The 50 Best Adventure Movies Ever Made
by jostiel | created - 06 Aug 2019 | updated - 07 Feb 2023 | PublicAdventure movies tell stories based on awe-inspiring features of our world, setting them apart from the thought-provoking setting of the future worlds of science fiction, the mythical realms of fantasy, or the alien otherworlds of horror. There might be elements of adventure in these genres, but such elements tend to be merely lightly sprinkled spices, while in adventure movies adventure is the main ingredient. This rule of thumb rules out movies depicting another world, which excludes genre-specific components of sci-fi or fantasy.
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1. The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
R | 112 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Three trappers protect the daughters of a British Colonel in the midst of the French and Indian War.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, Eric Schweig
Votes: 187,692 | Gross: $75.51M
2. Dances with Wolves (1990)
PG-13 | 181 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Lieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighbouring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.
Director: Kevin Costner | Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant
Votes: 290,718 | Gross: $184.21M
3. Into the Wild (2007)
R | 148 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.
Director: Sean Penn | Stars: Emile Hirsch, Vince Vaughn, Catherine Keener, Marcia Gay Harden
Votes: 658,249 | Gross: $18.35M
4. The Revenant (I) (2015)
R | 156 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson
Votes: 874,511 | Gross: $183.64M
5. Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
GP | 108 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by the Crow tribe and proves to be a match for their warriors in single combat on the early frontier.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Robert Redford, Will Geer, Delle Bolton, Josh Albee
Votes: 34,990 | Gross: $47.74M
6. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
PG | 115 min | Action, Adventure
In 1936, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is hired by the U.S. government to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can obtain its awesome powers.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies
Votes: 1,037,022 | Gross: $248.16M
7. Romancing the Stone (1984)
PG | 106 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A mousy romance novelist sets off for Colombia to ransom her kidnapped sister, and soon finds herself in the middle of a dangerous adventure hunting for treasure with a mercenary rogue.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, Zack Norman
Votes: 103,344 | Gross: $76.57M
8. Stand by Me (1986)
R | 89 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A writer recounts a childhood journey with his friends to find the body of a missing boy.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell
Votes: 441,711 | Gross: $52.29M
9. Little Big Man (1970)
PG-13 | 139 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Native Americans and fighting with General Custer.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, Martin Balsam
Votes: 37,899 | Gross: $31.56M
10. The Mask of Zorro (1998)
PG-13 | 136 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
A young thief seeking revenge for his brother's death is trained by the once-great, aging Zorro, who is pursuing his own vengeance.
Director: Martin Campbell | Stars: Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, José MarÃa de Tavira
Votes: 197,824 | Gross: $94.10M
11. The Three Musketeers (1973)
PG | 106 min | Action, Adventure, Romance
A young swordsman comes to Paris and faces villains, romance, adventure and intrigue with three Musketeer friends.
Director: Richard Lester | Stars: Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain, Michael York
Votes: 20,151 | Gross: $22.02M
12. The African Queen (1951)
PG | 105 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
In WWI East Africa, a gin-swilling Canadian riverboat captain is persuaded by a strait-laced English missionary to undertake a trip up a treacherous river and use his boat to attack a German gunship.
Director: John Huston | Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley, Peter Bull
Votes: 84,326 | Gross: $0.54M
13. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Approved | 218 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
The story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins
Votes: 314,423 | Gross: $44.82M
14. Cast Away (2000)
PG-13 | 143 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A FedEx executive undergoes a physical and emotional transformation after crash landing on a deserted island.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Paul Sanchez, Lari White
Votes: 638,807 | Gross: $233.63M
15. Wild (I) (2014)
R | 115 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A chronicle of one woman's 1,100-mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée | Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Gaby Hoffmann, Michiel Huisman
Votes: 138,882 | Gross: $37.88M
16. Tracks (I) (2013)
PG-13 | 112 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A young woman goes on a 1,700-mile trek across the deserts of West Australia with four camels and her faithful dog.
Director: John Curran | Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver, Lily Pearl, Philip Dodd
Votes: 31,735 | Gross: $0.51M
17. Wildlike (2014)
Not Rated | 104 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
After conditions in her new home become unbearable, a teenage girl runs away and befriends an older man preparing for a hike through the Alaskan wilderness.
Director: Frank Hall Green | Stars: Ella Purnell, Brian Geraghty, Diane Farr, Nolan Gerard Funk
Votes: 5,402
18. Whale Rider (2002)
PG-13 | 101 min | Drama, Family
A contemporary story of love, rejection and triumph as a young Maori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.
Director: Niki Caro | Stars: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, Cliff Curtis
Votes: 44,037 | Gross: $20.78M
19. Lean on Pete (2017)
R | 121 min | Adventure, Drama, Sport
A teenager gets a summer job working for a horse trainer and befriends the fading racehorse, Lean on Pete.
Director: Andrew Haigh | Stars: Charlie Plummer, Amy Seimetz, Travis Fimmel, Steve Buscemi
Votes: 13,948 | Gross: $1.16M
20. The Aeronauts (2019)
PG-13 | 100 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A balloon pilot and a scientist find themselves in a fight for survival while attempting to make discoveries in a gas balloon in the 1860s.
Director: Tom Harper | Stars: Felicity Jones, Eddie Redmayne, Himesh Patel, Vincent Perez
Votes: 37,415
21. Adrift (I) (2018)
PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
A true story of survival, as a young couple's chance encounter leads them first to love, and then on the adventure of a lifetime as they face one of the most catastrophic hurricanes in recorded history.
Director: Baltasar Kormákur | Stars: Shailene Woodley, Sam Claflin, Jeffrey Thomas, Elizabeth Hawthorne
Votes: 61,786 | Gross: $31.45M
22. All Is Lost (2013)
PG-13 | 106 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After a collision with a shipping container at sea, a resourceful sailor finds himself, despite all efforts to the contrary, staring his mortality in the face.
Director: J.C. Chandor | Star: Robert Redford
Votes: 83,827 | Gross: $6.26M
23. The Perfect Storm (2000)
PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
An unusually intense storm pattern catches some commercial fishermen unaware and puts them in mortal danger.
Director: Wolfgang Petersen | Stars: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Diane Lane
Votes: 177,967 | Gross: $182.62M
24. Alive (1993)
R | 128 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
After crash-landing in the snowswept Andes, a Uruguayan rugby team has no choice but to turn to desperate measures in order to survive.
Director: Frank Marshall | Stars: Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, Josh Hamilton, Bruce Ramsay
Votes: 64,439 | Gross: $36.73M
25. Everest (2015)
PG-13 | 121 min | Action, Adventure, Biography
On May 10, 1996, mountain guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer combine their expedition teams for a final ascent to the summit of Mount Everest. With little warning, a storm strikes the mountain and the climbers must now battle to survive.
Director: Baltasar Kormákur | Stars: Jason Clarke, Ang Phula Sherpa, Thomas M. Wright, Martin Henderson
Votes: 232,441 | Gross: $43.48M
26. Winter's Bone (2010)
R | 100 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.
Director: Debra Granik | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Garret Dillahunt, Isaiah Stone
Votes: 150,562 | Gross: $6.53M
27. Mountains of the Moon (1990)
R | 136 min | Adventure, Drama, History
The legendary true-story of Capt. Richard Francis Burton and Lt. John Hanning Speke's tumultuous expedition to find the source of the Nile river.
Director: Bob Rafelson | Stars: Patrick Bergin, Iain Glen, Richard E. Grant, Fiona Shaw
Votes: 4,255 | Gross: $4.01M
28. Alpha (II) (2018)
PG-13 | 96 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
In the prehistoric past, a young man struggles to return home after being separated from his tribe during a buffalo hunt. He finds a similarly lost wolf companion and starts a friendship that would change humanity.
Director: Albert Hughes | Stars: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Marcin Kowalczyk, Jens Hultén
Votes: 66,560 | Gross: $35.85M
29. The Emerald Forest (1985)
R | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
After the son of engineer Bill Markham is abducted by an aboriginal tribe on the edge of the rain forest, the engineer spends the next 10 years searching for him.
Director: John Boorman | Stars: Powers Boothe, Meg Foster, Yara Vaneau, William Rodriguez
Votes: 10,998 | Gross: $24.47M
30. The Mission (1986)
PG | 125 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Eighteenth-century Spanish Jesuits try to protect a remote South American tribe in danger of falling under the rule of pro-slavery Portugal.
Director: Roland Joffé | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally, Aidan Quinn
Votes: 65,700 | Gross: $17.22M
31. Windwalker (1980)
PG | 108 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
In 1797 Utah, an aged Cheyenne patriarch helps his kin to fight off a raiding party of rival Crow warriors and he tells his grandchildren the story of their family.
Director: Kieth Merrill | Stars: Trevor Howard, Nick Ramus, James Remar, Serene Hedin
Votes: 1,225 | Gross: $18.64M
32. Apocalypto (2006)
R | 139 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
As the Mayan kingdom faces its decline, a young man is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Gerardo Taracena, Raoul Max Trujillo, Dalia Hernández, Rudy Youngblood
Votes: 331,361 | Gross: $50.87M
33. At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)
R | 189 min | Drama, Romance
Martin and Hazel Quarrier are small-town fundamentalist missionaries sent to the jungles of South America to convert the Indians. Their remote mission was previously run by the Catholics, ... See full summary »
Director: Hector Babenco | Stars: Tom Berenger, John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn
Votes: 3,542 | Gross: $1.34M
34. The New World (2005)
PG-13 | 135 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of the English exploration of Virginia, and of the changing world and loves of Pocahontas.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Colin Farrell, Q'orianka Kilcher, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale
Votes: 89,890 | Gross: $12.71M
35. A Man Called Horse (1970)
R | 114 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
In 1825, an English aristocrat is captured by Native Americans. He lives with them and begins to understand their way of life. Eventually, he is accepted as part of the tribe and aspires to become their leader.
Director: Elliot Silverstein | Stars: Richard Harris, Judith Anderson, Jean Gascon, Manu Tupou
Votes: 9,362 | Gross: $1.94M
36. The Mosquito Coast (1986)
PG | 117 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
An inventor spurns his city life and moves his family into the jungles of Central America to make a utopia.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, River Phoenix, Jadrien Steele
Votes: 31,204 | Gross: $14.30M
37. The Lost City of Z (2016)
PG-13 | 141 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
A true-life drama, centering on British explorer Major Percival Fawcett, who disappeared whilst searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s.
Director: James Gray | Stars: Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland
Votes: 99,477 | Gross: $8.58M
38. Last of the Dogmen (1995)
PG | 118 min | Adventure, Western
A Montana bounty hunter and an anthropologist discover a tribe of Native Americans living in a settlement isolated from the rest of the world.
Director: Tab Murphy | Stars: Tom Berenger, Barbara Hershey, Kurtwood Smith, Steve Reevis
Votes: 5,973 | Gross: $7.40M
39. Woman Walks Ahead (2017)
R | 101 min | Biography, Drama, History
Catherine Weldon, a portrait painter from 1890s Brooklyn, travels to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull and becomes embroiled in the Lakota peoples' struggle over the rights to their land.
Director: Susanna White | Stars: Jessica Chastain, Louisa Krause, Boots Southerland, Chaske Spencer
Votes: 8,425 | Gross: $0.06M
40. Thunderheart (1992)
R | 119 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A young mixed-blood FBI agent is assigned to work with a cynical veteran investigator on a murder on a poverty-stricken Sioux reservation.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard, Graham Greene, Fred Ward
Votes: 17,136 | Gross: $22.66M
41. Quest for Fire (1981)
R | 100 min | Adventure, Drama
This story takes place in prehistoric time when three tribesmen search for a new fire source.
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud | Stars: Everett McGill, Ron Perlman, Nicholas Kadi, Rae Dawn Chong
Votes: 24,131 | Gross: $20.96M
42. Sweet Country (2017)
R | 113 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
Western set on the Northern Territory frontier in the 1920s, where justice itself is put on trial when an aged Aboriginal farmhand shoots a white man in self-defense and goes on the run as a posse gathers to hunt him down.
Director: Warwick Thornton | Stars: Hamilton Morris, Shanika Cole, Ewen Leslie, Sam Neill
Votes: 9,262 | Gross: $0.10M
43. The Bounty (1984)
PG | 132 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Fed up with their Captain's harsh discipline, a sailing ship's crew decides to take action.
Director: Roger Donaldson | Stars: Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Edward Fox
Votes: 30,465 | Gross: $8.60M
44. Dangerous Beauty (1998)
R | 111 min | Biography, Drama, Romance