29 Best Adventure Movies of All Time
Swing through a lost temple or dive into the fantasy of Middle-earth.
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It’s no secret that movies are a perfect—and maybe even the best—way to escape from reality. Had a bad day? Watch a movie. Need a laugh? Watch a movie. Feeling heartbroken? Watch. A. Movie. It works like a charm. That’s the magic of cinema, people.
There are plenty of genres to choose from, but next to the humble comedy, adventure films are the easiest to stomach when you need a break from the real world. Below, you’ll find 29 exciting journeys to take whenever you please. Climb aboard a shipwreck in Life of Pi, or take a trip to a coastal English town in Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom. If dry land is more your speed, join Indiana Jones for an archaeological quest, or help a crew of scientists ward off dinosaurs in Jurassic Park (though they should have never messed with prehistoric creatures in the first place). Hell, you can go to space if you want.
Your adventure awaits. All that’s left to do is pick a route.
Stand by Me
Rob Reiner’s iconic adaptation of Stephen King’s The Body serves as an all-but-ordinary coming-of-age story, set in 1959. River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Wil Wheaton, and Jerry O’Connell star as a group of young boys determined to uncover the missing body of a local boy for a cash reward. The film is a blend of hilariously crude adolescent humor, saturated scenes of nostalgia, and meditations on innocence, maturity, and friendship.
Life of Pi
Few voyages at sea begin with the shipwreck, but such is the case for Life of Pi, based on Yann Martel’s novel of the same name. Directed by Ang Lee and starring the late Irrfan Khan and Suraj Sharma, the film weaves a spectacular tale of spiritual discovery as a shipwrecked young man navigates the Pacific Ocean while stranded on a lifeboat. (Think Cast Away, but swap the volleyball for a Bengal tiger.)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The first installment of Peter Jackson’s trilogy adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic epic novels, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring introduces us to the fictional appendix that is all of Middle-earth and its inhabitants. Viewers join the earnest quest of young hobbit Frodo and his caravan of companions, with performances by Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, and Orlando Bloom.
Moonrise Kingdom
Nothing says adventure like two 12-year-olds falling in love and running away together to an island off the coast of New England. This whimsical and peculiar comedy is as Wes Anderson as Wes Anderson can get: peak aesthetic pleasure in its set and costume design, obsessively precise cinematography and writing, and, of course, an overwhelmingly stacked cast of celebrities.
The Hidden Fortress
From the beloved Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, The Hidden Fortress follows two peasants who find themselves on an unexpected quest to escort a man and woman across enemy lines in the midst of a war. The shared journey runs across some comical and dramatic speed bumps, though, when it is revealed that the two men are actually escorting a war general and princess.
Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
In the first installment of the famed Indiana Jones franchise, Harrison Ford stars as the titular archaeologist on his quest to prevent a group of Nazis from stealing a precious religious relic, the Ark of the Covenant. Directed by Steven Spielberg, this epic is a classic Hollywood archetype of the hero’s journey, with Jones donning a signature whip and, of course, possessing an Achilles heel for snakes.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke’s adaptation of Clarke’s “The Sentinel,” 2001: A Space Odyssey is something of a monolith in itself within film history, still serving as a subject of analysis for us today. The enigmatic sci-fi thriller, amid its exciting ingenuity in filmmaking, serves as an ominous meditation on man versus machine that will make you feel like you’re staring straight into the beady red monitor of your own existence.
Cast Away
Tom Hanks stars as Chuck Noland, a FedEx engineer who ends up stranded on a deserted island while on a work assignment. In a true case of man versus wild, Noland’s chalk-tallied days spent with his volleyball companion become more than a test of will. They become a test of humanity and the world as he knows it.
Jurassic Park
Another larger-than-life blockbuster from Steven Spielberg, Jurassic Park follows the aftermath of what one might expect if a billionaire had come up with a way to recreate dinosaurs for a theme park. Shockingly, even movie billionaires don’t think through the ethics of their latest ventures. What some of the movie characters lack in technological savviness, the filmmaking itself makes up for with special effects and animatronics that made the standards of its time seem prehistoric.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The prototypical adventure movie, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a western-tinged story of two outlaws who encounter a veteran prospector, then travel together into Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains to strike gold. Though they find treasure, they become quickly beleaguered by bandits and internal strife. Directed by the inimitable John Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is the film that kick-started the genre.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
In the film that catapulted Ang Lee to directorial superstardom, he sets the scene in 19th-century China, where a warrior entrusts his fabled sword to his beloved, only for the sword to fall into the wrong hands. Come for the adventure through a bygone era in Chinese history, but stay for the breathtaking martial-arts sequences, which remain unparalleled even two decades later.
Annihilation
In this adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s acclaimed climate-fiction novel, five female scientists journey into Area X, a sinister and unexplained ecological phenomenon consuming Florida’s coastline. Featuring an all-star cast including Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, and Oscar Isaac, the journey into the unknown pushes these scientists to the limits of their bodies and their sanity.
Thor: Ragnarok
Nothing says adventure quite like an intergalactic romp through trash-covered planets, right? The third film in Marvel’s Thor sequence is the series’ loosest, centering on a madcap adventure through outer space that leaves a powerless Thor stranded on a wacky planet ruled by a sadistic Jeff Goldblum. Directed by Taika Waititi, Ragnarok remains a one-of-a-kind standout in Marvel’s filmology.
Spy
Not all adventures have to be serious. Melissa McCarthy makes a feast of her juiciest role yet in this underappreciated gem from Bridesmaids director Paul Feig featuring an uproarious cast that also stars Rose Byrne, Jude Law, Allison Janney, Jason Statham, and 50 Cent. McCarthy stars as a timid CIA desk jockey catapulted into the field by the sudden death of her partner, sending her on a wild journey for vengeance and self-discovery from the slums of Paris to the casinos of Rome.
The Wizard of Oz
Interstellar
Christopher Nolan’s space epic truly lived up to the hype, with mind-boggling direction and special effects that capture the strange new galaxy the space crew find themselves in.
Mad God
Apollo 13
Ron Howard’s historical docudrama adapts the real harrowing tale of NASA’s aborted 13th lunar mission with previously unparalleled technical accuracy. While there were a few narrative and historical quibbles in the end, the filmmakers consulted closely with NASA experts to keep the film somewhat grounded and filmed space scenes on actual zero-gravity flights to accurately show weightlessness.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Inception
Some may classify Inception as just a sci-fi action thriller, but our dream thieves jet all around the world, even before they sink down into several levels of subconscious to pull off a mind-bending memory-implantation process. With so many richly realized worlds on display throughout the film, it’s hard to argue that the characters haven’t been on an adventure after they’ve woken up.
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