8 Inspirational Sports Documentaries That Could Change Your Life

2. Touching The Void

Year: 2001

Director: Kevin MacDonald

Touching The Void is not an easy watch: it is a harrowing true account of survival against all odds with as much drama and suspense as any fictional account you'll see played out on a big screen with millions of dollars behind it.

The award-winning doc tells the story of British climbers Simon Yates and Joe Simpson, who in 1985 set out to scale the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes with only a rope holding them together. Almost inevitably, it went horribly wrong, and the film focuses unflinchingly not only on the story of what happened but also why, selling the intoxicating thrill of climbing even as the pair faced death.

It's a drama-doc, featuring horrifyingly real reconstruction with real life accounts, and the forthright way it tells the tale is as stunning as it is brutal. That there was a happy ending is the best kind of inspirational.