Ranked by movie.guru score. A shark, a desert, a forest spirit, an alien and a very famous road. Every one still holds up.
Number one beat Indiana Jones to the treasure. Grab your poncho.
- 8
The best entrance in movie history happens in a mirage.
Peter O'Toole stares into the desert, the desert stares back, and there's no green screen anywhere. Critics rank it above 96% of notable movies, 8.3 on IMDb.
- 7
Adventure, but the big set piece is a bus stop.
Satsuki and Mei wait in the rain, a huge forest spirit gets handed an umbrella, and somehow it's thrilling. 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, a tight 86 minutes.
- 6
The real adventure is the second half on that tiny boat.
8.1 on IMDb from 752,281 votes, $280.1 million domestic. Roy Scheider hates the water, Richard Dreyfuss won't stop talking, and Robert Shaw tells one story that silences the whole boat.
- 5
Terrible archaeologist. The best adventure hero ever written.
Indiana Jones wrecks every ancient site he visits, and 1.12 million IMDb voters still give it an 8.4. Critics rank it above 95% of notable movies. Fair.
- 4
Hitchcock's most fun movie, and it's basically a vacation slideshow.
136 minutes, 98 on Metacritic, made for $4.3 million. Cary Grant gets mistaken for a spy, James Mason plays the smoothest villain around, and the dining car banter is elite.
- 3
Oz is the best-designed world in any adventure, 1939 or now.
Metacritic 92 and 8.1 on IMDb from 473,900 votes. Munchkinland, the Emerald City and that poppy field still look handmade in a way CGI never quite manages.
- 2
The adventure is a kid hiding a friend from adults.
Critics rank it above 99% of notable movies. Elliott hides an alien from his mom and a whole government team, and the movie cost $10.5 million.
- 1
A Western beats every treasure hunt on this list.
8.8 on IMDb from 904,445 votes, made for $1.2 million. Sergio Leone turns a Civil War treasure hunt into the greatest squinting contest ever filmed.
Change my mind. Pick the one you'd take on a road trip. Explain yourself.
$17.35 says you watch Jaws again and still yell at the mayor.
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Current mood: ready to fight about it