could make for a fun comedy movie.”