Top Tragic Hero Movies & TV Shows

Payback (1999)

6.8 2.0K votes

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Country: United States of America

Duration: 100 min.

Audience: R

Story: With friends like these, who needs enemies? That's the question bad guy Porter is left asking after his wife and partner steal his heist money and leave him for dead -- or so they think. Five months and an endless reservoir of bitterness later, Porter's partners and the crooked cops on his tail learn how bad payback can be.

Plot: hotel, new york city, prostitute, robbery, based on novel or book, heroin, anti hero, greed, ...

Cast

James Fox

Mick Jagger

Anita Pallenberg

Michu00e8le Breton

Performance. (1970)

6.8 202 votes

Genre: Crime, Drama

Country: United Kingdom

Duration: 106 min.

Audience: R

Story: In underworld terms, Chas Devlin is a 'performer,' a gangster with a talent for violence and intimidation. Turner is a reclusive rock superstar. When Chas and Turner meet, their worlds collide—and the impact is both exotic and explosive.

Style: exploitation

Plot: london, england, rock star, sexuality, gangster, heroin, surrealism, celebrity, ...

Cast

Imogen Poots

Thora Birch

Jim Belushi

Tom Sturridge

The Chronology of Water (2025)

6.8 71 votes

Genre: Drama

Country: United States of America, France

Duration: 128 min.

Audience: R

Story: Plagued by an abusive childhood, a woman finds escape in competitive swimming, sexual experimentation, toxic relationships, and addiction before ultimately finding her voice through writing.

Style: provocative, intense

Plot: sexual abuse, suicide attempt, heroin, abusive father, swimmer, writer, based on memoir or autobiography, divorce, ...

French Connection II (1975)

6.8 479 votes

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 119 min.

Audience: R

Story: "Popeye" Doyle travels to Marseilles to find Alain Charnier, the drug smuggler that eluded him in New York.

Plot: heroin, detective, marseille, france, drug addiction, investigation, cold turkey, policeman, ...

Place: france

Cast

Anton Yelchin

Imogen Poots

Patrick Stewart

Alia Shawkat

Green Room (2016)

6.7 3.0K votes

Genre: Crime, Horror, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 95 min.

Audience: R

Story: A punk rock band is forced to fight for survival after witnessing an act of violence at a skinhead bar.

Plot: neo-nazism, swastika, escape, killing, heroin, self-defense, machete, gore, ...

New Jack City (1991)

6.7 613 votes

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 101 min.

Audience: R

Story: A gangster, Nino, is in the Cash Money Brothers, making a million dollars every week selling crack. A cop, Scotty, discovers that the only way to infiltrate the gang is to become a dealer himself.

Plot: drug dealer, new york city, street gang, undercover agent, heroin, ghetto, gang leader, cop, ...

Cast

Helen Slater

Keith Gordon

Christian Slater

Richard Bradford

The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)

6.6 208 votes

Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama

Country: United States of America

Duration: 95 min.

Audience: PG-13

Story: Average Texas teen, Billie Jean Davy, is caught up in an odd fight for justice. She is usually followed and harrased around by local boys, who, one day, decide to trash her brother's scooter for fun. The boys' father refuses to pay them back the price of the scooter. The fight for "fair is fair" takes the teens around the state and produces an unlikely hero.

Plot: sexual abuse, chase, runaway, fugitive, girl heroine, female protagonist, false accusations, attempted rape, ...

Place: texas

Cast

Arielle Holmes

Caleb Landry Jones

Elu00e9onore Hendricks

Buddy Duress

Heaven Knows What (2015)

6.5 195 votes

Genre: Crime, Drama

Country: France, United States of America

Duration: 97 min.

Audience: R

Story: A young heroin addict roams the streets of New York to panhandle and get her next fix, while her unstable boyfriend drifts in and out of her life at random.

Plot: drug dealer, infidelity, new york city, suicide, based on novel or book, suicide attempt, heroin, drug addiction, ...

Cast

Josu00e9 Luis Manzano

Fernando Guillu00e9n

Andrea Albani

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Jaume Valls

El Pico 2 (1984)

6.4 35 votes

Genre: Drama

Country: Spain

Duration: 120 min.

Story: Following the events of El pico, the heroin-addicted Paco faces jail time due to his involvement in a double murder.

Plot: prison, rape, heroin, sequel, dirty cop, drugs, heroin addict, cine quinqui

Cast

Jill Clayburgh

Matthew Barry

Veronica Lazu0103r

Renato Salvatori

Luna (1979)

6.3 120 votes

Genre: Drama

Country: Italy, United States of America

Duration: 142 min.

Audience: R

Story: While touring in Italy, a recently-widowed American opera singer has an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old son to help him overcome his heroin addiction.

Plot: parent child relationship, widow, heroin, son, diva, singer, drugs, desire, ...

Place: italy

Cast

Radha Mitchell

Ally Sheedy

Gabriel Mann

Patricia Clarkson

High Art (1998)

6.2 147 votes

Genre: Drama, Romance

Country: Canada, United States of America

Duration: 101 min.

Audience: R

Story: When Syd, a young editor at an influential art magazine, becomes involved with her neighbor, a drug-addicted lesbian photographer, both seek to exploit each other for their respective careers while slowly falling in love with each other.

Style: exploitation

Plot: career, new york city, drug abuse, photographer, photography, heroin, drug addiction, addiction, ...

Cast

Eric Stoltz

Julie Delpy

Jean-Hugues Anglade

Tai Thai

Killing Zoe (1993)

6.2 375 votes

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Country: United States of America, France

Duration: 96 min.

Audience: R

Story: Zed is an American vault-cracker who travels to Paris to meet up with his old friend Eric. Eric and his gang have planned to raid the only bank in the city which is open on Bastille day. After offering his services, Zed soon finds himself trapped in a situation beyond his control when heroin abuse, poor planning and a call-girl named Zoe all conspire to turn the robbery into a very bloody siege.

Plot: friendship, prostitute, robbery, drug abuse, paris, france, jazz, aids, ...

Cast

Ben Stiller

Elizabeth Hurley

Maria Bello

Owen Wilson

Permanent Midnight (1998)

5.9 125 votes

Genre: Drama

Country: United States of America

Duration: 88 min.

Audience: R

Story: Juggling increasing career success and a growing heroin habit, a television comedy writer attempts to go down a path of improvement.

Plot: adultery, police, alcohol, heroin, writer, drugs, detox

Cast

Anne Carlisle

Paula E. Sheppard

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Bob Brady

Susan Doukas

Liquid Sky (1982)

5.8 140 votes

Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 113 min.

Audience: R

Story: An alien creature invades New York's punk subculture in its search for an opiate released by the brain during an orgasm.

Plot: rape, heroin, bisexuality, cocaine, punk rock, alien, androgyny, drugs, ...

Cast

Robert Patrick

Nick Stahl

Scott Haze

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Kelli Garner

What Josiah Saw (2021)

5.8 91 votes

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 120 min.

Audience: 18

Story: A family with buried secrets reunite at a farmhouse after two decades to pay for their past sins.

Plot: farm, small town, suicide, robbery, fortune teller, sibling relationship, kidnapping, gambling debt, ...

Place: texas

Cast

William Shatner

Ruth Roman

Wendell Burton

Julie Adams

Go Ask Alice (1973)

5.5 25 votes

Genre: Drama, TV Movie

Country: United States of America

Duration: 74 min.

Story: A 15-year-old girl in late 1960's America is inadvertently sucked into an odyssey of sex and drugs. She eventually seeks help.

Plot: high school, prostitute, rape, based on novel or book, heroin, runaway, drug addiction, cocaine, ...

Cast

Vincent Perez

Mia Kirshner

Iggy Pop

Thomas Jane

The Crow: City of Angels (1996)

5.5 610 votes

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Thriller

Country: United States of America

Duration: 84 min.

Audience: R

Story: A murder victim is brought back to life by a mysterious crow. With the help of a beautiful woman, he exacts revenge on his killers – only to realize his enemy has discovered the one weakness that can destroy him forever.

Plot: martial arts, tattoo, loss of loved one, superhero, supernatural, crow, based on comic, sequel, ...

Cast

Eric Mabius

Kirsten Dunst

Jodi Lyn O'Keefe

William Atherton

The Crow: Salvation (2000)

5.5 411 votes

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror

Country: Germany, United States of America

Duration: 101 min.

Audience: R

Story: Alex Corvis, a man wrongly executed for the murder of his girlfriend, returns from the dead and sets out to find the real killer.

Plot: martial arts, sibling relationship, superhero, supernatural, crow, based on comic, sequel, revenge, ...

Cast

Ella Scott Lynch

Benedict Samuel

Heather Mitchell

Lewis Fitz-Gerald

Pimped (2019)

4.5 29 votes

Genre: Thriller

Country: Australia

Duration: 80 min.

Story: Over the course of one night, Sarah meets the handsome, captivating and smooth talking Lewis, who aims to be the bait in a sick sexual trap set up by himself and his low-life, rich kid housemate Kenneth. When their ruse backfires, Lewis and Sarah are forced into an unlikely alliance with deadly consequences.

Plot: rape, imaginary friend, trap, alter ego, cover-up, shovel, dark heroine, golf club, ...

Place: australia

Cast

Tara Reid

David Boreanaz

Emmanuelle Chriqui

Dennis Hopper

The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005)

3.8 256 votes

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Horror

Country: United States of America

Duration: 99 min.

Audience: R

Story: After ex-con Jimmy and his girlfriend are brutally murdered by a biker gang, he is resurrected by the power of The Crow to avenge their deaths and reunite with her in the afterlife.

Plot: martial arts, superhero, supernatural, black magic, redemption, crow, based on comic, sequel, ...

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