Top Ten Movies With A Paraplegic Hero

A biopic about the former Governor of Alabama, who was shot and paralyzed during an assassination attempt. He continued to run for President even after this event.

Features a young Angelina Jolie as his wife and stars Gary Sinise as Wallace.

This is an older movie, but quite good. It shows the adjustment of a war veteran after he returns home. Three out of ten movies on this list meet that description!

This one came out in 1950 and was Marlon Brando's film debut.

A biopic about Franklin D. Roosevelt and his experiences with polio (although this diagnosis has since been brought into question). It's an emotionally moving movie with great performances. It gave me a better sense of what may have motivated FDR to hide his disability when he ran for president.

I wish that this movie were accurate to the history, but it errs on the side of feel-good inspiration rather than truth. In the story of this movie he and his wife become closer through the experience and it is suggested that his cheating on her days are over, when in reality FDR's disability did not prevent him from carrying on with other women and he and Eleanor did not even live together.

Kenneth Branagh does a fantastic job as FDR. The film won many awards and strove for accuracy by using the actual vehicle that FDR drove, and the actual cottage where he stayed at Warm Springs.

Watch for Felicia Day and Teal Sherer as guests at Warm Springs!

A movie with a powerful message about where our future might be heading. This movie shows the social dangers of genetic manipulation. One of the things I like about it is that the people who have not been genetically engineered are called "in-valid" and the paraplegic character is a "valid." However, he really isn't anymore because that future society cannot accept anything that it doesn't see as perfect.

Jerome is barely living and trades his identity to an "invalid," while he hides in the basement of his home.

A zany adventure taking place in Brazil. Carmo is trying to escape her dull life in a Brazilian border town and when Marco sticks up for her against a man trying to assault her, she follows him while he tries to sell stolen radios and evade drug dealers trying to kill him. There's lots of interesting characters and the relationship that develops between Marco and Carmo is equal parts tough and sweet. The movie is mostly in Portuguese, with some Spanish, and has English subtitles.

Based on the autobiography of Ron Kovic, a Vietnam veteran, this movie captures the incredible transformation of an idealistic teenager into a dis-enchanted man. Kovic believed that going to war was the right thing to do and that his country would respect him for risking his life, but he comes home to a country in turmoil. At first he is angry at people who don't support the war, then he becomes hopeless and bitter as he can't get settled back into his life, finally he realizes that there are battles to be fought right where he is.

The music in this movie is incredible. The music written for it is beautiful and it also features a beautiful rendition of "Blowing in the Wind." This movie was the first time that I ever heard "American Pie."

This is another movie about a Vietnam veteran, and it has been suggested that it was also inspired by Ron Kovik, whom Jane Fonda had met. The story is a woman who has an affair with a paralyzed veteran and it has a beautiful love-making scene, quite unusual for a movie with a disabled character.

A girl at a Christian high school and highly Christian community begins to question what she's been taught when she gets pregnant while trying to save her gay boyfriend by sleeping with him because she believes it's what God asked her to do. It's an interesting movie about belief and questions and faith. I liked it for that alone.

Roland is one of the misfits at the school that Mary befriends once she starts going off plan. He is the older brother of the most intense girl at the school. Roland gets his own plot line in which he starts dating the school's biggest outcast and discovers his own abilities and independence along the way.

A paraplegic action hero. Sign me up for that!

This is a movie that probably needs no introduction. This huge hit is the story of a paraplegic solider who gets an opportunity to help with a project his twin brother was invested in. He is torn between a scientist who wants to study and help the natives of the planet and a military man who wants to get the natives out. Jake has loyalties to the military side, even though he is supposed to be there in the place of his brother, the scientist.

The military man tries to buy his cooperation by promising to pay for an operation to restore Jake's spinal cord if he will spy on the scientists. Jake agrees at first, but soon falls in love and puts his loyalty with the native woman, choosing to stay with her rather than go back to earth for the operation that would restore his spinal cord.

A gritty, but beautiful drama about an unlikely faith healer, a man who discovers a gift for healing others, but not himself. A story about how people try to use each other and manipulate grace for money. A must see movie.

Stars Christopher Thornton, the only person on this list who is actually paralyzed. Also has Juliette Lewis, Mark Ruffalo, Orlando Bloom, and Laura Linney.