7 Iconic Movies That’ll Instantly Make You Smarter 

It can sometimes feel like mainstream movies dull our brains. “Relax, sheeple, and feel your mind turn to mush,” they seem to say, even as they beg us to ignore their plot holes, leaps of logic, and blatant lack of understanding of human behavior.

YouTube channels like Pitch Meeting and Honest Trailers make a pretty penny off of this cinematic trend towards lunacy, calling out storytelling inconsistencies and corporate greed with glee. And yet, some movies manage to buck this trend, infusing our brains with new knowledge and allowing us to walk out smarter. Here are 7 movies that will permanently make you more intelligent after one watch.

1. Arrival (2016)

What you’ll gain: A working knowledge of non-linear time and an appreciation for linguistics.

How the movie achieves it: This movie’s main story about Louise Banks (Amy Adams) attempting to communicate with alien Heptapods is just a distraction. This sneaky movie’s real goal is to teach you about semiotics, cand determinism. What are those, you ask? Beats me, but thanks to this movie, I now know that those are words, and thus, I am smarter.

2. The Social Dilemma (2020)

What you’ll gain: A crash course in the mind-numbing effects of social media.

How the movie achieves it: This docudrama shines a carefully placed ring light on how influencers and social media platforms manipulate algorithms to monopolize your time. Thanks to testimony from former tech insiders, The Social Dilemma demonstrates how unseen forces engineer technology to persuade us, eroding our attention spans and even the concept of democracy.

3. 12 Angry Men (1957)

What you’ll gain: A free course in logic and persuasion, with a minor in group psychology.

How the movie achieves it: The premise of this film is simple: 12 men must determine the fate of a teenager accused of murder – and they are angry. But what starts as a simple open-and-shut case transforms into a searing lesson on bias, peer pressure, and faulty reasoning. 12 Angry Men is a philosophy class dressed as entertainment, and if you think critically while following along, then you might learn how to win an argument without yelling. (Looking at you, comments section.)

4. Waking Life (2001)

What you’ll gain: A master’s degree in the link between philosophy and lucid dreaming.

How the movie achieves it: This animated cult film from Richard Linklater is less a traditional narrative and more a mutable visual journey through tangible “ideas.” In this movie, an unnamed protagonist drifts through an illusory dream world where characters deliver monologues on free will, existentialism, and identity. It’s trippy and bold, like a late-night conversation about ontology in a college dorm room. 

5. The Imitation Game (2014)

What you’ll gain: Gratitude for and understanding of codebreakers and their hyperlogical brains. Beyond that, you’ll gain a working knowledge of Alan Turing – well, beyond what you already skimmed on his Wikipedia page.

How the movie achieves it: This gripping Oscar-nominated biopic follows Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) as he cracks the German “Enigma” code during World War II, laying a foundation for modern computing while simultaneously helping the Allies win the war. This cerebral movie will leave you thinking about artificial intelligence as well as society’s criteria for what defines “genius.”

6. My Octopus Teacher (2020)

What you’ll gain: A renewed sense of curiosity, as well as heightened emotional awareness.

How the movie achieves it: This may seem like a by-the-numbers nature documentary at first, but its story about a man befriending an octopus quickly becomes a stunning meditation on the concepts of intelligence, beauty, and connection. In addition to learning incredible facts about octopus cognition and behavior, you’ll develop a desire to observe your immediate world and pay attention to your animal neighbors.

7. Inside Job (2010)

What you’ll gain: A nuanced understanding of the 2008 financial crisis, as well as a newfound burning hatred for CEOs.

How the movie achieves it: As directed by Charles Ferguson, Inside Job never talks down to you, even as it illustrates financial corruption and regulatory failures in precise and comprehensible terms. By the end, you’ll clearly comprehend how a small collection of greedy humans ruined lives and inflicted chaos on the world. Even if you have no desire to know what a subprime loan is, you’ll never forget what it means after Inside Job.