Spoilers ahead: for the puzzle and the movies/games
This page reveals all categories and answers for this puzzle. It also discusses plot details, story endings, and other spoilers for some of the movies/games shown.
easy
Everything happens in the ring
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All four films use boxing as a lens for something larger. Ego, class, grief, legacy. The sport frames every major decision. The championship bout is never just a championship bout.
medium
The lead barely says a word
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These films build their emotional core around a protagonist who communicates almost entirely without dialogue. The Driver speaks in monosyllables. Max delivers around forty lines across two hours. WALL·E communicates through beeps and body language. Ada, in The Piano, hasn't spoken since childhood by choice. What little they say carries everything.
hard
The verdict was never in doubt
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In each of these films, the courtroom or trial is the dramatic centrepiece, and the outcome was already settled before proceedings began. M's serial killer is judged by a criminal underworld that had already decided he must die. Paths of Glory scapegoats three soldiers for a general's failure. To Kill a Mockingbird seats a Black man before a Jim Crow jury with no real intention of deliberating. Breaker Morant's Australians are sacrificed for British political convenience. The legal process exists to deliver a verdict that was never in question.
tricky
The only name history needed
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Each title is a single real name. One word, and everyone pictures the same historical person. The easy misdirect is that players will group them as biopics. The actual connection is the title format: one famous name that needs nothing alongside it.