Best movies like Hands Up

There's always another way out.

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Hands Up Starring LaRoyce Hawkins, Kris D. Lofton, Jamal Woolard, Jermaine Johnson, and more. If you liked Hands Up then you may also like: The Naked Man, Native Son, The New Centurions, Queen & Slim, Run Hide Fight and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

movie

After his cousin is shot and killed by a white police officer in Chicago and Black Lives Matter protests spread across the city, a black inner city teen desperately fights for a way out of the most notorious murder capital of America.

selected filters: Sort: Default

You may filter the list of movies on this page for a more refined, personalized selection of movies.

Still not sure what to watch click the recommend buttun below to get a movie recommendation selected from all the movies on this list

Know any good movies to watch like Hands Up 2021. With a similar plot or stoyline. Suggest it.

The Naked Man

A man takes matters into his own hands when a pharmaceutical kingpin moves into his town to cause some real trouble.

Native Son

In 1940s Chicago, a young black man takes a job as a chauffeur to a white family, which takes a turn for the worse when he accidentally kills the teenage daughter of the couple and then tries to cover it up.

The New Centurions

An idealistic rookie cop joins the LAPD to make ends meet while finishing law school, and is indoctrinated by a seasoned veteran. As time goes on, he loses his ambitions and family as police work becomes his entire life.

Queen & Slim

While on a forgettable first date together in Ohio, a black man and a black woman are pulled over for a minor traffic infraction. The situation escalates, with sudden and tragic results.

Run Hide Fight

A 17-year-old girl uses her wits, survival skills, and compassion to fight for her life, and those of her fellow classmates, against a group of live-streaming school shooters.

Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower

When the Chinese Communist Party backtracks on its promise of autonomy to Hong Kong, teenager Joshua Wong decides to save his city. Rallying thousands of kids to skip school and occupy the streets, Joshua becomes an unlikely leader in Hong Kong and one of China’s most notorious dissidents.

Across 110th Street

In a daring robbery, some $300,000 is taken from the Italian mob. Several mafiosi are killed, as are two policemen. Lt. Pope and Capt. Mattelli are two New York City cops trying to break the case. Three small-time criminals are on the run with the money. Will the mafia catch them first, or will the police?

Black & White

Chris O'Brien, devote Catholic and rookie cop with LAPD, is assigned to partner with the hard-edged, street-smart Nora Hugosian. A serial killer is loose, and all the victims are low-life guys whom Nora has dealt with. So, when the tire tracks of a police car are found at a murder scene, she's the prime suspect of internal affairs investigator Simon Hertzel...

Cocaine Cowboys

In the 1980s, ruthless Colombian cocaine barons invaded Miami with a brand of violence unseen in this country since Prohibition-era Chicago - and it put the city on the map. "Cocaine Cowboys" is the true story of how Miami became the drug, murder and cash capital of the United States, told by the people who made it all happen.

Cooley High

In the mid-1960s, a group of high school friends who live on the Near North Side of Chicago enjoy life to the fullest...parties, hanging out, meeting new friends. Then life changes for two of the guys when they are falsely arrested in connection with stealing a Cadillac. We follow their lives through to the dramatic end of high school.

Dangerous Minds

Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.

Edge of the City

An army deserter and a black dock worker join forces against a corrupt manager.

The Hate U Give

Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth.

Passing

In 1920s New York City, a Black woman finds her world upended when her life becomes intertwined with a former childhood friend who's passing as white.

Gang in Blue

A black police officer discovers a cell of white supremacist vigilantes within his department.

The Learning Tree

The story, set in Kansas during the 1920's, covers less than a year in the life of a black teenager, and documents the veritable deluge of events which force him into sudden manhood. The family relationships and enmities, the fears, frustrations and ambitions of the black teenager in small-town America are explored with a strong statement about human values.

The Trial of the Chicago 7

What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.

Hoop Dreams

Every school day, African-American teenagers William Gates and Arthur Agee travel 90 minutes each way from inner-city Chicago to St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominately white suburban school well-known for the excellence of its basketball program. Gates and Agee dream of NBA stardom, and with the support of their close-knit families, they battle the social and physical obstacles that stand in their way. This acclaimed documentary was shot over the course of five years.

The Police Tapes

The Police Tapes is a 1977 documentary about a New York City police precinct in the South Bronx. The original ran ninety minutes and was produced for public television; a one-hour version later aired on ABC. Filmmakers Alan and Susan Raymond spent three months in 1976 riding along with patrol officers in the 44th Precinct of the South Bronx, which had the highest crime rate in New York City at that time. They produced about 40 hours of videotape that they edited into a 90-minute documentary.

See You Yesterday

As two teen prodigies try to master the art of time travel, a tragic police shooting sends them on a series of dangerous trips to the past.

Selma

"Selma," as in Alabama, the place where segregation in the South was at its worst, leading to a march that ended in violence, forcing a famous statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson that ultimately led to the signing of the Voting Rights Act.

Skin

A destitute young man, raised by racist skinheads and notorious among white supremacists, turns his back on hatred and violence to transform his life, with the help of a black activist and the woman he loves.

Badge of the Assassin

Three black revolutionaries gun down two New York City police officers. The subsequent investigation puts a white assistant DA and a black police detective on the trail of the killers that leads from New York to San Francisco and down to New Orleans.

The Sleeping City

A young doctor taking a break from work is shot in the head, and the police can't find a clue even as to a possible motive. Inspector Al Gordon (John Alexander) decides that he has to put some men on duty at the hospital, and one of them is Fred Rowan (Richard Conte), a detective with experience as an army medic, masquerading as an intern. What Rowan finds is a high-pressure world in which interns are hopelessly squeezed for time, sleep, energy, and -- most of all -- money, and walk a fine line on the edge of personal and professional disaster.

Irresistible Force

A police sergeant is hoping for a few quiet weeks before his impending retirement, but his plans are scuppered when he is joined by an over-enthusiastic rookie partner who is assigned to him after failing her field test. To make matters worse, trouble looms when a group of white supremacists hold up a local shopping centre.

Blue City

Returning to the small Florida town where he grew up, Billy Turner learns that his father has been killed. With little help from the police, Billy will take matters into his own hands and go up against a ruthless local mob boss in a desperate search to find the killer.

The Murder of Fred Hampton

Fred Hampton was the leader of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. This film depicts his brutal murder by the Chicago police and its subsequent investigation, but also documents his activities in organizing the Chapter, his public speeches, and the programs he founded for children during the last eighteen months of his life.

Ballistic

Jesse Gavin is an undercover cop, part of an elite police team and highly skilled in lethal martial arts! She is suspended from the force after a witness that she was supposed to protect is killed. She must now find out what happened and clear up her name.

The Zebra Killer

A racist white serial killer known only as "Mac" is wreaking havoc throughout San Francisco while wearing black makeup and an afro wig. Police lieutenant Frank Savage is hot on his trail when Mac begins to reveal his motivations for the killings and escalates their game of cat and mouse.

Mexico City

When her brother disappears during a brief travel layover in Mexico, Mitch begins a desperate search that will eventually lead the young divorcee into the capital city's most notorious neighborhood. But even with the aid of the American Ambassador, her plight is only met with indifference and inaction from the authorities. As the story unfolds, Mitch is forced to look for help in the least likely places as she races against time in a dangerous quest to find answers and locate her brother.

Gaily, Gaily

After runaway Ben Young is robbed and left on his own, he is taken in by Lil, the head of a Chicago brothel. Acting as a surrogate mother for Ben, who thinks she runs a boardinghouse, Lil gets him a job with Francis Sullivan at the local newspaper. As Ben is exposed to the workings of the big city, he realizes the extent of government corruption and sets out on the daunting task of reforming Chicago politics, finding several allies along the way.

The Assault

A female cop assigned to protect a dead drug dealer's girlfriend from mob assassins takes her to a home for battered wives. When revenge is the only option, the emotionally scarred women are forced to fight back.

Freaky Profiling

The movie opens with tension running high as a black woman is stopped by three white police officers. After being shoved to the ground, she dies from head injuries. Micah a black activist in the city is very angry at police officers and is leading the community to retaliate like Malcom X but he is switched with a white police officer just like in freaky Friday. He wakes up as a white police officer and the officer wakes up black. The two of them soon realize what it is like to walk in other peoples shoes and learn to grow empathy for each other. The two characters bond before switching back and now their outlook on the protest is completely different. Now Micah sees that not all police officers are bad and if they want to achieve true justice it will take everyone black and white working together.

Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn

The 30-year legacy of the murder of black teenager Yusuf Hawkins by a group of young white men in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, as his family and friends reflect on the tragedy and the subsequent fight for justice that inspired and divided New York City.

Dreams Don't Die

Two young kids in love, one young graffiti artist and the other a foster-child, find trouble on the mean streets on the other side of the river in New York City. Officer Charles Banks finds young Danny tagging subway cars and then catches Teiresa selling drugs for another mislead teen, Kirk. The officer, instead of turning both of them in, gives both teens a chance to make more of their lives together. Changing their ways turns out to be more challenging than first thought.

More related lists

Sort results by:

X close
Default
Clear filters
...