Top Ten Motivational Thinking Movies

We all watch movies for different reasons. Some people like to watch action movies, just to feel as if they're part of the adventure of life. Some people like to watch romantic comedies, because then they feel as if romance is alive and well. And then there are those of us who like to watch any movie that is a thinking movie.

What is a thinking movie? It is a motivational movie that gets you to think about the meaning of life. It gets you to think about what the world is really about. Here are my top ten choices for motivational thinking movies.

1. The Matrix (1999). The Matrix to me is the most motivational thinking movie out there. I really think I could watch this movie ten more times and still not fully understand all of its concepts. The Matrix makes me think about what true reality is. Are we all in some matrix, controlled by computers, or is the reality we know an actual one? There could be a reality that we don't even know about right now. I think the movie questions religion, and everything we know about life.

2. Brokeback Mountain (2005). Brokeback Mountain is a real, genuine movie about homosexuality. We don't just get a small dose of it as in some other movies, we get the real thing. So many people try and push reality aside, for instance trying to ignore that some people have a different sexual orientation. Watching this movie forces one to face the fact that not everyone is the same. This movie makes one think about how humans can be the same, yet so different, yet so similar all at the same time. We all want to be loved, even if it's in different ways.

3. Serpico (1973). Thank you Al Pacino for your performance in Serpico. In Serpico, Al Pacino is a cop who realizes there is corruption going on with other New York City policemen. He goes undercover to expose the corruption. This all starts out with Serpico not wanting to take part in taking payoffs from drug dealers and gambling organizations. The other cops don't trust him at this point, and it is hard for him to fit in with them.

This movie makes me think, what is really going on in the world? Are cops actually on the side of good? Do all priests actually have morals? There is more corruption going on than we may be willing to accept, and this movie is good for pointing it out and increasing our level of awareness.

4. War of the Worlds (2005). The movie War of the Worlds stars Tom Cruise, and is a remake of an earlier movie. Apparently, aliens came to the planet and placed tripods under the earth's surface. Now, the tripods come to life, manned by aliens, to destroy the inhabitants of the earth. This movie makes one think about whether there are aliens or alien life forms in the universe. It also is motivational in getting you to wonder whether the alients would be friends or foes. Is life just what we know of it, or are there other forms out there somewhere? Additionally, it gets you to think about survival. These alien life forms ended up dying, due to being exposed to the elements on earth. What if we were to travel to another planet- would we encounter the same fate?

5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Everyone loves a good Brad Pitt movie. Well, here is one you can enjoy for more than just his handsome good looks. In this movie, Brad Pitt is born old, and gets younger as time goes on with a rare condition. This motivational thinking movie allows you to think about how precious life is, and that we should appreciate every moment we have. In the movie, everyone thought Benjamin Button wouldn't survive his infancy, but this was much to their surprise as he got younger and younger over the years.

6. Zodiac (2007). Zodiac is based on a true story about a San Francisco serial killer in the 1960's and 1970's. I have to admit, I would have watched Zodiac just because it has two of my favorite actors, Jake Gylenhaal and Robert Lee Downey, Jr., but there is so much more to this movie. Zodiac gets you to think about the human condition. Some of us are good and some of us can be so evil. What has to happen to someone to get them to actually be involved in killing another human being and be so callous? The movie also depicts how one person can be affected by another, in this case Robert Lee Downey, Jr.'s character turning to drugs and drinking as a result of receiving letters from the serial killer over time.

7. Thelma and Louise (1991). Why is Thelma and Louise a motivational thinking movie? This movie is about two gal pals who go on a small trip. Along the way, they stop at a bar. Here, Thelma gets involved with a guy who tries to rape her, and Louise ends up shooting the guy. From this point on, the two are fugitives from the law. Louise is afraid to just call the cops and explain what happened, as she apparently shot someone before.

Thelma and Louise gets you thinking about how one decision you make in your life can affect the rest of your life. If you screw up once, it can haunt you forever, or at least for many years. In this movie, the girls continue to run, and it gets harder and harder, and then close to impossible for them to turn themselves in without any consequences. So, they decide just to keep running. They see that their lives have changed forever.

They begin to feel that they have been freed, freed from people who don't really love them, freed from the boundaries of working, freed from what the law allows. It is impossible for them to turn back, so they end up trying to jump the Grand Canyon in order to escape police and never have to return to their ordinary lives.

8. Shawshank Redemption (1994). I always know that any movie with Morgan Freeman is going to be good. This proved itself to be true in Shawshank Redemption. Here, the setting is a prison that is totally corrupt. How can you survive in prison in the first place, yet deal with this situation. Morgan Freeman's character teams up with Tim Robbin's character. Tim Robbin's character Andy went to prison for murdering his wife, but he actually was innocent. He has to face life in prison. He gets by with helping the warden find ways to use prison labor and get kickbacks from it. Andy gets out of prison by escaping through a tunnel he made over the years, and Red, Morgan Freeman's character, eventually gets paroled. The warden's corruption is discovered, and he commits suicide right before being arrested. The two friends eventually meet up on a beach, after Red follows the instructions Andy gave him if he were to ever get out of jail.

How does this become a motivational thinking movie? It is another movie designed to get you to think about the corruption of power, and how those in power are sometimes more corrupt than those actually sitting behind prison walls. It also makes you think about how people can be convicted of crimes they didn't commit, and whether changes need to be made to our criminal justice system. Finally, the movie makes you think about human values, when you go through the subplot of Red's 'learning a lesson.' Every time Red goes before the parole review board, he always says he thinks he has learned a lesson, but the review board never believes him. He finally realizes, after forty years, that he should say that he hasn't learned anything, because noone can ever really be changed after committing a crime. Ironically, this is when he obtains his parole. Life is so much part of a game, and you have to play it the way everyone wants you to in order to get what you want out of life. This to me is quite ridiculous. Think of times you have had to play the game.

9. Fight Club, starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. This movie depicts two characters who are actually two sides of the same person. We don't discover this until way into the movie, but it is an incredible realization. The movie forces you to examine why men have a desire to fight each other, and why this is so accepted in our culture. The movie also looks into a split personality, where one is totally unaware of the other. What makes someone become this way, and what guides any of us to do any of the things we do? Although this movie is really awry, it is great at looking at the human condition and its makeup.

10. Vanilla Sky (2001). Penelope Cruz and Tom Cruise, as well as Cameron Diaz, give us a wonderful depiction of an alternative life. When Tom Cruise gets into an accident, he is given a chance to go on Life Extension, where he is actually in a dream world seeing life the way he wants it. It takes him quite some time to realize he is not in reality, but when he does, he sets out to find out the truth and get back to reality. The bad thing is, his reality is a life where his best friend is now with the woman of his dreams, and his face has been mutilated in the injuries from the accident. This motivational thinking movie gets you to wonder what options we will have in the future for sustaining life if we get into an accident or reach a certain old age. What things will extend our lives? It forces us to look at what technology can do, and question whether we should be part of these technological advances or just live the life we naturally have.

What movies motivate you to think?