This is a list of films and miniseries released in that are based on actual events. All films on this list are from American production unless indicated otherwise.
1987 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) – British-American biographical romantic drama film based on the long-distance friendship that develops between American writer Helene Hanff and English bookseller Frank Doel through letters exchanged from 1949 to 1968 A Place to Call Home (1987) – Australian-American drama television film about Liz Gavin and her eleven children, who relocate from Houston, Texas, to AustraliaEd. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970–1995, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 121 A Winter Tan (1987) – Canadian drama film about Maryse Holder, the ill-fated feminist author who met an untimely death in Acapulco After the Promise (1987) – drama television film about Elmer Jackson, a carpenter in a small Californian town in the 1930s, struggling to bring up 4 young boys after the death of his wife, who is horrified when the government places the boys into various foster homes and institutions, where they are subjected to abuse, based on a true story The Alamo: 13 Days to Glory (1987) – Western adventure miniseries about the 1836 Battle of the Alamo Balweg (1987) – Filipino biographical action drama film inspired by the life of Catholic priest turned communist rebel Conrado Balweg The Betty Ford Story (1987) – biographical drama television film based on the life of the former first lady, Betty Ford Blonde Dolly (1987) – Dutch thriller drama film about the real-life Hague prostitute, Sebilla Alida Johanna Niemans, better known as "Blonde Dolly" who co-finances the purchase of a Vermeer painting Brother André (French: Le Frère André) – Canadian biographical drama film centring on the life of André Bessette, a Roman Catholic lay brother who was widely credited with many miraculous healings, centring in particular on his interaction with his niece Marie-Esther following a Eucharistic Congress in 1910Nicholas Read, "Brother Andre may prove inspirational". Vancouver Sun, 28 October 1987. Captain James Cook (1987) – Australian-French historical biographical drama miniseries about the life of James Cook, a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal NavyEd. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970–1995, Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p181 Cry Freedom (1987) – British-Zimbabwean epic biographical drama film centring on the real-life events involving South African activist Steve Biko and his friend Donald Woods, who initially finds him too radical, and attempts to understand his way of life Echoes in the Darkness (1987) – drama film detailing the lurid tale of the murder of Pennsylvania's Upper Merion Area High School English teacher Susan Reinert and her two children in 1979William C. Costopoulos, Principal Suspect: The True Story of Dr. Jay Smith and the Main Line Murders (Philadelphia: Camino Books, Inc., 1996). El Lute: Run for Your Life (Spanish: El Lute: camina o revienta) (1987) – Spanish biographical drama film based on the memoirs of Eleuterio Sánchez, "El Lute", a young convicted murderer who became legendary in Spain for his jail escape in the 1960s Empire of the Sun (1987) – epic war film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical 1984 novel of the same name, telling of a young English boy struggling to survive under Japanese occupation of China during World War IIForsberg, Myra. "Spielberg at 40: The Man and the Child" . The New York Times, 1 October 2008. Retrieved: 17 September 2008. Escape from Sobibor (1987) – British war drama television film telling the story of the mass escape from the Nazi extermination camp at Sobibor, the most successful uprising by Jewish prisoners of German extermination camps (uprisings also took place at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka) Family Sins (1987) – crime drama television film based on the true story of a father whose troubled son, Bryan, is arrested for voluntary manslaughter after the drowning of his spoiled younger brother Farewell Moscow (Italian: Mosca addio) (1987) – Italian biographical drama film based on the life of Russian Jew Ida Nudel Fight for Life (1987) – drama television film based on a true story of a family's fight for the life of their 6-year-old daughter who suffers from epileptic convulsions Ford: The Man and the Machine (1987) – Canadian-American biographical drama television film about the life and career of Henry Ford Full Metal Jacket (1987) – war drama film following a platoon of U.S. Marines through their boot camp training in Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina Gaby: A True Story (1987) – biographical romantic drama film chronicling the life of Gaby Brimmer, the child of Austrian Jewish refugees living in Mexico, who is born with cerebral palsy Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) – war comedy film loosely based on the experiences of AFRS radio DJ Adrian Cronauer Hachikō Monogatari (Japanese: ハチ公物語) (1987) – Japanese biographical drama film depicting the true story of Hachikō, a loyal Akita dog who continued to wait for his owner, Professor Hidesaburō Ueno, to return from work for nine years following Ueno's death Hamburger Hill (1987) – war drama film set during the Battle of Hamburger Hill, a May 1969 assault during the Vietnam War by the U.S. Army's 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, on a ridge of Dong Ap Bia near the Laotian border in central Vietnam Hip Hip Hurrah! (1987) – (Swedish: Hip hip hurra!) (1987) – Danish-Norwegian-Swedish biographical drama film presenting the general background of the Skagen Painters and everything that attracted them to gather in Skagen but it is P.S. Krøyer (Stellan Skarsgård) who is the centre of attraction Hope and Glory (1987) – British-American comedy war drama film based on John Boorman's own experiences growing up in London during the Second World War The Impossible Spy (1987) – biographical drama television film based on the true story of an Israeli civilian spy, Eli Cohen, who was recruited into Israel's secret intelligence agency (the Mossad) in the 1960s to become a spy in Damascus In Love and War (1987) – war thriller film based on the true story of James Stockdale and Sybil Stockdale In the Mood (1987) – comedy film based on the true story of Sonny Wisecarver La Bamba (1987) – biographical drama film following the life and short-lived musical career of Mexican-American Chicano rock and roll star Ritchie Valens The Last Emperor (Italian: L'ultimo imperatore) (1987) – British-Italian epic biographical drama film about the life of Puyi, the final Emperor of ChinaVariety film review; 7 October 1987. LBJ: The Early Years (1987) – drama television film depicting the pre-presidential life of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States Life Story (1987) – historical drama television film depicting the progress toward, and the competition for, the discovery of the structure of DNA in the early 1950s The Lighthorsemen (1987) – Australian war drama film about the men of a World War I light horse unit involved in Sinai and Palestine campaign's 1917 Battle of Beersheeba Lionheart (1987) – historical adventure film loosely based on the historical Children's Crusade Love Sins (Italian: D'Annunzio) (1987) – Italian biographical drama film focusing on Decadentism, that developed in France and Italy in the late 19th century and tells about Gabriele d'Annunzio, a renowned poet Macu, The Policeman's Woman (Spanish: Macu, la mujer del policía) (1987) – Venezuelan drama film based on the true story of a jealous policeman and his young wife living in a shanty-town in South America The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains (1987) – biographical drama film recounting Robert Elliott Burns' imprisonment on a chain gang in Georgia in the 1920s, his subsequent escape to New Jersey, and the furor that developed Matewan (1987) – historical drama film dramatizing the events of the Battle of Matewan, a coal miners' strike in 1920 in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia Murder Ordained (1987) – crime drama television film based on actual events that occurred in Emporia, Kansas, in 1983, telling the story of State trooper John Rule, who investigates what appears to be a traffic accident resulting in the death of a local minister's wifeKEITH CARRADINE STARS IN 'MURDER ORDAINED' – Page 2 – New York Times Nancy Wake (1987) – Australian war drama miniseries about the exploits of New Zealand born Australian Nancy Wake during World War II as a female British Special Operations Executive agent based on Russell Braddon's 1956 book Nancy Wake: The Story of a Very Brave WomanEd. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970–1995, Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p216 Nayakan (Tamil: நாயக்கன்) (1987) – Indian Tamil-language epic crime film loosely based on the life of the Bombay underworld don Varadarajan Mudaliar and the American film The Godfather The Petrov Affair (1987) – drama miniseries based on the defection of Vladimir PetrovEd. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970–1995, Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p222 Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (1987) – biographical drama television film chronicling the life of Barbara Hutton, a wealthy but troubled American socialite Prick Up Your Ears (1987) – British biographical drama film about the playwright Joe Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell Promised Land (1987) – drama film that follows two high school acquaintances, Hancock, a basketball star, and Danny, a geek turned drifter, after they graduate – based on a true story Race for the Bomb (French: La Course à la bombe) (1987) – Canadian-French war drama miniseries about the Manhattan Project, starting from the initial stages of scientific discovery that led to the creation of the atomic bomb, discovery of the Ulam-Teller thermonuclear weapons design and ending with the beginning of the arms raceJim Bawden, "Race For The Bomb joins race for ratings". Toronto Star, 30 January 1987. The Riddle of the Stinson (1987) – Australian disaster drama television film about the 1937 Airlines of Australia Stinson crash at Lamington, Queensland, Australia and the rescue of its survivors by local Queenslander Bernard O'ReillyScott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970–1995, Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p131 The Sicilian (1987) – epic historical crime film about Salvatore Giuliano, the infamous bandit who tried to liberate early 1950s Sicily from Italian rule Shinran: Path to Purity (Japanese: 親鸞 白い道) (1987) – Japanese drama film following the life and struggles of the Jodo Shinshu founder, Shinran, during the tumultuous Heian era Theofilos (Greek: Θεόφιλος) (1987) – Greek biographical drama film based on the life of the Greek painter Theofilos Hatzimichail The Untouchables (1987) – crime drama film loosely based on the experiences of Eliot Ness, who was a federal agent in the Bureau of Prohibition, as he fought crime in Chicago in the late 1920s and early 1930s with the help of a special team of agents handpicked for their incorruptibility, nicknamed The Untouchables Waiting for the Moon (1987) – internationally co-produced drama film depicting Gertrude Stein and her lover and assistant Alice B. Toklas meeting Pablo Picasso and his lover Fernande Olivier, as well as the authors Ernest Hemingway and Guillaume Apollinaire Walker (1987) – American-Mexican Western biographical drama film based on the life story of William Walker, the American filibuster who invaded and made himself president of NicaraguaWalker – Harvard Film Archive Weeds (1987) – drama film about Lee Umstetter, a prison inmate who writes a play that catches the attention of a visiting reporter