Usually, when you hear that the studio slashed a movie’s budget and forced major changes, it’s a bad sign. That’s not the case with Back to the Future, which turned 40 last year. The studio cut the movie's budget, forcing director Robert Zemeckis to change the ending. Even he agrees it made for a far better moment than the original idea. The movie, one of the best of the ‘80s, has proven incredibly enduring, and I think we can all agree that the ending, with Doc (Christopher Lloyd) up on the clock and Marty (Michael J. Fox) timing his run at 88 mph, is a classic. It was almost very different.

The Original Ending Involved Nukes

As the script was written, the ending involved Doc and Marty breaking into a nuclear test site before a test (remember, this was the 1950s). That was how they were originally planning to harness the 1.21 gigawatts they needed to send Marty and the Delorean back to 1985. According to Zemeckis in an interview on El Rey Network with fellow director Robert Rodriguez, they were planning to build a whole fake town, like the ones you see in the old footage of the tests. Or like you see in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Sorry to bring that up.

Zemeckis explained that just weeks before filming was to commence, Universal cut the budget for the set piece, and the director and the crew were forced to figure out a way to use the courthouse, as that set was already constructed. Of course, what came out of that is movie magic, with Doc connecting the wires just in time for the lightning to strike and Marty to hit the correct speed.

It’s a rare case when cutting the budget forced a creative decision that is in every way superior to the original idea. Zemeckis told Rodriguez:

That wasn’t the only change during the production, either.

The Most Famous Change Was With The Star

Anyone who's familiar with the production of Back to the Future, knows that five weeks into production, Zemeckis came to the conclusion that he had to fire the actor playing Marty, Eric Stoltz. Stoltz was playing Marty, of course, and it just wasn’t working, as both sides have acknowledged. Michael J. Fox was brought in, and much of the movie had to be reshot. Once again, a potentially fatal decision turned into a brilliant one, as I can’t imagine anyone but Fox in the role.

Looking back, it's incredible that Back to the Future, which you can watch with the MGM+ add-on to a Prime subscription, was even finished, much less became the massive box office hit and enduring favorite for so many people. It survived not one, but two massive complications that could have doomed any normal movie. Instead, the corrections make it a classic.

Over 40 years after its release, Back to the Future remains beloved by fans for many reasons, including incredibly memorable scenes and quotes. Of course, the BTTF cast is collectively one of the major reasons Robert Zemeckis’ 1985 time travel romp (and its two sequels) work so well. Among that ensemble was James Tolkan, who played Principal Strickland (and his ancestor) in the films. Sadly, Tolkan just died at 94 and, now, co-stars like Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are honoring him.

Tolkan died in New York on Thursday, March 26 in New York. A character actor with various roles under his belt, Tolkan arguably cemented his position within pop culture through his role as Strickland. The character served as the disciplinarian at High Valley High School, both during the 1985 and 1955 eras. After Tolkan’s death, Fox posted to his Instagram stories, sharing a side-by-side featuring still showing their two BTTF characters and a shot of the two actors recreating that moment from the film. Fox also penned an A+ message:

“Slacker” is a word Strickland uses quite frequently in the films, and I love that Fox uses it in such a fitting way to memorialize Tolkan. Someone else who took the time to pay tribute to the late Serpico star was Christopher Lloyd, who portrayed Emmett "Doc" Brown in the Back to the Future movies. While Lloyd and Tolkan don’t really share screen time in the films, they have long been on the convention circuit alongside their colleagues. Lloyd posted a photo of himself and Tolkan (possibly from a convention) on IG, and shared this caption:

As per usual with his sweet social media posts, Lloyd knows just what to say. It’s so lovely to see the close bonds that have apparently developed amongst the stars of BTTF over the years. On that note, Lorraine Baines McFly actress Lea Thompson also had some kind words to share about Tolkan after his death. Thompson – who’s known for occasionally dropping fun reunion pics – shared a series of photos on Instagram, which showed her, Tolkan and other co-stars at different events. She also added this sentimental message:

I’d definitely say that Tolkan was the best when it came to the roles he took on, as he carved out a solid lane for himself by playing interesting supporting roles. His body of work also includes film credits like Top Gun, Masters of the Universe, Love and Death and Dick Tracy. While Tolkan produced strong work across the screen and stage, his performance as Strickland remains my favorite of his roles, and it’s my hope that as people continue to watch Back to the Future, they’ll appreciate his shrewdly funny scenes.

We here at CinemaBlend extend our condolences to James Tolkan’s family and friends during this time.

Back To The Future is indisputably one of the best 80s movies, and one of those classics we’ll never stop talking about. Considering the movie just hit its 40th anniversary last year, it feels like it’s more difficult than ever to come across something new about the movie we haven’t heard before. But, I just heard one! Well, it's actually about the sequel.

In Back To The Future Part II, Marty and Doc of course meet Biff’s grandchild Griff Tannen and his gang of hooligans. Darlene Vogel, who played the sole female member of the group, Leslie "Spike" O'Malley, recalled this memory from set:

There’s been a lot said about the making of the Back To The Future movies, but somehow Margarita Fridays slipped through the cracks?! Vogel told the story on The Patrick LabyorSheaux With Patrick LabyorSheaux podcast, and didn’t elaborate much. We do have to wonder if Fox was the one blending the margaritas, and how that went with the rest of the cast. What kind of margaritas? How long did the tradition go for?

Anyways, Vogel clearly has fond memories of playing Spike on the Back To The Future sequel, which came out back in 1989 and was one of the highest-grossing movies of that year. She and Fox actually worked together twice, the first time being in 1988’s Bright Lights, Big City, where she said she was hired as a model, but was upgraded to play the girlfriend to Kiefer Sutherland’s character.

Darlene Vogel shared the story while talking about how she got into the famed movie, which she said was supposed to be a two-week job originally, and ultimately became two months. Over the years, people have often mistaken Vogel for her stunt woman Cheryl Wheeler-Dixon, who got quite hurt while filming the hoverboard sequence.

When the gang crashed into Hill Valley City Hall, Wheeler-Dixon actually crashed into a wall instead of “glass” and fell down 20 feet. In the same interview, Vogel talked about running into Fox after a long time, and even he made the popular mistake. But obviously, like she said, Fox sounds like he was an absolute delight to work with on the film back in the day.

Darlene Vogel’s story is new, but if you haven’t been paying attention to Back To The Future BTS updates recently, Michael J. Fox actually put out a book about the making of the movie last year. There, he talked about things like why he actually hated driving the DeLorean, how he was actually very involved in Marty’s costuming, and what it was like to replace another actor in the role.

While there’s a lot of facts and trivia about the Back To The Future movies, it’s nice to hear something new about them!

While some movies have dark or ambiguous endings, and some of them can be truly great, the happy ending is traditionally what we expect from our entertainment. We want our heroes to win, and the characters we’re emotionally invested in to be happy. However, unless a movie gets a sequel, we never really know what happens after the credits roll.

A recent post on Reddit has been getting a lot of attention, which suggests that some movies, while they might have a happy ending, leave things in a place where it’s actually logical to assume things won’t end up as a happily ever after, after all. The OP suggests that repopulating the Earth at the end of Wall-E probably isn’t going to go so well, considering nobody on the spacecraft has any idea how to do it. (I guess a little trial and error never hurt anyone.)

Others chimed in with similar unfortunate situations, including:

• Wizard of Oz , nothing changed because she had a dream, they are still killing Toto - No_Variety9420
• Snowpiercer. They definitely got eaten by that polar bear as soon as the movie ended. - morningnerds
• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Congratulations Charlie, you now own the largest child endangerment class action lawsuit in the country - Ocounter1
• Back to the Future. George and Lorraine will soon realize that this is not the child they raised. - BitcoinMD
• I mean pretty much the entire class is getting expelled on the spot from the, no doubt very expensive, school the minute Mr Keating leaves the room at the end of Dead Poets Society, right? 🤔 - Academic_Visual116

As somebody whose kids recently watched The Wizard of Oz, I have to say I had exactly the same thought as the comment above, when thinking about the fact that, unlike the original novel, the movie suggests that Dorthey’s experience in Oz is entirely a dream. This means she’s simply returned to the same situation she was in that caused her to run away, and an angry woman has a court order requiring her dog to be put to sleep.

Some of these others are pretty good as well. It’s totally unclear exactly what happened to the other kids in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and while Wonka himself is probably on the hook personally, if Charlie is the owner of the factory, he might be found liable in court. Speaking of the court, I think things might end up being even worse for Mr. Keating in Dead Poets Society. What happens if the parents of Neil think Keating is responsible for their son’s suicide, they could attempt to bring charges against him, and a lawsuit is almost a guarantee.

The Back to the Future comment is a key one as well, as time travel is one of those things that makes less sense the more one thinks about it. And Back to the Future's time travel makes far less sense than some other cinematic examples.

Honestly, this is all very depressing, as the more I think about it, the more I realize that a lot of movies might be darker than intended if you think about what happens next.

Thomas F. Wilson is one of those actors where even if you’re not familiar with him by name, you’ve almost certainly seen something from his extensive body of work. His biggest credits, of course, remain the Back to the Future movies, where he played Biff Tannen and other members of the Tannen family. It’s been over 40 years since we first saw Biff bullying Marty McFly and his father George, but these days, Wilson has a “complicated” relationship with BTTF, particularly when it comes to Biff’s favorite insult, “butthead.”

During Thomas F. Wilson’s recent appearance on Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, which included him recalling how original Marty actor Eric Stoltz treated him “very badly,” he acknowledged that he’s “incredibly blessed and fortunate” to have worked on Back to the Future, even with “all its attendant problems.” The actor explained:

Back to the Future was just Thomas F. Wilson’s second movie, following a bit part in the Korean-American Ninja Turf, which also came out in 1985. Obviously it was unknown at the time how big BTTF would be, but that’s quite the movie to achieve your breakthrough, and he initially didn’t even want to play Biff. But for a portion of his life, Wilson was dissatisfied with how it impacted his career. He told Michael Rosenbaum how he used to have a snide remark about how he wished Eric Stoltz would have stayed on as Marty, because then maybe the “movie would have been less good” and he “could have had a career.”

Wilson’s in a better place with Back to the Future now, but he then shared with Rosenbaum about where he stood with the movie in 2010, when it was celebrating its 25th anniversary:

Marty and Biff’s other targets might not have taken kindly to being called “butthead,” but I’m not surprised that Back to the Future fans would want Thomas F. Wilson to lob that insult at them. However, it got to the point where he was comfortable doing that anymore, continuing:

Wilson concluded this portion of the podcast by making it clear that he doesn’t mind meeting Back to the Future fans, he would just rather interact with them as a fellow person rather than have them look at him as some kind of goal to fulfill. In his words:

So for those of you who run into Thomas F. Wilson while out and about, table the request to have him call you “butthead” and just talk to him like you would with any other person. It’ll result in a more enjoyable experience for the both of you, and it doesn’t sound like Wilson has any problems with Back to the Future being mentioned. You could also bring up one of his other projects, like his multiple roles on SpongeBob SquarePants or, as one of my favorites, when he played Hank Heywood on Legends of Tomorrow.

Unfortunately, none of the Back to the Future movies are currently available to stream. However, if you have a Paramount+ subscription, you can hear Thomas F. Wilson voicing Cecil Star in the SpongeBob spinoff The Patrick Star Show.

Ever since we heard Michael J. Fox had joined the cast of Shrinking, we’ve been looking forward to the actor’s first return to acting since 2020’s The Good Fight. As the season premiere is on the 2026 TV schedule, what better way to prepare than hearing Jason Segel share one pinch-me moment he had with the Back To The Future star on set.

Anyone who grew up in the 1980s has the right to fanboy over Michael J. Fox, and Segel was born at the start of the decade right in the sweet spot to idolize Marty McFly. Here’s what the Shrinking star shared about one standout moment getting to share air with the Back to the Future legend that lives rent free in his head:

Have you heard about the crazy story behind Michael J. Fox shooting Back To The Future? Well, the 23-year-old was plucked by Bob Zemeckis to play the role, replacing the original actor Eric Stoltz after six weeks of filming. At the time, McFly was also filming Family Ties, and under contract, so he ended up doing both at the same time. In Fox’s recent account of the production of the movie in Future Boy, he got honest about barely getting sleep while playing both characters in a move that he’s pretty certain wouldn’t be allowed today.

However, for someone like Jason Segel, who was once on How I Met Your Mother and making movies like Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I Love You, Man or The Muppets at the same time, he looked up to Fox’s work ethic for his own motivation to “pull it off too.” You have to wonder how the pair of actors bonded about trying to make it in Hollywood and what war stories they swapped on the set of Shrinking.

From what we know about Season 3, Fox’s character will cross paths with Harrison Ford’s Dr. Paul Rhoades, who’s been dealing with Parkinson’s disease, early in the season and appears in multiple episodes. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991, and has been a vocal advocate for research with The Michael J. Fox Foundation since 2000. Ford has previously called Fox an “essential” addition to Shrinking Season 3.

The new season of Shrinking premieres on January 28, with new episodes premiering on Wednesdays. You can watch the series with an AppleTV+ subscription.

Back To The Future is a legendary film for a whole host of reasons, but one standout bit of trivia concerns some notorious behind the scenes drama: while Eric Stoltz was originally hired to play the role of Marty McFly, the character was recast in the midst of production and Michael J. Fox came in to replace him. Over the years, multiple reasons have been given to explain why the production made the move that it did – but in the eyes of co-star Thomas F. Wilson (best known to fans as Biff Tannen), a major contributing factor was Stoltz’s method approach to his performance.

This isn’t certainly isn’t the first time that method acting has raised eyebrows on a production (a recent example being Jared Leto’s behavior on the set of Suicide Squad), but Wilson explained during a recent appearence on the podcast Inside Of You that it created legitimate conflict between him and Stoltz in the making of Back To The Future. Host Michael Rosenbaum specifically asked his guest about his memories of working with the actor prior to him being fired, and while being very polite about it, Wilson explained why they didn’t get along:

Looking at the work from Eric Stoltz’s perspective, I suppose one can see a logic in it: he was playing Marty McFly, and he has a rough on-screen relationship with the classic cinematic bully that is Biff Tannen. He apparently felt license to keep that dynamic going even after Robert Zemeckis called “cut” on a scene and the cameras stopped rolling.

That being said, according to Thomas F. Wilson, Eric Stoltz was apparently being “selective” when it came to his commitment and how it impacted his relationships with co-stars. As an example, he pointed to the way that he behaved with Lea Thompson, with whom Stoltz had worked on 1984’s The Wild Life. Wilson continued,

Thompson, of course, plays Lorraine Baines a.k.a. Marty McFly’s mom in Back To The Future, and Marty is consistently weird around her because she very clearly develops a crush on him. But Wilson obviously didn’t see that represented when he saw them hanging out on set.

According to Wilson, looking back on the experience with over 40 years of hindsight, it was about respect: while Eric Stoltz was doing his thing to try and produce his best performance possible, it was an approach that didn’t have a positive impact when it came to collaboration (and that’s a vital thing on movie sets). He concluded,

Of course, that was the start of a whole other drama. Production was shut down, and Thomas F. Wilson went from thinking that the whole movie was being canned to thinking that he was the one being fired when he got a call asking him to attend a meeting with Robert Zemeckis. But that turbulence ended with Michael J. Fox replacing Eric Stoltz, and the rest is history.

For what it’s worth, there is still at least one shot in the finished movie that apparently features Eric Stoltz – and if you want to catch it, Back To The Future is now available to stream with an AMC+ subscription.

Last year, Universal Studios debuted one of my favorite theme park experiences of 2025: Fan Fest Nights. It was like the park’s iconic Halloween Horror Nights, but with a focus on non-horror franchises. It had some absolutely incredible attractions, including a rebuilt Enterprise-D bridge for the Star Trek experience and an awesome Beholder animatronic from the Henson Creature Shop for the Dungeons & Dragons experience. However, by far the best part of Fan Fest Nights was the Back to the Future portion of the show.

The Hill Valley set, which is still part of the historic Universal Studios backlot tour, became accessible to guests, and we got to walk around and feel like we were truly in the middle of the movie. Today, Universal Studios Hollywood announced that tickets are officially on sale for Fan Fest Night 2026. Unfortunately, with the news came the detail that Back to the Future won’t be back, but its replacement could be better.

Scooby Doo X Universal Monsters Will Take Guests To The Back Lot

It had previously been announced that one of the major attractions at Fan Fest Nights this year would be Scooby Doo X Universal Monsters, a mashup that would bring the ghost-hunting Hanna-Barbera team together with Universal’s classic creatures. However, we didn’t have any details on exactly what the experience would be.

In a press release, Universal Studios Hollywood confirmed that Scooby Doo X Universal Monsters will take place on the backlot. Guests will take the Studio Tour tram down to the backlot, and then exit the tram and walk along the backlot alongside the Scooby Gang as they go up against the various monsters.

What makes this extra special is that we’re talking about the Universal Studios backlot, which is where many of those classic Universal Monster movies were originally filmed. The Little Europe set, which still stands today, is where movies like Frankenstein and The Wolf Man were shot back in the ‘30s and ‘40s. It’s a classic movie fan’s dream come true.

Fan Fest Nights Has A Lot More To Offer, And It’s Not Done Yet

While the Back to the Future: Destination Hill Valley experience won’t be returning, one of last year’s attractions will. Dungeons & Dragons: Secrets of Waterdeep will be back. If you haven’t seen that incredible beholder animatronic, you’ll have another chance.

One other franchise from last year will be back as well, but in a new way. Last year, One Piece appeared at Fan Fest Nights as little more than a photo op, but this year, Universal Studios Japan’s ONE PIECE: Grand Pirate Show, will debut at the Waterworld stunt show location.

Fan Fest Nights is also teasing new experiences at the Super Nintendo World and Wizarding World of Harry Potter lands. Last year, Yoshi debuted at Super Nintendo World as part of the event. This year, we’ll get multiple Yoshis, in multiple colors, all throughout the land. The Wizarding World experience will be a walk through attractions that will send guests into the Forbidden Forest with a Hogwarts professor on the search for a lost Hippogriff.

There’s still more to be announced for this year’s Fan Fest Nights, but what we already have sounds like year two of the event will be just as good, and maybe better than year one.

Great Scott! It's time for this week's quiz, and when it comes to movies I'll never get tired of, Back to the Future is high on the list. So for this week's movie quiz, let's go back (or forward) in time and celebrate Robert Zemeckis' iconic trilogy. You'll need to be familiar with all three Back to the Future movies to solve all of the clues in this puzzle.

Two actresses played Jennifer Parker in the Back to the Future trilogy. Claudia Wells first took on the role in the original, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, and then Elisabeth Shue succeeded her in the next two movies. But as it turns out, an actress from The Office, one of the best sitcoms of all time, was originally going to play Jennifer in Back to the Future, though she was fired for a specific reason after Michael J. Fox came aboard.

As many Back to the Future fans know, Fox was tapped to take over playing Marty McFly from Eric Stoltz when it was determined after six weeks of filming that Stoltz wasn’t a good fit for the role after all. Unfortunately, Melora Hardin, who played Jan Levinson on The Office, ended up being collateral damage from this decision, as she was let go after having already shot multiple scenes with Stoltz. The actress recalled in an interview with EW:

When Back to the Future came along, Melora Hardin had already appeared in the movie The North Avenue Irregulars and TV shows like The Love Boat, Diff’rent Strokes and Little House on the Prairie. She was expecting the Robert Zemeckis-directed sci-fi film to be a big boost for career, but that changed with the Marty McFly recasting. Why? As both Hardin recalled earlier this year and Michael J. Fox mentioned in his new memoir Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum, two female studio executives felt that Fox was too short to star opposite Hardin, deeming it “emasculating” for a lead male character.

Although this professional opportunity didn’t work out, Melora Hardin has taken a more positive view on what happened. In her mind, if she had played Jennifer Parker, her career would have gone in a different direction and she “wouldn’t have done The Office.” Hardin continued:

For his part, Michael J. Fox expressed regret in his memoir that this “prejudice” over height affected Melora Hardin. However, if starring in Back to the Future would have indeed resulted in her starring in much different movies and TV shows, I think fans of The Office can be happy with how this turned out. Hardin did a great job playing Jan opposite Steve Carrell’s Michael Scott in seven of the show’s nine seasons, so it’s hard to imagine who would have done just as good a job, if not better, in the role.

The Back to the Future movies can all be streamed for free over at Pluto TV at the time of this writing. If you’d like to revisit Melora Hardin’s time on The Office, that show is accessible with a Peacock subscription.

Michael J. Fox famously replaced Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in Back to the Future, but that recasting had a broader effect that also cost The Office star Melora Hardin what could have been her breakout role as Jennifer. Fox still feels bad about the decision all these years later, and I’m on his side, even if I still love the two actors who ended playing Jennifer in the trilogy. Here’s what happened to Hardin, according to Fox.

Hardin Was Simply Too Tall

The recasting of Marty McFly from Eric Stoltz to Michael J. Fox is one of the most famous in Hollywood history. Without getting too deep into the weeds, after weeks of shooting, the producers of Back to the Future (which turned 40 this year) decided Stoltz wasn’t the right fit for the tone they were going for and made the decision to bring in Fox.

The effects on the production went much deeper than simply replacing an actor, as much of the movie had to be completely reshot, and little of the scenes filmed before Fox joined made it into the final cut, even if Marty wasn’t in the shot. Fox is shorter than Stoltz, and while the plan wasn’t to replace anyone else, it seems those same producers got worried that Hardin being taller than Fox could be a problem. Fox recently wrote about the decision in his memoir about the movie, Future Boy (via Entertainment Weekly):

Fox knew that the move wasn’t fair to Hardin, adding:

At the time, Fox was used to negativity regarding his height, according to his book. He’d found success playing younger characters, but as he started moving into more mature roles, his small stature began to hold him back. Having a girlfriend who was taller than him simply didn’t work in the eyes of the powers that be on Back to the Future.

He also didn’t have much sway at the time, of course. That meant no one consulted him on the decision to replace Hardin with Claudia Wells, who herself was replaced in the cast of the movies by Elizabeth Shue for the two sequels. Fox writes that he would have argued to keep her on.

Hardin Has Spoken About It, Too

Earlier this year, Hardin appeared on the Joe Vulpis Podcast and gave her side of the story, explaining that she knew earning the role was a big deal, with the very real possibilities of a sequel. Understandably, she was angry at the decision, but she has a different perspective these days, saying:

For that, I think we can all agree that we’re lucky, because it’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role of Jan Levinson, one of the best characters on The Office (which you can watch with a Peacock subscription). It’s at least good to know that for Hardin and Back to the Future, everything seems to have worked out the way it should have in the long run.

For an entire generation, Michael J. Fox will forever be the time-traveling hero from one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time and the biggest movies of the 1980s. Long before he sprinted across Hill Valley or outran Biff Tannen, Fox was another young actor trying to claw his way out of Hollywood’s margins. In aninterview tied to Back to the Future's 40th anniversary and the release of his memoir Future Boy, he’s peeling back the curtain on what his life looked like before Marty McFly changed everything.

The now-famous actor recently spoke to EW, recalling that when he entered the industry, he wasn’t thinking about career legacy or future stardom, but was just trying to survive the grind. The expectations were low, and, as he put it, the treatment often left him feeling like he barely registered.

Even with Family Ties giving him some early footing, Fox explains that the years before Back to the Future were more in survival mode than in momentum. He continued:

Coming from Edmonton with no family connections beyond a mother who once acted, he had no fast track, no safety net, and no sense that his career was about to become generational. That’s what makes the Back to the Future origin story even more surreal.

Fox wasn’t chasing a blockbuster but was juggling Family Ties, shooting Teen Wolf, and suddenly fielding a call to meet with Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg about a movie already six weeks into production.

Famously, Michael J. Fox took over the role of Marty from Eric Stoltz, who was replaced weeks into shooting. This is a fact the Life of Mikey actor says he didn’t know about when he took the job. He just showed up, worked through exhaustion, and hoped it would make a difference.

Of course, it did. The movie turned Michael J. Fox into a star and cemented Marty McFly as one of pop culture’s defining roles. He's now worth (an alleged) $65 million or so, but that success came only after years of rejection. Looking back, the Teen Wolf star’s grit tracks, as he’s weathered challenges far tougher than early-career setbacks, including his life-changing Parkinson’s diagnosis in 1990. And through it all, he’s become a symbol of resilience, optimism, and advocacy.

The Canadian-born performer’s rise may feel inevitable now, but it wasn’t. There was no guarantee Marty McFly would become a phenomenon with four decades of staying power — yet that’s exactly what happened. And it’s difficult to imagine that legacy without Michael J. Fox’s performance at the center of it.

If you want to revisit his iconic turn as Marty McFly, the entire Back to the Future trilogy is streaming with a Paramount+ subscription.

By now, most Back to the Future fans know the movie almost looked very different. Before Michael J. Fox became the hoverboard-riding, guitar-shredding, time-jumping face of the franchise, the role of Marty McFly was played by Eric Stoltz — and not just for a day or two. Stoltz shot six weeks of footage before being replaced, a move so rare and risky it became the stuff of Hollywood legend. Now, four decades later, we finally have a clear look at what the other actor could have looked like in the role.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly tied to the film’s 40th anniversary (and the release of Fox’s memoir Future Boy), Fox and his co-author Nelle Fortenberry opened up about the anxious, fast-paced handoff that nearly derailed the movie. And why did the recast happen in the first place? The Family Ties actor offered a gracious but honest take:

That lighter, more comedic tone proved to be the missing piece. Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis, and Bob Gale quickly saw that Fox’s version of Marty clicked better with the tone of the film, and audiences obviously agreed.

As Fortenberry put it, the studio initially tried to keep the recast quiet. They didn’t even announce the swap until Fox had already started. But once industry trades caught wind, the headlines weren’t kind. One called the film “troubled,” fueling industry rumors that Back to the Future might be doomed.

Still, Fox was careful not to villainize Stoltz, who he says poured just as much energy into the role as he did. In Future Boy, he writes about what they had in common:

And the rest, as they say, is history. The only way anything is changing on that front is with a Delorean of your own. Jokes aside, I cannot for the life of me imagine another actor in the role of Marty–even someone as talented as Eric Stoltz. The role is iconic because of what Michael J. Fox brought to it. And funny enough, it almost never happened.

Fox barely had time to rehearse. In fact, he hadn’t even met Christopher Lloyd when they filmed Doc Brown’s dramatic entrance. The rest of the cast, including Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover, had already shot several scenes with Stoltz, meaning Fox was inserting himself into a movie already in progress. The Spin City actor recalled:

And great it was. It's a movie widely seen not just as one of the best of the ‘80s but as one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time. Even recently, Back to the Future returned to cinemas and the 2025 movie release schedule on October 31 in 4K glory, allowing fans to revisit it (or see it for the first time) and celebrate the version that became timeless.

Like many, I grew up on Back to the Future. This film, which is one of the best movies of the ‘80s, blew me away as a kid, and I’ve watched it over and over again since. However, I had never seen it in theaters. So, when it premiered in cinemas alongside the projects on the 2025 movie schedule, I knew I had to catch it on the big screen. Then, as I watched it, I had a totally new experience as I took in this film with a crowd and realized that a different character stole the show this time.

I’ve Seen Back To The Future Many Times, And Marty Has Always Been My Favorite Character

I’ve seen this great time travel movie more times than I can count. It’s aged well, it’s timeless, and I will never, ever get tired of going on this journey with Marty McFly. I’ve always adored Michael J. Fox, and I was absolutely charmed by him in this movie.

Of everyone in the Back to the Future cast, I was always gravitated toward Fox. He’s equal parts charming and hilarious, and watching him navigate the ‘50s is endlessly entertaining.

The movie is also told from Marty’s point of view, so Fox’s performance and how he specifically reacted to the wild world around him carry the story forward. Therefore, every time I’ve watched it before this last time, Marty has always stolen the show.

Also, he falls over so much, his reactions to the ‘50s are hilarious, and he walks around with an effortless charisma that is impossible to look away from. Oh, and he’s a cutie. However, this ensemble is stacked, which I’ve always known. So this time, I found myself more enamored by the man who invented time travel, not the man who went back in time.

Seeing It In Theaters, Christopher Lloyd’s Doc Brown Absolutley Stole The Show

As I mentioned in celebration of Back to the Future’s 40th anniversary, it was re-released in theaters, which meant I was able to see it on the big screen. More importantly, it was with an audience for the first time. That meant it wasn’t just me reacting; a whole room of people was laughing and gasping, and that heavily influenced this experience.

That’s because literally any time Christopher Lloyd said one of his iconic Doc Brown lines or reacted funnily, the crowd would react in a big way. That helped emphasize the brilliance of this performance from Lloyd, and it helped me focus more on his storyline.

Now, I’ve always found Doc and Lloyd in general very funny. However, for some reason, watching Back to the Future this time, he was even funnier. Maybe it was the bigger screen and I could see his expressions better. Maybe it was the crowd laughing at him. Overall, it was remarkable, and he literally gives a masterclass in comedic performance in this film.

His smaller silly moments really got me this time too, like him walking in a straight line into the school and stepping over the bike instead of going around it. That goes to show that every choice Lloyd made, down to the smallest details, is meaningful and comical.

On the flip side, there was something about Doc’s more dramatic moments that hit me way harder this time. That last scene in the ‘50s, when Marty is trying to get him to read the letter, is so tragic and beautiful, and it tells us so much about this mad scientist without him really saying much.

All this is to say, Christopher Lloyd really stole the show during my theatrical viewing of Back to the Future, and I loved it so much. To be clear, I always loved Doc and thought he was hilarious – I’ll scream “1.21 gigawatts” randomly and think about how “Where we’re going we don’t need roads” when I’m going to the airport. However, Marty was always my favorite character whom I focused on most.

Well, now that’s changed a bit, and the next time I watch Back to the Future, I can’t wait to see how my feelings about it continue to evolve.

Ready to feel old? Back to the Future just turned 40, and there are so many ways to celebrate the anniversary of one of the best ‘80s movies. If you’re not into escape rooms or just missed the movie’s return to theaters, don’t fret, because there’s plenty of time to pick up a new LEGO set inspired by the iconic sci-fi adventure starring Michael J. Fox as the timeless hero, Marty McFly.

That’s right, LEGO is about to drop a nice little DeLorean set that includes Marty McFly and Doc Brown that pays tribute to Back to the Future and its enduring legacy after all these years. It’s part of the Speed Champions series of builds, which is fitting considering what happens when this time-traveling car gets up to 88 mph! Here’s everything to know about the upcoming LEGO set…

The DeLorean LEGO Set Price And Release Date

Preorders are not yet open for the DeLorean Time Machine LEGO set, but it won’t be long until this bad boy is speeding its way into homes around the world (if it doesn’t crash into a barn first). LEGO has announced that the 357-piece set (recommended for builders 9 and up) will be available on January 1, 2026, at a reasonable price of $27.99 (plus tax, shipping, and handling).

Compared to some of the other sets from ‘80s movies we’ve talked about recently (the amazing Goonies pirate ship comes to mind), this Back to the Future has a price low enough that anyone can grab one. So, if you’re like me and already thinking about how you’re going to spend that Christmas cash, here’s a good way to go.

Despite Its Small Stature, This Back To The Future Set Packs A Mean Punch

Just like Marty McFly, this DeLorean set is on the small side, but don’t let its size fool you. This thing packs a mean punch. Sure, it’s only four inches high, six-and-a-half inches long, and two-and-a-half inches wide, but the sleek time machine has two different modes – from both Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part II – that give you so many options for both play and display.

Though my son is a few months shy of the recommended age, this set is something we’d both like. I’m going to pick this up when pre-orders go live so that we can put this thing together while watching Back to the Future (hopefully, he understands it this time).

There’s Also A More Complex (And Expensive) Alternative

This isn’t the only Back to the Future build out there, as LEGO has another DeLorean set that is available right now. Part of the Icons program, this Time Machine build is bigger, badder, more complex, and a whole lot more expensive.

Clocking in at 1872 pieces, which includes the iconic car Michael J. Fox hated driving, multiple accessories, and two minifigs depicting the movie’s two most iconic characters, this set is massive. However, I feel obligated to point out that the Marty minifig from the new and less expensive set looks a whole lot better than the one included in the Icons build, especially when it comes to his signature vest.

If you want to go back to Hill Valley while you wait for this awesome Back to the Future LEGO set, the iconic 1985 movie is available to rent or buy with an Amazon subscription.

Every Halloween without fail, you’ll probably see someone channeling Marty McFly’s signature look from Back To The Future. And, as you can imagine the look itself went through a lot of iterations before reaching its final form. But, did you know Michael J. Fox was the person behind Marty’s iconic Nikes? But, it didn’t come without a big “dilemma” that happened behind the scenes before Marty could officially wear the shoes for the classic movie that just turned 40.

Michael J. Fox has shared a bunch of Back To The Future stories in his new book, Future Boy, from why he hated driving the DeLorean to one inconsistency about the movie’s time travel. In the memoir, he also dug into the origin of Marty’s Nikes. In his words:

If you’re not aware, Fox was actually a recast on Back To The Future after Eric Stoltz was initially chosen for the role, and actually even played the role for almost two months. Future Boy has Fox recollecting what it was like to take the role after production had already began, and while simultaneously shooting his sitcom, Family Ties.

In the book, Fox recalled going to a fitting for Marty McFly when the original shoes for the character had been accidentally left at the soundstage. The actor said he suggested the Nikes already around his toes following the snafu, which he describes as his “go-to sneaks” at the time that were perfect for “skateboarding and duckwalking and kicking around – everything Marty needed to do”. He continued:

It totally makes sense that production would need a few pairs of Marty’s shoes in order to land on the look, but that initially posed a problem considering his specific pair were out of print. Determined to go with Fox’s pick of sneakers, producer Frank Marshall made some calls to Nike to figure out if there was a workaround.

He ended up getting in touch with a woman named Pam McConnell, who was running a brand new product placement department at the headquarters in Portland, Oregon. Here’s what happened next:

What a great story! There’s nothing like the power of movies (and marketing) to get Nikes to move some mountains to make Fox’s favorite shoes become Marty’s shoes. It was a good call from Nike too, considering Back To The Future would become one of the best 80s movies, and his sequel would include one of those famous movie futuristic inventions of Nikes with the power laces which the company made happen in 2015 (under a very limited run).

Michael J. Fox has a lot more stories about what it was like to play Marty McFly in Back To The Future in Future Boy, which is now on bookshelves!

For 40 years, people have been discussing the time travel inconsistencies in Back to the Future. People, especially on the internet, love to talk about how time travel works in movies. One of the more ridiculous examples, in my opinion, comes from the 1985 mega hit, and it involves the Gibson ES-350 that Marty (Michael J. Fox) plays “Johnny B. Goode” on at the Enchantment Under The Sea dance in 1955. It’s not a fault of the time travel, but actually a decision made by the art department on the film. Fox talks about the “controversy” in his new memoir.

The Guitar In The Movie Wasn’t Released By Gibson Until 1958

Fans of BTTF know that Marty travels from October 26th, 1985, back to November 5th, 1955. In his attempt to make sure his parents fall in love at the right time, keeping the timeline of the future consistent, Marty stands in for Marvin Berry in the band at the dance. He borrows Marvin’s guitar, a semi-hollow body, model number ES-345. Gibson is renowned for its ES series; the first, the ES-150, was introduced by the company in 1936. Gibson has been producing ES guitars ever since, with dozens of models over the years.

The problem that guitar aficionados love to point out is that the ES-345 model, like the one in the movie, wasn’t introduced to the market until 1958, three years after the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance. In his book, Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum, via Syfy, Fox writes about:

According to Fox, a debate has raged over whether this “inconsistency” was intentional or not. That debate has been settled now. It was not a quirk of time travel, it wasn’t even planned:

That’s it. It was just the prop that was chosen because it resembled a guitar that Chuck Berry would play, though he was famous for playing other models, most notably an ES-350T. But since we’re on the topic of inconsistencies, let’s talk about the song Marty plays and Marvin’s phone call to his “cousin” Chuck Berry (Marvin is a fictional character).

‘Johnny B. Goode’ May Have Been Written Before The Dance, Too

Chuck Berry recorded his iconic hit “Johnny B. Goode” in late 1957, and it was released in 1958 (coincidentally, the same year the Gibson ES-345 was introduced). It was reported written a couple of years early, or, at least, started being written in 1955. So that “new sound” that Chuck was looking for, according to Marvin, had probably already been discovered by Berry by the time the dance happened in November of ‘55

Furthermore, Berry recorded another one of his most iconic songs, “Maybellene,” in May 1955 at Chess Records’ studio in Chicago and released it in June, five months before the dance. “Maybellene” doesn’t have a legendary opening riff like “Johnny B. Goode,” but it’s definitely in the style Chuck Berry would become world famous for.

The Famous Riff Is Even Older

That’s not all, Berry himself acknowledged that he was “inspired” by the riff that opens the song “Ain't That Just Like a Woman,” by Louis Jordan, which was recorded in 1946! All it takes is one listen to determine that the riffs are almost identical. It’s safe to assume Berry already knew the riff and was likely even playing in concert in one way or another in the months and maybe years before Marvin’s phone call in 1955.

What’s the point of all this? Well, I’m on Michael J. Fox’s side. Who cares about the exact timeline and whether everything in it is perfectly period-correct? It’s one of the best scenes in one of the best movies of the ‘80s. Just enjoy it, especially since Back to the Future will be back in theaters for a limited time starting next week!

It’s hard for me to believe that Back To The Future turned 40 years old this year. One of the best movies of the 1980s, starring Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, and Christopher Lloyd, was released on July 3, 1985. I definitely saw the two sequels in theaters, but not the first one, though I did watch it a million times as a kid on cable and VHS. Now, I have a chance to finally see it on the big screen, and that’s just one of the ways that people can celebrate the film’s anniversary.

Back To The Future Is Literally And Figuratively Timeless

When Back to the Future first hit theaters in the summer of ‘85, it became an instant and massive success. It ended up being the highest-grossing movie of the year, and in total made close to $400 million at the box office (including a re-release in 2010 for the movie’s 25th anniversary).

BTTF is a timeless classic that honestly never gets old, whether it’s kids seeing it for the first time in 2025 or those of us Gen Xers who have seen it countless times over the years. I even saw the musical last year in London with my niece and nephew, who were both born 30 years after the movie came out. And yes, they loved the show, and they love the movie. I missed Back to the Future in theaters in 1985, and I missed it in 2010, but the good news is I have yet another chance, and I won’t miss it this time.

It’s Being Re-Released For A Limited Run Next Week, And There Is Merch!

Starting on October 30th, Back to the Future will be back on the big screen across the country, including in IMAX at select theaters. I’m going to do my best to catch on the really big screen, but if I can’t make that happen, at least I’ll get to see in the dark, at a theater, the way movies are best seen. It’ll correct a regret 40 years in the making.

There is also some cool merch available to celebrate. Everything from Funko Pops to Crocs to t-shirts and more. Of course, all three movies are available in commemorative DVD and Blu-ray versions as well. I’m always a sucker for Funko Pop figures, so I dunno, I’m really thinking about picking one up and setting it next to my Lloyd Dobler one. Maybe I’ll settle for a t-shirt. We’ll see.

If You Want A More Interactive Experience, Check Out The Escape Room

If you live in Orlando or are headed to Universal anytime soon, you can always check out the fun Back to the Future Escape Room. It’s one of two Universal Great Movie Escape options, with another great movie from my youth, Jurassic Park, forming the basis of the other. In the BTTF version, you even get a cameo from Doc Brown, played by original cast member Christopher Lloyd himself.

If nothing else, you should at least spend some time in the next couple of weeks to watch the original Back to the Future. Even though it’s not part of a streaming package, you can always rent it on VOD with a Prime subscription. Me? I’ll be at the movies with a big bucket of popcorn and a Pepsi.

Any fan of Back to the Future knows that Michael J. Fox’s character, Marty McFly, accidentally invented rock n’ roll on that fateful night in 1985, er, I mean, 1955, when he played “Johnny B. Goode” with Marvin Berry’s band. The fictional Marvin, in the movie, made a quick phone call to his brother, the real-life Chuck Berry, and the rest, I guess, is history. Or something like it.

BTTF, which is getting a limited re-release later this month as part of the 2025 movie schedule in honor of its 40th anniversary, is a seminal movie in the minds of many, and that scene is, for many reasons, one of the most iconic. The guitar that Marty plays, a Gibson ES-345, has been missing since the scene was filmed. No one seems to know where it is, including Fox, who recently opened up about trying to find it.

The Guitar Just Disappeared

In Fox’s recently released book, Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum, via Us Weekly, the star talks about the lost guitar. He writes:

The guitar, it seems, was snatched up by an unknown crew member or someone else on the set. Fox wishes he still had it, both for its sentimental value and its monetary value. Says Fox:

He suspects someone on the set recognized the value and has it, somewhere, but as for now, Fox doesn’t know who:

It’s impossible to know just how much the guitar could be worth. Vintage Gibson ES-345s are pretty valuable on their own, to say nothing about this particular one, given its status in Hollywood history. Fox, of course, is a guitar player himself, so you just know he’d love to have it in his collection.

Gibson Has Promised A Documentary If The Guitar Is Located

I love a great guitar story, and surely this famous Gibson has one. According to Fox, the company is actively looking for it and has even promised to make a documentary about the instrument, should it be found:

Much like the search for Paul McCartney’s long-lost Hofner bass is being made into a documentary and will likely be released as part of the 2026 movie schedule, this could make for an amazing film. So let’s all hope it’s found soon!

This year marks the 40th anniversary of not only one of the best '80s movies, but all-time great sci-fi films, Back To The Future. To commemorate the occasion, Michael J. Fox wrote a first-person account called Future Boy about his time making the popular movie when he was 23 years old. Amongst his many confessions, he made something notable clear: he did not like driving the DeLorean.

The DeLorean time machine in Back To The Future is one of those objects in movies that are as famous as the actors. When recalling his scenes with the now out-of-production vehicle, here’s what Fox wrote:

The DMC DeLorean was quite the unique model of car. It had a rear engine, was a two-seater and only made by the DeLorean Motor Company for the American market between 1981 to 1983. It’s not only Fox who wasn’t impressed by how it runs – the DeLorean is widely thought to lack power and performance as a vehicle. As Fox continues in Future Boy:

As Fox notes, it wasn’t just any DeLorean. Production decked out the cars used on set with all sorts of extra embellishments that made it even more difficult to drive. It sounds like the car was giving Fox bumps and bruises all the time, making it a particularly difficult part of filming for him. Of course, from the outside in, we might think it’s an absolute dream to drive what’s now such a memorable vehicle, but Fox had to withstand some discomfort in order for us, the audience, to believe he was driving a time machine.

Flatiron Books was kind enough to send us a copy of Future Boy in advance of the memoir officially hitting shelves this week, and my eyes darted what felt like 88 miles per hour to learn the true story of what it was like for the actor to take the role of a lifetime as Mary McFly. In Future Boy, the actor breaks down how he ended up getting to work on the film at the same time as he was in production on Family Ties Season 3 after the original Back To The Future star, Eric Stoltz, was fired due to his approach to the character just not working for director Robert Zemeckis.

I definitely gained new insight about the making of a movie that I’ve watched with my family countless times that makes me appreciate Michael J. Fox’s place in the legacy of the film. You can read Future Boy yourself for Fox’s whole story on the making of Back To The Future right now.

One of my favorite Hollywood “what ifs” is imagining Back to the Future, one of the best '80s movies, without Michael J. Fox. It’s wild to think about now, but Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly in the sci-fi classic movie, before being replaced by the star of one of the best sitcoms of the era, Fox. Forty years later, the Life With Mikey actor is opening up about finally meeting Stoltz after the switch.

The meeting happened in New York City while the Spin City veteran was gathering memories for his new book, Future Boy, which revisits the chaotic stretch when he shot Back to the Future at night and Family Ties by day. The account comes via People, which first reported the reunion. About the meeting with the Pulp Fiction star, Fox says:

If you’ve followed the saga, you likely know Stoltz was initially cast as the time-tripping teen and filmed for several weeks, though only one scene remains available to see, before director Robert Zemeckis and Universal pivoted to the Family Ties actor. That change has fueled years of rumor and internet archaeology. Fox, now 64, says the truth is simpler and far less dramatic. He explained:

The Frighteners alum says he reached out to “key players” while writing Future Boy, including Zemeckis, Back to the Future co-star Lea Thompson and Family Ties co-star Justine Bateman. Stoltz declined to be interviewed for the book but later agreed to meet at Fox’s office, where the conversation stayed private and respectful. MJF adds that he’s a longtime admirer of Stoltz’s work and that the sit-down helped them contextualize a formative moment in both of their careers.

The two actors even discovered a shared pre-Hill Valley history. Back in the early ’80s, they auditioned together for Franc Roddam’s military school drama, The Lords of Discipline. The For Love or Money actor recalls that the read got so “intense” that Stoltz nearly tore his shirt, but neither actor landed the part. The timing of the meeting dovetails with Fox’s broader look back. The memoir from the beloved actor chronicles not just the recast but the grueling split schedule that produced one of the defining performances of the ’80s.

For longtime Back to the Future fans, the takeaway is refreshingly anti-mythic. There’s no secret feud here, but instead, just two professionals who lived through the same high-pressure pivot from opposite sides of the lens, and who can now compare notes.

Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum arrives Oct. 14, and an audiobook edition narrated by Michael J. Fox folds in interviews with collaborators from Back to the Future and Family Ties, plus archival audio cues that should delight DeLorean diehards.

Be sure to check out our 2025 movie release schedule to see what new movies are headed to a theater near you.

Movie stars are usually the biggest draw to movies for fans. They are usually who get the most credit for the popularity of a movie (as well as the blame when a movie bombs). On rare occasions, there are objects or props in movies that become just as iconic as anything else in a film. These are necessarily the best MacGuffins, sometimes they are just famous props or pieces of wardrobe. Let's get into it!

All The Dude wanted was his rug back. That simple rug, micturated upon by Woo, drives all the action in the movie, and while the audience doesn't see much of the rug that The Dude (Jeff Bridges) is trying to replace, we do see the one that he (briefly) gets from the millionaire Lebowski in the Big Lebowski.

The DeLorean Time Machine

Admit it, you wanted a DeLorean time machine. We ALL wanted one. Heck, most of us would settle for a regular DeLorean. Ever since we all went back in time with Marty and Doc in Back To The Future, we've longed for the same ability, in the same machine. Now those cars are as lost to time as Biff's Sports Almanac.

Wilson

When the only star who appears in most of a movie only has one friend and that friend is a volleyball, it's bound to be a famous prop. Wilson the Volleyball is the only companion Chuck (Tom Hanks) has in Cast Away, and just like Chuck, the audience gets pretty attached to that silly ball with a face made of Chuck's blood.

The Briefcase In Pulp Fiction

Another cool MacGuffin on this list is the briefcase from Pulp Fiction. We never actually see what's inside, just that it is glowing gold. Maybe that's why the prop has become so famous. If we knew it was just like a stolen Oscar statuette or something, we'd feel differently.

The Red And Blue Pills

While the Blue Pill and the Red Pill in The Matrix have since taken political connotations in recent years, they were famous way before that. One will wake Neo (Keanu Reeves) up, and one will put him back to sleep. Honestly, I don't care which is which, and any political connections are weird, so let's leave it at that.

One Ring To Rule Them All

Not only is The One Ring one of the most famous props in movie history, it's one of the most famous in literature these days. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a masterpiece, and without this one ring to rule them all, it wouldn't exist.

Indy's Whip

You might say Indiana Jones' hat is the most famous prop in the Indiana Jones movies, but the whip that Harrison Ford's character is just as iconic and let's be honest, a little more interesting than a hat. So the whip gets the nod here.

The Giant Piano In Big

Any kid lucky enough to visit the FAO Schwartz in New York after Big was released, their first mission was to find the giant piano you could walk on and even play. It's one of the most iconic scenes in any movie from the era, and while I learned firsthand it was impossible for me to recreate the scene, I still dream about getting a big enough piano to make it work.

Thor's Hammer

There are a lot of famous props in the MCU, like ranking the MCU movies, we could almost do a list of props all its own. Things like the Infinity Gauntlet, or the stones that go into it, are iconic, but is there anything as iconic in the whole franchise as Thor's hammer? Heck, it's one of the famous objects in world mythology, much less Marvel's corner of it.

The Leg Lamp

After the dad in A Christmas Story wins a fragile, major award, it turns out to be a lamp in the shape of a woman's leg. He's so proud of it that he wants to display it in the window, much to the chagrin of his wife. It doesn't make it to the end of the movie, and there is another prop, the Red Ryder BB Gun, that is equally famous, but we just had to go with the leg. After all, it must be Italian.

Dorothy's Ruby Slippers

Of all the famous props and wardrobe pieces on this list, none, not a one, are as famous or as iconic as Dorothy's Ruby Slippers in The Wizard of Oz. It's a prop that is so famous that they are in the Smithsonian along with Fonzie's jacket and Archie Bunker's chair.

The Heart Of The Ocean

Sure, the boat in Titanic is probably the most famous non-character in the movie, but that would be a little on the nose. Instead, we went with the necklace that the crew led by Bill Paxton's character is searching for, The Heart of the Ocean. It ends up down with the boat, though.

The Batmobile

Pick your favorite Batmobile. Any Batmobile works here. You could go with the great one from the '60s TV show (my favorite), or the one from Tim Burton's Batman, and get even more tech with one of Christopher Nolan's versions. You can't go wrong.

Maverick's Jacket

Maverick (Tom Cruise) has one of the most iconic pieces of wardrobe ever. That bomber jacket, covered in patches, is legendary. It's such an important part of the character that when Top Gun: Maverick dropped its first teaser, it was simply a close-up of the jacket and Maverick putting it on.

Freddie's Glove

There are a lot of famous props in horror movies, many of them masks. Freddie's glove in the Nightmare on Elm Street is among the most famous, maybe the most famous. It's a terrifying weapon that has given fans nightmares for decades.

Lightsabers

Okay, so how much do we really need to say here? Of all the props in all the world, is there one more famous than the lightsabers in the Star Wars franchise? No matter what color, there is no weapon in any other franchise that has nearly the same cache as the elegant weapon of the Jedi knights.

Wonka's Golden Ticket

Without the Golden Ticket in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, none of the kids (or their parents) would get the tour of Willie's wild factory. They wouldn't have gotten in any trouble, either.

The Red Swingline Stapler

Stephen Root's character, Milton, in Office Space is one of the weirdest characters in any comedy of the era. Not only is his mumbling disturbing, but his love for his red stapler is downright scary.... and hilarious. It became so famous that Swingline made a special red version of their stapler based on the prop.

Proton Packs

According to Ray (Dan Aykroyd), each Ghostbuster is "carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back." Those proton packs have since become a key part of every kid who dressed like our heroes in Ghostbusters for Halloween for decades. Hopefully, the ones the kids wear are a little safer.

The Maltese Falcon

This is a prop so famous, they named the movie after it! Or maybe the prop is named after the movie? I don't know. It could be either way, I suppose. It's one of the most famous MacGuffins ever, the statue in The Maltese Falcon.

Vote For Pedro Tee Shirt

Long after the hype for Napoleon Dynamite faded, we were still seeing people with "Vote For Pedro" shirts walking the streets. The shirts were so popular, it almost eclipsed the movie. Now, they still might be more popular.

The 2001 Obelisk

Obelisks are so cool that people are still randomly building them in the desert (look up Las Vegas Obelisk). That all stems from the Stanley Kubrick classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Even people who have never seen the legendary film know the scene(s) with the obelisk.

Ghostface's Mask

There are a few very famous masks in horror history, so of course, a movie like Scream, which is essentially a love letter to the classic '70s and '80s slasher films, would end up with one of the most famous. The masks, like the franchise, have been incredibly enduring and probably will be for the next 100 years.

The Sorting Hat

In the world of Harry Potter, there are a few famous props, like the flying car and the various wands. Still, every fan of the franchise secretly has dreams about being sorted by the Sorting Hat into their favorite house at Hogwarts.

Mary Poppins' Umbrella

Every kid dreams of a flying nanny like Mary Poppins, if not having Poppins herself as their nanny. The umbrella has become one of the most recognizable props in the movie over the years. The scene where we first see Julie Andrews as Mary gently guiding herself down is one of the most famous scenes in Hollywood history.

Rita Hayworth Poster

CinemaBlend has called The Shawshank Redemption the best movie of the '90s. The Stephen King story on which it is based is called, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. That's how important the poster is that Andy (Tim Robbins) hides his escape tunnel. The moment when the warden tears it down is one of the most fun moments in any movie, ever.

The New Bluesmobile

The Bluesmobile in The Blues Brothers is not, actually, the original Bluesmobile, according to Jake (John Belushi). The original was a Cadillac, not the former Police Car that Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) shows up in to pick Jake up from prison. Elwood explains that he had to trade it for a microphone, which Jake understands. No matter what, the car is one of the most famous cars of the 1980s.

Reese's Pieces

Oh, what a mistake Mars Candy made when they reportedly didn't want Steven Spielberg to use M&M's in E.T. That opened up an opportunity for the folks over at Reese's Pieces, who did license their product, and now they are one of the most famous food items in any movie, ever.

Jason's Hockey Mask

Of all the famous masks in slasher films from the '70s and '80s, there is none more iconic than Jason's mask in the Friday the 13th franchise. We're not going to get into who was actually wearing it in the original movie, because it doesn't matter. It's the mask that matters.

The Burn Book

Ahhhh, the "Burn Book" in Mean Girls. It's the ultimate downfall of the titular click in the classic comedy written by and starring Tina Fey. It's filled with all the evidence anyone would ever need to take those terrible people down, and eventually, they are dramatically brought down.

The Box In Seven

"What's in the box?" is one of the most disturbing questions ever uttered in any movie, ever. Brad Pitt's performance in the moment is some of the best acting work of his career. We certainly don't want to go into detail with the answer to that question, but if you know, you know.

The Red Balloon In IT

Some people are scared of clowns. Some people are scared of balloons. IT finds a way to freak both groups out and in the process creates one of the most iconic props of all time. No words are needed to scare people, either. Like so many props on this list, one quick glance is all it takes to know exactly what movie it comes from.

Back to the Future is one of the most iconic franchises in movie history. The fact that it’s been 35 years since we got a new movie and series, and despite a lack of sequels, remakes, or reboots, the movies are still popular. Anybody who has an original prop from the film is in possession of a piece of cinema history, and now the cast of the movie is coming together to find one of them.

Apparently, the red Gibson ES-345 guitar that Marty McFly plays “Johnny B. Goode” on in the film has been missing since shortly after Back to the Future was shot. Now, Gibson, along with Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, Huey Lewis, and others involved in the movie have come together to launch Lost to the Future, a hunt for the missing item. Check out the promotional video below.

In a movie full of famous moments, Marty McFly playing guitar is among the most well-known. Michael J. Fox actually plays guitar, so the scene was nearly as real as it looked on screen. That said, Fox worked hard to get it right.

It’s maybe not that much of a shock that the Back to the Future guitar disappeared. There certainly was no way to know that Back to the Future was going to be a massive hit and spawn two sequels back when it was made. Most of the movie's props were probably not preserved in any significant way.

And we know that sometimes, cast and crew will help themselves to props as mementos of the experience of making the film. The Gibson guitar would be the sort of prop that, if somebody played, would also be something they could actually use. Possibly to recreate the scene below.

Of course, if somebody from the Back to the Future production took the guitar, you’d think it would have been uncovered in the last 40 years. If it hasn’t turned up, it’s because the guitar ended up somewhere unexpected, and not only does nobody know where it is, but it seems there aren’t even any leads, leading to this campaign.

Having recently been to Universal Studios’ Fan Fest Nights, where I actually stood on the Clock Tower set of the Universal backlot, I know firsthand just what it’s like to experience a piece of Back to the Future history firsthand.

Hopefully, if somebody has the guitar and knows they have it, the campaign will become popular enough that the person in question will reveal their possession. Based on the video, it doesn’t appear that anybody is necessarily focused on obtaining the guitar, simply ascertaining its location. Although, depending on just how the person who has the guitar got it, it’s possible they might not want to talk about it. It wouldn’t be the first time that props were obtained through less-than-legal means.

As the seasons change, naturally so do wardrobes. Typical fashionistas like Carrie Bradshaw and her bold wardrobe take over the internet, while Kylie Jenner is calling it the summer of 'sexy.' But Lea Thompson reuniting with her Back to the Future costars and once again eliciting the coolness of Calvin Klein Underwear opposed to any throwback BTTF fits or accessories is shocking. I certainly didn’t expect this surprise curveball to kick off summer 2025, but I’m both pleased and amused by it.

Unlike the official Rihanna x Smurfs undie campaign, Thompson’s BTTF x CK sentence appeared on her Instagram post in a more personal and wholesome way. Specifically, the 64-year-old just celebrated her birthday, and many personal and professional loved ones came to join in on the fun. Highlights include time traveling costars Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly) and Thomas F. Wilson (Biff Tannen) in attendance for the festivities, along with her granddaughter, Robbie. And the grandbaby was the one who sported some iconic purple Calvin Klein underwear, check it out below:

I’m glad the Howard the Duck actress had plenty of fun celebrating with everyone, including the little fashionista! While I think Thompson, Fox or Wilson could pull off the CK suit, the right person is definitely rocking it.

But I do have to be honest; part of me wished the casual 2025 collab had been something more. Specifically, I jumped right into the mindset of McFly showcasing the cool vintage line off in the OG and hoping it was a callback to it. Especially with the knowledge of the rapidly approaching 40th anniversary (July 3rd).

Unfortunately, I’m as wrong as Biff was for stealing the almanac. As to what the could have been, who knows, but they might as well have done it with some style! With the movie hitting four decades, many have been pondering whether or not the franchise would green light anything. In regard to any hopes of a return or continuation of seeing Marty McFly and co., all seems pretty grim.

Notably due to writer Bob Gale’s disinterest in BTTF 4 or any other iterations of the Robert Zemeckis world. Outside of the new musical, he’s shot everything down, including Netflix's Cobra Kai failed spinoff pitch with its finale.

So, for any hopefuls out there, no roads, or lack thereof, are being made in terms of new material. Semi-regular get-togethers do happen between the '80s-'90s cast at least. Thompson has shared Back to the Future reunion pics before on her IG and a handful showed up to support Fox's Presidential Medal of Freedom honor evening.

Now that we know Lea Thompson’s pictures aren’t showcasing a Calvin Klein x Back to the Future deal of any kind, we can all rest a bit easier. But, the purple pair of long-johns were pretty party-ready, though, and could easily fit into BTTF wardrobe.

As someone who’s been lucky enough to have always lived less than three hours from Universal Studios Hollywood, I’ve been to the theme park many times over the years. While Universal has been adding new attractions all the time, I’ve been a bit neutral on making a trip outside of Hollywood Horror Nights there until I heard about Universal Fan Fest Nights, and how it features immersive experiences from two of the big fandoms close to my family: Star Trek and Back to the Future.

Well, I just went to the brand-new event with my dad and sister on its final day on Sunday, and I’m so happy I did because it was the kind of theme park experience I’ve been wanting to have (but didn’t quite realize). I need to talk about why I enjoyed it so much and what I need next year, should it return.

Not Having To Wait Longer Than 30 Minutes For Anything Gave Me Life

While I truly love theme parks, my biggest turnoff when it comes to going to them right now is long line waits. So any opportunity where I can go to one and not spend my whole day in a queue is absolutely my jam. Before buying tickets, I had heard that Universal Fan Fest Nights was being praised for its short lines, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn for myself they were completely right.

While I almost opted for an Express Pass that I find necessary to see everything at a Universal event like Horror Nights, I’m so happy I didn’t waste my money getting it this time. It honestly kind of spoiled me for my next HHN visit. Just about everything there was a walk-on situation, except mainly for photo ops. We only ended up doing the one they had with the Delorean and Einstein the dog, and that was totally worth it.

Fan Fest Nights is the kind of event that starts after the park closes, and the dopamine hit of seeing crowds of people leaving as we walked in made the event basically worth it on its own for me. It made us feel special and like Universal really had its guests in mind rather than all the dollar signs. I would absolutely go again for this reason alone.

I’m Already Ready For A Sequel For The Back To The Future: Destination Hill Valley, Because It Was So Cool

Me and my family's big selling point to go was the Back To The Future portion on the studio backlot. If you didn’t know, Universal decided to redress the real Hill Valley where the movies were filmed to look like the 1955 set. The park created this awesome immersive time that makes you feel like you’re in the first movie.

You are brought on the experience via the trams that usually make up one of the best Universal Studios rides, the Studio Tour. Usually the Studio Tour takes you through Hill Valley, but for Destination Hill Valley, it stopped there, and we spent about two hours checking out all it had to offer.

There, some very convincing actors embody the characters from Back To The Future and basically treat the set as their own play, except guests can follow them around and interact. As we hung out in Hill Valley, we saw George McFly get bullied, Marty and Doc wander around before the Enchantment Under The Sea dance occurred (with a live band), and lightning struck the clock tower.

We were there for two runs of the “show,” and it had me thinking how cool it would be if the 2015 version or Old West version was also reenacted in the same place in a future year. I love how it feels like everytime you go something else is going to happen because it's not a straight ride.

I Was Definitely Let Down By Star Trek: Red Alert, But I Have An Idea For How It Could Improve

We also went to Fan Fest Nights for Star Trek: Red Alert, which was also branded as an “immersive” attraction set in the world of Star Trek, but it was significantly lower quality to me then the Back To The Future side of things. As someone who’s not really big on rides as much these days, I like the idea of walking through an attraction without getting scared outside of Halloween season, but Red Alert was pretty anticlimactic.

The experience takes guests through the inside of one of the Enterprise ships as a mysterious anomaly is threatening the vessel. It featured a lot of actors asking guests if they were ok while we were all aware we were not really in danger, so I found it kind of awkward and odd. I mean, it was fun to see a recreation of the Enterprise, but how did they not send us to an alien planet? I mean, isn’t that every episode of Star Trek?

It also would have been way better if they had actors doing characters from one of the shows because the only one featured was Deep Space Nine’s Quark through his own themed cafe for some reason. I hope they do it again, use a bigger set and go for it more, but hey, it’s their first time.

Not All The IPs Highlighted Were My Thing This Year, So I’m Interested In What Next Year Could Look Like

Otherwise, we went to the Dungeons and Dragons attraction (which had very similar problems to the Star Trek one in my opinion) and stopped in Hogwarts to grab some Butterbeer and see the projection show, which was just gorgeous, especially without too much crowding around the castle.

I’m not invested in anime, so we skipped those photo ops. We were in Super Nintendo World for a little bit, but didn’t end up doing the Yoshi Egg Hunt, because my dad learned who Yoshi was that day. However, it actually looked really fun, and if I went back I would totally try that. I do have to say I wish the ride there was open, because it's so much fun.

While I wasn’t invested in every IP that was featured at Fan Fest, I felt that I got my money’s worth out of what I did see. I’d be curious what another year of the event might look like. It got me thinking about the other non-horror properties Universal has to its name I’d like to see experiences modeled around.

My top picks not featured otherwise in the park are Wicked and E.T. Or what about one of Universal’s beloved sitcoms like The Office or Parks And Recreation? But as they did with many of the experiences this year, they don’t even necessarily have to be Universal movies to be on the table. It was a great time, and now I'm intrigued what else the theme park is going to do outside of Halloween season.

The wait for an upcoming Star Trek show isn't that far off, but before that, we have a surprise return to "space" for Patrick Stewart. Granted, the actor looks like Picard on the screen of his latest commercial, but this promotion has nothing to do with a starship of any kind. It's for the return of the DeLorean, an equally iconic geeky vehicle we all adore.

Robert Zemeckis has promised we'll never see another Back To The Future movie, but the DeLorean will try to last forever. A few years after its last attempt to relaunch the car that doubled as a time machine in the iconic film franchise, a promotional ad featuring Stewart in a spaceship has hit the web:

When I heard Patrick Stewart was looking at a new Picard script, this wasn't what I had in mind. Jokes aside, I do enjoy seeing one of Star Trek's best characters back in a Captain's chair once again, even if for legal reasons it probably isn't Jean-Luc Picard sitting in that spaceship telling us about the return of the DeLorean.

Those interested in buying what appears to be a much sleeker DeLorean will need to visit the official reservation system and marketplace, which comes with a bit of a catch. Users must purchase a $2,500 NFT, reserving their place to be among the first to buy the new vehicle, which is seen from the back in the commercial. A complete image of the car is not available on the reservation website.

I don't mind seeing Patrick Stewart playing the ad man for sleek transportation, but I wonder when we might next see the actor in Star Trek. Picard's Season 3 finale made it feel like it was a send-off for him and the rest of The Next Generation cast, but then there was the aforementioned chatter of him entertaining the idea of another movie, and calls from fans to see Picard continue with another legacy series.

I think this advertisement and his work in Marvel show that the 84-year-old actor is still interested in working in Hollywood. However, there's quite a difference between committing to shooting a commercial and doing a streaming series for multiple years. I would love to see Patrick Stewart return yet again for more adventures, though I think it's a distinct possibility this advertisement may be the last time we see him hanging out on the bridge of a starship. Of course, I hope I'm wrong, but if this is true, at least we have a huge body of work from his past to reflect on.

Stream Star Trek: The Next Generation and Picard on Paramount+. I'm eager to see more about the new DeLorean, and if we do eventually get a Back To The Future ad with the cast promoting it.

This past February marked the end of an era, as Cobra Kai came to an explosive end after six exhilarating, hilarious and heartfelt seasons. Its finale installments provided closure for the principal characters (including a mind-blowing final scene between John Kreese and Terry Silver). As for the series finale, it not only wrapped up the story in a lovely bow but also featured a gag about a TV spinoff of another famous film franchise, Back to the Future. Now, the trilogy’s main screenwriter is reacting to the nod, and he’s not mincing words.

Cobra Kai (which is streamable with a Netflix subscription) ends with Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso meeting at a restaurant to discuss their students’ training. Before the camera pans over to them, though, viewers see and subsequently hear two producers (played by CK creators Josh Heald and Jon Hurwitz) pitching a Back to the Future spinoff. The pitch is a series set within the alternate 1985 introduced in the film trilogy’s second installment. Franchise lead Michael J. Fox is also named as a potential director for the show.

The quick moment is a funny and meta joke that pokes fun at the influx of reboots, revivals and sequels that’s present within the Hollywood landscape right now. After the fact, some fans seemed to express interest in such a production. Bob Gale, who has writing credits on all three BTTF films, is now aware of that nod and, while speaking with People, he threw a massive bucket of water on the concept or any kind of sequel for that matter:

Over the years, Bob Gale has been quite vocal about opposing any kind of formal continuation of the (highly quotable) Back to the Future franchise. This past February, Gale dropped an f-bomb while shooting down the notion of another film in the Robert Zemeckis-helmed series. Gale doubled down on those sentiments during this more recent interview and quoted Zemeckis when making his case for the trilogy to stand as it does now:

Fans seem to have strong feelings about an addition to the science fiction franchise – besides the game developed by Telltale over a decade ago and the musical that adapts the original 1985 film. While some would seemingly entertain the idea of a follow-up, others would rather the IP be left alone. Even Emmett "Doc" Brown actor Christopher Lloyd is skeptical of a sequel or spinoff of sorts.

Nevertheless, it seems like the creators of Cobra Kai are at least a tad more bullish about the concept. The producers spoke with THR months ago after the series finale debuted amid the 2025 TV schedule and addressed that BTTF scene. John Hurwitz confirmed that it was meant to be meta, given their show is also based on an ‘80s IP, The Karate Kid. However, Hurwitz also dropped an intriguing comment while mentioning Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis:

Well, it sounds like the trio of producers would be down to move forward with such a project, if the Back to the Future OGs are game for it. As mentioned, the chances of that happening are probably slim. Fans of one of the best Netflix shows, however, can at least find excitement in the prospect of Cobra Kai spinoffs coming sometime in the future.

A few years ago, a fan theory made its way around the internet that I absolutely love: The Goonies and Back To The Future took place on the same day, October 26, 1985. There was plenty of evidence provided that made a very compelling case for the theory, and frankly, it seemed like an open-and-shut case. Today, I learned that everything I knew was wrong, and the events of the two quotable movies, while close on the calendar, didn’t happen on the same day. Let’s get into it.

The Fan Theory Totally Works… At First

The easiest part of the theory is determining exactly what day Marty meets Doc at the Twin Pines Mall and goes back in time to 1955. The date is shown on the time machine, and it’s very visibly “OCT 26 1985.” We know that the real October 26, 1985, was a Saturday. Those two things are established facts. It’s the second part that makes things tricky.

Here’s how the internet came to its conclusion that the Goonies also have their adventure on Saturday, October 26th. It starts with knowing that it’s a Saturday, which is established by a few different lines in the movie, mostly by Mouth (Corey Feldman), who mentions that it's the weekend and that it’s Saturday. Ok cool, we know that Oct. 26th was a Saturday, good start.

The other piece of evidence is a newspaper article shown on camera about the Fratelli’s prison break. The newspaper is dated October 24th, 1985. So, the theory goes, the newspaper came out on Thursday, October 24th, and we’re now watching the cast of Goonies play out their search for One-Eyed Willie's gold on the following Saturday. Amazing! The proof is right there! Marty McFly went back in time on the same day the Goonies found pirate treasure and saved their neighborhood from greedy developers! Or did they?

Time To Rain On The Parade Like a Chilly Fall Day In Oregon

Thanks to the diligent killjoys over at Snopes, we’ve now learned that two events missed each other by two days. Even though The Goonies happens on the Saturday, in their universe, that Saturday was on October 24th, not the 26th (it’s not the only thing that doesn’t make sense in the movie). The newspaper article recounts the jailbreak, which you’ll remember took place earlier that morning, and Chunk (Jeff Cohen) witnessed the car chase. So there’s one strike against the theory.

The second and third strikes, according to Snopes, come from the original script and the novelization of the movie that was released around the same time the movie was, in the summer of ‘85. In both, the date is explicitly stated as the 24th. Additionally, the novel, which was based on the original script, includes a detail about the eviction notice, which apparently read that the following day, October 25th, would be the day all residents of the Goon Docks would have to leave.

So there it is. Proof, as produced by the good folks over at Snopes, that The Goonies and Back to the Future didn’t happen on the same day. This little tidbit of accidental movie magic was such a fun piece of trivia, that I’m bummed it turns out not to be true. It’s also disturbing that The Goonies is set in an alternate universe with a different calendar than the rest of us, but that’s another story. Hopefully, one less heartbreaking.

Have you ever heard someone describe your favorite movie in a way that completely changed your perception of its story forever… or at least made you chuckle a little? Cinephiles have been coming up with examples to describe a film plot badly (or just in simpler, funnier terms) for years.

I scoured the internet for some of the wittiest examples I could find and also managed to come up with a few decent ones of my own that I now present to you. You may never think of these classics the same way again.

A Father Asks His Long Lost Son To Take Over The Family Business (The Empire Strikes Back)

This one is inspired by an X post (from when it was still called Twitter) by Mitch Poppe, who makes, arguably, the best Star Wars movie sound more like a sweet Earthly drama (or even an organized crime thriller). Of course, it is not until the stunning climax of 1980's The Empire Strikes Back that we discover Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones) is the father of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), who is then tempted by the Sith Lord to come to the Dark Side and rule with him.

The Story Of One Man's Catastrophic Inner Conflict (Fight Club)

SPOILER WARNING: In one of the best movie plot twists ever, 1999's Fight Club reveals that the chaotic Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) is a dissociative identity of Edward Norton's "Narrator." Unfortunately, he comes to that realization only after his other half has converted their unconventional male support group into a terrorist organization that he immediately intends to stop.

An Accident-Prone Dinosaur Theme Park, Shockingly, Still Exists (Jurassic World)

I also turned to my co-workers for help to come up with some of these simplified movie plot descriptions and one suggested this bit that, admittedly, points out just how ludicrous the plot of 2015's Jurassic World really is. It was already established in Steven Spielberg's 1993 original Jurassic Park movie that a theme park with real, living prehistoric creatures has the potential to result in disaster, much like the very plot of this sequel.

Three Escaped Convicts Start A Boy Band (O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

There is a reason why O Brother, Where Art Thou? is considered to be one of the best music movies ever made and the X account Explain A Movie Plot Badly recognizes this in its simplified explanation. Joel and Ethan Coen's 2000 comedy is a retelling of The Odyssey, redefined as the story of Depression Era inmates (played by George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson) who ditch the chain gang and find success as singing folk songs as The Soggy Bottom Boys.

Deja Vu Cures A Weatherman's Cynicism (Groundhog Day)

When you really think about it, all of the best time loop movies are tales of redemption and self-rediscovery. In other words, my colleague's clever description of 1993's Groundhog Day could be applied to almost any one of them, save the mention of Phil Connors' (Bill Murray) profession as a TV weather reporter.

A Teen Plays Matchmaker For His Own Parents (Back To The Future)

Back to the Future, stars Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, who accidentally takes Doc Brown's (Christopher Lloyd) time machine 30 years in the past and nearly prevents his own existence by getting in the way of his mother (Lea Thompson) and father (Crispin Glover) falling in love in high school. If you did not realize that I was talking about the 1985 time travel movie classic, you might assume I was describing the story of a child trying to get their divorced parents back together.

A Young Man Goes Through A Lot Of Trouble To Return Some Jewelry (The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy)

I almost hate to admit this, but I have never been very interested in epic fantasy stories like the Lord of the Rings movies. However, Eser Ünsalan's X post helped me realize just how relatable Peter Jackson's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy is if you break down Frodo's (Elijah Wood) journey into its simplest terms.

A Man Constantly Loses His Prized Possessions To This French Jerk (Raiders Of The Lost Ark)

Many would agree that the best Indiana Jones villain is Dr. René Belloq, who claims at the beginning of 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark that there is nothing Harrison Ford's heroic archaeologist can possess that he cannot take away. Actor Paul Freeman has said that he believes his sniveling, French explorer is not so different from Indy, save for his reluctance to do the work himself and alliance with fascist organizations, of course.

A Fight Breaks Out Between Two Angry Orphans (Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice)

Despite their differing methods of justice, overall sense of optimism, and respective species, Batman and Superman relate to each other in many ways, most notably that they both know what it is like to lose their parents. Explain a Movie Plot Badly reflected on that in the X post that inspired this joke, which references 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, even though Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne did not know Clark Kent's (Henry Cavill) own tragic backstory until a little too late into their quarrel.

A Man Wins Back His Wife By Throwing Out Uninvited Christmas Party Guests (Die Hard)

Many have debated whether or not Die Hard – in which Det. John McClane (Bruce Willis) wages a war against ruthless thieves taking his wife (played by Bonnie Bedelia) and her colleagues hostage in an L.A. high-rise – it deserves a spot among the best Christmas movies ever made. Well, if you strip away its more violent content, the 1988 action movie classic's plot is clearly not much different from your typical holiday rom-com.

A Man Goes Through A Lot To Have The Perfect Suit (The Silence Of The Lambs)

One would have to have a pretty bleak sense of humor to paint Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb (Ted Levine) from 1991's The Silence of the Lambs in a sympathetic light and it appears that the people at Explain A Movie Plot Badly do. Their X post, referring to a serial killer fixing to make a suit of human skin in Jonathan Demme's unsettling Best Picture Oscar winner, inspired this also quite unsettling joke.

A Teen Becomes Upset When His Computer Dies (Terminator 2: Judgment Day)

In addition to its astonishing action sequences, what really makes 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day a classic sci-fi movie is the endearing relationship between the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and young John Connor (Edward Furlong). Of course, no matter how misty-eyed you may get from their final goodbye at the end, you cannot ignore the fact that this kid's father figure was still a machine.

Two Men Turn To The Bible To Solve Their Problems (Se7en)

Let me just make this clear: Se7en is not a religious movie. However, faith does play a pivotal role in how veteran detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and rookie Mills (Brad Pitt) investigate a multiple murder case in David Fincher's 1995 thriller. They recognize that the sadistic killer's pattern is related to the biblical seven deadly sins.

Water Helps A Family Survive (Signs)

One of the most divisive M. Night Shyamalan movie plot twists comes from Signs, in which it is revealed that the extra-terrestrial intruders die when water touches them. It is easy to understand why this is underwhelming, but we also should not ignore the fact that Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) and his family might not have made it through the alien invasion if not for the invaders' strange weakness.

A Man Sleeps Through A 10-Hour Flight (Inception)

Due to its visually stunning appeal, it is easy to forget that much of what we see in Inception is not even real and the main characters are all asleep as it happens. In fact, much of the film takes place in the mind of a sedated Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), whose subconscious is invaded by Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his crew while on a long plane trip to the United States.

A Guy Jumps Through Many Hoops To Complete His Rock Collection (Avengers: Infinity War)

I do not in any way mean to undermine the efforts that the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and other concerned parties go through to prevent a cataclysmic event that, tragically, does end up happening anyway. However, darthyogi on Reddit makes a really good point in the way they describe Thanos' (Josh Brolin) ultimate goal in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. I mean, a fitting alternate title for the acclaimed Marvel movie could have been Avengers: Geology War.

Six Men Dress The Same For Their First Day At Work (Reservoir Dogs)

It is really nothing unusual for a group of coworkers to have matching uniforms. Of course, Explain A Movie Plot Badly's tweet that inspired this reimagining of Reservoir Dogs' storyline leaves out that this "first day at work" is also their last, since the jewelry store heist they volunteer for goes terribly, and fatally, wrong.

Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Forgets Girl, Boy Meets Girl (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind)

Arguably Jim Carrey's best movie, 2004's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is such a conceptually, visually, and even structurally unique experience, as acknowledged in this bit from the mind of my coworker. It is such a clever twist to learn that the beginning, when Joel (Carrey) meets Clementine (Kate Winslet) on a train, is actually the end of the sci-fi rom-com, taking place after they each unwittingly erased the memory of their relationship.

A Millionaire Is Forever Haunted By The Loss Of His Favorite Toy (Citizen Kane)

The end of 1941's Citizen Kane reveals that the titular, late publishing tycoon (played by co-writer and director Orson Welles) was remembering the sled he used to play with as a child when he spoke his final word: "Rosebud." For decades, this seminal film's conclusion has been heralded as one of all-time finest, but I cannot help but wonder how divisive this twist would be if the film had come out in modern times, especially if you think of it in the same terms as this joke.

A Clown Provokes An Angry Cosplayer (The Dark Knight)

Without the proper context, this sounds like a headline for a newspaper article reporting a fight that broke out on Hollywood Boulevard. Actually, even with the proper context, it does not just sound like the plot of 2008's The Dark Knight but of a few of the best live-action Batman movies.

A Divorced Dad Kills An Intruder And Takes His Job (The Santa Clause)

Even before finding Explain A Movie Plot Badly's X post that inspired this simplified film story, I had been made aware of just how dark the concept of 1994's The Santa Clause truly is in retrospect. However, that does not stop me from recognizing Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) as one of the coolest cinematic movie Santas for the way comes to wholeheartedly accept the job (after some convincing) when he accidentally causes his successor's fatal accident from the top of his roof.

A Princess Convinces A Millionaire And A Cat Lady To Give Up Their Dreams (Wonder Woman 1984)

Perhaps my favorite tweet from Explain A Movie Plot Badly offers the funniest way to describe 2020's Wonder Woman 1984 that I think anybody could imagine. The DC movie sequel features two villains for Gal Gadot's Amazonian warrior to take on: the wealthy Max Lord (Pedro Pascal), who gets ahold of a mystical rock that grants wishes, and geologist Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), whose wish turns her into "Cheetah."

A Young Man Has A Bunny To Thank For Saving His Life (Donnie Darko)

The plot of the mind-bending high school movie Donnie Darko (a personal favorite of a friend of mine who helped come up with this bit) is set in motion when the titular teen (Jake Gyllenhaal) narrowly escapes a tragic death when he follows the voice of a possibly hallucinatory man named Frank (James Duval). I am not sure where writer and director Richard Kelly got the idea to dress Frank in the most disturbing rabbit costume imaginable, but I also believe it is essential to the 2001 thriller's legacy as an enduring cult favorite.

A Woman's Motel Room Shower Is To Die For (Psycho)

I cannot imagine there exists a motel with a bathroom shower this impressive. But, do you know what is impressive? The shocking, iconic scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 masterpiece in which Marion Crane (Scream Queen Janet Leigh) is murdered by who we assume is the mother of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) while taking a shower at the Bates Motel.

A Divorced Father Fights To See His Daughter (Taken)

One of the most matter-of-fact X posts by Explain A Film Plot Badly takes aim at Taken, in which retired CIA agent Brian Mills (Liam Neeson) takes action to locate his kidnapped daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), in France. Without knowing what the 2008 action flick is actually about, one might hear this description and assume it is a wholesome family film.

A Group Of Men Learn To Never Trust Dogs (The Thing)

The best kind of dog movies are the ones where the dog saves the day, but that is certainly not the case in John Carpenter's The Thing. The 1982 horror movie classic opens with the central characters taking in a Canadian timber wolf-Alaskan Malamute hybrid that turns out to be a malevolent, shapeshifting alien in disguise.

Amateur Gambler Loses Everything, But Still Keeps His Job (Casino Royale)

A coworker of mine who has a special affinity for the James Bond movies had the perfect way to summarize the events of Daniel Craig's debut as 007 in Casino Royale.

A Woman Falls In Love With The First Guy She Sees After Waking Up (Sleeping Beauty)

Many of Disney's animated princess movies take on a more creepy, problematic guise in retrospect. Take, for example, this summarization of Sleeping Beauty, inspired by a tweet from Marisa Nocito.

First Responder Uses Government Resources To Exclusively Rescue Personal Family Members After An Earthquake (San Andreas)

The coworker of mine who came up with the idea for this bit inspired by 2015's San Andreas actually had some harsher words to describe Dwayne Johnson's central hero, who probably would have lost his job for acting in his own self-interests in the wake of a natural disaster.

A Powerful Corporation Benefits From Child Endangerment (Monsters Inc.)

I just might have ruined one of my own favorite Pixar movies for myself by the way I reinterpret 2001's Monsters Inc. and the titular company's bid to collect children's screams in this joke.

A Man Walks Up And Down A Flight Of Stairs (The Woman In Black)

The 2011 adaptation of Susan Hill's The Woman in Black certainly boasts some effective frights. However, there is a shocking amount of scenes in which Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is seen walking up a flight of stairs to find something scary before walking back downstairs to avoid the creepy entity, only to find something else freaky, and the situation repeats.

A Team Of Athletes Try New Eating Habits (Alive)

One of the darkest posts on X by Explain A Movie Plot Badly references the 1993 thriller, Alive, which is based on the harrowing true story of a Uruguayan rugby team forced to do the unthinkable when their plane crashes in the middle of the Andes Mountains.

We do not necessarily believe that a film’s overall quality lives or dies by the strength of its final line. However, quite a few films have managed to absolutely stick the landing with a concluding quote that would continue to ring in audiences’ heads long after the credits rolled. Relive some of the most iconic last lines in cinematic history in this list and be sure to keep SPOILERS in mind.

"After All, Tomorrow Is Another Day" - Gone With The Wind

When it comes to classic movie quotes, 1937's Gone with the Wind is full of them, with the most memorable of the bunch said by Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) just as he leaves Scarlet O'Hara (Vivien Leigh). However, the undeniably iconic and even inspirational final line of the Best Picture Oscar winner is said by her as a form of self-encouragement that there may be some hope for her and her husband.

LAURIE: "It Was The Boogeyman"; LOOMIS: "As A Matter Of Fact, It Was" - Halloween

Throughout John Carpenter's 1978 slasher movie classic, Halloween, the boy Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) babysits, Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews), expresses great fear of the Boogeyman, whom she insists is no one to be afraid of until she comes face to face with Michael Myers. When Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) stops the murderer from attacking the young woman, she declares he is the fabled monster and Loomis agrees.

"In Case I Don't See You, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, And Good Night!" - The Truman Show

The prophetic, paranoid 1998 dramedy, The Truman Show (also one of the best Jim Carrey movies), follows the eponymous everyman as he slowly begins to realize his life is fabricated for television. He gives his fans the perfect send-off with what he had unwittingly made into his official catchphrase before we hear a devoted viewer utter the film's actual final line, "Where's the TV guide?"

"I'll Be Right Here" - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

More than just a great sci-fi movie, Steven Spielberg's 1982 blockbuster, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, is the story of a wonderful friendship that must come to an end when the titular otherworldly visitor boards a spaceship to his home planet. Right before he leaves, he lets young Elliott (Henry Thomas) know that, while they will be worlds apart, he will always remain in his memory.

“All Right, Mr. DeMille, I’m Ready For My Close-Up” - Sunset Boulevard

Every aspiring actor has brought out this oft-quoted line from Sunset Boulevard when living out their dreams of Hollywood stardom. Of course, those who have not seen the 1950 drama may not realize that Gloria Swanson's Norma Desmond says this at the peak of her deluded madness and is not even speaking Cecil B. DeMille at the time.

"Well, Nobody's Perfect" - Some Like It Hot

Co-writer, producer, and director Billy Wilder was way ahead of his time when he came up with the gut-busting final stinger of his classic 1959 fish-out-of-water comedy, Some Like It Hot. Jerry (Jack Lemmon), posing in drag as "Daphne," reveals to his fiancé, Osgood (Joe E. Brown), that he is really a man, which the millionaire seems pretty open-minded to.

"Ernest Hemingway Once Wrote, 'The World Is A Fine Place And Worth Fighting For.' I Agree With The Second Part" - Se7en

If not for its final line, spoken by Morgan Freeman's Det. William Somerset in a voiceover, David Fincher's masterful 1995 crime thriller, Se7en, would be entirely devoid of any shred of optimism. Of course, the iconic Black detective's perspective on author Ernest Hemingway's philosophy is still relatively bleak.

"Forget It, Jake. It's Chinatown" - Chinatown

The 1974 film noir movie classic Chinatown ends with private investigator J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) forced to move on from the tragedy and injustice he witnessed while investigating a bizarre case in 1930s California, with some plodding encouragement from Lawrence Walsh (Joe Mantell).

"You Met Me At A Very Strange Time In My Life" - Fight Club

The wild ending of 1999's Fight Club sees Edward Norton's Narrator effectively remove his evil other half, Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), via gunshot before being reunited with Marla (Helena Bonham Carter). He assures her that the bizarre circumstances they faced together were not typical for him as they watch the buildings surrounding them crumble to the ground.

"Louis, I Believe This Is The Beginning Of A Beautiful Friendship" - Casablanca

Quite a few of the most iconic quotes in cinematic history come from 1942's Casablanca, including the concluding line, said by Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) to Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains) to signify an unlikely bond forming between them.

"And In The Dream I Knew That He Was Goin' On Ahead And He Was Fixin' To Make A Fire Somewhere Out There In All That Dark And All That Cold, And I Knew That Whenever I Got There He Would Be There. And Then I Woke Up" - No Country For Old Men

The ending of 2007's No Country for Old Men, in which the now-retired Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) describes a dream he had about his father to his wife, was polarizing upon release. Of course, it was only disappointing to those who did not initially realize Joel and Ethan Coen's modern Western movie classic is really about the aging lawman's struggle to find meaning in a world full of meaningless violence.

“Because He's The Hero Gotham Deserves, But Not The One It Needs Right Now. So, We'll Hunt him. Because He Can Take It. Because He's Not Our Hero. He's A Silent Guardian, A Watchful Protector. A Dark Knight” - The Dark Knight

It may be an old cliché to start the credits after a character speaks the film's title, but 2008's The Dark Knight makes great use of it with Commissioner James Gordon's (Gary Oldman) explanation to his son, Jimmy (Nathan Gamble), why Batman (Christian Bale) is taking the fall for the tragedies he tried to prevent.

"The Greatest Trick The Devil Ever Pulled Was Convincing The World He Didn't Exist. And Like That... He's Gone" - The Usual Suspects

The mindblowing ending of 1995's The Usual Suspects sees Agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palmenteri) realize he had been fed a phony, completely improvised story by Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey), the real "Keyser Soze." This is followed by a shot of the clever criminal likening himself to Satan and his cunning nature.

"Life Moves Pretty Fast. You Don't Stop And Look Around Once In A While, You Could Miss It" - Ferris Bueller's Day Off

While Matthew Broderick's fourth-wall-breaking character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a mischievous troublemaker, he makes a great point about the importance of occasionally taking it easy in his final line in John Hughes' 1986 high school movie classic (not counting the post-credit scene, that is).

"I'm Finished" - There Will Be Blood

It is not until the final scene of Paul Thomas Anderson's Oscar-winning 2007 masterpiece, There Will Be Blood, when blood does hit the screen after Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) murders his rival, Eli Sunday (Paul Dano), with a bowling pin at his home, which seems to be the one thing he needed to make his life feel complete.

“Oh No, It Wasn’t The Airplanes. It Was Beauty Killed The Beast” - King Kong

The seminal 1933 monster movie, King Kong, ends with the eponymous ape falling to his death, which filmmaker Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) remarks was truly caused by his affection for Fay Wray's Ann Darrow.

RAY: "You Wanna Have A Catch?"; JOHN: "I'd Like That" - Field Of Dreams

In one of Kevin Costner's best baseball movies, 1989's Field of Dreams, Ray Kinsella (Costner) is reunited with the ghost of his dead father, John (Dwier Brown), with whom he gets to share a long overdue catch.

"The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of" - The Maltese Falcon

The 1941 adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon ends with the discovery that the eponymous artifact is a fake. Yet, considering the trouble so many endured to get their hands on it, private investigator Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) acknowledges one way it does possess some value.

“Roads? Where We’re Going We Don’t Need Roads” - Back To The Future

Initially, there were no plans to make the 1985 time travel movie, Back to the Future, a trilogy, which means that Doc Brown's (Christopher Lloyd) hint at what awaits them 30 years from then was merely a wildly imaginative joke before director Robert Zemeckis brought a "roadless" future to life in the follow-up.

"So Long, Partner" - Toy Story 3

Woody's (Tom Hanks) final goodbye to the grown-up Andy (John Morris) after he leaves him and his other child's playthings to Bonnie was not only a perfect way to end 2010's Toy Story 3, but also the franchise of beloved Pixar movies as a whole. Thus, some feel the otherwise entertaining fourth installment was needless, but we digress.

"Aren't You His Mother?" - Rosemary's Baby

Some great horror movies like to end with a jump scare, but Rosemary's Baby proved that all you need is a chilling final line, such as when Mia Farrow's titular character from the 1968 thriller accepts her role as the mother of the Antichrist in response to Roman Castevet's (Sidney Blackmer) reassuring question.

“I Do Wish We Could Chat Longer, But I’m Having An Old Friend For Dinner” - The Silence Of The Lambs

The escaped Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) ends 1991's The Silence of the Lambs by phoning Agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) from the Bahamas and hinting that he has some gruesome plans for the recently arrived Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald).

“The Truth Is, I Am Iron Man” - Iron Man

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was essentially born the moment Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) revealed his identity as an armored vigilante at the end of 2008's Iron Man. The now iconic line made an astonishing reprise 11 years later when Stark sacrificed his life to stop Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Avengers: Endgame.

GORDON: "I Never Said 'Thank You'"; BATMAN: "And You'll Never Have To" - Batman Begins

After a rooftop meeting with Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman), Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) nobly acknowledges and accepts that his crusade against injustice is a thankless job at the end of Christopher Nolan's first live-action Batman movie, 2005's Batman Begins.

"I Think I Can Go Now. I Just Needed To Do A Couple Things. I Needed To Help Someone. I Think I Did. I Needed To Tell You Something: You Were Never Second. Ever. I Love You. You Sleep Now. Everything Will Be Different In The Morning... Good Night, Sweetheart" - The Sixth Sense

Most would agree that the greatest M. Night Shyamalan movie twist remains that child psychiatrist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is one of the dead people his patient, Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), can see, which he realizes at the end of 1999's The Sixth Sense before saying goodbye to his wife Anna (Olivia Williams).

"If This Is Their Idea Of Christmas, I Gotta Be Here For New Year's" - Die Hard

In addition to being a classic action flick, 1988's Die Hard is also a holiday favorite, albeit an unconventional Christmas movie, which is reflected by limo driver Argyle's (De'voreaux White) enthusiastic reaction to the truly explosive event that took place at Nakatomi Plaza on the night before Christmas.

"Why Don't We Just Wait Here For A Little While, See What Happens?" - The Thing

After seemingly defeating the shapeshifting alien that terrorized their Antarctica research base, R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) essentially accepts his fate as he and Childs (Keith David) are the only survivors of the ordeal... or are they? There has been much debate over who is still human at the end of 1982's The Thing, which makes MacReady's quip such a haunting final line.

"I Just Never Want It To End" - MaXXXine

After the traumatic circumstances that Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) endures in both X and her '80s-set self-titled sequel, MaXXXine, seeing her finally achieve her dream to be a Hollywood actor and tearfully wishing that it lasts is an unusually heartwarming moment in Ti West's A24 horror movie.

"It Was Perfect" - Black Swan

Natalie Portman won a rare Oscar for a horror movie performance as Nina Sayers in Darren Aronofsky's 2011 thriller, Black Swan, which ends with the dangerously ambitious ballerina performing the final dance with a bleeding abdomen, which she believes was her magnum opus.

“Now, Where Was I?” - Memento

The ending of Christopher Nolan's 2000 breakthrough thriller, Memento, is really the beginning when Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) learns that the search for his wife's killer has been long over but allows his short-term memory condition to keep him on the case.

"Oh, God" - Avengers: Infinity War

Never had a Marvel movie ended as hopelessly as 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, in which Thanos (Josh Brolin) successfully uses the Infinity Gauntlet to eradicate half of all living beings, leaving the surviving Avengers to helplessly reflect on their defeat, including Steve "Captain America" Rogers (Chris Evans), who utters the final line with heartbreaking desperation.

"I Told Ya" - Accepted

In the underrated college comedy, 2006's Accepted, Jeremy Howard's character, "Freaky Student," aspires to learn how to blow things up with his mind. At the very end, he proves this is possible by demonstrating his ability on the Harmon University dean's car in a hilarious "I told you so" moment.

Robert Zemeckis' Back To The Future is widely considered one of the best sci-fi movies of all time (as well as one of the best '80s movies), and has remained a vital part of the pop culture landscape in the years since its release. As such, there's always been chatter about whether or not we might be treated to a fourth movie in the series. And writer/producer Bob Gale recently dropped an F-bomb in regards to that ongoing discourse. Let's break it all down.

Zemeckis' trilogy of movies were hugely successful thanks to the talents of the Back to the Future cast, the gorgeous music, and iconic production design. Fans had been hoping for a fourth BTTF movie, but it doesn't sound like Gale is a fan of this concept. He spoke to Collider about this, offering a resounding:

Well, that was honest. It sounds like Gale is proud of what they accomplished with the original Back to the Future trilogy, and doesn't want to try and find the same magic all these years later with a fourth installment. Still, I assume that he's going to be asked this question for the foreseeable future.

While shutting down BTTF 4 talks with an F-bomb, Bob Gale also referenced the recent way the franchise has expanded: the Broadway musical adaptation. While the big budget show recently closed on the Great White Way, it's already begun touring. And the show has even gotten the thumbs up from franchise alums Michael J. Fox and Lea Thompson.

While the thoroughly re-watchable Back to the Future movies mean great a deal to moviegoers who are holding out hope for a sequel and/or reboot, it's also meaningful for Bob Gale and the rest of the folks who worked on the trilogy. Case in point: Michael J. Fox and James Tolkan recently reunited to recreate an icon part of the movie. It's this type of chemistry that has also helped buoy fan hopes that another installment might be coming.

Bob Gale certainly didn't mince words when it came to a fourth Back to the Future movie, maintaining that the franchise's stage musical is the primary focus for those who brought the movies to life. And now that the Broadway production has closed, there's an opportunity to bring the stage version of the beloved film to cities all over the country and world. So no matter what, BTTF is here to stay.

To be perfectly frank, theme parks aren’t generally my thing. I don’t have a ton of rich childhood memories attending them, which eliminates any kind of nostalgia factor; I like rides and rollercoasters, but I don’t love them; and I find it endlessly awkward to interact with actors dressed up as popular characters making overt efforts to convince me that they’ve popped off the screen into reality. I certainly see the appeal in all of it for others, but it’s never been an item I put on my personal list of “Favorite Things To Do.” Living in Los Angeles, I could visit Disneyland, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Knott's Berry Farm, LEGOLAND or a number of other locations whenever I want, but I never feel particularly compelled.

It usually takes something extra cool to get me to a theme park… and this week, my eyebrows were effectively raised by the revelations about the upcoming Universal Fan Fest Nights that are scheduled for the spring at Universal Studios Hollywood. On Tuesday, I attended a preview program providing press with an early look at the various treats and creations that will be featured during the engagement, and I walked away impressed by how impressed I was. Not everything that’s currently being planned pressed my buttons, but I was definitely wowed by what was showcased for two properties in particular: Star Trek and Back To The Future.

Star Trek: Red Alert Promises An Immersive Journey Inside The Enterprise-D

I have enough awareness of what’s going on in the theme park space to know that the idea of full immersion has taken a hit recently with the disaster that was the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser hotel, but even with all that in mind, I still found myself impressed by what’s being planned at Universal Fan Fest Nights for Trekkies/Trekkers. Star Trek: Red Alert promises the simulated experience of briefly getting to live within the world of the beloved science-fiction franchise, and the creatives at Universal Studios are taking a cool, extra mile approach that is very easy to appreciate.

Arriving at the special section of the park, visitors will be transported to the distant future (specifically the Picard era of the franchise) and find themselves at the Starfleet Museum – which has the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation as its most exciting exhibit. Rather than just being visible through a digital window, attendees will be able to board the iconic ship and visit key sections. You start in the shuttle station before moving through the sick bay and the control room, and after taking a ride on a turbolift, you get to check out the main attraction: the bridge.

For some fans, being on the bridge of the Enterprise-D might alone be enough excitement, but it feels vital to note that the space hasn’t just been built from scratch for Universal Fan Fest Nights. Instead, the bridge is going to be the screen-used set that was used in the filming of the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard, which memorably featured a reunion of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast in its third season. It’s an extra layer of authenticity that doesn’t have to exist for the event (they obviously could have just built another replica of the space), but I love that it does.

I’m also left fascinated by the tease that was provided about the end of the Star Trek: Red Alert experience. Departing the Enterprise-D will involve visitors using the memorable transporters from the franchise to get back to Earth… but how this effect will be accomplished is being kept a mystery for now. Being the theme park novice that I am, I can’t begin to predict how the engineers will be able to replicate the effect, but I’d be lying if I were to say that my curiosity wasn’t piqued.

Courtyard Square Will Return To 1950s Glory In Back To The Future: Destination Hill Valley

Universal Studios Hollywood is unique in that the theme park is adjacent to the backlot where some of the greatest movies of all time were filmed, and I love how Universal Fan Fest Nights is fully taking advantage of that fact. Recreating production design from Back To The Future is cool by itself, but far, far cooler is recreating that production design in the exact same space where it became iconic.

For Back To The Future: Destination Hill Valley, designers are providing attendees of Universal Fan Fest Nights the opportunity to step into the shoes of Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly and see Courthouse Square just as he did after traveling back in time to the 1950s – replete with familiar storefronts, classic automobiles, a fake full-service gas station, and the tune of "Mr. Sandman" by The Chordettes playing through speakers.

Additional environmental details include the stage from the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance and Doc Brown’s canine companion Einstein, but my favorite reveal was that there will be recreations of Back To The Future’s finale – which sees a lightning bolt amid a storm strike the clock tower and provide the DeLorean with enough juice to travel forward in time. Just like with the transports for Star Trek: Red Alert, I very much want to know how all of that cinematic magic is recreated in real life.

The opportunity to experience all of this – along with sections of the park dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons, One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen and more – is coming up soon. Universal Fan Fest Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood are scheduled for this spring (specifically April 25-27, May 2-4, May 9-11, and May 16-18). There are multiple different options available for the special event, the price for one/two day general admission tickets starting at $74, and they are on sale now from the official website. Fingers are crossed that it all lives up to its massive potential, as it not only seems particularly awesome from the perspective of a non-theme park regular, but it also has me curious about what they could pull off in future years too.

There are two things about the 1980s that will be forever linked, the movies and the music. It was a unique decade for both and there are so many great songs that came from movie soundtracks that it's almost impossible to limit this list, but we're going to do our best. Here is our list of some of the very best music moments in classic 1980s movies like Dirty Dancing and Top Gun.

"Don't You (Forget About Me)" - The Breakfast Club

One thing fans of The Breakfast Club will never do is forget about you. The song, written and performed by Simple Minds, is one of the most iconic songs of the decade. The use of it in The Breakfast Club is equally iconic, as Bender and the rest of the "club" leave detention at the end of the day.

"Playing With The Boys" - Top Gun

The Top Gun soundtrack produced multiple hits and the whole album is full of bangers. If we're going to pick one iconic moment in the movie that fits the music perfectly, we have to go with the Kenny Loggins' hit "Playing With The Boys" during the volleyball scene. The moment you hear the song, you think of those fit guys playing on the beach... even if Tom Crusie is inexplicably wearing jeans.

"Fight The Power" - Do The Right Thing

While there are great songs all over movies from the '80s, there are few that had the cultural impact as Public Enemy's "Fight The Power" from the equally impactful Spike Lee joint, Do The Right Thing. Both exploded onto the scene and neither music nor movies were the same after them.

"Neutron Dance" - Beverly Hills Cop

Not only is Beverly Hills Cop one of the funniest movies of the decade, but it's also a great action movie, and to top it all off, it's filled with fantastic songs, including the theme song "Axel F" by Harold Faltermeyer. But there is no more memorable scene than the opening with Axel (Eddie Murphy) swinging from the back of the truck in an amazing chase with "Neutron Dance" by The Pointer Sisters blasting in the background.

"Holding Out For A Hero" - Footloose

Yet another '80s movie with an iconic soundtrack is Footloose. Sure, we could have gone with the theme song here, but is there a more memorable scene than the game of chicken on heavy construction equipment with "Holding Out For A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler accompanying the ridiculous (and amazing) scene? We think not.

"I Still Believe" - The Lost Boys

There is just something that is just so 1980s about. greased up, topless Tim Cappello shouting out "I Still Believe" as he gyrates around with his saxophone. That scene in The Lost Boys is both ridiculous and ridiculously awesome.

"Christmas in Hollis" - Die Hard

When John McClain asked Argyle if he had any Christmas music in Die Hard and the chauffeur answered with "Christmas in Hollis" it was a revelation for millions of middle-class Americans who had no idea there was Christmas hip hop. It's still the best seasonal rap song, don't you agree?

"Mess Around" - Planes, Trains And Automobiles

A whole bunch of things really go wrong for John Candy and Steve Martin in Planes Trains And Automobiles. The wildest has to be when Candy's character burns down the rental car while he smokes and jams out to the Ray Charles classic "Mess Around."

"Adagio For Strings" - Platoon

The most powerful moment in Platoon is when Elias (Willem Dafoe) is killed with his arms out in a Christ-like pose. Without question, a big reason the scene is so emotional is the choice by director Oliver Stone to use the piece "Adagio For Strings" by composer Samuel Barber. It's the perfect piece of music for the scene and really adds to the incredible impact of it.

"Partyman" - Batman

Sometimes people who weren't around in the 1980s don't really understand what a huge cultural moment Tim Burton's Batman was. It was a huge deal and Burton getting the enigmatic Prince to write some songs for the movie was an inspired moment. The Purple One's "Partyman" is the perfect song for the scene when The Joker (Jack Nicholson) and his henchmen break into Gotham's art museum and deface the art.

"Old Time Rock And Roll" - Risky Business

Is there any way we could put together this list without Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear in Risky Business to the Bob Seeger classic "Old Time Rock And Roll"? No, there isn't and there really isn't anything else to be said here, It's a classic film moment.

"(I've Had) The Time of My Life" - Dirty Dancing

Nobody puts Baby in the corner, and only one person can launch Baby up in the air. When Johnny and Baby finally pull off that lift at the end of Dirty Dancing is one of the most triumphant moments of '80s film. The song that accompanies the moment, "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes became just as iconic.

"In Your Eyes" - Say Anything

Walking a fine line between romantic and psychotic is Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) holding his boom box over his head while playing "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel outside Diane's (Ione Skye) window in Say Anything. We're saps at our core, so we'll call it 100% romantic and 100% iconic.

"You Can't Always Get What You Want" - The Big Chill

Boomer culture was in full nostalgia mode in the 1980s and nothing sums that up more than The Big Chill. That's not to say that the movie doesn't have its moments. One of the coolest tricks the movie pulls off is near the beginning when the organ player at the funeral starts playing "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by The Rolling Stones. It segues perfectly into the actual song as the funeral procession drives across a long bridge. It's probably the best scene in the movie if we're honest.

"Oh Yeah" - Ferris Bueller's Day Off

"Oh Yeah" by Swiss electronic band Yello was used in a few movies in the 1980s, like Uncle Buck and The Secret Of My Success. With all due respect to the Michael J. Fox classic, the best use of the song came at the end of Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Principal Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) is forced to ride the school bus and learns that he does, in fact, "eat it."

"Let's Go Crazy" - Purple Rain

Prince was one of the biggest stars of the 1980s and his magnum opus was the soundtrack to his movie Purple Rain. Obviously there is a ton of great music in the movie, but the best scene has to be when Prince plays "Let's Go Crazy" in a club before jumping up on an amp and shredding that amazing guitar solo at the end of the song.

"Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" - Beetlejuice

Even songs from the 1950s were able to create amazing musical moments in the 1980s. Take the Harry Bellefonte song "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" in Beetlejuice for example. The wild scene that the song accompanies is when the dinner party is interrupted by the ghosts living in the attic and it's the most memorable moment in the whole movie.

"Moving In Stereo" - Fast Times At Ridgemont High

In the interest of keeping this list rated G, we won't say much about the scene in Fast Times At Ridgemont High that features The Cars' song "Moving In Stereo." expect to say it involves Phoebe Cates in a red bikini and IYKYK.

"If You Were Here" - Sixteen Candles

Director John Hughes had a knack for creating amazing musical moments in between the hilarious quotes from his movies. In Sixteen Candles one of those classic moments happens at the end when Jake and Sam finally kiss over Sam's birthday cake as "If You Were Here" by Thompson Twins plays over the scene.

"Holiday Road" - National Lampoon's Vacation

Fleetwood Mac veteran Lindsey Buckingham provided the classic "Holiday Road" for National Lampoon's Vacation and while it only plays briefly as the Griwolds first hit the road in Chicago, it's been an enduring hit ever since.

"Magic Dance" - Labyrinth

1986's Labyrinth not only launched Jennifer Connelly's career, but if gave one amazing musical moment when the villain, played by the legend himself, David Bowie, sings his song "Magic Dance" along with a whole slew of Jim Henson puppets. It's as magical and the name of the song implies.

"Eye Of The Tiger" - Rocky III

In the first Rocky movie, audiences were treated to that amazing moment of Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) climbing the stairs of the Philadelphia Art Museum to "Gonna Fly Now." Of course, that doesn't count for this list of '80s movies, but luckily in Rocky III, we get "Eye of the Tiger" for the training montage. It's a toss-up for which is better.

"Tequila" - Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

For years after Pee-Wee's Big Adventure was released, people were still doing the Pee-Wee dance whenever they heard "Tequila" by The Champs. The '60s classic created a classic '80s moment.

"These Boots Are Made For Walking" - Full Metal Jacket

What makes "These Boots Are Made For Walking" by Nancy Sinatra so amazing in Full Metal Jacket is that it feels so upbeat immediately after the darkest moment in the movie when Private Pyle (Vincent D'Onofrio) kills his drill sergeant and then himself. It's director Stanley Kubrick at his finest.

"Big Bottom" - This Is Spinal Tap

Well, once again, we've come to a movie that there was no way we could leave off this list. The rock mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. There are at least a dozen scenes we could choose here, but the most iconic has to be the song "Big Bottoms" and that was proven years later when literally dozens of bass players joined the sort of fake, sort of real band for the song at Live Earth concert in 2007.

"The Power Of Love" - Back To The Future

We just had to include the meta moment in Back To The Future when the fictional band led by Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) starts playing a rocking version of the movie's theme song "The Power Of Love" only to be shut down by a teacher played by Huey Lewis who, with his band The News, actually played the song for the movie. It's just too darn loud.

"Werewolves Of London" - The Color Of Money

Warren Zevon is one of the most beloved songwriters in rock history, but he didn't have a ton of hits. One exception is "Werewolves of London" a song that was a hit when it came out in 1978 and then fans fell in love with it again when it appeared in an amazing scene in The Color Of Money in 1986.

"If You Leave" - Pretty In Pink

Like all his other movies, John Hughes using "If You Leave" by Orchestral Movements in the Dark in Pretty In Pink created one of the all time combos of music and movie. It's still weird that Andie didn't end up with Duckie, though.

"Lollipop" - Stand By Me

For many in Gen X, their first introduction to classic early '60 music came from Stand By Me. One of the songs used, "Lollipop" is almost a novelty song, but it's an incredibly infectious earworm too, so it ended up being one of the most iconic moments in the movie, music-wise.

"Into The Groove" - Desperately Seeking Susan

Desperately Seeking Susan isn't a great movie. It feels rushed and half-baked, and it was, really, as it was an attempt to capitalize on Madonna's burgeoning fame. It's the Material Girl's first major foray into film and the most memorable moment came when she is in a bar, listening to her own song, "Into The Groove."

"Gimme Shelter" - Adventures In Babysitting

If you aren't paying attention, you might miss "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones in Adventures In Babysitting, but it adds a real foreboding as the kids hitch a ride back to the station wagon that they hope has been repaired and they can finally wrap up their crazy night.

"Imagine" - The Killing Fields

John Lennon, and later Yoko Ono, were very protective of the former Beatles' music, especially his iconic "Imagine." Ono gave permission to the producers of The Killing Fields to use it at the end when the two protagonists are reunited after the horrors of the Khmer Rouge are finally over and it's an incredible emotional moment, in no small part to the song.

When it comes to great movie trilogies, Back to the Future may stand on its own. The original film is seen today as a classic, and while the sequels may not have been quite as perfect, as a series, it’s one of the best. One need only take a look at how popular it still is all these decades later. Fans recently showed up at a fan convention and got a double dose of Back to the Future in the form of both Michael J. Fox and one of his amazing co-stars.

While we’ve occasionally seen Fox reunite with Christopher Lloyd or appear with Lea Thompson, there’s another member of the Back to the Future cast who is often overlooked, despite the fact that he appeared in all three films just like the others. James Tolkan played Principal Strickland in the first two Back to the Future films, and Marshal Stickland in the third film. He and Fox both recently attended Fan Expo New Orleans and got a picture together recreating a famous pose.

As somebody who still remembers seeing the original Back to the Future in theaters when it was released, I am absolutely loving this picture. James Tolkan is 93 years old, and here he is wagging a finger at 63-year-old Michael J. Fox. It makes me feel so old, but seeing these two having fun all these years later is just adorable.

James Tolkan is one of the great character actors of the last few decades. In the 1970s, he appeared in classics like Serpico and the original The Amityville Horror. In the ‘80s, he was in WarGames and Top Gun. However, he is likely known, first and foremost, as the angry bald high school principal in Back to the Future. Tolkan has mostly retired from acting, having not appeared on screen since 2015’s Bone Tomahawk, save playing his old character in a fan remake of Back to the Future.

Add to this the fact that it’s just great to see Michael J. Fox continuing to make public appearances whenever he’s able to do so. Nobody would mind if the actor, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, kept his appearances to a minimum, but he regularly appears at fan conventions, allowing his fans to see him, get pictures and see amazing moments like this one.

Back to the Future is so iconic that today it is still incredibly popular, despite the fact that we’ve seen nothing new from the franchise in decades. Discussion of sequels or remakes or reboots have never fully gone away, but when the original is this good, how do you even try to do it again?

Few Hollywood actors are as beloved as Michael J. Fox is, as the former actor has endeared himself to the masses through his exceptional work. The now-63-year-old star is still widely known for his portrayal as conservative teen Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties, his charming turn as Marty McFly in the highly rewatchable Back to the Future films and more. On top of all that, he’s been involved in a plethora of charitable efforts. Now, Fox can say that he’s a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and his BTTF co-stars reached out to show support.

On Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden honored multiple people with the aforementioned honor at the White House. Among their ranks were actor Denzel Washington, U2 icon Bono and former U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. Needless to say, the Spin City alum was in good company, and fans took to social media to share their well wishes. Someone else who joined the chorus of praise was Christopher Lloyd, who famously played Emmett “Doc” Brown in the Back to the Future flicks. The veteran actor honored his co-star on X:

I’m not sure what I love more – the message or the sweet clip from the ceremony that was shared in the Addams Family alum’s post. Another lovely message came from Lea Thompson, who notably played the Marty actor’s mother, Lorraine Baines-McFly, in Robert Zemeckis’ classic trilogy. Thompson, who recently recalled her on-set experience, paid tribute to her on-screen child with a sweet message and well-timed gif:

As a longtime fan of Michael J. Fox, it warms my heart to see Michael J. Fox receive such a tremendous honor. I’m also a massive fan of Back to the Future, so I’m certainly smiling over the fact that Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd honored their friend and colleague with some sweet messages. Fox himself also released a statement via his foundation after he was named an honoree:

It goes without saying that the Canadian actor has turned in some of the most iconic performances in the history of cinema and TV. And he’s long remained humble about his accomplishments, even admitting that it wasn’t until recently that he realized he nailed his portrayal of Marty.

Acting aside, Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with early on-set Parkinson’s disease in 1991 but didn’t publicly disclose his condition until 1998. Since then, the American President alum has been a staunch advocate for research regarding the disease. Much of those efforts have been done through the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Considering the good work he’s done on and off camera, it’s no surprise that Fox received the prestigious medal.

Though it’s been nearly 35 years since the last Back to the Future film hit theaters, some of the primary cast members have remained close. The BTTF cast have even reunited for conventions and other events over the years, and those public appearances have led to sweet moments amongst them. Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd’s latest messages are simply a testament to the ties that continue to bond these actors together. I hope these relationships continue to endure.

You can buy/rent the Back to the Future movies on multiple digital platforms or purchase them on physical media. Also, check out the must-see documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie by streaming it with an Apple TV+ subscription.

The great thing about fiction is it allows people to temporarily suspend their disbelief for the sake of entertainment. Many of the most beloved movies of all time have strange and downright ridiculous premises if you try to explain them out loud, but their strangeness is a part of their charm. Here are 32 films with absolutely ridiculous plots.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

This movie was a critical and commercial darling, and its plot is utterly bizarre. A disillusioned laundromat operator traverses the multiverse, battles soldiers masquerading as IRS office workers, and dances with hot dog fingers in order to save her estranged, nihilistic daughter. It is, by far, one of the best and zaniest Best Picture winners that we’ve seen in a very long time.

21 Jump Street (2012)

On the surface this film seems relatively normal: it’s the classic tale of an awkward nerd and a dumb, handsome jock forming an unlikely duo while navigating the trials and tribulations of high school. Only this time, they’re also buddy cops going undercover as high school students in a sting operation to arrest the dealer of a new illicit drug. And, fittingly, the movie’s visuals are just as trippy as its premise.

Legally Blonde (2001)

In many ways, Legally Blonde was ahead of its time due to how it disrupted harmful stereotypes about hyper-feminine women. Its plot is still a bit goofy though, as it involves a popular, blonde sorority girl working her behind off to secure a spot at one of the most competitive law schools in the country, just to prove to her pretentious ex-boyfriend that she’s worthy of him taking her seriously. Thankfully the film ends with her ditching the loser and discovering a true penchant for law.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

One of the highest-grossing films of all time has one of the most convoluted plots of all time. A billionaire, retired superhero and his team invent time travel so that he and his fellow superheroes can travel to different timelines and capture magical, rainbow-colored stones so that they can reverse the devastating effects of a purple villain’s success in eliminating half of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers. Don’t worry, though: you only have to watch 21 films to understand it.

Poor Things (2023)

This colorful, quirky science fiction movie earned Emma Stone her second Oscar, and by just listening to its plot, it’s clear to see why. Stone portrays a woman whose brain has been replaced by that of an infant, and in the beginning of the film she cannot even properly pronounce the word “blood,” but by the end, she is studying to become a doctor. The dramatic transformation she undergoes, while traipsing around Europe and learning philosophy, is equally strange and impressive.

Back To The Future (1985)

Back to the Future is widely thought of as the quintessential time travel movie, and the implications of its time travel are seismic. A teenager accidentally travels 30 years into the past after meeting his eccentric science friend, and while stuck in the past, he inadvertently interferes with the relationship of his teenage parents, which threatens his very existence. Now he has to ensure that the couple stays together before he is erased from history, while dealing with the uncomfortable fact that his teenage mother has taken a liking to him.

The Mask (1994)

Back in the ‘90s, Jim Carrey was arguably the King of Ridiculous Movies, and his turn as Stanley Ipkiss in the mask not only allowed him to show off his excellent comedic sensibilities, but also his amazing face acting and physical capabilities, as his character quite literally turns into a cartoon come to life with a neon green face after donning a magical mask. The bad CGI stretching and morphing only adds to the zany enjoyment of the movie.

Happy Death Day (2017)

There is no worse birthday present than death, and this film forces its protagonist to endure it every birthday. The protagonist, a mean sorority girl, dies on her birthday, and she is forced to relive the tragic day every single day until she figures out who the person responsible is. Also, she has limited time to figure out who the person is before she dies for real (as in, she stops coming back to life).

The Boss Baby (2017)

A lot of animated movies lean into the fact that they are marketed towards kids, and there are few better examples than The Boss Baby. This zany movie’s plot involves the existence of an absurd baby-making corporation in the clouds that delivers a baby with hopes of rising the corporate ladder to a family with a disgruntled former only child, and the unlikely brother duo must work together to stop puppies from becoming the most loved creatures in the world.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004)

Speaking of absurd animated movies, the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise as a whole is pretty bizarre with its takes on marine life, but its movie definitely pushes the boundaries of what’s believable. In this movie, Plankton steals King Neptune’s crown and frames Mr. Krabs for it, just so Neptune will punish Krabs and give Plankton a chance to steal his coveted burger recipe, sell those burgers at his restaurant, and become dictator of Bikini Bottom. And it’s up to SpongeBob and Patrick to retrieve the crown while driving in a car made out of a Krabby Patty.

Home Alone (1990)

The ridiculousness of Home Alone’s plot likely comes from the fact that such a scenario happening in real life would be deeply sad. A young boy, who already feels like an outsider in his own family, is left behind by said family when they go on a Christmas vacation. And if this minor being left unattended isn’t bad enough, he is forced to set up elaborate, dangerous traps to ward off persistent, home invaders.

Divergent (2014)

The Divergent movie was just one of a multitude of young adult, dystopian franchise films that became massively popular during the 2010s, and it, by far, has the most head-scratching premise. In its future, what’s left of humanity after a cataclysmic war has divided itself into factions based on rudimentary personality traits, such as kindness and honesty. In this reality, you are seen as a massive threat that must be eliminated if you dare to be intelligent, honest, and selfless at the time.

Barbie (2023)

Stereotypical Barbie spends most of her life in an idyllic, woman-ruled, plastic paradise until one day she begins to experience existential dread and the horrible tragedies of cellulite and flat feet. She must then embark on a journey from her perfect Barbie Land to the Real World and discover the meaning of life and womanhood in a male-dominated world. And Ken’s also there, but he’s just Ken.

Cocaine Bear (2023)

The ridiculousness of this movie’s plot can really be summed up with its title. After sacks of cocaine fall into the woods, a bear accidentally becomes addicted to it and attacks the residents of a small town. While this sounds like the plot of a horror movie, it’s actually quite hilarious in the stupidest way possible, because the amount of opportunities these people are given to escape from or incapacitate the bear are numerous, and yet they choose idiocy every single time.

Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

Harry Potter’s story has become such a classic by now, that it’s hard to think that at one point it was another strange idea that had to be marketed to the world. In the first movie, Harry is an orphaned boy that is neglected and mistreated by his foster family, only to be politely kidnapped by a gentle giant who tells him he’s a wizard and sends him off to attend a magical boarding school. Also, a fully grown wizard has hated him since he was a baby, because that’s normal.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)

It’s normal when starting a new relationship with someone to not want to think about or compare yourself to their exes. Now, imagine that not only did you have to meet all seven of their exes, but you had to battle them to the death too, preferably in video game combat style. Those are the insane lengths Scott Pilgrim goes through to be with Ramona Flowers.

Twilight (2008)

It’s a tale as old as time: a teenage girl who hates the cold and rain moves to the Pacific Northwest to live with her distant father to allow her mother to travel the country with her new husband, and, while in the Pacific Northwest, said teenage girl meets and falls in love with a sparkly, 108-year-old vampire that not so secretly wants to drink her blood. And then, they live happily ever after or something like that.

The Princess Bride (1987)

The best part of The Princess Bride is its ridiculousness. There’s such a warmth to the film due to the fact that it obviously does not take itself seriously, exemplified by the princess herself being named “Buttercup,” she pushes the man whom she believed took the life of her former lover down a hill, only to realize said man is her true love, and rolls down the hill with him. And this is all after he incapacitates the three men who kidnap her. And that's just the beginning!

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

The most-seen film in movie history also has the most beloved, ridiculous plot in movie history. A young girl and her dog get caught in a tornado, and the storm transports them to a faraway land where there are good witches, bad witches, flying monkeys, talking lions and scarecrows and more. And in order for her to get home, she has to follow a yellow brick road in ruby red slippers.

Despicable Me (2010)

In this silly tale, a villain, seeking to earn more respect in the villain community, plots to steal the moon, which is simple enough. So, obviously, the best way to go about doing so is adopting three orphaned girls and sending the girls to sell cookies at his villain competitor’s house, so that he can infiltrate said house and steal the competitor’s shrink ray to successfully steal the moon. At least, that’s what Despicable Me tries to convince its admittedly very young audience makes sense.

White Chicks (2004)

It’s common to look back at media from decades again with a modern perspective and assess whether said media from that earlier time would be made today. This movie is a clear example of one that is a product of its time, not only because of its crass racial humor, but also because of its dumbfounding plot: two Black, male FBI agents masquerade as blonde white women to protect two social heiresses from being kidnapped. Hijinks ensue, and lewd jokes abound.

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

When your movie is being led by comedic genius Robin Williams, it’s likely to have a ridiculous plot, and Mrs. Doubfire is no exception. In this family-friendly flick, Williams portrays an unemployed voice actor going through a difficult divorce. After he is only granted supervised visitation rights to his kids, he comes up with an outrageous plan to spend more time with him: pose as an elderly, female nanny named “Mrs. Doubtfire.”

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

In this film’s universe, all major, commercial holidays coexist with one another and have their own lands which can be accessed by secret, tree-encased portals. The Pumpkin King of Halloween Town becomes disillusioned with his life there, stumbles across the Christmas portal, and falls in love. He does everything in his power to introduce his own, twisted form of Christmas to his macabre home, to limited success.

The Parent Trap (1998)

In yet another case of questionable parenting, a British woman falls in love with and marries an American man, and she gives birth to twin daughters. The couple divorced shortly after the girls are born, and instead of trying to work out a joint custody situation, the parents decide to keep one daughter each and raise her in their respective home countries and pretend the other daughter does not exist. This eventually leads to the girls meeting each other and learning of each other’s existence for the very first time at summer camp, and after a period of rivalry, they decide to join forces to get their parents back together.

13 Going On 30 (2004)

This is another movie that shows you how weird its plot is just with its title. An awkward, 13-year-old wants to skip the uncool parts of life and live life as a successful, 30-year-old woman in New York. And on her birthday, she gets her wish, waking up in the body of a rich, stylish magazine editor with a not-so-great personality. The most bizarre, yet impressive part of this movie is watching Jennifer Gardner portray a 30-year-old woman with the brain of a 13-year-old girl who’s trying to pretend like she’s a 30-year-old woman.

Shazam! (2019)

If you were to ask a child what their dream superpower is, becoming an adult probably wouldn’t be their tenth choice, let alone their top choice, but Billy Batson in Shazam! makes it look super cool. After being chosen by an ancient wizard, the foster kid, can now morph into a fully grown man at will by yelling “Shazam!” and he gets a suite of cool powers.

Central Intelligence (2016)

Few Hollywood best friends are more endearing than Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, and their on-screen chemistry comes to life in this silly buddy cop action movie. Johnson’s character is a formerly obese nerd turned jacked CIA agent who needs Hart’s character’s accounting skills, even though the latter hasn’t seen the former since his days as a star athlete. Of course, they save the world in the campiest, most hilarious ways.

Spy Kids (2001)

Surely many kids have wondered what their lives would be like if their mild-mannered, suburban, if a little boring, parents were actually top-secret spies. Well for the brother-sister duo in this movie, that lifestyle is anything but fun as it leads to them being captured by a villain with giant, sentient thumbs for minions. And, that’s not even the weirdest part.

Matilda (1996)

A young, precocious girl is neglected by her family, so she finds solace in reading a lot. Unlocking so much of her brain’s potential at a such young age grants her telekinetic abilities, which she uses to enact revenge on her parents and awful principal, Ms. Trunchbull.

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)

A mysterious, eccentric chocolatier, invites a select group of children with accompanying guardians to his famed chocolate factory, only to discover that there are horrors at every turn, including chewing gum that can turn you into a human-sized blueberry and fizzy drinks that cause you to float, which is fun, until you’re dangerously close to a whirring ceiling fan. The only reason this film is thought of as cheerful and child-friendly, and not downright terrifying, is because it hams up how utterly ridiculous it is.

Alvin And The Chipmunks (2007)

A live-action movie with talking animals will always necessitate some suspension of disbelief, but when those talking animals are chipmunks that also sing, and quickly become the world’s biggest pop stars, at some point a line is crossed and any semblance of realism has flown out the window. The only thing more ridiculous than the rodent singers themselves are all the times their manager, turned adoptive father Dave screams “Alvin!”

The Nutty Professor (1996)

In this movie, Eddie Murphy portrays a brilliant, obese professor who develops a groundbreaking weight-loss formula. Insecure about his size and eager to impress the girl of his dreams, the professor tests out the drug on himself, and he successfully slims down, only for the thin version of himself to develop an evil alter ego and fight to take over the professor’s life permanently. Not only are the performances of this film hilarious and outlandish, especially with Eddie Murphy playing multiple roles, but the visual gags of the professor switching between his thin and large self are something to behold.

Fathers and sons have complicated relationships. Sometimes they can be the sweetest, most wonderful ones, and sometimes they can be dark and sinister. Most of the time, they are somewhere in between. Films throughout history have explored these relationships in every way, from serious dramas like The Godfather to comedies about dads and sons like Elf. Here is a list of our favorite movies exploring the love or hate between sons and their fathers.

Field Of Dreams

Near or at the top of any list of the complicated relationships between fathers and sons has to be the classic Field Of Dreams, a movie that no matter how often you rewatch it, you see something new, and you probably shed a little tear at the end when dad and son finally have that game of catch. It's something almost all kids can relate to, and makes fathers long for childhood again.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Superheros have long had complex relationships with their dads. From Superman to Batman, and even in the MCU. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, we learn about Star-Lord's father, played by Kurt Russell. Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) never knew his father and lost his mother at a young age and both of those things help mold his personality and his ethos, so when he finally meets his dad, it gets messy.

In The Name Of The Father

One of Daniel Day-Lewis' best roles came as a man accused of a terrorist attack that he didn't commit in In The Name Of The Father. The movie, based on a true story, explores the complicated nature of how a father and son interact when his father is also wrongly implicated in the same plot and both are sent to prison together. It's an amazing movie sure to bring a tear to your eye.

Boyz N The Hood

Furious Styles (Laurence Fishburne) is a single father trying his hardest to keep his son Tre off the streets and raise him the right way in a world working hard against him in Boyz N The Hood. Furious is tough on his son, but it's only because he loves Tre and he knows he has to be tough to survive and avoid all the pitfalls of a teenager in South Central LA.

Road to Perdition

Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) is an orphan taken in by a mob boss, John Rooney (Paul Newman) in one of the best examples of a movie based on a comic book that isn't about a superhero, Road to Perdition. Without spoiling too much, the relationship is strained, to say the least, and culminates in a dramatic scene between the two that is the ultimate expression of how difficult the dynamic can get.

Back To The Future

Back To The Future isn't only a movie about the relationship between a father and a son, but Marty's relationship with his father George is one of the pivotal plot points from beginning to end. They clearly love each other, but Marty (Michael J. Fox) doesn't respect George (Crispin Glover), until the very end when his father proves what kind of man he can be.

Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade

At the heart of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is the relationship between father (Sean Connery) and son (Harrison Ford). They pretty much disagree about everything and both think the other is a little silly at times (or all the time), but they show the strength of their relationship when they come together to complete the task that the father started decades ago and it makes for some amazing moments throughout the film.

Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can is all about the insane life of con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio). That all starts at home when he was a kid and his father, played by Christopher Walken shows that he is quite the con man himself. Frank, Jr idolizes his father and you get the sense that everything he does in life is to please his father and make Frank, Sr. proud.

There Will Be Blood

Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a singularly focused man. He is harsh, brutal, and unforgiving in the quest for his fortune. The one aspect of his life where is, at least a little, less harsh and brutal comes in his relationship with his son, whom he cares for deeply and truly and does all he can to help the boy as he raises him. That is, until it all falls apart, as so many relationships like that do, sadly.

The Godfather

In the history of film, there may be no better example of the complicated nature between a father and a son. Not only is The Godfather one of the best gangster movies of all time, but what makes it one of the best films of all time is the way it explores the relationship between Michael (Al Pacino) and his father Vito (Marlon Brando).

The Pursuit Of Happyness

The Pursuit Of Happyness is the true story of Chris Gardner, played by Will Smith, that follows Gardner's struggle to raise his son and make both their lives better. Father and son are homeless in the movie as Gardner works to become a stockbroker. It's a movie that definitely restores your faith in humanity.

The Lion King

Disney may have made some of the best kids' cartoons ever, but they also aren't afraid to explore the death of a parent in their movies. One of the most tragic deaths in Disney's history is the demise of Mufasa in The Lion King. The way it affects Simba is powerful and sets the tone for the movie and for Simba's whole life.

The Iron Claw

2023's The Iron Claw is all about family. The Von Erichs, led by patriarch Fritz are not only one of the most successful families in professional wrestling history, they are also the most tragic. Fritz is a complicated man and that reflects on how he raises his sons.

Elf

There is no doubt that Elf is one of the best Christmas movies of all time, but it's also one of the best father-and-son movies, too. Not only is it about Buddy (Will Ferrell) getting to know his biological father played by James Caan, but it's also about the elf who raised Buddy as his son, played by Bob Newhart. Both are magical relationships.

The Road

How does a father raise his son in a world that has been destroyed by a mysterious event that is never fully explained? The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee as father and son attempt to do it. It's a bleak movie, one that really sticks with you after you see it and the relationship is both brutal and beautiful.

Fences

In Fences, part of the Pittsburgh Cycle by playwright August Wilson, Denzel Washington's character is a bitter man who denied his dream of playing professional baseball, and those around him, especially his son, suffer the consequences. It's not the kind of father/son movie that you'd ever want to use as a sterling example of fatherhood, but that doesn't mean that millions of fathers and sons don't interact in the same way.

Star Wars

Throughout the entire Star Wars saga, the relationships between fathers and sons play out in dramatic ways. The most famous example, of course, is between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, but in the sequels, there is also the relationship between Han Solo and Kylo Ren, which ends as tragically as possible.

American Pie

You have to empathize with Eugene Levy's character in American Pie. It's clear he loves his son very much, but he just doesn't understand his son at all. Or, at least, he kind of understands and just isn't equipped to deal with raising a teenager. It's something all fathers can relate to, without a doubt.

Frequency

Frequency is a vastly underrated movie that doesn't get mentioned enough. It's all about a son's attempts to get to know a father he hardly knew in life. When the supernatural intercedes he has the opportunity to speak directly to his dead father, the movie opens up the emotional floodgates.

Life Is Beautiful

1997's Life Is Beautiful is one of those amazing movies you can only watch once. The relationship between Guido and his son Giosuè is the "beautiful" part of the title because everything else shows just how ugly life can get for some people. It's a tragic movie, but at its heart is the love between father and son,

The Many Saints Of Newark

Tony Soprano is a complicated guy. A guy who spends years in therapy during The Sopranos and it turns out a lot of his emotional baggage traces back to his father Johnny as we learned in the prequel movie The Many Saints Of Newark. Johnny was a man that Tony loved and feared, as many sons do of their father, but maybe not in such dramatic ways.

Ad Astra

Ad Astra isn't the first sci-fi movie to explore the relationship between fathers and sons, but it is one of the most dramatic. Whenever a son loses a father at a young age, it makes for very complicated emotions about their father and this plays out in Ad Astra as the two are reunited many years later in a very distant place.

A River Runs Through It

A River Runs Through It is about family. It's about brotherly love and the complicated relationships that brothers have with each other as much as it is about their relationship with their strict but loving religious father. Neither son turns out much like their father at all, but despite their sometimes harsh upbringing, but love and respect their father.

East Of Eden

East of Eden starring James Dean is based on the John Steinbeck novel of the same, which itself is loosely based on the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. As such, it's all about familial relationships, including Cal and Abel's very complicated with their father, Adam.

Nowhere Special

You may not have heard of the Irish movie Nowhere Special, but if you love to cry at tragic stories on film, you need to check it out. A single father faces the worst nightmare any dad can imagine. He is diagnosed with a terminal illness and must work out plans for the rest of his 4-year-old's life, including who is to raise the child. It's heartbreaking and beautiful.

Tree Of Life

Whatever subject director Terrence Malick chooses to explore in his films is sure to be interesting and worth anyone's time. In Tree Of Life, Malick takes on a father's life with this family, mostly in the seemingly idyllic 1950s. Of course, under the surface, the family is far from ideal.

Billy Madison

Not every movie about the love between a father and son has to be serious. In fact, Billy Madison proves that even the funniest movies can still explore the subject. Billy, played by Adam Sandler, is an idiot. His father, played by Darren McGavin still loves him enough to give Billy one last shot at inheriting the family hotel business. It's also Adam Sander's best movie.

My Life

Michael Keaton has starred in a lot of movies in his long career and some, like Mr. Mom and Batman, are better remembered than others, like My Life. To be sure, My Life is not one of Keaton's best movies, but it does show an incredible relationship between a father and his unborn son as Keaton's character is diagnosed with terminal cancer and spends his remaining days filming videos to teach the son he will never know everything he thinks a son should learn from his father. It's a sad movie, but a worthwhile one.

Boyhood

Director Richard Linklater's Boyhood is one of the most ambitious films ever made as it was shot over 11 years and at the heart of the movie is the complicated, loving, and realistic relationship between a father, played by Ethan Hawke, and his son, played by Ellar Coltrane.

Hook

In Hook, Robin Williams plays a father who grew up too much. He's lost all the sense and wonder he once had as a child and as a result, his son, who still has that sense of wonder, has become alienated from his father. All that it takes to rekindle his love for life, and for his son, is for Williams' character to remember his lost childhood. Thankfully he does.

A Bronx Tale

A Bronx Tale is all about a teenager struggling between choosing the straight-laced, but somewhat boring life his father, played by Robert De Niro, wants for him, and the exciting criminal life a father figure, played by Chazz Palminteri, can offer him. Which will he choose?

Tommy Boy

We don't watch Tommy Boy for a heartfelt movie about a father and his son. We watch Tommy Boy for the hilarious quotes. Still, there is that wonderful relationship between Tommy (Chris Farley) and his father, Big Tom, played by Brian Dennehy. Its just a shame it ended so soon.

One of the best things about movies is that they come in all shapes and sizes, with something for audiences both young and old, near and far, and here and there. Over the years, Best Picture winners have consisted of all kinds of genres ranging from dramas to musicals, biopics to comedies, and so much more.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about just some of the countless different genres, stick around. Let’s break down 32 different genres and an example of a movie that belongs to each.

Action - Die Hard (1988)

One of the best action movies ever made, Die Hard essentially reinvented the genre with its story about a down-on-his-luck cop named John McClane (Bruce Willis) traveling across the country to save his marriage only for the reunion to be thwarted by a group of terrorists. Though Willis’ iconic character isn’t as jacked as those played by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the everyman quality to him makes him an all-time hero.

Sci-Fi - Jurassic Park (1993)

Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park could fall into multiple genres, but since it deals with genetically modified dinosaurs being brought to life, it’s one of the best representations of sci-fi. One of the best book adaptations of all time, this massive summer blockbuster is as great today as it was back in 1993, both in terms of story and its state-of-the-art visuals.

Comedy - Blazing Saddles (1974)

Whenever talking about the funniest movies ever made, it doesn’t take long for the conversation to turn to Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks’ 1974 comedy Western about a plot to destroy a frontier town and a sheriff’s attempt to save its good and fair residents. But the plot is just secondary to the countless jokes, ribs, and wild situations that are found throughout this incredibly funny and outrageous comedy classic.

Documentary - Grizzly Man (2005)

As far as I’m concerned, Werner Herzog is one of the greatest documentarians of all time. Much like his feature-length films, the acclaimed filmmaker’s collection of non-fiction titles strays from the norms of the genre, creating unique pieces of art in the process. This is especially true for Grizzly Man, Herzog’s 2005 exploration of the life and tragic death of Timothy Treadwell, a conservationist who thought it was better to die with a bear than live with man.

Mockumentary - This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

There were mockumentaries that came before it, but This is Spinal Tap was a watershed moment for the genre. Rob Reiner’s 1984 chronicle of struggling heavy metal band Spinal Tap turns it to 11 (quite literally) with its scenes of rock n roll, excess, and over-the-top characters who are thinly veiled caricatures of famous English groups of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

Slasher - Scream (1996)

If you were to tell someone where to start with the slasher genre, Wes Craven’s Scream would be a great place to start. Though it’s not the best horror movie of all time, this landmark film is full of references to the films that came before it, has a wonderful meta dynamic, and perhaps the greatest opening scene of all time.

Superhero - The Dark Knight (2008)

To some, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is the pinnacle of the superhero movie genre. This 2008 blockbuster takes elements from comic book movies and combines them with the realism of a gritty crime thriller and classic action flicks like Heat to create an incredible experience. Plus, Heath Ledger’s Joker is a force of pure chaos that needs to be seen.

Animation - My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

One of the most iconic Studio Ghibli films, My Neighbor Totoro is not only a great animated film but also a tremendous introduction to the fantastical world of Hayao Miyazaki. Released in 1988, this delightful film follows two young girls as they move to the countryside with their father a befriend a mythical creature known as Totoro.

Drama - Casablanca (1942)

Deciding on one film to use as an example of the drama genre is no easy task, but Casablanca is a classic that everyone needs to watch at least once in their life. The timeless story of American ex-pat Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) helping old flame Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and her finance escape the Nazis while also revisiting the events that led to their split is something to behold.

Fantasy - The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is the perfect place to start if you want to dip your toes into the waters of the fantasy genre. All the elements that make this type of film so beloved can be found throughout Peter Jackson’s impressive 2001 film that kicks off one of the greatest adventures of all time.

Sports - Major League (1989)

One of the best baseball movies ever made, Major League is also one of the funniest sports comedies you can find. Though not for younger audiences, this hilarious underdog story is all killer and no filler with its tale of the lowly Cleveland Indians defying the odds by putting together an unlikely championship team.

Romantic Comedy - When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Often considered the best romantic comedy, When Harry Met Sally is 90-plus minutes of pure joy. The on-screen chemistry between Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal in this 1989 classic directed by Rob Reiner and written by Nora Ephron is off the charts and filled with one iconic scene after another.

Horror - The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter, one of the great horror directors of the 20th century, really outdid himself with The Thing, his 1982 adaptation of John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There. The paranoia, the claustrophobic spaces, the incredible cast led by Kurt Russell, and those terrifying creature effects from Rob Bottin make this an unforgettable classic.

Crime - The Godfather (1972)

Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is a family drama, an epic coming-of-age story, and a mobster movie, but above it all, it’s a transformative crime film. This sprawling story about the Corleone organization, told through the eyes of Vito (Marlon Brando) and Michael (Al Pacino) is worthy of all the praise it’s received over the past 50-plus years.

Musical - La La Land (2016)

Okay, there are classic musicals like An American in Paris and Singing in the Rain that are far more prestigious than La La Land, but Damien Chazelle’s 2016 throwback is a great entry point. The song and dance numbers performed by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are stupendous and the romance at the center of its story is wonderful, to say the least.

Western - Tombstone (1993)

One of the greatest Western movies, Tombstone has everything you’d want in the genre: shootouts, colorful characters, legendary mustaches, and some of the best movie quotes of all time. Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton, and Sam Elliott were all made for their respective roles as some of the most iconic gunslingers and lawmen in the Old West.

Noir - Double Indemnity (1944)

If you’ve taken any type of class on the history of American cinema, there’s a chance you’ve seen Double Indemnity by now. This 1944 film noir staple follows insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) as he gets in way over his head when dealing with Phyllis Dietrrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), a dangerous femme fatale with a plan to cash in on a life insurance policy.

Suspense - The Sixth Sense (1999)

The Sixth Sense is a lot of things – horror, thriller, family drama. But above all, it’s an intense suspense film about a young boy (played by Haley Joel Osment) who can see dead people and his therapist (played by Bruce Willis) who tries to help him make sense of the supernatural ability.

Coming Of Age - Lady Bird (2018)

Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird is one of the funniest, most sincere, and most realistic coming-of-age stories of the 21st century. Set in the early 2000s, the movie follows Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) as she deals with the fallout of her decision to move across the country upon graduating high school.

Time Travel - Back To The Future (1985)

There’s a good chance Back to the Future comes to mind when most people think about great time travel movies, and for good reason. This 1985 sci-fi adventure film hits in all the right places, features a career-defining performance from Michael J. Fox, and introduces the world to the coolest time machine of all time.

Historical Drama - The Age Of Innocence (1993)

Though Martin Scorsese is known more for his crime films, he put out one of the best historical dramas in 1993 with his adaptation of The Age of Innocence. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder, the film took a lot of chances and pushed the genre in a new direction.

Disaster - The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

One of the craziest disaster films, The Poseidon Adventure has a simple yet effective premise: what would happen if a cruise ship was flipped upside down by a massive wave? Survival, questions about morality, and Gene Hackman in a turtleneck make this a must-watch movie.

Dystopian - Escape From New York (1981)

Escape from New York, which takes place in a future where the city has been turned into a walled-off prison colony, is just such a legendary dystopian film. When the U.S. president’s plane is hijacked and crashed in lower Manhattan, it’s up to Snake Plisken (Kurt Russell) to save the day.

Family - The Princess Bride (1987)

The Princess Bride is one of those movies that just never gets old, no matter how many times you watch it. With a great story, unforgettable characters, and expressions of true love (and revenge), there’s a lot for the whole family to enjoy.

Biographical Drama - Schindler's List (1993)

The same year Steven Spielberg dazzled audiences with Jurassic Park, he made us cry with Schindler’s List, a moving biographical drama about a man (played by Lian Neeson) who goes to great lengths to save Jewish prisoners at a German concentration camp.

Stop-Motion Animation - The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

What’s this? What’s this? Oh, just one of the best stop-motion animation movies ever made. Released in 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas has become a staple of the spooky season with its eccentric characters, sometimes grotesque scenes, and some lovely songs written and performed by Danny Elfman.

War Movie - Platoon (1985)

War is Hell, and few movies capture that sentiment better than Platoon. Released in 1985, Oliver Stone’s Vietnam War movie is neither triumphant nor pleasant, but instead a realistic and gut-wrenching depiction of combat and its effect on people. Truly unsettling and incredibly emotional, this Oscar winner is a tour de force.

Psychological Thriller - Seven (1995)

David Fincher made his mark on the world with Saven, his 1995 psychological thriller about a serial killer obsessed with the seven deadly sins and the two detectives assigned to stop the madness before it’s too late.

Buddy Action - Midnight Run (1988)

The ‘80s gave us all kinds of great buddy action movies, including Midnight Run, a hilarious and endearing cross-country affair about a down-on-his-luck cop-turned-bounty-hunter (played by Robert De Niro) trying to bring a mob accountant (played by Charles Grodin) to his court date. But things aren’t always as easy or clear as they seem.

Raunchy Comedy - Ted (2012)

There have been some great raunchy comedies over the years, with the likes of Porky’s and There’s Something About Mary quickly coming to mind. But one of the best options, especially for more modern audiences, is Ted, the 2012 comedy about a man (played by Mark Wahlberg) and his friendship with his childhood teddy bear (voiced by Seth MacFarlane). Though it sounds innocent, this wild comedy is anything but.

Silent Film - City Lights (1931)

If you’ve ever wanted to jump into the world of silent movies, Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights is going to be a great introduction. Released in 1931, this classic film follows Chaplin’s tramp as he falls in love with a blind flower girl and goes from there. Romance, drama, pratfalls, you name it, it’s all here.

Spoof Film - Airplane! (1980)

There has long been a tradition of spoof films in Hollywood, and no film does the format better than Airplane!. Released in 1980, this legendary comedy pokes fun at the disaster genre with outrageous jokes, scenarios, and so much more.

It’s hard to envision a time when Lea Thompson and Michael J. Fox weren’t friendly with one another, as they spent a great deal of time together making the Back to the Future movies and have frequently interacted with each other in the decades since the trilogy concluded. However, it’s not as though these two have always been on good standing with one another. Thompson admitted that when she first met Fox on the first Back to the Future movie’s set, she was “snooty” to him, though she had some understandable reasons for that.

While appearing on the Still Here Hollywood podcast, Thompson, who played Lorraine McFly in all three Back to the Future movies and Maggie McFly in Part III, recalled to host Steve Kmetko that she “probably” didn’t hit it off right away with Fox. That was in part due to her being friends with Eric Stoltz, who was originally set to play Marty McFly, but was fired after director and co-writer Robert Zemeckis deemed he wasn’t right for the role after all. On top of that, though, Thompson shared that she looked down on Fox for the following reason:

While she is correct that there was a larger divide between movie and TV actors back then, let’s no forget that Family Ties was one of the more popular shows of the ’80s and is still considered to be one of the best sitcoms of all time. But what’s really funny about Lea Thompson’s recollection is that Michael J. Fox was actually courted to play Marty before Eric Stoltz. The only reason it didn’t work out the first time around was because he was busy with Family Ties, but after things with Stoltz fell through six weeks into filming, Fox was approached again, and they figured out a way to shoot Back to the Future (one of the best sci-fi movies) with him without it disrupting the sitcom’s production.

Despite her initial iciness towards Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson did believe that the Marty McFly recasting would improve Back to the Future’s chances of success, reasoning that the filmmakers must have known what they were doing because of how it expensive it was to change the actors this far along into the creative process. The actress also said:

34 years after this sci-fi saga concluded with Back to the Future Part III, Lea Thompson and Michael J. Fox remain “friendly” with one another, with the former mentioning that she sees the latter a few times a year at fan conventions. Thompson and Fox’s co-stars in all three Back to the Future movies included Christopher Lloyd and Thomas F. Wilson. Crispin Glover and Claudia Wells respectively played George McFly and Jennifer Parker in the first movie, but Jeffrey Weissman and Elisabeth Shue took over those roles for the other two.

Currently the Back to the Future movies can be streamed if you’re subscribed to Star, either directly or as an add-on for something like a Hulu subscription. Lea Thomson can currently be seen on the TV series The Chicken Sisters, which airs on Hallmark+.

Kids do and say the darndest things, and that was no more true than in the 1980s. If you just look at just a few of the best ‘80s movies, you’ll see youngsters put in situations ranging from dangerous to downright deadly, and everything in between. 

If you want to take a trip down memory lane to see just how ridiculous things were for kids in big-screen adventures, stick around because we’re about to break down 32 ‘80s movie situations that’ll shock ya.

Running From The Fratelli Family (The Goonies)

The Goonies, one of the most beloved films of the ‘80s, also turns up the intensity when it comes to kids being put in dangerous situations. While the titular gang’s quest to find One-Eyed Willie’s treasure is full of peril (even if the octopus was removed), nothing comes close to their run-ins with the Fratelli family, especially its no-nonsense matriarch.

Short Round Driving A Car (Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom)

Short Round (Ke Huy Quan), who is pretty much the best child sidekick in the history of movies, found himself in all kinds of dangerous situations in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, including that one sequence where he serves as Harrison Ford’s character’s driver in a daring escape. 

NORAD Handing Over Controls To A 17-Year-Old (War Games)

They don’t make movies like WarGames in today’s Hollywood, which is a shame because this 1983 techno-thriller has a great look, a tremendous cast led by Matthew Broderick, and a story that involves a teenager takes on a supercomputer to save the world from nuclear war.

A Teenager Is Recruited To Fight An Intergalactic War (The Last Starfighter)

The Last Starfighter is a movie that is often forgotten when talking about the best ‘80s sci-fi films, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie. In fact, it’s actually a lot of fun. However, it does put its young lead in some wildly dangerous positions when he is recruited to fight in an intergalactic war.

A Group Of Teenagers Engaging In Guerilla Warfare (Red Dawn)

Restart your “Days Without a John Milius Reference” counter because there was no way we were going to leave Red Dawn off this list. This 1984 military classic sees a group of teenagers (Wolverines) take on invading Soviet, Cuban, and Nicaraguan forces when their parents and community leaders are rounded up and imprisoned or killed. Truly bonkers, but so much fun.

Max Going On A Space Walk (Space Camp)

Back when Joaquin Phoenix was still going by Leaf, he appeared in some wild movies. One of those, Space Camp, sees his young character, Max, perform a spacewalk in one of the movie’s more intense and awe-inspiring moments. Still crazy that this happened.

Elliott And His Friends Running From The Feds (E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial)

Though the bicycle escape scene in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is one of the most enchanting of Steven Spielberg’s career thanks in part to John Williams’ fantastic score, it’s also something that seems way too unsafe for Elliott (Henry Thomas) and his pals. One trigger-happy fed could have made this a tragedy.

Going To Chicago Alone At Night (Adventures In Babysitting)

Adventures in Babysitting starring Elisabeth Shue is one of those movies you can’t help but watch whenever it’s on. But once you get over the nostalgic rush, it doesn’t take long for you to realize that a car full of kids going into the heart of Chicago at night isn’t the safest of ideas. A fun, memorable adventure, for sure, but we’re lucky nothing serious happened.

Searching For A Dead Body (Stand By Me)

Though not the most intense Stephen King adaptation involving kids finding themselves in dangerous situations, Stand by Me isn’t just some walk in the woods. The running from the local gang, the leeches, the night watch, and other iconic scenes make this a dangerous adventure for the core group of youngsters.

Kids Taking On Dracula And Others (The Monster Squad)

We all love The Monster Squad, but was there anyone besides the group of titular kids who could take on Dracula and the other movie monsters in this ‘80s horror classic? But in all fairness, the famous Wolfman quote just wouldn’t be the same if spoken by a 40-year-old cop.

A Trio Of Kids Traveling Across The Country For A Video Game Tournament (The Wizard)

The Wizard made the Power Glove look so dang cool and showed off some killer Super Mario Bros. 3 footage, but it also centered on three kids who travel across the country with no supervision to attend a video game tournament. A proper balance, yeah, but Fred Savage is lucky nothing happened.

A High School Senior Conducting A Rescue Mission (Iron Eagle)

Iron Eagle features one of the epic battles between kids and grownups, but unlike in Home Alone where a young boy protects his house from burglars, Doug Masters (Jason Gedrick) takes on a foreign air force in actual combat.

Fighting A Maniac Acting Like 'Santa Claus' (Deadly Games)

A year before Home Alone came onto the scene, there was a French thriller called Deadly Games that saw a tenacious kid protect his house from a homicidal maniac dressed up like Santa Claus. The traps are deadlier, the stakes are higher, and the violence is something to be seen.

Students Taking Over A Military School (Taps)

Long before Tom Cruise was jumping out of airplanes, driving motorcycles off cliffs, or flying jets, he was taking over a military school to prevent it from being shut down in Taps. This 1981 drama, one of Cruiese’s first, is something we’d never see today.

Essentially Building A Fortress On Wheels (Ernest Goes To Camp)

Ernest Goes to Camp is a fun, lighthearted, and hilarious summer camp movie about a group of social outcasts finding family in the form of an accident-prone but well-meaning camp employee. But it also has some wildly dangerous moments, like the scene where the kids essentially build a fortress on wheels (like a Killdozer) to protect their camp from greedy developers.

Entering The Monster World (Little Monsters)

Little Monsters is one of the sillier and more colorful children’s fantasy films of the ‘80s, one that also sees its main character, Brian (Fred Savage) go to a world filled with monsters after befriending the one under his bed (played by Howie Mandel). 

Entering A Mystical Labyrinth (Labyrinth)

Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly) finds herself in quite a predicament after wishing for her brother to be taken away in Labyrinth. With a little more than 12 hours to solve a massive puzzle, both of these youngsters are in a race against the clock in this Jim Henson classic.

Hiding An Alien From The Government (Mac And Me)

You know what’s more dangerous than meeting a mysterious (yet adorable) alien? Oh, just hiding that alien from the government. That’s the case in Mac and Me, a 1988 family sci-fi flick about the unbreakable bond between boy and alien that could result in both of them dying.

Escaping Libyan Terrorists In A Time Machine (Back To The Future)

Though traveling back in time seems like it can be extremely dangerous, it pales in comparison to dealing with double-crossed Libyan terrorists \who are running and gunning for your mentor. That’s the case for Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) in Back to the Future. We wouldn’t want to mess with those guys.

Going To Space On A Homemade Spacecraft (Explorers)

We’ve seen so many movies where even ships engineered by NASA have trouble in the giant vacuum of space. But in Explorers, a 1985 sci-fi flick starring Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, and Jason Presson, a group of young amateur astronauts build a spacecraft of their own and exit the Earth’s atmosphere. Kids don’t belong in space.

Traveling Through Space And Time With A Band Of Thieves (Time Bandits)

Time Bandits is one of Terry Gilliam’s most charming movies, but while that may be true, it does put its young lead (played by Craig Warnock) in some serious trouble. Jumping through space and time with a band of thieves doesn’t seem like a safe or sensible way to spend your free time.

Going Off To Live On Their Own At 13 Years Old (Kiki’s Delivery Service)

One of the most iconic Studio Ghibli movies, Kiki’s Delivery Service sees the titular witch move away from her family home and start a new life in a distant seaside town at the age of 13. Yeah, it’s a fantastical animation and charming beyond compare, but the idea of a girl barely in her teenage years making it on her own is dangerous.

Running From Spies (Cloak & Dagger)

Are you familiar with the 1998 Will Smith thriller, Enemy of the State? Well, imagine that story but instead of an adult attorney coming into possession of a mysterious tape, it’s a young kid who goes on the run from a shadowy government agency. Fun? Yes, but incredibly dark and dangerous.

Getting To The Bottom Of A Massive Criminal Conspiracy (Gleaming The Cube)

Gleaming the Cube seems like just a normal skateboard movie, but in reality, it’s a revenge film about a young skater (played by Christian Slater) trying to avenge the death of his adopted brother. Sure, it’s funny and exciting, but a young punk is no match for armed goons and powerful bad actors.

Thwarting A Bank Robbery Scheme (BMX Bandits)

If you want to see a young Nicole Kidman thwart a bank robbery scheme with a group of friends, you’ll definitely want to check out BMX Bandits. But be warned, as these young bikers find themselves in some perilous situations that may leave you scratching your head.

Fighting A Scorpion (Honey, I Shrunk The Kids)

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is one of the funniest and most inventive family movies of the ‘80s, but it’s also one that puts some kids in some wild scenarios. Being turned into a near-microscopic size is one thing, but battling a scorpion in your backyard, which happens here, is on a whole other level of messed up.

Befriending A Possessed Doll (Child's Play)

Child’s Play is one of the best horror movies ever made, there’s no doubt about it. But there’s no way a kid should be befriending a doll possessed by the spirit of a deranged killer. This is so much fun to watch all these years later, but maybe not give your kid a doll that wants to kill everyone.

Billy Leaving Josh's NYC Motel (Big)

Though Josh (Tom Hanks) is just a little scared boy inside his adult body and terrified during the hotel scene in Big, we really feel bad for his best friend, Billy (Jared Rushton) who has to leave the flea-infested building, walk through pre-Giuliani NYC, and make it back home after dark. That kid saw some stuff he never forgot.

Newt Surviving On LV-426 (Aliens)

Everyone always talks about Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) taking on the Xenomorphs on LV-426 in Aliens, and rightfully so, but let’s not forget that Newt (Carrie Henn) was alone in the mining colony for an extended period of time before the Colonial Marines tried to save they. Hello, trauma.

Stealing Tech From The Government (My Science Project)

Movies with teenagers building wild and crazy machines were a dime a dozen in the ‘80s, but few went as far as My Science Project. In this oft-forgotten film, a pair of teens steal old tech from the government to build a time machine. UFOs, government agents, and death traps make this a dangerous exploration.

Joel Coming Up With A Way To Make Money (Risky Business)

Don’t be distracted by the iconic Risky Business dance scene, as this Tom Cruise classic is all about a dark and depraved journey by a high schooler trying to make some money to fix his dad’s car. You know what we’re talking about here.

Transporting A Russian Sailor To Cuba (Russkies)

Released in the height of the Cold War, Russkies follows a group of young kids as they not only befriend a Russian sailor who washed ashore in Florida but also sees them hatch a plan to take him to Cuba… on a boat… by themselves. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

While fans of musicals know where to go when they want to see characters breaking out in song left and right, there's something joyous about a random music number finding its way into movies across any genre. It has happened far more than you might think. Watch out for these awesome jump scares of song-and-dance numbers in comedies, science fiction, dramas and so forth. They've made iconic movies even more so! 

“Johnny B. Goode” - Back To The Future (1985) 

Even though the crux of Back To Future is as a time travel comedy, it also has one of the greatest music numbers in a movie. During the Enchantment Under The Sea dance, where Marty McFly’s parents are supposed to fall in love, Michael J. Fox performs an electric rendition of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.” It’s no wonder the movie has since inspired a Broadway musical. 

“Come and Get Your Love” - Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

There’s been a few notable Marvel music moments over the years, but few compare to Guardians of the Galaxy opening with Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill singing and dancing in the middle of an alien planet to Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” alongside extra-terrestrial creatures. It’s the perfect way to start the trilogy and introduce Star-Lord. 

"Thriller" - 13 Going On 30 (2004) 

In the super fun romantic comedy, 13 Going On 30, Jennifer Garner plays a young girl named Jenna Rink, who dreams she is “thirty, flirty and thriving” and wakes up seventeen years later. In one of the highlight scenes of the film, Jenna brings together a whole party of 30-somethings to do the famous “Thriller” dance from Michael Jackson’s music video. 

“I’m Just Ken” - Barbie (2023) 

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is full of great music scenes and bright pink, but none quite like Ryan Gosling’s “I’m Just Ken” sequence. In the third act of the movie, Ken breaks into song to express how it feels to be an accessory to Barbie all the time. The original song, reminiscent of "Singin’ In The Rain," earned an Oscar nomination (which surprised Gosling) after being penned by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt for the flick. 

“Day-O” - Beetlejuice (1988) 

Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice is a ball of a gothic comedy about a couple who die suddenly and hire a bio-exorcist named Beetlejuice to haunt the new tenants living in their home. One way he causes calamity to the household is by having them sing and dance to "The Banana Boat Song" at the dinner table against their will. 

'You Never Can Tell' - Pulp Fiction (1994) 

Quentin Tarantino’s stylish crime film includes an iconic dance scene between John Travolta’s Vincent Vega and Uma Thurman’s Mia Wallace while they are at an old school diner together. Mia casually has Vincent enter a dance contest with her. When the two characters do the twist, it’s just one of many scenes that make Pulp Fiction one of the best ‘90s movies.   

“You Make My Dreams” - (500) Days Of Summer (2009) 

(500) Days of Summer takes audiences through the unexpected love and breakup story of Summer and Tom, and has a blast playing with structure throughout. In one unexpected scene that depicts how it feels to fall in love, Tom dances in the street with a group of dancers to Hall & Oates “You Make My Dreams.” 

“Peaches” - The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) 

Never did we think Bowser would sing a piano ballad in The Super Mario Bros. Movie! In the 2023 animated film based on the beloved Nintendo franchise, Jack Black’s Bowser confesses his love for Princess Peach by singing “Peaches, peaches, peaches.” It became a viral hit we all couldn’t stop listening to when it hit theaters. 

“You Don’t Own Me” - The First Wives Club (1996) 

The 1996 comedy, The First Wives Club, ends in the best way: a music number! After Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton’s characters complete their goal of getting back at their ex husbands, they celebrate in their matching white suits by singing and dancing to “You Don’t Own Me.” 

“Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” - 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) 

In the romantic comedy, 10 Things I Hate About You, Heath Ledger’s cool guy character, Patrick Verona surprised both Julia Stiles’ Kat Stratford and audiences alike when he randomly broke out into song, with the help of the high school band. Patrick goes all out to woo Kat after being paid off to win her affections, and this scene is a good indicator that he’s going above and beyond. 

“Get Down Saturday Night” - Ex Machina (2014) 

In the A24 science fiction movie Ex Machina, it came out of absolute nowhere when Oscar Issac’s Nathan Bateman starts dancing with one of his A.I. androids to Oliver Cheatham’s “Get Down Saturday Night.” While it’s very much random to see a dance number in such a serious and foreboding film, it adds to the unique character building of Isaac’s role. 

“Cuban Pete” - The Mask (1994) 

Jim Carrey hilariously sings and dances to “Cuban Pete” during The Mask sequence where he ends up coercing the entire police force into singing and dancing with him while they try to pursue his arrest. In a movie as cartoony as The Mask, it’s not necessarily unexpected, but it does make us wish the whole movie was filled with wacky music numbers. 

“I Say A Little Prayer” - My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) 

During Julia Roberts’ My Best Friend’s Wedding, Julianne attends the wedding of her longtime bestie (Dermot Mulroney’s Michael). During one particularly memorable scene, the whole wedding party and guests take part in singing ‘I Say A Little Prayer” after Julianne’s friend George inspires them to. How did they all know the words? 

“Bye Bye Bye” - Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) 

At the beginning of the third Deadpool movie, Marvel fans were certainly surprised to see Ryan Reynolds’ comic book character doing the official dance to *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” in the snow while flinging around the corpse of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine from Logan in a fight against the TVA. What a way to open a movie and bring the Merc with a Mouth to the MCU! 

"I Put A Spell On You" - Hocus Pocus (1993) 

When you place Bette Midler in a movie like Hocus Pocus, you want her to sing, but who knows, the filmmakers could have let us down. Thankfully, director Kenny Ortega, who would go on to helm the High School Musical movies, had the actress sing “I Put A Spell On You” during the 1993 movie to have the witch literally cast a curse over Halloween partygoers during the non-musical. 

"Bohemian Rhapsody" - Wayne's World (1992)

Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” received a major bump up in pop culture back in 1992 when it was featured in a famous scene in Wayne’s World. While the movie itself is all about music fans, there’s something totally original and fun about this being in the comedy. Then, Mike Myers was cast in Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody as a nod to the whole thing, 

"Twist and Shout" - Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

John Hughes’ beloved coming-of-age movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, features a massive music number when Matthew Broderick’s high schooler, who is on a wild day of hooky, ends up lip-syncing The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” after jumping on a parade float. 

“Age of Aquarius” - The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) 

At the end of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Steve Carell finally partakes in the deed. To illustrate the joys of this, Carell and the cast have a dance sequence to “Age of Aquarius.” It’s pretty hilarious to see actors like Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen dancing shirtless to the song in the comedy that did not otherwise call itself a musical. 

“Everybody (Backstreet's Back)” - This Is The End (2013) 

During the finale of This Is The End, Seth Rogen and friends find themselves in heaven after facing a particularly hilarious apocalypse. When they get there they are told they can dream up anything and Jay Baruchel thinks up the Backstreet Boys appearing to sing and dance to “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” and yes, they fully go into the choreo! 

“Afternoon Delight” - Anchorman (2004) 

During the 2004 goofy comedy Anchorman, Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy randomly breaks into song to belt “Afternoon Delight” after the other guys ask him what being in love is like. In the scene, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell and David Koechner start to sing it with him in perfect unison like they are some sort of barbershop quartet.

"Por Ti Volare" - Step Brothers (2008) 

At Step Brothers’ “Catalina Wine Mixer,” Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly’s characters are coerced into taking the stage. What’s particularly unexpected about this music number is Ferrell singing Italian opera with the song "Por Ti Volaré." It also evolves into a dream sequence and epic drum solo that leaves all attendees speechless. 

“Wise Up” - Magnolia (1999) 

In Paul Thomas Anderson’s fantastic drama, Magnolia, the movie took a turn when all the characters begin to sing Aimee Mann’s “Wise Up.” The music number helps evoke the emotions the characters are collectively feeling even though they are seemingly experiencing them alone. Mann wrote original music for the whole soundtrack but the rest of the songs were not sung by the characters. 

“Try A Little Tenderness” - Pretty In Pink (1986) 

In John Hughes’ Pretty In Pink, Jon Cryer’s Duckie brought down the house in one scene at a record store where he walks in and goes completely all out lip-syncing and dancing to Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness” in front of Molly Ringwald’s Andie. 

"Love Me Tender" - Wild At Heart (1990)

David Lynch’s Wild At Heart ends with a music number when Nicolas Cage’s Sailor runs over the hoods and roofs of cars to approach Laura Dern’s Lula and their child to sing Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender” to profess his love to her. It’s a callback to a previous moment where Sailor says he’ll only sing that song to his wife. 

“A Place Called Slaughter Race” - Ralph Breaks The Internet (2018) 

While Walt Disney animated movies are most definitely known for their music sequences, the Wreck-It Ralph movies never established themselves as musicals. So when Vanellope Von Schweetz got her own “I Want” song for the sequel from composer Alan Menken, it was completely unexpected, but an excellent chance for Disney to do what it does best! 

“You Always Hurt The One You Love” - Blue Valentine (2010) 

The dramatic tale of a married couple’s relationship over the years, Blue Valentine, starring Ryan Gosling, is no La La Land, but it does employ the music talents of the actor for one music number where his character strums the '60s pop standard on a ukulele in a fun-loving sequence between himself and Michelle Williams.  

“Somebody To Love” - Ella Enchanted (2004) 

In the fairytale rom-com, Ella Enchanted, we were caught off guard when Anne Hathaway’s titular character breaks into song to Queen’s “Somebody To Love” while entertaining a pub full of giants. Hathaway is well-known now for her set of pipes, but at the time she was not yet known to be a singer. 

"Ballet Sequence" - I'm Thinking Of Ending Things (2020) 

Towards of the end of Charlie Kaufman's Netflix movie, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, two ballet dancers perform to represent the perfect ideal of a romance amidst the movie itself showing the realities of the lead's relationship throughout this surrealist movie. 

"Old Time Rock & Roll" - Risky Business (1983)

In what has become an iconic sequence, everyone expects Tom Cruise to roll up pants-free in nothing but a dress shirt and white socks to jam to “Old Time Rock & Roll.” But, considering the rest of the movie is more of a coming-of-age comedy, it’s a rather startling scene in context. 

“As Time Goes By” - Casablanca (1942) 

One of the most memorable elements of the classic Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman movie is the song “As Time Goes By.” The song holds a sentimental value to the movie’s leads and ex lovers, Rick and Ilsa, and comes back to haunt them when they are unexpectedly reunited. It’s one of the most iconic movie songs – as Rick Blaine famously says, “Play it again, Sam.”  

“Why Don’t You Do Right” - Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) 

Sure, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is a Disney movie with cartoon characters left and right, it’s also a completely unique movie that turns the whole plot on its head (a few times over). It’s not a musical, but Jessica Rabbit singing 1936’s “Why Don’t You Do Right?” at a jazz club really sets the tone for what a music number looks like in it. 

"Canned Heat"- Napoleon Dynamite (2004) 

Then there’s the dance sequence in Napoleon Dynamite, where Jon Heder’s Napoleon performs a very skilled dance in front of other high school students to help market his friend Pedro in his election for class president. The best part? Apparently, Heder “winged” the dance sequence, per Business Insider. 

It's so fun to see how music numbers have popped up in movies across all genres over the years. They make the movies more memorable and give the songs an added boost.

Some movies you can just watch over and over, like the ones on this list. There are a lot of great movies out there, some films you can only watch once, like Schindler's List, but others, like the ones on this list, never get old. Here's our list of the most rewatchable movies we know. 

The Big Lebowski

One of the things that makes the Coen Brothers' masterpiece The Big Lebowski is how The Dude and other characters learn things along the way and use those new facts and lines later in the movie. It's something you might never notice if you didn't watch the movie over and over and that kind of thing will not stand. Not to mention it has some really classic lines that are endlessly quotable. 

Clueless

As if we'd ever get bored of watching Clueless. There are so many great characters, from Cher (Alicia Silverstone) to Tai (Brittany Murphy) to Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn), that we could watch over and over just to watch one character each time. 

The Dark Knight

Of all the comic movies that have been released in the 21st Century, there is one performance that will always stand above all the others. Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight ranks among the best roles ever seen on film, superhero movies or otherwise. It's so good that it literally never gets old or stale. There is something to behold every time you watch the movie. 

Die Hard

Watching Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman face off in Die Hard is the main reason the movie will always be rewatchable. Both put in some of the best performances of their careers and even though there have been many Die Hard sequels, none of them quite have the charm and magic that the original has. 

Dirty Dancing

For decades now people have been having the time of their lives watching Dirty Dance on repeat. The music, the dancing, the love story... it brings audiences along for a realistic, yet fantastical story all in one. It's been beloved for years for a reason. 

Dazed And Confused

Dazed And Confused is among the best movies about high school ever made. It's also one of the best movies of the 1990s, though it's set in the '70s. Those aren't the qualities that make it so rewatchable. It's simply the amazing cast and the endless amounts of quotable lines those actors deliver. It's always pleasurable to watch actors like Paker Posey, Ben Affleck, Cole Hauser, and Matthew McConaughey so early in their careers. 

Back To The Future

There is a level of rewatchability to all three Back To The Future movies, but the first still stands way above the sequels. It's a movie so fun and so well-paced that you never get bored, even if it's the 150th time you've watched it. 

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Everything Everywhere All at Once has a lot going on. It's a movie worth watching again and again if for no other reason than it's easy to miss stuff the first, or even fifth time you watch it. The concept is so cool and so well executed, and the acting performances are so good, that it's impossible to get bored with the film. 

The Godfather

Though the entry just says The Godfather, this could really count for either Part I or Part II, as both are among the most rewatchable movies ever. There is a reason they both consistently rank among the best movies ever made. The acting performances are amazing, the dialog is incredible, and Francis Ford Coppola's directing is as good as it gets on film. 

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 1

Let's be honest, there are quite a few movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that you can watch over and over. There is one that stands above the rest though. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 1 has great music and great quotes, which are two things that really make movies forever rewatchable. It's just a really fun movie with some of the most fun characters in the whole universe. 

Legally Blonde

If you want to know how valuable Elle Woods can be, just try to stop watching Legally Blonde when you randomly come across it. It can't be done. It's filled with quotable lines and one of the most charming performances of Reese Witherspoon's stellar career. 

The Princess Bride

From Gen Xers to Zoomers, The Princess Bride has become part of millions of people's childhood. It's a movie that kids and adults can watch over and over, finding different wonderful things about it, depending on your maturity level. No matter how many times you watch, you can always find something new to observe and love about The Princess Bride. 

Raiders Of The Lost Ark

Who doesn't love Indiana Jones? The character, played of course by the great Harrison Ford, has become one of the most enduring movie heroes of all time. Well into the 21st Century, Hollywood is coming up with new adventures for the old archeologist. In the end, it all goes back to the beginning though, with the O.G. movie, Raider of the Lost Ark. 

Clue

If you were to ask around the staff of Cinemablend what off-beat comedy is their favorite, there is a decent chance Clue would be the answer you get. If for no other reason, the movie can be - and should be - watched over and over just for Tim Curry's amazing, manic, hilarious performance as The Butler...who butles and creates absolute mayhem. 

The Shawshank Redemption

It's hard for people to believe that The Shawshank Redemption wasn't a big hit in theaters. For whatever reason, it failed to find an audience. That all changed when the movie hit cable TV and became one of the most-watched movies in movie history. It was on TV all the time because people watched it all the time, over and over. 

Jurassic Park

The moment in Jurassic Park when Dr. Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Sattler (Laura Dern) see the dinosaurs for the first time, with John Williams' amazing score swelling in the background is such a great movie moment, that you can watch it over and over and a tear will still come to your eye. Now throw in all the other great parts and you have a seriously rewatchable movie. 

The Lion King

Disney sure knows how to make movies that kids and adults alike can watch over and over. We could really pick almost any of their classic cartoons here, but The Lion King is so good it's been remade into a live-action hit and one of the most successful Broadway shows of all time. All three are eminently rewatchable. 

Mean Girls

You know if a movie gets a remake less than 20 years after it was originally made, especially when that remake is based on a Broadway musical adaptation, it must be a movie you can watch over and over. Fans of Means Girls just can't get enough of the comedy, both on stage and screen. 

The Wolf Of Wall Street

If you're a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, or bad language, The Wolf Of Wall Street is likely a movie you've watched numerous times, right? And why wouldn't you? It's an almost perfect movie. Much of the story is tragic, but the ride to get there is wild. 

9 To 5

Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, and Jane Fonda are three national treasures. Put them in a movie where they torture their horrible boss played by the late great Dabney Coleman and you've got the recipe for a movie that people will never get bored of, just like 9 to 5.

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars fans can watch any of the many movies over and over. All movie fans can watch Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back over and over, however. You don't have to be obsessed with every bit of Star Wars lore to absolutely love Empire. It's the best of the movies and one of the best movies ever made. It's got some of the craziest action scenes, the coolest characters, and the best plot twist of all time, at least according to many. It's simply the best. 

10 Things I Hate About You

When a movie is a hit with teenagers, especially one as popular as 10 Things I Hate About You, you can bet it'll be a rewatchable movie. Throw in some breakout performances by Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Julia Stiles, a plot based on a Shakespeare play, and you've got all the ingredients you need for a massive hit that people will watch again and again. 

Fight Club

The first rule of Fight Club might be don't talk about Fight Club, but no one really follows that rule, and the second rule might as well be, "watch Fight Club over and over and quote it endlessly" because that's what Fight Club really is. Like many of director David Fincher's movies, Fight Club is so well done that you see something new in it every time you watch, just like many of the great movies on this list. 

Titanic

To paraphrase the late, great Jerry Garcia, Titanic is like black licorice. Not everyone likes it, but the people that do like it, really like it. The James Cameron mega-hit isn't for everyone, in fact, it might have as many haters as it does lovers, but those who do love it never get bored with watching the wonderful sets and spectacular effects that the movie is best known for. 

The Matrix

While it's true that the Matrix trilogy had diminishing returns, there is no denying how amazing and groundbreaking the first one was. It still has a hold on popular culture, decades after its initial release. While some fans may not go back to the three sequels, the original is still a favorite for everyone that was red-pilled from the beginning. 

Pretty Woman

As rom-coms go, you can't get more perfect than Pretty Woman. Sure, the plot is a little dated and in some ways problematic, but the performances from the leads, Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, and the side characters, like Jason Alexander and Hector Elizondo are so good, it allows us to overlook the aging flaws of the movie and watch it again and again with nothing but joy. 

Gladiator

It really doesn't matter how many times you seen Gladiator, you are still going to jump up out of your seat when Maximus (Russell Crowe) reveals himself to Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). it's a moment in cinema history that will stand the test of time and still be a classic centuries from now. 

Jaws

It's no accident that Jaws is on this list. It's considered the first "summer blockbuster" but it's so much more. The characters are so well-developed that you can't help but root for all of them, except the mayor, of course. Sure the shark looks a little dated, but director Steven Spielberg did such an amazing job building the suspense by not seeing the shark, that it's easy to look past the 1970s movie magic.

The Great Escape

On Christmas in the United States, we watch things like A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life every year. In the UK, they watch The Great Escape. We'll admit, that's a pretty amazing tradition because despite its nearly three-hour runtime, there is never a dull moment and it proves that longer is often better. The all-star cast and sharp direction keep the movie humming along from the time they are all locked up until they all get locked up again after the escape. 

The Incredibles

The Incredibles was an incredible hit for Pixar in 2004. Just like many Pixar and Disney movies before and after it, it became an indelible part of millions of kids' childhoods and even as they've aged, they still love the Parr family. While it took 16 years, when a sequel was finally made in 2018, it took in a cool $1.2 billion, attesting to just how loved (and watched) the original was and is. 

A League of Their Own

We all know that there is no crying in baseball because we've all seen Tom Hanks say it a million times as we've watched A League of Their Own over and over. All the characters are so unique and memorable that it's like watching an old friend every time it's on. 

Caddyshack

Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Ted Knight are four of the most quotable actors of all time. When you put them all in the same movie, and give them some of the best lines ever written, it's no surprise that Caddyshack is the kind of movie that people watch so often they end up memorizing it. Dangerfield, a king of the one-liner, is especially great in this one. 

There are some car models that, after being prominently featured in a movie, end up becoming so important to the film's notoriety that it is nearly impossible to disassociate them from one another. In fact, we imagine many cinephiles and automobile enthusiasts alike believe they can identify the very movie a certain car comes from just by the sight of it. 

Well, we decided to put this to the test and compiled a list of some of the most iconic movie cars, but hid the title of each corresponding film, leaving you to fill in the blanks. Buckle up and take your chance to prove your expertise in Hollywood hot rods with this quiz, but be careful — some of these are not as easy as to guess as they seem.

1981 DeLorean DMC-12

The flagship model of the DeLorean Motor Company would almost instantly become a staple of ‘80s auto culture for its unique design. However, it was the DMC’s role in one of the best movies of the 1980s that earned it a rich legacy that would last well into the future.

Back To The Future (1985)

In director Robert Zemeckis’ time travel movie classic, Back to the Future, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is initially surprised that Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) decided to convert a DeLorean, of all choices, into a vessel for time travel. He figured that building a time machine with wheels should be done with a car that boasts some real “style” and, the way we see it, he made the right call.

1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Ambulance

While much different from how modern ambulances are constructed, this Cadillac model came in handy when transporting ailing patients in the late ’50s and early ‘60s. Yet, the vehicle would become even better recognized as the main mode of transportation for a group that specializes in catching "people" who may not have made it to the hospital in time.

Ghostbusters (1984)

The Cadillac Miller-Meteor Ambulance would become one of the most desired vehicles in cinematic history after the Ghostbusters modified it and drove it to haunting sights. We imagine that some fans of the beloved horror-comedy movie might have assumed the Ecto 1 or Ectomobile was actually a funeral hearse, which totally would have been on brand for a team that chases lingering spirits.

1964 Aston Martin DB5 

Based in the United Kingdom, but bearing an Italian design, the DB5 is one of the most revered and recognizable models to come from Aston Martin. Its international fame is mostly owed, however, to its appearance in a film whose suave protagonist who must have thought he struck gold when he first sat behind the wheel.

Goldfinger (1964)

According to The Independent’s obituary for John Stears, the special effects expert convinced Aston Martin to make its prototype for the DB5 available to use in the third 007 film, Goldfinger. Ever since Sean Connery was seen driving the weaponized special edition, the car has been a staple of the James Bond movies and no installment of the spy movie franchise feels complete without it.

1968 Ford Mustang GT

The Ford Mustang is, ironically classified as a “pony car,” which is identified by its sporty and individualized appearance. The 1968 GT edition of this endurable model would become one of the most popular, due to the way it drives like a bullet in one of cinema’s greatest car chases.

Bullitt (1968)

Despite a memorable lead performance by Steve McQueen, the thing that fans of Bullitt remember best is its centerpiece chase through the streets of San Francisco. The thrilling, revolutionary sequence made the titular detective’s green Ford Mustang a character in itself and the vehicle a lasting subject of much admiration.

1977 Firebird Trans Am Special Edition

It is no wonder why Pontiac’s most cherished model is called a “Firebird Trans Am,” because it flies like a bird and its sleek design is certainly on fire. Yet, the car would really start smoking with popularity after it became the centerpiece vehicle in a classic chase flick.

Smokey And The Bandit (1977)

After the release of Smokey and the Bandit, the 1977 Firebird Trans Am Special Edition — which Burt Reynolds’s The Bandit drives in the action-comedy classic — became one of the hottest cars in America. In fact, director Hal Needham recalled in an interview with Motor Trend that some customers had to be put on waiting lists for months due to low availability.

1973 Ford Falcon XB GT

The Falcon XB GT is a Ford model manufactured exclusively in Australia. However, audiences outside of the land down under likely went mad over it when they saw what it was capable of in a ‘70s classic.

Mad Max (1979) 

George Miller’s Mad Max movies are known for their absurdly unconventional auto designs, which often involve combining two (or more) dramatically different models into one war-ready monster. However, the title character’s only slightly modified Ford Falcon — depicted as a police car and referred to as the Interceptor — is the signature vehicle of the post-apocalyptic genre.

1961 Ferrari 250GT California 

If you had access to a car like the 1961 Ferrari 250GT California, would you take it back right away? Neither would we, and neither did the titular troublemaker from one of the most worshipped high school movies of its time.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

Fun behind-the-scenes fact about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off:  the car that Ferris (Matthew Broderick), Cameron Fry (Alan Ruck), and Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara) take for a spin in Chicago is not a real Ferrari, which would have cost a ridiculous amount to rent, but a fake replica. Think about that the next time you see Mr. Fry’s prized possession meets a tragic demise near the end of John Hughes’ coming-of-age comedy and, hopefully, you might feel better about it.

1932 Ford Coupe

Now, we’re not bragging, babe, so don’t put us down, but anyone with a 1932 Ford Couple had the fastest wheels in town. In fact, there is a certain American classic featuring a character who owns that very model and is considered the local speed demon for it.

American Graffiti (1973)

Paul Le Mat stars in George Lucas’ ode to 1960s L.A. cruise culture, American Graffiti, as John Milner, who takes a lot of pride in his “boss” yellow Coupe. If his immense amount of parking tickets are not enough to prove that he is the fastest around, just watch his climactic race against Harrison Ford’s Bob Falfa at the end.

1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1

As a sports car that looks just as good (if not better) that it runs, the 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 is a car worth killing for. Unfortunately, someone decides to take that idea far too literally, and with horrifying consequences for himself, in a modern action movie favorite.

John Wick (2014)

We cannot blame Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen) for wanting John Wick’s car all to his own. However, we especially cannot blame the titular reformed assassin (played by Keanu Reeves) for coming out of retirement to hunt down the gangster’s son after he steals the Mustang and murders his Beagle, Daisy.

1948 Ford De Luxe Convertible

The De Luxe Convertible is one of the most aesthetically pleasing and luxurious cars that Ford released in the late 1940s. In fact, with a few moderations, it could be systematic, hydromatic, ultramatic, but could it be…?

Grease (1978)

Yes, indeed, it was a Ford De Luxe Convertible that became “Greased Lightnin’” in one of the most famous numbers from the cinematic adaptation of Grease. Of course, only in a musical fantasy sequence could a junky wagon like the one we see in the shop become a souped-up muscle car like that.

1979 Porsche 928

Just the name “Porsche” is enough to get a car enthusiast antsy, since the German manufacturer is known for making some of the most beautiful cars of all time, with 1979’s 928 model being one of the definitive examples. Said edition would suffer a tragic accident in a fun ‘80s classic that forces the young son of its owners to take some major risks in order to afford its recovery.

Risky Business (1983)

Before he was racing cars in Days of Thunder and piloting jets in Top Gun, Tom Cruise made his breakthrough in Risky Business as a teen who turns his home into a one-night stop for scandalous activity. It is the only way that he can pay off the damages to his parents’ Porsche, which accidentally takes a dive into Lake Michigan before they come home from their vacation.

1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu

We imagine that the name of the Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu was inspired by a paradisiacal feeling that comes over the driver when they get behind the wheel. Maybe its calming quality is why it appealed to the usually not-so-laidback protagonist of a somewhat divisive Neo-noir thriller.

Drive (2011)

Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling was actually the one who chose the personal vehicle of his nameless hero — a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a criminal getaway driver — director Nicolas Winding Refn’s modern film noir classic, Drive. In fact, he went as far as restoring the gray Malibu on his own, resulting in a close connection between the man and the machine that radiates onscreen. 

1958 Plymouth Fury

Owning a 1958 Plymouth Fury would be a dream come true for any teen, no matter what generation they come from. However, the most famous cinematic depiction of the sporty classic would prove to be a nightmare for some.

Christine (1983)

Director John Carpenter’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Christine is one of the few great horror movies that auto enthusiasts can probably relate to, as Keith Gordon’s Arnie pretty much, literally falls in love with the Fury. However, we hope no car owner would actually continue to hold onto and cherish their vehicle when it shows signs of sentience and homicidal tendencies.

1973 Ford Gran Torino

You might initially assume that our movie of choice to correspond with the Ford Gran Torino would be Walt Kowalski’s beautiful, eponymous model from star and director Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino. Actually, we decided to go with a movie that shows the car at its absolutely ugliest (and, at one point, smelliest).

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Much like The Dude (Jeff Bridges) himself, the aging hippie’s green, rusted 1973 Gran Torino goes through a lot in the Coen Brothers’s hilarious cult comedy, The Big Lebowski. The Dude crashes it into a dumpster. It gets stolen by a teen named Larry Sellers only to be retrieved in far poorer shape. It gets all of its windows smashed out by the owner of a Corvette smashed by Walter (John Goodman) with a crowbar believing it was Larry’s car. Finally, it's put out of its misery by the Nihilists, who set it ablaze in the bowling alley parking lot.

1941 Lincoln Continental

The luxury promised by the Lincoln Continental made the distinctive vehicle one that no one could refuse in the 1940s. However, its protective qualities were certainly put to the test in one of the best movies from the 1970s.

The Godfather (1972)

Sonny Corleone (James Caan) meets a bitter end while driving his 1941 Continental in Francis Ford Coppola’s Best Picture Oscar winner, The Godfather. Still, any fans of the fans of the mob movie classic might feel a sense of unbridled power behind the wheel.

1970 Dodge Challenger R/T

As one of the most admired sports cars ever constructed, it is no wonder that the Dodge Challenger has yet to vanish and remains a common design in modern manufacturing. However, vanishing was the goal of one character who drove a 1970 R/T in a cult favorite from that era.

Vanishing Point (1971)

Director Richard C. Sarafian’s Vanishing Point follows former cop Kowalski (Barry Newman) on a cross-country trip from Denver to San Francisco to deliver a muscle car while being tailed by police the whole way. The vehicle in question is a beautiful, white, 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum, which resembles another car used in Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse segment, Death Proof, which was largely inspired by the thriller.

So, how’d you do? Are you an expert speed demon, or did you need to pull yourself over to think for a while at times?

There are some movie and TV characters who are defined by just one actor, while others could be defined by two or even three. Of course, in an industry dominated by reboots and remakes these days, it is far from unusual to see the same role being handled by multiple performers, but we are specifically referring to roles from the same cinematic franchise or TV series — and in the same continuity, mostly — that had to be recast for one reason or another. Let’s explore this phenomenon by reviewing some of the most notable examples.  

Vivian Banks (The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air)

For the sitcom's first three seasons, Janet Hubert starred in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air cast as Will Smith's aunt, Vivian Banks. However, on-set drama between Hubert and Smith led to Daphne Maxwell Reid assuming the role, which Jazz (DJ Jazzy Jeff) would cleverly poke fun at on a couple of different occasions.

James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Near the end of 2008's Iron Man, Terrence Howard, as James Rhodes, gazes upon one of Tony Stark's (Robert Downey Jr.) unpainted armored suits and decides he will try it out "next time." However, there would not be a next time for Howard, who left due to contract disputes and was succeeded in Iron Man 2 by Don Cheadle, who has played the colonel otherwise known as “Rhodey” in the MCU ever since.

Catwoman (Batman)

Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt portrayed two iconic iterations of Catwoman on Batman. Of course, the feline-esque foe was also played by Lee Meriwether in the cinematic spin-off of the Adam West-led, 1960s-era spin-off.

Emperor Palpatine (The Star Wars Movies)

Unless they got their hands on an unedited copy of 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, most modern fans of the Star Wars franchise might not have realized that Emperor Palpatine was originally physically portrayed by Elaine Baker and voiced by Clive Revill. After Ian McDiarmid took over the role in Return of the Jedi in 1983, the actor was edited into the 2004 version of Empire.

Cleveland Brown (Family Guy)

It may come as a surprise to some more casual Family Guy viewers that one of the animated series' few Black characters was voiced by a white actor until 2020. Mike Henry — who also voices Herbert and Consuela — willfully stepped down from the role and was replaced by Arif Zahir, whose talent for portraying the character was discovered on YouTube.

Evelyn O'Connell (The Mummy Movies)

After playing Evelyn O'Connell (née Carnahan) in 1999's The Mummy and The Mummy Returns in 2001, Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz turned down the chance to play the brash librarian a third time. Thus, Maria Bello succeeded in the role for 2008's The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Darrin Stephens (Bewitched)

When a back injury made working on Bewitched more challenging, Emmy nominee Dick York was forced to step down from the role of Samantha Stephens' (Elizabeth Montgomery) mortal husband, Darrin. The producers would then go to their original choice for the role, Dick Sargent, who was involved in a different show, but was able to play Darrin for the supernatural sitcom's final three seasons.

Jack Ryan (Jack Ryan Movies)

The first cinematic adaptation of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels, 1990’s The Hunt for Red October, cast Alec Baldwin as the CIA analyst, but, due to his commitment to a theatrical production of A Streetcar Named Desire, Harrison Ford took over as the lead of 1992’s Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger in 1994. In 2002, Ben Affleck led The Sum of All Fears, and, more than a decade later, Chris Pine took over the role in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit before John Krasinski was named the lead of Amazon Prime’s Jack Ryan series.

Harriette Winslow (Family Matters)

Some of the Family Matters cast, reportedly, did not get along — namely Steve Urkel actor Jaleel White and JoMarie Payton, who played Harriette Winslow. This growing tension and certain disagreements with the direction of the long-running sitcom led Payton to cut ties in the middle of the ninth and final season and be replaced by Judyann Elder.

Albus Dumbledore (Harry Potter Movies)

Two-time Academy Award nominee Richard Harris originated the role of Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies until he passed away in 2002. The Hogwarts headmaster was succeeded by Michael Gambon, who officially joined the wildly popular fantasy franchise with 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Newman (Seinfeld)

Jerry's nemesis and Kramer's buddy, known only as Newman, was originally conceived as a TV character you would never actually see, but only hear, with Seinfeld co-creator Larry David providing the voice. However, the United States postal worker would make his grand entrance in the long-running sitcom’s third season, as played by Wayne Knight.

Bruce Wayne (Batman Movies) 

Michael Keaton starred as the Dark Knight in two live-action Batman movies helmed by Tim Burton — 1989’s Batman and Batman Returns from 1992. When director Joel Schumacher took over the franchise, Keaton left and was succeeded by Val Kilmer in Batman Forever, only to be replaced by George Clooney as Bruce Wayne in Batman & Robin.

Rick Sanchez And Morty Smith (Rick And Morty)

Justin Roiland co-created one of the all-time best animated TV series with Rick and Morty, for which he also voiced both members of the titular grandfather and grandson duo. Assault allegations against the actor led to his forced exit, paving the way for Ian Cardoni to voice the disgruntled scientist with Harry Belden portraying the anxious teen. 

Sabretooth (X-Men Movies)

When Marvel’s X-Men comics were first adapted for live-action films, the animalistic, ageless mutant known as Sabretooth was played by professional wrestler Tyler Mane. Despite its intentions of being a direct prequel, X-Men Origins: Wolverine enlisted Liev Schreiber to take over the role alongside Hugh Jackman’s reprisal of his brother, Logan.

Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane (Game Of Thrones)

It had never been unusual for Game of Thrones cast members to be killed off, nor was it out of the ordinary for their roles to be recast. One of the most notable examples of this was when “The Mountain” actor Craig Stevens was replaced after one season by Ian Whyte in Season 2 and again by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson for the remainder of the series.

Chewbacca (Star Wars Movies)

For Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Peter Mayhew returned to play Chewbacca, but also shared his iconic Star Wars character with Joonas Suotamo, who handled the more physically demanding scenes. When Mayhew passed, the Finnish actor took full responsibility of the Wookie, whom he would reprise again in Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Becky Conner (Roseanne)

The role of Becky Conner was played by two different actors at almost sporadic times throughout the original run of Roseanne. Alicia Goranson, who originated the character, was on for the first five seasons, the eighth season, and the revival series, while Sarah Chalke was in the cast for the sixth, seventh, and ninth seasons, but also returned for The Conners in a different recurring role.

Bruce Banner (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

When Mark Ruffalo reprised his role as Bruce Banner in Disney+'s She-Hulk, he mentioned how, when he fought a "hulked-out" Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), he was a "completely different person" then. He means this literally because the physicist-turned-superhero was played by Edward Norton in 2008's The Incredible Hulk.

Laurie Forman (That '70s Show)

The late Lisa Robin Kelly was best known for starring in the That '70s Show cast as Laurie Forman for the period sitcom's first five seasons. Before the character was effectively written off, Eric's older sister was portrayed by Christina Moore for the first half of Season 6.

Victoria (The Twilight Saga)

Before Rachelle Lefevre was cast as Victoria in 2008's Twilight and the first sequel, New Moon, one of the first actors approached was Bryce Dallas Howard, who felt the role was too minor. After Lefevre was dropped, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts, Howard accepted to take over as the villainous vamp in Eclipse.

Meg Griffin (Family Guy)

Everybody recognizes Meg Griffin's voice as that of Mila Kunis, but she would only join the Family Guy cast in Season 2 after Lacey Chabert left the role. The series has poked fun at the recasting numerous times, like when Stewie finds himself in a world where time goes in reverse and points out that his sister's voice sounds different.

Clarice Starling (Hannibal)

Jodie won an Academy Award in 1992 for playing FBI agent Clarice Starling in Jonathan Demme’s horrifying Best Picture Oscar winner, The Silence of the Lambs. Yet she was not available to reunite with Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector for director Ridley Scott’s Hannibal from 2001, so Julianne Moore took over the role.

Daario Naharis (Game Of Thrones)

Ed Skrein first joined Game of Thrones as Daenerys Targaryen’s advisor and lover, Daario Naharis, in the epic fantasy drama's third season. When the English actor left the series the following season, Michiel Huisman would take over.

Thanos (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

The first time we met the MCU’s iteration of Thanos was in a brief mid-credits cameo from 2012’s The Avengers, in which he played in performance capture by Damion Poitier. For the mad, purple Titan’s second appearance in 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the role was passed on to Oscar nominee Josh Brolin, who would continue to portray the character on the big screen until his defeat in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame.

Carol Willick (Friends)

When Friends first introduced Carol — Ross Gellar's (David Schwimmer) ex-wife and mother of his son, Ben — in the second episode of Season 1, she was played by Anita Barone. That would be the actor's only appearance in the role as she left soon after and was succeeded by Jane Sibbett, who played her for the rest of the remainder of the long-running sitcom.

Rachel Dawes (The Dark Knight Trilogy)

Bruce Wayne's childhood friend and crush, Rachel Dawes — a character invented specifically for 2005's Batman Begins — was originated by Katie Holmes. When she turned down the chance to star in 2008's The Dark Knight, Maggie Gyllenhaal was cast as the Gotham City attorney. 

Greg Serrano (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend)

In the first two seasons of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom) has a complicated on-and-off affair with Greg Serrano who was then played by Santino Fontana before the actor's one-year contract expired. So, when the character came back for Season 4, he was replaced by Pitch Perfect star Skyler Astin.

Jennifer Parker (Back To The Future Trilogy)

Some audiences may remember Elizabeth Shue as Jennifer Parker, but she only appeared in the second and third installments of the Back to the Future trilogy. Marty McFly’s girlfriend and eventual wife was first played in the original time travel movie classic from 1985 by Claudia Wells, who did not reprise the role after pausing her acting career for family reasons.

Ann Veal (Arrested Development)

Fans of Arrested Development know George Michael Bluth's (Michael Cera) utterly forgettable girlfriend, Ann, as Mae Whitman. However, they also might have forgotten that the role's original actor was Alessandra Torresani, for just one episode of the acclaimed comedy's first season.

Gellert Grindelwald (Fantastic Beasts)

The 2016 Harry Potter prequel, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, revealed that Percival Graves was a disguised Gellert Grindewald, played by Johnny Depp, who reprised the role in the 2018 sequel, The Crimes of Grindelwald. However, legal troubles led Warner Bros. to cut ties with the Oscar nominee and enlist Mads Mikkelsen to play the villainous wizard in The Secrets of Dumbledore in 2022.

Reggie Mantle (Riverdale)

Ross Butler was in the Riverdale cast for the first season of the dark Archie Comics adaptation in the recurring role of football player Reggie Mantle. However, the actor's commitment to 13 Reasons Why forced the series to cast Charles Melton when the character was expanded.

Marnie Piper (Halloweentown Movies)

Marnie Piper — who discovers she is a young witch in the 1998 Disney Channel Original Movie, Halloweentown — was portrayed by Kimberly J. Brown then and again in two of the not-so-scary witch movie’s sequels. However, for reasons even Brown does not know, Sara Paxton went brunette to succeed in the role in the fourth installment, Return to Halloweentown, from 2006.

Some of the first words said in Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie are “I’m a tough son of a bitch,” and that fully sets the tone for the journey the beloved actor takes us on in this documentary. The film walks us through the life of Fox, from his days on Family Ties and Back to the Future to his ongoing battle with Parkinson’s. It’s a raw, candid and fast-paced look into his career and mind, and if you are a fan of his like I am, here's why you should really check this project out with your Apple TV+ subscription.  

Still Brilliantly Juxtaposes Michael J. Fox's Past With His Present

There are many instances in Still where it smashes between Michael J. Fox’s past on some of the best sitcoms – Family Ties and Spin City – and movies and the present, where he’s talking about life with Parkinson’s. It’s a jarring juxtaposition, and it’s meant to be, because the actor very clearly explains that he never stopped moving when he was young, and now he’s forced to slow down.

A prime example came at the start of the film when he was talking about getting cast in Family Ties. It goes from this heart-pounding story about how he got the life-changing role and proved to be a star and then it cuts to the present where he’s talking about how hard Parkinson’s makes it to emote. 

By juxtaposing these two points in Fox’s life not only do we get an understanding of his life and accomplishments, but we also feel the struggle of what he’s gone through in a way. It’s a big change to go from moving at a million miles an hour to being forced to slow down to survive, and by watching Fox toggle between the past and present in such a raw and visceral way, we feel that in full as viewers. 

The Documentary Offers An Incredibly Raw Look Into How Michael J. Fox Lives With Parkinson's

Fox disclosed his Parkinson’s diagnosis in 1998, but he lived with it for seven years before doing that. So, he’s been living with this disease since 1991, and the documentary takes viewers through how it’s impacted him over the last three decades. 

Through reenactments and clips, Fox tells stories about finding out about his diagnosis and trying to hide it while he shot Spin City. He said that disclosing what was going on to the public was like a “new beginning,” and in the documentary, he gets into the nitty-gritty of that and how he lives with Parkinson’s.

By showing him at physical therapy and seeing all the energy it takes for him to simply walk, I could feel Fox’s emotions radiating off the screen as he persisted through the challenges. 

The documentary also didn’t shy away from getting into the struggles that came with making this project specifically. He does the voice-over for it all, and while it sounds seamless in the film, there’s a moment where they show him working through the VO and stopping occasionally to take a breath or re-say a line. It’s not easy for him to speak, and this moment really showed that and just how difficult it is to work with Parkinson’s. However, it also highlighted his strength and ability to push through the challenges, which is a through line within Still. 

The Way The Doc Depicts How He Worked On Back To The Future And Family Ties Simultaneously Is Mind-Boggling 

Along with the raw and new look into the actor's past and present, we also got his version of very famous stories. This included, of course, the tale of how he ended up leading one of the best movies of the ‘80s, Back to the Future, while simultaneously working on Family Ties. He was told he couldn’t miss an hour of work on the sitcom, and so the deal was he’d spend his days there and nights on the movie. 

What followed was a relentless cycle of him being rushed from place to place and barely getting sleep. They depicted that process through a reenactment that was scored to music that only got more and more frantic as it jumped from one set to another and back to his apartment, and at one point Fox said:

Both projects are considered some of Michael J. Fox’s best work, and the fact that he did them at the same time is astonishing, especially when you understand just how exhausting it was. It’s a testament to his talent and his perseverance, which is something he’s continued to exhibit throughout his entire life. 

Michael J. Fox Does Not Sugar Coat His Story

What overtook me the most while watching this documentary was how candid Michael J. Fox was during it. There was absolutely no sugarcoating in the present or the past. At one point, he explained that he wasn’t looking for sympathy, and that was clear as day in Still. 

While they talked about the wild success of Back to the Future, he also noted how much he’d drink and party when he was young. They’d bring up his acclaimed performances in Family Ties and Spin City, and Fox would then talk about his ego. He was a workaholic and not always there for his family, and he directly said that to the camera. What struck me most was just how honest he was about his marriage. He's been with Tracy Pollan for nearly four decades, and he's open about both the incredible love they share and the struggles they've faced as he worked too hard. 

All of this culminates into a full picture of Fox. It doesn't feel like we're seeing a caricature or just one side of the actor, we're getting what seems to be his true self and all the good and bad that comes with it. 

I deeply appreciated how open Fox was about his flaws and struggles. While he’s always been a hero to me, and continues to be, hearing about the challenges he’s faced in his life and his struggle through them was eye-opening. It felt like we were getting the whole Michael J. Fox because he was so open about his story, and I think that it’s why Still works so well. 

Universal Orlando has become a force to be reckoned with in the theme park game. Epic Universe's opening date is still a year away, but new additions to the existing parks recently have been incredible. While it may still be smaller than Walt Disney World, what Universal Orlando lacks in size it has been making up for with high-quality attractions over the last several years. There's a lot Universal Orlando does better than Disney World, and this summer that list has only gotten longer with a fun Jaws-related addition.

Universal Orlando already has many of the best Universal theme park rides but in the last month alone UOR has debuted one of the best nighttime shows I’ve ever seen in CineSational: A Symphonic Spectacular and opened the new DreamWorks Land. Now, it has debuted an incredible parade with not only eye-catching floats but amazing characters.

The Universal Orlando Mega Movie Parade debuted yesterday at Universal Studios Florida. It pays tribute to some iconic Universal movies, including E.T. and Back to the Future, but the highlight may be the Jaws section. Not only does it have an impressive float, but it also has a pair of character performers playing the combative Mayor and Sheriff of Amity Island, and they are stealing the show, as one viral TikTok shows off:

In the video, the Mayor is asked if the rumors of a “shark problem” are true. He then replied by saying there were absolutely no sharks, but then the Sheriff followed closely behind insisting that there absolutely were sharks. It’s a fantastic interaction. Other guests attending the first parade had similar experiences.

The fact that the first parade happened the day before the Fourth of July was perhaps quite fitting as it gave people the chance to ask the Mayor if the beaches would be open the next day.

This is some great stuff. Universal doesn’t have the massive number of costumed characters that you’ll find in a Disney Park, but the ones they do have are incredible. You can interact with Doc Brown at Universal Studios Florida and have a full conversation with the man in character. While the Jaws characters can only have brief interactions with different guests, they add something special you don’t often see in other theme park parades.

The more traditional parade elements are no less impressive based on images from Brooke McDonald. The floats dedicated to the different Universal movie franchises are massive and full of intricate details, so even if you don’t get a chance to talk to the characters walking around, the parade is still worth seeing.

The most impressive float, however, has to be the Jurassic Park one, which includes a massive T-Rex that, despite its impressive size and motion, apparently isn’t an animated figure, but according to Universal Creative’s Michael Aiello, is actually a puppet.

The Mega Movie Parade is another home run for Universal. And the best is still yet to come. Universal Orlando’s third gate, Epic Universe, is looking incredible ahead of its opening next year. Universal is becoming a true destination vacation with some of the best entertainment I’ve seen in a long time.

July is here, and with it comes the annual shuffling of streaming platforms. Rights that ended in June mean movies and shows disappearing, and entirely new movies and shows appearing on all of the best streaming services. It certainly means there’s plenty of entertainment to enjoy, and can also mean that finding what’s good among the massive avalanche of new stuff can be complicated. 

If you have a Netflix subscription, you need to know what’s worth your time this week. Luckily, there’s so much good stuff this first week that it may take you the better part of the month to enjoy it all. A pair of top-notch movie trilogies, one of the most popular TV series ever, and a pair of Netflix-exclusive franchise expansions make July a great month on the streamer already. 

New Movies On Netflix

Back to the Future Franchise - July 1 

The Back to the Future series isn’t made up of three perfect movies, and yet it may be one of the greatest film trilogies of all time. It’s so iconic that nearly 35 years after it ended, nobody has ever really tried to reboot it or make a sequel decades later. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are perfectly cast, a near miracle considering Fox nearly wasn’t cast at all. All three films arrive together, so fans can relive the near-perfect trilogy again. Great Scott, this is going to be fun. 

Spider-Man 1-3 - July 1

Spider-Man fans with a Disney+ subscription have been able to enjoy the original Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy for some time, but the first three live-action Spider-Man films will be added to Netflix in July, giving even more people access to the films that arguably launched the superhero movie boom that we’re still in the middle of today. Considering that a lot of people want to see Maguire as Spider-Man again, catching up on these may not be a bad idea. 

 The Karate Kid - July 1

Is it weird that Cobra Kai has been an incredibly popular streaming service for years, and yet the original Karate Kid movies on which it was based haven’t been available on Netflix? I feel like that’s weird. With the final season of Cobra Kai set to debut later in the month, the original Karate Kid movie will finally be available, so fans can rewatch where the story all started. 

Warcraft - July 1

While we’re seeing a lot more success today when it comes to movies based on video games, not every movie that came out before Detective Pikachu was actually bad. Warcraft by Duncan Jones brought the popular real-time strategy game series to life in an incredible way. Its use of CGI to create the Orc characters is criminally overlooked as one of the most successful uses of the technology in the era. Warcraft isn’t a secret classic, but it is a movie worth checking out if you’re a fan of the game series or high fantasy movies in general. 

American Psycho - July 1

Christian Bale has gone on to huge things since American Psycho, but this was arguably the first movie where a lot of people saw him. While it’s certainly not a film for the faint of heart, it’s still an incredibly compelling story, and the American Psycho ending is something a lot of people are still talking about even years later. If you’ve never seen this one, it’s worth checking out, and if you have, it’s probably about time for a rewatch.  

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F - July 3

Beverly Hills Cop was one of the biggest movies of 1984, making a star of Eddie Murphy. Two sequels followed, but there have been attempts to make a fourth film in the franchise for decades. Alex Foley will finally return to Beverly Hills this week, and while Axel Foley is a bit older, it seems unlikely he’ll be any less hilarious. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kevin Bacon join the Axel F cast alongside returning favorites. Here’s hoping the characters have aged as well as the theme song.

New Series On Netflix

 Lost  (Complete Series)

For the last several years, if you wanted to watch Lost, you needed a Hulu subscription. In July, the popular series from J.J. Abrams that made as many diehard fans as it made people irate at the Lost ending returns to Netflix, so if this is your main streaming service, you can finally watch it again. You might as well enjoy it from the beginning and see if it all makes any more sense this time around. 

Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 - July 1

Usually to watch the newest Star Trek, you need a Paramount+ subscription. However, after the family-friendly Nickelodeon series Star Trek: Prodigy was canceled by the powers that be, Netflix, as it has done with numerous series, came in to save the day. Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 arrives July 1. Season 1 is already on Netflix if you need to catch up. As a series that may create many Star Trek fans, one hopes this one has a better time finding an audience with Netflix.

Suits (Season 9) - July 1

Last year, for reasons that are still only vaguely clear, Suits, a USA Network series that had been off the air for years and was never a broad hit, became the hottest thing on multiple streaming platforms. Maybe it had something to do with a cast member becoming a Duchess. Unfortunately, if you watched the show on Netflix, you weren’t able to finish it, as only the first eight seasons were available. Netflix subscribers will finally be able to finish the story with Season 9 arriving on the platform. 

While these are some of the highlights this week, there’s a lot new on Netflix, so be sure to check out our full list of everything coming this week, and the weeks to come, so you know what’s on the way. You can also check out the list of what’s upcoming on Disney+, as well as what’s new on Hulu, so you don’t miss anything on your favorite streaming services.  

It's downright impossible to not be impressed by the resilience of Michael J. Fox. Not only has he demonstrated incredible fortitude living with Parkinson's disease, but his activism and spirit is powerful symbol of hope to all who have or know people with the condition. One can't help but marvel at his fight and what he's able to accomplish – like playing guitar during a Coldplay performance of "Fix You" this weekend at Glastonbury 2024.

The sprawling concert and entertainment festival in England ended today after beginning last Wednesday, and Coldplay took the main Pyramid Stage on Saturday night. Michael J. Fox joined Chris Martin and his soft rock outfit to play of the band's most famous songs, jamming on peach-colored axe. You can watch the full performance below:

Michael J. Fox has been a skilled guitar player for decades, with his talents wonderfully reflected in director Robert Zemeckis' time travel classic Back To The Future (behind the scenes trivia: it's not actually Fox that we hear playing "Earth Angel" and "Johnny B. Goode" in the film, but that's a fiction merely masking a true musical skill the performer possesses). It goes without saying that it's lovely and awesome to see him pick up the instrument for a live performance in front of 120,000 people (the capacity of the venue).

Following the performance, Michael J. Fox reflected on the experience with a post on his personal Instagram account – thanking everybody involved who helped make the cameo appearance possible. He wrote,

You can check out some of the photos that Michael J. Fox took from the event in the Instagram post below.

I also don't feel like it would be proper for me to write this article and not include a clip of one of the greatest scenes in one of the most beloved films of the 1980s (not to mention one of the best science-fiction movies of all time). Watching the scene, the musicianship you're hearing is credited to Tim May, but Michael J. Fox unquestionably sells the hell out of the performance:

If you now find yourself with a hankering to watch Back To The Future, the bad news is that it is not currently available to stream on any major streaming service. The good news is that you can purchase or rent it from various digital retailers, and the entire Back To The Future trilogy is on 4K UHD.

Given that people are watching less and less cable and there are myriad pathways to finding good films now, how do you figure out what to watch? We've compiled a list of great films, all with the goal of marking them as movies fans can return to again and again and find something new each time. 

So why 90%? There are plenty of Rotten Tomatoes movies with 100% scores for lower-budget projects that may only have a smattering of reviews. In addition, there are plenty of other movies with great scores, like Citizen Kane, that I wouldn’t necessarily argue are films that should be thrown on for the fifth or sixth time on a Saturday night. 

The Godfather 

The Godfather’s so famous that years later You’ve Got Mail used the phrase "go to the mattresses" when Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan's characters were coming up with a business plan. A quintessential mobster drama, it’s still being watched by new generations of movie buffs coming of age. If it’s been a bit since you've seen the 97% positive-rated movie, dive in. 

Toy Story

A film with a cool 100% critics score, Toy Story really put Pixar on the map as storytellers and ended up spawning a whole franchise of beloved characters like Woody, Buzz, Andy, T-Rex, Jesse, Mr. Potatohead and so many more. The definition of rewatchable, the movie holds up years and years after its original family audience has created families of their own, and there are sequels you can rewatch to boot!

Singin’ In The Rain

The Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds classic has it all: Great set pieces, classic music numbers, a notable cast-- and it's so well-known that it used to be referenced in Disney's The Great Movie Ride. It’s actually one of the few movies on this list to also have a solid 100% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics. You don’t have to throw this one on during a rainy day, but it’s not a bad plan, either. 

The Dark Knight

Easily the most popular of Christopher Nolan’s superhero films, with excellent performances from Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and Heath Ledger, it’s clear why The Dark Knight should be on this list. Though tragedy struck in relation to this movie with Heath Ledger’s death, it’s stood out as a testament to what superhero movies can really do if given the right budget and script. 

Modern Times

A few Chaplin classics earned big scores from critics, but chief among these is Modern Times, the deft part-talkie that Chaplin put together in 1936 and that later became one of the first 25 films to make the Library of Congress’ preservation list. It’s not just historically significant, however. It’s a fun story about facing setbacks and still maintaining a positive attitude, and its memorable ending makes it easy to understand its 98% rating.

Top Gun: Maverick

Tom Cruise's original Top Gun was not as much of a hit with critics, and currently has a middling rating on critical aggregators. That's not true of the 2022 follow-up Top Gun: Maverick, which boasts an exciting opening sequence, an all-star sequel cast, and an upgraded beach sequence. This garners it a well-deserved 96% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Even better? This is one you'll want to watch again and again. 

How To Train Your Dragon

The definitive dragon film, Dreamworks' How To Train Your Dragon is not just a solid example of an animated movie, it's a good movie, period. The 2010 film launched two sequels, but it's the first movie that landed it a 99% critics score and is the one to revisit over and over again. It had some competition from Game Of Thrones on the TV side, but given it's a family film, I think it has the edge in the rewatch department. 

All About Eve

The 99% approved 1950 Bette Davis film has been around for decades, but lines like “fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night” never, ever grow stale, even after repeat viewings. Nor does the story about the cutthroat nature of the Hollywood business ever grow tiring. All About Eve is a classic for a reason: It and Davis will never go out of style. 

Skyfall

Technically, Skyfall has the second-best score for a Daniel Craig Bond movie, coming in at 92% behind Casino Royal's 94%. Honestly, both have great rewatch value, and one could argue Royale is the more fun movie. But I find myself gravitating to Skyfall and its emotional gut-punch impact and memorable performances far more often. Do, I do this more often on a rainy day? Sure. Will you regret throwing it on? I highly doubt it. 

The Princess Bride

If you've read the William Goldman book The Princess Bride is based on, you'll know exactly how the script for Rob Reiner's movie got to be so quotable. But the source material says nothing about how well the movie is put together and how funny the timing of the cast still is years and years later. I was at a party a few weeks ago when someone mentioned "I mean it" and a pal of mine responded, "Anybody want a peanut?" That kind of resonance can't be manufactured, it has to come about from years and years of people wearing out VHS tapes and DVDs and now streaming subscriptions. This one deserves better than its 96%. 

Paddington 2

Like Daniel Craig's Bond films, It can be great to revisit a later movie in the franchise instead of the original, though the highly rated Paddington is also delightful. Why does the 99% Paddington 2 get the edge? Well, it hilarious ushered in Hugh Grant's era as not a leading man but a comedic character actor, and its plot --which sends Paddington to jail where he becomes known for making marmalade sandwiches -- is absolutely bonkers, in a good way. And there are musical numbers! Throw it on now. 

Avengers: Endgame

You may know the order MCU movies have come out, but you may not know there's a second list of the most rewatched MCU movies. Endgame lands high here, not just because it's one of a handful of Marvel movies that has over a 90% critics score, but because it's also at the top of lists including the most rewatched and highest-grossing Marvel films. It's a behemoth of a movie, and you obviously wouldn't be alone if you revisit it again and again. 

Men In Black

A perpetual favorite of cable networks in the early aughts, Men in Black still holds up. The Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones movie has everything: Aliens, weird weaponry, a cool soundtrack, and it's a great blockbuster that's funny to boot. The marble scene at the end of the movie also marks one of the most striking and memorable endings to a movie from the 1990s, and it's no wonder critics gave it a 91%. It's more rewatchable than other Will Smith classics like The Pursuit of Happyness and King Richard to boot. 

John Wick Chapter 4: Parabellum

Honestly, it's hard to believe the fourth Keanu Reeves John Wick movie is the only one to break the 90% barrier with critics. It's a great movie, to be sure, and given the Chapter 4: Parabellum ending, it's certainly one worth revisiting. I just wish the startlingly good first movie in the franchise fit the specifications of this list too. 

Devil In A Blue Dress

Denzel Washington? Check. A seedy film noir feel? Check. A generally good mystery? Check. Intriguing side characters? Check, check, check, check. It's no wonder the flick has a 92% approval rating with all that it has going on and I didn't even mention Don Cheadle or Jennifer Beals yet. Devil in a Blue Dress is not only one of the best Denzel movies, it's also adapted from one of the great murder mysteries of all time, and it has held up long after its 1995 release. 

Godzilla Minus One

With a whopping 98% score, Godzilla Minus One overperformed at the box office and has become an even bigger behemoth through its subsequent streaming release. Not only has it remained popular, it has remained a great movie to revisit. It's a monstrous spectacle (pun very much intended), but it's the personal stories in Takashi Yamazaki's movie that make the human plot really shine. 

Encanto

There are actually a large volume of Disney movies that have landed more than a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Most of these are re-watchable, to boot. However, Encanto is a particularly special entry into the genre as it introduces fans to the culture in Colombia and shares a story about family flaws, trauma and patterns that set up the future. OK, that doesn't sound all that fun, but it's great. 

Bridesmaids

It's tough for a comedy to land a score high enough to make this list, and Bridesmaids ekes in just under the wire. The movie is at a 90%, but I'd argue it's more than 90% hilarious; not everyone can have great taste. Kristen Wiig's seminal comedy is a rare female-centric ensemble movie with some memorable moments, including a plane scene and one very unique driving scene from Kristen Wiig. And that's not even getting to major moments from the additional cast, including Rose Byrne, Maya Rudolph and Melissa McCarthy.

The Terminator

Rewatchable for the catchphrases alone, The Terminator is both one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's and James Cameron's highest-rated films. It weighs in at a (somewhat shocking) 100% fresh rating 40 years after its initial release, proving that nostalgia can be a big factor when it comes to success. What's most interesting to me is that the movie dwarfs Terminator 2, another big rewatchable winner, when it comes to the score. 

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Terminator 2 Judgment Day has a respectable 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, but if you were to ask me, given it's big budget, popcorn-y bent, this is the most fondly remembered movie in the long and storied franchise. I was a little surprised to learn it was the OG movie with the 100% score and not this one. Really though, it's comparing apples to apples, as both are great movies to throw on at home years later. 

Mary Poppins

Just thinking of this movie might get any of a plethora of songs stuck in your head. "A Spoonful of Sugar" comes to mind first, but I'll go ahead and give spelling "Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious" a stab. If you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious, after all. For decades, the Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews starrer has been a fan-favorite, much of which is due to its musical soundtrack, though the performances help. It will doubtless remain that way in the years to come. Having a 97% positive score from critics always helps though.

Halloween

A quintessentially repeatable horror film, Halloween is perfect for one particular evening of rewatching every year, and I don't think I need to spell out which. It's also a great entry into more hardcore horror for folk just getting into the genre, as well as a great entry point into Jamie Lee Curtis' oeuvre. At a 96% rating, it's pretty close to perfect, too. 

Moana

There are plenty of movies with a rich musical history that have lived on for years and years after their release. In comparison, Moana is a relative newcomer, but its fun music ("You're Welcome") and rich, diverse storytelling have made it an instant classic and a continual go-to for families. I'd give credit to The Rock's popularity as a movie star, but this one really is a family favorite for audiences of all ages. If it's been a while, give the 95%-scored movie a shot. 

Mad Max: Fury Road

Choosing the best Mad Max film is difficult, and in fact, four of them have a 90% rating or more on Rotten Tomatoes. The highest of these is Mad Max: Fury Road, the film that helped cement Charlize Theron as an action icon and went on to make nearly $380 million at the box office. Not bad for a dystopic sci-fi film, and if you bang through this one fast, there are plenty more highly rated franchise movies where that one came from. 

Edge Of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow is one of Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise's most underrated movies. It was a box office flop that has a 91% rating with critics and similar audience ratings. Its Groundhog Day-combined-with-aliens premise makes it one of the best action films to rewatch again and again... and again and again and again. 

Groundhog Day

This idea of reliving a day over again and again really originated with the 1993 fantasy classic starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. For years, Groundhog Day was a staple on cable networks, and in the era of streaming, it's no wonder the movie continues to be a favorite romantic comedy and time loop film with a 94% score from critics. 

Jaws

The theme music to Jaws alone makes it one of the more memorable and rewatchable flicks of all time. It helps that this was the movie that made Steven Spielberg a big-budget name, that it's so quotable, and that it does a lot in the way of special effects for the time period. It's no wonder it has a 97% rating and people are still talking about it years later. 

Schindler's List

While not a movie you'd probably want to throw on while folding laundry or doing other background tasks, Schindler's List has held up for years thanks to its stark and emotional story about a man who risked all to save Jewish individuals during the Holocaust. There's a reason it won Best Picture in 1997 and there's a reason critics are still giving it a 98% score years later, but it's one you should revisit only when you have tissues readily available. 

Planes, Trains And Automobiles

A slew of Steve Martin and John Candy movies are beloved years later. But their team-up in Planes, Trains and Automobiles is even more momentous thanks to its fun road trip premise and the presence of both famous comedians, not to mention a brilliant directing effort from '80s movies staple John Hughes. It's landed a 92% rating with critics and is still a perfect movie to revisit every few years. 

Back To The Future

The '80s were a time of great comedies and angsty teen movies, but if you are looking for a little bit of both of those things, Back to the Future is a great time. Launching Michael J. Fox's career on the big screen in 1985 (after a successful run on Family Ties), Back to the Future's time travel hijinks and fun premise have kept it relevant for a long time. It's easily a go-to as a rewatch for many movie lovers and it's landed a 93% from critics. 

Spiderman: Across The Spider-Verse

Both an animated and family-friendly film, Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse not only has a killer premise, it also appeals to a wide swathe of audiences in different age groups. It's one of the best superhero movies to revisit, and it's a movie that's smart enough to be watched and discussed in-depth but is also exactly the type of movie you can throw on while your kids are multi-tasking with toys. And critics love it, as it has a 95% critics rating -- and a similar audience rating to boot!

Creed

I know, I know, Rocky's more the classic movie and also has a strong Rotten Tomatoes score, but for many the go-to movie in the franchise is 2015's Creed. It's a film that made Michael B. Jordan even more of a household name and stands up as a solidly grounded movie. Plus, it has wonderful performances and pays respect to what came before. What not to like? At least 95% of critics feel the same way. 

A lot can happen to a movie between the time a script is written and a premiere is held, and in some cases, a whole lot of bad can happen. Over the years, Best Picture winners, some of the greatest horror movies of all time, and cult classics have experienced nightmarish productions, with some being far worse than anyone could have ever imagined.

Come with us as we go through the history of Hollywood and break down 32 movies with disastrous productions that have since become the stuff of legend. And while we will be avoiding spoilers, some details are not for the faint of heart.

Twilight Zone: The Movie (1982)

Arguably the most infamous disastrous production, Twilight Zone: The Movie is mostly remembered for the on-set deaths of Vic Morrow and child actors Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, who were all killed in a freak accident involving a helicopter. Slate would later write extensively about the accident, what led to it, and how the segment’s director, John Landis, dealt with the ramifications.

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Though known as one of the best war movies ever made, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam War epic is more times than not remembered for being one of the most intense, grueling, and disastrous productions. An overweight and ill-prepared Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen’s heart attack, and several other issues have since been well-documented in documentaries like Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996)

The Island of Dr. Moreau is one of those movies that so many people wanted to work on, but it just wasn’t in the cards. The early dismissal of original director Richard Stanley (he was replaced by John Frankenheimer less than a week into shooting), Marlon Brando’s odd behavior, and Val Kilmer stepping in when Bruce Willis left shortly before production began all contributed to the madness on set.

Rust (Unreleased)

Who knows if the world will ever get to see Rust, as Joel Souza’s Western film has been wrapped up in all kinds of investigations, criminal trials, and litigation ever since a freak accident on set claimed the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October 2021. According to the Los Angeles Times, star Alec Baldwin was practicing a shooting scene when his gun fired a live round, killing Hutchins and injuring Souza. Production has been suspended ever since.

Fitzcarraldo (1982)

Werner Herzog’s 1982 epic Fitzcarraldo tells the story of Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski) as he attempts to transport a steamship through rivers and over a steep hill to find his fame and fortune. Herzog, not one to take the easy way out, decided that he and his crew would drag an actual 320-ton ship up a hill, as seen in the must-watch Les Blank documentary, Burden of Dreams. 

The Shining (1980)

In addition to having some great improvised movie moments, Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining also has a reputation for being a movie where the tyrannical director pushed and pushed and pushed his cast to their breaking point. Kubrick’s primary target, Shelley Duvall, had an especially hard time on set, according to The Mirror, and was left in poor health because of the intense and chaotic shoot.

Jaws (1975)

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 summer blockbuster, Jaws, had everything you’d want in a big movie: legendary acting performances, an all-time great John Williams score, and one of the scariest monsters captured on screen. As the director remembered in Spielberg: The First Ten Years (via Vanity Fair), a boat began to sink with the actors (and sound equipment) aboard, the shark didn’t work half the time, and the whole project went over budget. Still, it’s one of the greatest of all time.

Back To The Future (1984)

Back to the Future is remembered today as one of the best ‘80s movies and an iconic sci-fi flick that helped turn Michael J. Fox into the biggest actor on the planet. But before the Family Ties star came into the picture and brought Marty McFly to life, Eric Stoltz was famously cast and then fired weeks into the production. Though all of the McFly scenes were reshot, there’s still a single shot of Stoltz in the final cut. 

The Revenant (2015)

The Revenant, which earned Leonardo DiCaprio his first Oscar, experienced one of the most grueling and difficult productions in recent memory. Director Alejandro G. Inarritu insisted on shooting the film in order, which caused a myriad of issues along the way, including going over budget by the tune of $7 million, subjecting the cast and crew to extreme weather conditions, and having to move everything to a different continent to find cold enough weather.

The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

The Wizard of Oz is a movie that should get its own biographical drama series because so much drama happened on the set of the landmark 1939 film. From the production using asbestos to make fake snow to the alleged abuse and harassment on set to recastings and new directors, a lot went wrong in the process of making one of the most influential films of all time.

Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars (later retitled Episode IV – A New Hope) launched one of the biggest franchises of all time back in May 1977, but it wasn’t all peas and carrots on the set of the game-changing sci-fi epic. George Lucas and company battled all kinds of issues during the disastrous production including shooting in the deserts of Tunisia and Death Valley, budget problems, and droids that just wouldn’t work led to a series of headaches for all involved parties.

Cleopatra (1963)

Described by the A.V. Club as both an unmitigated disaster and runaway smash hit, Cleopatra is one of the most well-known movies of all time. Production of the epic starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton was stalled by unexploded World War II landmines, medical emergencies, and a ballooning budget.

Waterworld (1995)

A bad movie with a great plot, Kevin Costner’s Waterworld has a reputation for being one of the worst and most expensive box office failures of the ‘90s. According to Yahoo! Entertainment, Costner’s choice to ignore Steven Spielberg’s advice about shooting on open water was largely to blame for the movie’s massive budget and a plethora of issues experienced by the cast and crew on the set.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

On top of being a wildly inaccurate biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody is also a film that was marred by on-set issues. A lot of the issues were connected to original director Bryan Singer, who was fired partway through production after numerous run-ins with the cast and outbursts on set. But the problems didn’t stop there, as the screenwriter later sued the film’s producers.

Titanic (1997)

James Cameron’s Titanic is one of the biggest movies of all time, as well as one that experienced one of the strangest incidents during production. As later covered by outlets like Variety, someone spiked the cast and crew’s clam chowder with PCP, which resulted in dozens of people flooding a local hospital suffering from all kinds of psychedelic and physical effects.

Blade Runner (1982)

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is a top-tier sci-fi classic, but the director’s techno-noir film wasn’t without its fair share of incidents. From rewrites to missing deadlines to an insistence on adding narration by Harrison Ford, there was a lot that went wrong before the movie hit the big screen.

Heaven's Gate (1980)

Heaven’s Gate, the 1980 Michael Cimino movie and not the cult from the ‘90s, is often regarded as one of the worst and most disastrous movies of all time. Released a few years after Cimino’s iconic The Deer Hunter, the Western epic ended up coming in $30+ million over budget, many days late, and according to IndieWire, was so bad United Artists decided to shelve the film not long into its run.

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

The Bridge on the River Kwai, Davide Lean’s 1957 war epic is often regarded as one of the best World War II films, but it too, had its share of production issues. Among them were problems director David Lean had with the British actors and the botched filming of the iconic bridge explosion caused by a cameraman not getting out of the way in time.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Regarded as one of the best action movies of all time, Mad Max: Fury Road took the genre to new heights with its story about Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) and Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). However, as reported by Vanity Fair, the two stars hated one another, which made things difficult on set.

Tombstone (1993)

One of the best Westerns ever made, Tombstone is one of those movies you just have to watch whenever it's on TV. But we’re lucky the movie was even made, as its production was the stuff of nightmares (at least for Hollywood). Kevin Jarre, the screenwriter and original director, was fired early in production and there have long been rumors that star Kurt Russell was his replacement, not George P. Cosmatos, who’s credited as the director.

The Crow (1994)

The Crow, which would go on to become one of the biggest cult classics of the ‘90s, will forever be known as the movie in which star Brandon Lee was tragically shot and killed during production. 

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, was long believed to be a movie that would never see the light of day. Over the course of nearly 30 years, multiple attempts, and countless casting replacements, Gilliam finally released the movie in 2018

Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

One of the most shocking movies of all time, Cannibal Holocaust has become a rite of passage in some circles due to its gratuitous violence and pure depravity. The found footage horror film, which features the decapitations of animals among other things, ended up getting its director, Ruggero Deodato, sent to court after people thought it was a real documentary.

Sorcerer (1977)

Riding high on the success of The French Connection and The Exorcist, William Friedkin took on one of his most ambitious projects: Sorcerer. The box office dud is mostly remembered all these years later for being the movie that sent at least 50 crew members to the hospital with ailments like gangrene and malaria, per Collider.

The Abyss (1989)

Though not the best James Cameron movie, The Abyss is still a great addition to the sci-fi genre and a wonderful alien movie. But know what wasn’t great? The film’s production. Cameron pushed things way too far for the cast, crew, and himself to the dangerous limits throughout the shoot, and, according to SyFy, he almost died on set.

Deliverance (1972)

Few movies capture a sense of dread and danger better than Deliverance, and it sounds like what happened behind the scenes was just as terrifying as anything featured in the 1972 thriller. Between Jon Voight almost dying performing a stunt, fistfights on set, and run-ins with the locals, a lot went wrong.

Alien 3 (1992)

David Fincher is one of the best directors in Hollywood, but the man behind Seven, Fight Club, and The Social Network had a bad start in the business thanks to the disastrous Alien 3. Fincher has been vocal about the production woes in the past, which could be attributed to a revolving door of creatives and a studio not knowing what it wanted.

World War Z (2013)

Have you ever watched World War Z and wondered why the final act of the 2013 Brad Pitt zombie movie feels like it has nothing in common with everything that led to that point? Well, that’s because the final third of the movie was completely rewritten and reshot.

Roar (1981)

Watch the Roar trailer and it shouldn’t take long to figure out why this 1981 cult classic is on the list. During the production of this wild creature feature, 70 crew members were injured by real-life lions, with some getting gangrene and puncture wounds.

American History X (1998)

It wasn’t so much the production of American History X that was the disaster as it was the post-production work. According to The Independent, director Tony Kaye, who was upset with New Line Cinema for making him recut and lengthen the film, ended up punching a wall and breaking his hand during the editing before going on a crusade to bad-mouth his film and having his name removed from the credits.

Tootsie (1982)

Going off an excerpt from David McGiffert’s The Best Seat in the House (via The Wrap), it sounds like Dustin Hoffman was just as difficult to work with as his character in Tootsie. In his book, the assistant director goes into great detail about the confrontations between Hoffman and director Sydney Pollack, which really adds to their characters’ scenes together.

Suicide Squad (2016)

Before all the Justice League brouhaha in the years that followed, the DCEU gave the world Suicide Squad, a movie pieced together by so many different parties it’s unnecessarily complex and hard to follow. Years later, director David Ayer still gets crap for the movie.

Some of these movies are cinematic masterpieces, while others have been largely forgotten to the sands of time. However, they all have something in common: they all had disastrous productions.