Highest-Rated Movies about 'Terminal Illness', Sort by Popularity

Mother and Son (1997), Silverlake Life: The View From Here (1993), You Don't Know Jack (2010), The President's Last Bang (2005), Soul Food (2000), Cherry Blossoms (2008), The Gathering (1977), Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Terminal Illness movies.

#1. Mother and Son (1997)

Storyline: In a small house in the countryside of Russia, a son (Alexei Ananischnov) cares for his sick, elderly mother (Gudrun Geyer) as they prepare for her death. As the mother struggles to breathe and her health gradually deteriorates, her son holds her, feeds her and does his best to comfort her. When the son finally brings the mother to her death bed, the two embark on a journey through a hallucinatory outdoor landscape where they spend their final moments together.

Plot Keywords: mother, son, dying person, old woman, moving, dreamy, house ...

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#2. Silverlake Life: The View From Here (1993)

Storyline: Both having been diagnosed with AIDS, UCLA film teacher Tom Joslin and his partner, Mark Massi, resolve to document the most intimate details of their daily lives. As the physical and mental toll of the disease begins to take hold of both men, Joslin's former student, Peter Friedman, takes over the film's production, providing the final, bittersweet postscript on the enduring love between two people who've decided to bravely face their illness together.

Plot Keywords: lover, gay man, partner, family member, student, disheartening, moving ...

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#4. The President's Last Bang (2005)

Storyline: In the late 1970s, South Korean president Park Chung-hee (Song Jae-ho) leads a life of leisure and excess. Heavily insulated from his citizens and enjoying lavish surroundings, Chung feasts on the finest foods and constantly finds himself in the company of women. When Kim Jae-kyu (Han Suk-kyu), the disillusioned head of the South Korean secret service, finds out that he is suffering from a terminal disease, he resolves to assassinate Chung-hee for the good of his country.

Plot Keywords: president, intelligence officer, pop star, prostitute, secret agent, bodyguard, gutsy ...

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#7. The Gathering (1977)

Storyline: Weeks before Christmas, bitter executive Adam Thornton (Edward Asner) learns that he only has a short time to live. Having abandoned his wife and four children years earlier, Adam confides in his former wife (Maureen Stapleton), who encourages him to bring the family together one last time and apologize for his actions. Without telling his children about his terminal illness, Adam worries how they will respond to his sudden request for forgiveness.

Plot Keywords: father, ex-wife, estranged son, daughter, emotional, heartwarming, positive ...

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#8. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)

Storyline: In Seoul, Ryu, a deaf worker has a sister who needs a kidney transplant. He tries to donate his own kidney to his sister, but his blood type is not compatible with hers. When Ryu is fired from Ilshin Electronics, he meets illegal dealers of organs, and the criminals propose that he give them his kidney plus ten millions Won to obtain a kidney suitable for his sister. Ryu accepts the trade, but he does not have money to pay for the surgery. His anarchist revolutionary girlfriend Cha Young-mi convinces him to kidnap Yossun, the daughter of his former employer Park, who owns Ilshin Electronics. However, a tragedy happens, generating revenge and a series of acts of violence.

Plot Keywords: deaf mute, sister, tycoon, daughter, girlfriend, dark, gritty ...

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#9. The Barbarian Invasions (2003)

Storyline: In this belated sequel to 'The Decline of the American Empire', 50-something Montreal college professor, Remy, learns that he is dying of liver cancer. He decides to make amends meet to his friends and family before he dies. He first tries to made peace with his ex-wife Louise, who asks their estranged son Sebastian, a successful businessman living in London, to come home. Sebastian makes the impossible happen, using his contacts and disrupting the entire Canadian system in every way possible to help his father fight his terminal illness to the bitter end, while he also tries to reunite his former friends, Pierre, Alain, Dominique, Diane, and Claude to see their old friend before he passes on.

Plot Keywords: father, professor, son, friend, love interest, emotional, profound ...

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#10. The Life of David Gale (2003)

Storyline: When anti-death-penalty activist David Gale is convicted and condemned to death for the murder of a colleague, reporter Bitsey Bloom sets out to learn the story behind Gale's crime. What she finds challenges her belief in Gale's guilt and, finally, in the justice system.

Plot Keywords: professor, activist, student, lawyer, journalist, death row inmate, suspenseful ...

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#11. Biutiful (2010)

Storyline: Uxbal, single father of two children, finds his life in chaos as he is forced to deal with his life in order to escape the heat of crime in underground Barcelona, to break with the love for the divorced, manic depressive, abusive mother of his children and to regain spiritual insight in his life as he is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Plot Keywords: single father, criminal, child, wife, terminally ill person, spaniard, bleak ...

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#12. Dark Victory (1939)

Storyline: Judith Traherne is at the height of young society when Dr. Frederick Steele diagnoses a brain tumor. After surgery, she falls in love with Steele. The doctor tells her secretary that the tumor will come back and eventually kill her. Learning this, Judith becomes manic and depressive. Her horse trainer Michael, who loves her, tells her to get as much out of life as she can. She marries Steele who intends to find a cure for her illness. As he goes off to a conference in New York failing eyesight indicates to Judith that she is dying.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

Plot Keywords: heiress, stableman, doctor, best friend, housekeeper, emotional, sad ...

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#13. My Life Without Me (2003)

Storyline: Ann, 23 years old, lives a modest life with her two kids and her husband in a trailer in her mother's garden. Her life takes a dramatic turn, when her doctor tells her that she has uterine cancer and only two months to live. She compiles a list of things to do before she dies.

Plot Keywords: young woman, husband, daughter, mother, sad, heartwarming, hospital ...

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#14. Life as a House (2001)

Storyline: George Monroe is a lonely and sad man. Divorced for ten years, he lives alone on the Southern California coast with his pet dog in the same run down shack he has lived in for twenty-five years, the shack which his father passed down to him. In the intervening years, ostentatious houses have sprung up around him. He's been at the same architectural firm for twenty years in a job he hates, which primarily consists of building scale models. On the day that he is fired from his job, he is diagnosed with an advanced case of terminal cancer, which he chooses not to disclose to his family. In many ways, this day is the happiest of his recent life in that he decides to spend what little time he has left doing what he really wants to do, namely build a house he can call his own to replace the shack. He also wants his rebellious sixteen year old son, Sam Monroe, to live with him for the summer, hopefully not only to help in the house construction, but for the two to reconnect as a family. ...

Plot Keywords: father, architect, son, ex-wife, teen girl, neighbor, heartwarming ...

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#15. The American Friend (1977)

Storyline: Tom Ripley has a sweet deal with an art forger. The forger creates the paintings; Tom sells them. But another criminal business associate wants Tom to go in for an even riskier enterprise: murder. Tom suggests his associate ask a local picture framer instead. That man has a fatal disease, or so it's rumored. More, he has a wife and kid that surely he wouldn't want to leave penniless. Let this picture framer be a hit man, and no one will suspect. The terminally ill craftsman may agree to the misdeed, and several more, but he'll end up needing Tom Ripley in a pinch.

Plot Keywords: art dealer, husband, artist, forger, friend, wife, uneasy ...

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