10 Movies About the End-of-Life Experience

With the Oscars around the corner, we were inspired to track down movies that have realistically and compassionately explored themes related to the end-of-life experience.

With the help of our community, we’ve pulled together a list of films that have resonated with audiences through their depictions of serious illness, grief, death and the difficult decisions that often surround them.

1. End Game

Image via Life Matters Media

This Academy Award-nominated short documentary explores the difficult choices patients and their loved ones face at the end of life, and how their care teams help them navigate the experience.

Where to watch: End Game is currently streaming on Netflix.

2. Coco

Image via Nerdist

Two years after Disney Pixar’s Coco was released, the animated film continues to resonate with audiences through its playful, death-positive portrayal of family, grief and the afterlife.

Where to watch: Coco is currently streaming on Netflix.

3. My Sister’s Keeper

Image via WordPress

Released in 2009, My Sister’s Keeper follows a family whose lives are torn apart after their youngest daughter, who was conceived to serve as a bone marrow donor for her ill older sister, takes legal action against her parents.

The film offers a compelling look at how serious illness affects both the patient and the people who love them.

Where to watch: My Sister’s Keeper is available to rent on YouTube, Google Play and iTunes.

4. Extremis

Image via IndieWire

Where End Game presents the end-of-life experience through the perspectives of patients and their loved ones, the Academy Award-nominated Extremis focuses on physicians.

This short documentary examines how medical teams communicate with one another and with families about end-of-life decisions, as well as the difficult choices they must make.

Where to watch: Extremis is currently streaming on Netflix.

5. Defining Hope

Image via Defining Hope

Released in 2017, Defining Hope examines the current state of the end-of-life experience. The film serves as a powerful reminder that ending well looks different for everyone and that we can make choices that align with our individual wishes.

Where to watch: Defining Hope is available to rent on YouTube, Google Play and Amazon Prime.

6. Terms of Endearment

Image via W Magazine

Winner of Best Picture at the 1984 Academy Awards, Terms of Endearment is a timeless film about the relationship between a mother, daughter and the men in their lives.

The film also explores how terminal illness affects the bond between the two women. It stars Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson and Debra Winger.

Where to watch: Terms of Endearment is available to rent on YouTube, Google Play, iTunes and Amazon Prime.

7. Griefwalker

Image via Vimeo

Griefwalker is a documentary that chronicles the deathbed experiences of palliative care practitioner Stephen Jenkinson.

Following Jenkinson as he works with care teams and counsels families, the film offers important observations about pain, conversations about death and the experience of dying.

Where to watch: Griefwalker can be viewed on the National Film Board of Canada’s website.

8. The Nurse With the Purple Hair

Image via YouTube

An unconventional friendship between Friday the 13th director Sean Cunningham and hospice nurse Michelle Lasota led to the creation of this documentary, which showcases and honors the work of hospice professionals.

Where to watch: The Nurse With the Purple Hair can be purchased on Amazon.

9. One Day

In this Korean film, an insurance agent is assigned to the case of a woman who becomes comatose after a car accident. What follows is a bittersweet story about love and grief.

Where to watch: One Day is currently streaming on Viki.

10. Tuesdays With Morrie

Image via Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom’s beloved nonfiction book was adapted into a television movie starring Hank Azaria and Jack Lemmon.

The film follows the friendship between Albom and his former professor, Morrie Schwartz, and the lessons Albom learns from Schwartz as he is dying from ALS.

Where to watch: Tuesdays With Morrie is currently streaming on YouTube.