10 Best Movies About Nikola Tesla, Ranked

Nikola Tesla shows up on screen in a mix of dramas, biopics, and documentaries, which means there are many different ways to learn about his life and ideas. Some films follow his career directly, while others weave him into stories about electricity, invention, and the race to power modern cities.

This list brings together feature films and documentaries where Tesla is either the subject or a central figure in the story. You will find cast and crew details, the parts of his life each film explores, and the specific achievements or events that each title covers.

‘Tesla’ (2020)

This biographical drama focuses on Nikola Tesla’s career in the United States and follows his work with alternating current, early wireless experiments, and his business relationships with investors. Ethan Hawke plays Tesla, while Kyle MacLachlan appears as Thomas Edison and Eve Hewson portrays Anne Morgan. Writer director Michael Almereyda uses staged scenes, direct addresses to the audience, and period imagery to walk through Tesla’s breakthroughs and setbacks.

The film highlights meetings with George Westinghouse and J. P. Morgan, shows lab demonstrations of power transmission, and touches on plans for the Wardenclyffe project. It also includes sequences that compare Edison’s approach to invention with Tesla’s, giving context to how their methods differed inside workshops and boardrooms.

‘The American Side’ (2016)

This mystery thriller builds its plot around a lost plan connected to Nikola Tesla. Greg Stuhr plays a private investigator who follows a trail from a suspicious death to documents that point toward an unfinished invention. The story brings in characters linked to industrial secrets and places near Niagara Falls, a landmark tied to early hydroelectric power.

The film uses period patents and archival style diagrams in its clues, then shifts to modern locations where prototypes and notes could have survived. Along the way it references Tesla’s work on wireless energy and high voltage research, placing those ideas at the heart of a conspiracy that multiple groups try to control.

‘The Tesla World Light’ (2017)

This short film by Matthew Rankin draws on letters between Nikola Tesla and J. P. Morgan and presents them through experimental animation. The piece uses hand crafted techniques, light painting, and photographic effects to visualize ideas about radiant energy and long distance transmission. It treats the lab bench and the screen as the same creative space, which lets technical concepts appear as moving light.

Although brief, the film includes quotations and iconography from period correspondence and lab notebooks. It recreates coils, sparks, and geometric apparatus as flickering shapes, then pairs those visuals with fragments of Tesla’s proposals about global communication and power delivery.

‘The Current War’ (2017)

This historical drama covers the race to electrify cities and the clash between direct current and alternating current. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Thomas Edison, Michael Shannon plays George Westinghouse, and Nicholas Hoult appears as Nikola Tesla. The story follows patent battles, lighting demonstrations, and the build out of power stations as companies compete to set a national standard.

Tesla’s role appears during his time with Edison and later collaboration with Westinghouse. The film stages shop floors, board meetings, and public exhibitions, and it includes scenes that explain how transformers and long distance transmission favor alternating current. It also shows the scale of the first illuminated fairgrounds as a showcase for the winning system.

‘The Secret of Nikola Tesla’ (1980)

This Yugoslav produced biopic stars Petar Božović as Nikola Tesla and features Orson Welles as J. P. Morgan. It traces Tesla’s education, his arrival in New York, and his major projects, including induction motors and high frequency power. The production draws on European and American locations and uses period sets to depict workshops, lecture halls, and financial offices.

The narrative includes meetings with George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison, demonstrations of wireless lighting, and discussions about funding for large scale transmission. It also follows the Wardenclyffe plans and the challenges of raising capital for a global communication tower, giving viewers a look at how technical ambition depended on business backing.

‘Tower to the People: Tesla’s Dream at Wardenclyffe Continues’ (2015)

This documentary looks at the effort to preserve and restore the Wardenclyffe site on Long Island, where Nikola Tesla planned a world system of wireless communication and power. Director Joseph Sikorski documents fundraising campaigns, historical research, and the purchase of the property for a future science center. The film features historians, engineers, and community organizers who worked to save the laboratory grounds.

Archival photographs and original paperwork show how the project took shape and why construction stopped. The documentary also records modern surveys of the remaining structures and presents concept designs for education spaces, connecting Tesla’s unfinished work with current outreach and museum planning.

‘Nikola Tesla: The Genius Who Lit the World’ (1994)

This documentary presents an overview of Nikola Tesla’s life and inventions, using interviews with researchers and extensive archival material. It explains the principles behind alternating current systems, polyphase motors, and high frequency experiments, and places those developments within the growth of electric power distribution. The production draws from museums and private collections for photos, letters, and patents.

The film visits locations tied to Tesla’s career, including sites in Europe and the United States, and it shows how his ideas influenced radio, lighting, and wireless communication. It also discusses lesser known projects and provides context for how patents were licensed and challenged in courts and in the marketplace.

‘Tesla: Master of Lightning’ (2000)

This PBS documentary combines dramatic reenactments, expert interviews, and archival images to tell the story of Nikola Tesla. It explains technical concepts like rotating magnetic fields and resonant circuits in plain language, and it illustrates them with working models and lab demonstrations. The production team includes Robert Uth and Melissa Jo Peltier, and the program features narration that ties together personal history and technical work.

The documentary covers Tesla’s collaborations with Westinghouse, public lectures with coil demonstrations, and his experiments with remote control at exhibitions. It also examines the Wardenclyffe project and presents newly filmed footage of sites connected to Tesla, which helps viewers place the inventions in real buildings and landscapes.

‘Teslafy Me’ (2019)

This documentary explores Nikola Tesla’s legacy in today’s energy landscape and looks at researchers and entrepreneurs who cite his ideas as inspiration. It features interviews with engineers, educators, and advocates who are working on wireless power, sustainable generation, and advanced storage. The film connects these projects to demonstrations from Tesla’s time, showing what remains theoretical and what is now practical.

By visiting laboratories and startups, the documentary outlines the steps needed to scale new technologies from prototypes to public use. It also discusses education initiatives and museum programs that present Tesla’s work to students and general audiences, linking historical experiments to classroom activities and community events.

‘The Prestige’ (2006)

This period thriller by Christopher Nolan uses Nikola Tesla as a key figure in a rivalry between stage magicians. David Bowie appears as Tesla, whose Colorado Springs laboratory becomes the setting for a pivotal experiment that changes the course of the story. The film stars Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman and includes production design that recreates early electrical apparatus, coils, and high voltage generators.

Scenes with Tesla show consultations about power, materials, and the limits of current technology. The plot draws on rumors of wireless energy and long distance transmission to create a device that functions inside the logic of the film. These sequences place laboratory work at the center of the narrative and connect scientific research to the mechanics of stage illusions.

Share your favorite films about Nikola Tesla in the comments and tell us which titles you think deserve a spot here.