Ivan the Terrible is a two-part Soviet epic historical drama film written and directed by Sergei Eisenstein. A biopic of Ivan IV of Russia, it was Eisenstein's final film, commissioned by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. He was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is noted in particular for his silent films Strike (1925), Battleship Potemkin (1925) and October (1928), as well as the historical epics Alexander Nevsky (1938) and Ivan the Terrible. In its 2012 decennial poll, the magazine Sight & Sound named his Battleship Potemkin the 11th-greatest film of all time.