The 100 Greatest Films Ever Made — Empire Readers’ Ultimate Must

byTeam Empire,Nick de Semlyen,James Dyer,Chris Hewitt,Alex Godfrey,Beth Webb,John Nugent,Ben Travis,andJordan King|Updated on23rd September 2026 at 3.59pm
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If you’re looking for the 100 best movies of all time, you’ve reached your destination. The cinematic medium has been evolving for over a century, with stories that capture the heart and the imagination – and the team here at Empire, the world’s biggest and best-loved film magazine, are here to provide the ultimate reader-curated film bucket list.

There are so many things that make an all-time-great movie – conjuring indelible images, overwhelming emotions, with unforgettable stories, and the greatest characters to carry you through them. Whether seen on the big screen, a trusty TV, or whatever screen you can get your hands on, the greatest films still hit like nothing else. From the misadventures of Peruvian bears to the epic quests of almighty fellowships; whisper-quiet period romances to explosive comic book blockbusters; and awe-inspiring animated adventures to stories from all corners of the globe, there’s something out there for every taste.

How We Chose The Top 100 Best Movies Of All Time

For Empire’s new list of the 100 best movies of all time, our first major update of the list in almost half a decade, we enlisted our esteemed readers. In 2025, we asked for your top 20 picks of the movies that have comforted, challenged, entertained and inspired you most — that, above all else, make you feel something. Over 1000 of you answered our call. Those reader votes were then assigned weighted points, tallied up, and cross-referenced with the expertise of our experienced team of critics and contributors to untangle any tied positions and deliver a definitive Top 100.

Our readers’ tastes have proven as eclectic as ever in our latest poll, which features no less than 72 directors from 14 countries in all. Newcomers to this latest version of the list include both halves of Barbenheimer (at #97 and #64) as well as Everything Everywhere All At Once (#81) and Past Lives (#45). Meanwhile, Citizen Kane (#52) retains its spot as the oldest movie on our list at the ripe old age of 85.

There are frequent fixtures too. Harrison Ford tops the actors’ tally with six entries in the top 100, while Steven Spielberg has an almighty seven films here. And if you’re looking for a starting place for an Empire Top 100 marathon, why not knock out either the longest film on our list (Lawrence Of Arabia — 3hrs 48m) or the shortest (The Lion King — 1hr 29m) first? Just a thought…

Ready for a filmic odyssey? Here is Empire‘s official rundown of The 100 Best Movies Of All Time…

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The 100 Greatest Movies Ever Made (And Where To Watch Them)

100) Avatar (2009)

Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver

James Cameron quite literally dreamed Avatar into existence. Not only is the world of Pandora (and its Na’vi people) based on a vivid dream he had at 19, but when the time came to actually make it, he pioneered advanced digital technologies to bring it to reality. The result blends satisfyingly familiar narrative beats – as human grunt Jake Sully becomes one with the Na’vi in a giant blue artificially-created body, helping them fight back against their human oppressors – and mind-boggling world-building, using next-level performance capture and digital environments to conjure a whole new world. Throw in typically excellent Cameron action sequences, and you have a blockbuster masterclass.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Avatar

99) Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2020)

Director: Céline Sciamma
Starring: Noémie Merlant, Adèle Haenel

Celine Sciamma’s magnetic, masterful lesbian romance may be a recent addition to this list, but became an instant landmark of queer cinema upon its release. Starring Noémie Merlant as an 18th century painter and Adèle Haenel as her elusive subject, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire is a tale of an epic love developed in the quietest, most delicate way, formed in stolen moments and glances. Sciamma’s carefully constructed, smouldering screenplay and our leads’ electric chemistry are matched only by Claire Mathon’s transcendent cinematography, with each impeccably framed, Renaissance-inspired 8K shot bringing new meaning to the expression “every frame a painting”. Pure poetry.

Streaming on: Apple TV+| Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Portrait Of A Lady On Fire

98) When Harry Met Sally… (1989)

Director: Rob Reiner
Starring: Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher

In all of romcom cinema, it’s hard to imagine rooting harder for a pair to eventually get together than Harry Burns and Sally Albright – the chemistry of Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan is completely undeniable. Pair that with a note-perfect Nora Ephron script and Reiner at the peak of his directorial powers, and you have a decade-plus spanning will-they-won’t-they that offers generous time to its protagonists – to evolve, to grow apart, grow together, to live. A perennial autumn favourite, that still makes your heart ache on every rewatch.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of When Harry Met Sally

97) Barbie (2023)

Director: Greta Gerwig
Starring: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt

Not since Toy Story has a toy story contained so much heart and humour. If the prospect of a film about the world’s most famous doll sounded like a capitalist nightmare, Greta Gerwig – and screenwriting partner Noah Baumbach – instead interrogated the legacy of the perma-smiling icon; what Barbie means to us societally, what is has meant historically, how it does and doesn’t relate to contemporary experiences of womanhood. That Barbie manages to do so in the form of a raucous comedy, impeccably performed by Robbie – as an increasingly human doll – and Gosling (just Ken), amid note-perfect plastic set design, and with a tear-jerking finale to boot, is near-miraculous.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Barbie

96) E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore

Over the years, the phrase “Amblinesque” has come to be a calling card for family-friendly adventures thrumming with heart, wonder, and just a smidge of darkness – and never has that moviemaking method been more perfectly encapsulated however than in E.T. Equal parts stonking children’s adventure and poignant meditation on familial dysfunction and our capacity for healing, E.T. carefully beds its supernatural elements in an utterly relatable everykid world, tempering its cuter, more sentimental moments with a true sense of jeopardy. Boasting an extraordinary lead performance from a 10-year-old Henry Thomas, one of John Williams greatest scores, and an ending that still has us in floods over forty years later, E.T. remains the gold standard for family filmmaking.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of E.T. The Extraterrestrial

95) Memento (2000)

Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano

It cemented Nolan as a supremely smart filmmaker, both cerebrally and cinematically, the nexus of everything he would go on to achieve in his future films. Nolan tells a complete narrative in reverse order – beginning at the end, in Leonard’s quest to discover who murdered his wife, before unspooling the rest of the story one scene at a time, moving further back with each one. Guy Pearce’s unreliable narrator Leonard has short-term memory loss, meaning everything but the last few minutes is a mystery to him. Memento uses its timey-wimey gimmickry to ground audiences in its central character; an immersive and disorienting thriller that clicks together with total precision. Christopher Nolan’s obsession with time began here.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Memento

94) Moonlight (2016)

Director: Barry Jenkins
Starring: Trevante Rhodes, Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders

Adapted from Tarell Alvin’s play In Moonlight, Black Boys Look Blue, Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning drama (and certified Empire Masterpiece) is the kind of film that seeps under your skin and stays there. Tracking one man’s life in three stages, and the love (and lack of it) that made him who he is, Moonlight evokes a sense of intimacy so palpable, the camera’s gaze into the characters’ eyes so intense, you can’t bear to look away. Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris are impeccable in supporting roles, with Trevante Rhodes and Andre Holland delivering an unforgettable final act.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Moonlight

93) Lost In Translation (2003)

Director: Sofia Coppola
Starring: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi

With her sophomore feature, Sofia Coppola took a familiar enough rom-com set-up — two strangers cross paths in a foreign place — and turned it into a mesmerising mumblecore anti-romance. As listless college grad Charlotte and world weary actor Bob, Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray share an ineffable chemistry, offering beautifully understated performances as two people whose geographic and emotional sense of dislocation in Tokyo is simultaneously what brings them together and, ultimately, what keeps them apart, too. As well as that karaoke scene, its ending, in which Bill Murray’s Bob whispers words we never hear into Charlotte’s ear, is an all-timer.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Lost In Translation

92) One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

Director: Milos Forman
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman

Ken Kesey’s era-defining novel was in good hands with screenwriters Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman, not to mention director Milos Forman. Five Oscars were testament to that, including one for Jack Nicholson, who’s arguably never been better than here, playing Randle McMurphy – a man destined to be chewed up by the unfeeling system when he feigns mental illness to avoid prison time, instead institutionalised in a psychiatric hospital. Louise Fletcher, too, is outstanding, representing that unfeeling system in the form of Nurse Ratched – a movie villain for the ages.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

91) The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Saoirse Ronan,

The works of Wes Anderson have always been beautiful. But no film leans more into that appreciation of beauty than The Grand Budapest Hotel, a story within a story within a story that contrasts a love for the finer things against a backdrop of rising fascism. There’s wit and whimsy galore here, one of Anderson’s flat-out funniest films, particularly thanks to Fiennes’ deadpan hotelier M. Gustave. But there’s so much life and emotion here too, amid all that impeccable craft – the sort of thing no AI ‘Wes Anderson vibes’ vomit-machine could ever recreate.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of The Grand Budapest Hotel

90) Groundhog Day (1993)

Director: Harold Ramis
Starring: Bill Murray, Andie McDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky

Bill Murray is at the height of his (eventually) lovable schmuck powers as narcissistic weatherman Phil Connors. Andie McDowell brings the brains and the heart as distant-but-ever-closer-coming producer Rita Hanson. And Harold Ramis, directing and co-writing with Danny Rubin, manages to spin gold from the well-worn thread of a man stuck in time. Whilst this time-loop dramedy might not have been the first film to drink from this particular trope’s well, it still stands head and shoulders above the rest – the movie finds deeper things to say about existence as it goes on, all whilst never feeling overly preachy or worthy. That’s why it keeps us coming back again, and again, and again.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Groundhog Day

89) American Psycho (2000)

Director: Mary Harron
Starring: Christian Bale, Jared Leto, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux

Brutal violence meets brutal satire, in a film which presents itself as a well-dressed slasher, but at its heart is a savage takedown of ‘80s consumerism, conformity, and the raging male ego. Christian Bale is chillingly empty as Patrick Bateman, whose blank smiling exterior hides an absolute void of anything else; he hacks his victims to pieces while spouting inane pop-cultural nonsense, all the while climbing the corporate ladder and seething against his fellow white businessmen competitors. Stylish, sadistic, and seriously funny, Harron handles the carnage and ultra-dark comedy with a killer eye.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of American Psycho

88) The Piano (1993)

Director: Jane Campion
Starring: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, Sam Neill

Serene and seething in equal measure, Jane Campion’s Palme d’Or-winning drama remains as enigmatic and engrossing as the day it arrived on our shores. Holly Hunter brings quiet fury as Ada, the non-verbal woman who’s shipped over to New Zealand for an arranged marriage, where her ineffectual new husband (Neill) is no match for either the beloved piano she’s forced to abandon on the beach, nor the muscular Māori-affiliated George (Keitel). That musical instrument proves, well, instrumental to Ada’s heart, her sexuality, her very being – sparking jealousies, violence, and a possibility of freedom. The results are haunting, slightly unknowable, and impossible to forget.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of The Piano

87) Raging Bull (1980)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci

Everything about Raging Bull is stark. That raw monochrome photography; the physical transformation of Robert De Niro; the snarling masculinity of it. Scorsese’s film about brawler Jake LaMotta is less a straight boxing biopic than a character study of a deeply messed up man; exactly what you’d expect of a re-team from the core Taxi Driver trio (Scorsese, De Niro, writer Paul Schrader). It’s excoriating, often uncomfortable to watch, but frequently breathtaking too – those boxing scenes are some of the most immense ever put to screen, hitting with all the power of a punch to the face.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Raging Bull

86) Lady Bird (2017)

Director: Greta Gerwig
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, Lucas Hedges, Laurie Metcalf

With her directorial debut, the wry wit and emotional potency of Greta Gerwig’s previous work came even sharper into focus – telling a beautifully nuanced coming-of-age story about mothers, daughters, and the hometowns you yearn to leave, only for them to be truly appreciated in the rear-view mirror. Saoirse Ronan is perfectly precocious as the not-always-likeable Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson, experiencing fractured friendships, first fuckboys, and fateful fumbles in her final year of high school in 2003 Sacramento.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Lady Bird

85) Rocky (1976)

Director: John G. Avildsen
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Carl Weathers

Five decades later, Rocky remains the ultimate underdog story. Not just for Rocky Balboa, the mild-mannered Philadelphia fighter who gets his shot at the big-league, but also for Stallone, who penned the screenplay and took on the lead role in an attempt to propel himself to Hollywood stardom. Safe to say, it worked. Rocky remains a knockout, its rousing ringside action combined with heartwarming character work as Rocky dares to take on champion Apollo Creed, and put his heart on the line for local girl Adrian – spawning an entire multigenerational saga as a result. TKO.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Rocky

84) Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Doug Jones

Guillermo del Toro’s fairy tale for grown-ups is as pull-no-punches brutal as it is gorgeously, baroquely fantastical. There’s an earthy, primal feel to his fairy-world here, alien and threatening rather than gasp-inducing and ‘magical’, thanks in no small part to the truly cheese-dream nightmarish demon-things Del Toro conjures up (sans CGI) with the assistance of performer Doug Jones. His fawn guides young Ofelia (Baquero) through a series of dangerous fantastical trials as she approaches a mystical destiny – though the storybook elements prove just as gruelling and deadly as the backdrop of Fascistic Francoist Spain. Spine-tingling.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Pan’s Labyrinth

83) Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Melanie Laurent, Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Christoph Waltz

From its Sergio Leone-riffing opening to its insanely OTT, history-rewriting finale, Tarantino’s World War II caper never once fails to surprise and entertain. As ever, though, QT’s at his best in claustrophobic situations, with the tension ramped up to almost unbearable levels in a volley of standout scenes – the tavern, the strudel, to name a few. Plus, Brad Pitt’s amusing attempts at an Italian accent (which contributed to it making our list of Pitt’s 10 best movies, too).

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Inglourious Basterds

82) Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Director: Ang Lee
Starring: Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams

Ang Lee’s adaptation of Annie Proulx’s short story retains its source’s sensitivity and grace whilst expanding its scope gorgeously. Played out against the beautiful mountain landscapes of Wyoming (in reality, the Canadian Rockies), the decades-spanning love story between shepherds Ennis Del Mar (Ledger) and Jack Twist (Gyllenhaal) — two men who unexpectedly find love, only to find it tested over the years as heteronormative expectations work against them — is sensually observed and immaculately shot. (No wonder it’s in our list of the 50 greatest LGBTQ+ movies.) Delivering hope and heartbreak in equal measure, the multiple Oscar-winning movie’s impact on queer cinema continues to be felt today.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Brokeback Mountain

81) Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Directors: Daniel Scheinert, Daniel Kwan
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis

In a pure explosion of creativity, the duo known as ‘Daniels’ delivered the ultimate multiverse saga – a synapse-frazzling existential sci-fi odyssey that contains astonishing martial arts fights, and deep wells of emotion in tackling generational trauma among immigrant families. Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan – in his major comeback role – are fully unleashed in both the action and family drama, but the real star here is Daniels’ unparalleled imagination. Who else would give you bumbag brawls, dildo slaps, and a cosmic everything bagel – and have it win Best Picture to boot? Filing your taxes never looked this spectacular.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Everything Everywhere All At Once

80) Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018)

Directors: Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
Starring: Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Brian Tyree Henry

Having Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s names on a movie is regularly the guarantee of something great, but the full team behind this animated marvel (in both upper- and lower-case senses of the word) is what makes it work. The directing trio all added something (with Rothman co-writing alongside Lord) and their animators whipped up a visually dynamic big screen experience — an exciting, heartwarming adventure that literally spanned multiverses well before the MCU got in on the act. Bringing Miles Morales to the screen was a masterstroke, and Shameik Moore’s vocal work gives him buckets of charm. Thwipping marvellous stuff!

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. See where it came in our Spider-Man movie ranking, or our list of the 50 greatest teen movies.

79) Paddington 2 (2017)

Director: Paul King
Starring: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson

With the first Paddington, co-writer/director Paul King delivered a truly wonderful film bursting with joy, imagination, kindness, and just the odd hard stare from our beloved Peruvian bear. Then, he followed it by making one of the greatest sequels — nay, one of the best, most feel-good movies, period — of all time. Matching wits with Hugh Grant’s moustache-twirlingly evil and deliciously outré washed-up actor Phoenix Buchanan, Paddington (Ben Whishaw) is on typically adorable form here as his search for a special present for his Great Aunt Lucy leads to all sorts of hilarious hijinks. Like all great sequels, this one takes everything that made the first so good and builds on it, dialing up the spectacle, the silliness, and the emotional stakes. The result is as sweet as marmalade.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Paddington 2

78) Ghostbusters (1984)

Director: Ivan Reitman
Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver

As high-concept comedies go, Ghostbusters is positively stratospheric: a story of demonic incursion… with gags! The sharpness of its execution – and the magic chemistry of its central cast – spawned Ghostbusters into an ongoing franchise, but one that has never managed to recapture the lighning-in-a-bottle quality of the original. Reitman wrings a fantastic supernatural adventure out of his central conceit, as Peter Venkman (Murray), Ray Stantz (Aykroyd), Egon Spengler (Ramis) and Winston Zeddemore (Hudson) strap on proton packs to battle spectral forces in NYC, while never neglecting the opportunity to deliver a great laugh; or, on the flipside, ever allowing the zaniness to swallow up plot coherence. Ray Parker Jr was right: bustin’ does indeed make us feel good.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Ghostbusters

77) In The Mood For Love (2000)

Director: Wong Kar Wai
Starring: Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung

Set in 1960s Hong Kong, Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love sees neighbours Chow (Tony Leung) and Su (Maggie Cheung) fall for one another when they discover their spouses are cheating together. THe set-up seems fit for a farce, but Wong uses it instead to create a sizzlingly sensual and heartbreakingly restrained exploration of – as Chow puts it – how feelings “can creep up just like that”. With a distinctive, noir-inflected visual style (homaged to great effect in Everything Everywhere All At Once), and two of the most beautiful human beings to ever grace the screen in the form of Leung and Cheun, In The Mood For Love captures unspeakable desire quite unlike anything else. In its final moments, Wong Kar Wai delivers an unparalleled expression of love.

Read Empire’sreview of In The Mood For Love. See where it ranked in our list of the 100 Greatest Movies of the 21st Century.

76) Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie

Despite the flamethrowers, explosions of violence, and cans of dog food to the face, Once Upon might stand as Tarantino’s sweetest film – a Hollywood fairytale, right down to its title, as he recreates the end on a cinematic era in the twilight of 1969, and rewrites history in the process. DiCaprio and Pitt are stellar as flailing actor Rick Dalton and his stuntman Cliff Booth, respectively, who find themselves rubbing shoulders with Robbie’s Sharon Tate as they navigate the movie scene of the day. It’s a hangout film, a character study, a time-and-place mood-piece – and, ultimately, a salvation story too.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

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75) The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)

Director: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine

In the decades since its release, the sheer filmmaking power of The Silence Of The Lambs hasn’t lost a single bit of its vice-like grip. Jonathan Demme’s take on the Thomas Harris novels broke major Hollywood ground – not only the first horror to win a Best Picture Oscar, it’s also only the third movie to score in all four main categories: Picture, Director (the late, great Jonathan Demme), Actress (Jodie Foster) and Actor (Anthony Hopkins) — the latter managing that despite technically being a supporting performer, with a mere 25-ish minutes of screen time. For all of Hannibal Lecter’s cultural ubiquity, Lambs feels like Foster’s movie more than anybody’s: her vulnerable-but-steely Clarice Starling is defined by her ability, not her gender.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of The Silence Of The Lambs

74) Trainspotting (1996)

Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Macdonald

For their follow up to the superb Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle (director), Andrew Macdonald (producer) and John Hodge (screenwriter) foolhardily elected to film the supposedly unfilmable: Irvine Welsh’s scrappy, episodic, multi-perspective novel about Edinburgh low-lives. The result couldn’t have been more triumphant: the cinematic incarnation of ‘Cool Britannia’ came with a kick-ass soundtrack that made you want to crank the speakers up, and despite some dark subject matter, a punch-the-air uplifting pay-off.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Trainspotting. Read our complete behind-the-scenes history here.

73) The Lion King (1994)

Directors: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
Starring: Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons

During production Disney thought of The Lion King as more of a B-tier film amid its astonishing Renaissance run. Instead, it arrived as a knockout masterpiece, borrowing liberally from Hamlet in its tale of murdered fathers and conniving uncles, fused with a suite of astonishing songs from Elton John and Lebo M., a spine-tingling score from Hans Zimmer, and some of the most majestic imagery from across Disney’s animated legacy. ‘The Circle Of Life’ knocks you off your feet; that pivotal death still cuts deep; Simba’s ascendancy still feels mythic. No wonder it conquered the globe.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of The Lion King

72) Magnolia (1999)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: John C. Reilly, Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman

In only his third film, PTA tackled the biggest possible questions. What are the mechanisms of the universe, that can make near-impossibilities occur? That can bring forgiveness in the more dire of circumstances? That sees lives collide and intertwine? It’s all explored across a sprawling tapestry of interconnected characters in the San Fernando Valley; among the chaos and coincidence (or is it?) Anderson pulls it all together while wringing big emotion (that bedside goodbye), sly humour, and smarts, set to a note-perfect Aimee Mann soundtrack. Near-impossible to describe, and near-impossible to forget.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Magnolia

71) Arrival (2016)

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker, Michael Stuhlbarg

Denis Villeneuve’s empathic, perception-bending alien visitation drama is sci-fi at its very best. Offering a mercurial blend of blockbuster scale, spectacular special effects and grounded, intensely cerebral human drama, the Quebecois filmmaker’s first venture into speculative fiction — bolstered by an emotional, career standout turn from Amy Adams as linguistics professor Dr Louise Banks — takes Ted Chiang’s short story and makes of it something vast and singular. With its message that open-minded communication enables us to realise the things we have in common with those who appear vastly different, Arrival endures as a soul-piercing call for understanding.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Arrival

70) Children Of Men (2006)

Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Starring: Clive Owen, Clare-Hope Ashitey, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine

Few dystopias feel quite as bleak as the one proposed in Children Of Men: where humanity as a whole has somehow become infertile, spelling the end of the species. That is, until the mysteriously pregnant Kee turns up, who the cynical Theo has to shepherd to safety. She’s a spark of pure hope in a film that paints a bracingly realistic vision of a world gone to dust, rendered cinematically urgent by Cuarón’s immersive handheld cameras and legendary long takes; the opening bus explosion is a nerve-rattling introduction to this world, while the car attack stands among the most heart-stopping sequences in 21st Century moviemaking.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Children Of Men

69) The Babadook (2014)

Director: Jennifer Kent
Starring: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman

Arguably, the film that changed the direction of horror in the mid-2010s, signalling an impending boom of genre greats. Part spooky-ooky ghost story, part dark fairytale, part psychological excavation of grief and loss, Kent’s film is terrifying on multiple levels. Its atmosphere is thick with dread, the Babadook itself is an impeccable feat of creature design, and it’s haunting on an emotional level: how do you carry on as a parent when you’re faced with devastating loss, and an unruly child? More so than any visual, it’s The Babadook’s sound design that etches itself into your brain, those creaking ‘ba-ba-ba-dook-dook-DOOK’ noises are impossible to shake in the middle of the night.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of The Babadook

68) Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd, Jeremy Renner, Josh Brolin

What does it take to dethrone James Cameron? A blockbuster of behemothic proportions. The weight of expectations on Endgame — the culmination of 11 years of interweaving stories, following up the greatest cinematic cliffhanger since The Empire Strikes Back — was immense, which only makes it more miraculous that the Russo Brothers (and writers Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeeley) delivered a thrilling, adventurous, emotional time-travelling trip through the entire MCU so far. The character pay-offs are just as staggering as the action — and when Steve Rogers finally proved worthy enough to lift Mjolnir, a stone-cold cultural moment was created.

Streaming on: Disney+ | Apple TV+

Read Empire’sreview of Avengers: Endgame

67) Do The Right Thing (1989)

Director: Spike Lee
Starring: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, John Turturro

Spike Lee had already caused a stir with his first two films – She’s Gotta Have It and School Daze – but this was the one that changed everything, with Lee in complete command and full of fury. Over the longest, hottest summer’s day in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy, already-boiling tensions between the African-Americans on the block and the Italian-Americans running a pizzeria eventually peak, erupting into violence. It’s an absolutely flawless, funny, frightening piece of work, rammed with soon-to-be iconography from start to finish. It hasn’t dated a day.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Do The Right Thing

66) Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (1989)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Alison Doody, Denholm Elliott, John Rhys-Davies

You voted… wisely. The final chapter of the original Indiana Jones trilogy is the most soulful of the lot. Underpinning all the adventure and the Nazi-punching, the father-son relationship – and its connection to faith – between Indy and Henry Jones Sr. (Sean Connery, in a masterstroke of casting, despite there only being 12 years between them) is truly heartfelt. On that foundation is built two hours of giddily entertaining popcorn cinema, a globetrotting quest for the Holy Grail that takes in blimps, Venetian churches, and a face-to-face encounter with Hitler himself – but it’s the bickering dynamic between Indiana and his dad that truly makes it.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade.  Here’s our argument for why it’s the best Indiana Jones film.

65) Predator (1987)

Director: John McTiernan
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Kevin Peter Hall

A little bit Vietnam War allegory. A little bit hard sci-fi. A little bit (ok, more than a little bit) ultra-macho actioner. Predator has it all – the most bicep-rippling handshake in cinema history, some seriously gnarly gore, and Arnie yelling, “Get to da choppah!” His Dutch is the leader of a team sent into the jungle on mission – only to find that they’re battling an invisible extraterrestrial foe, the ultimate hunter who revels in taking them down one by one. It all boils down to a thrilling battle of wits between Schwarzenegger and that ugly mother-effer, an unforgettable showdown that sees brains given as much importance as brawn.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Predator. See where is lands in our Predator ranking.

64) Oppenheimer (2023)

Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Florence Pugh

Who else but Christopher Nolan could take one of the boomiest moments in modern history – the creation of the atomic bomb – and turn it into a three-hour, part black-and-white summer smash? It’s easy to see why Oppenheimer captured the world’s attention though; it is a thunderous piece of cinema, taking a pivotal moment in the shaping of the modern world and channelling it through the psyches of two men; Murphy’s thousand-yard-staring Robert Oppenheimer, and Robert Downey Jr.’s furious Rear Admiral Strauss. It’s history, it’s our modern world, it’s a character study, it’s big-canvas cinema. A Christopher Nolan movie, then.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Oppenheimer

63) The Big Lebowski (1998)

Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman

The entire appeal of The Big Lebowski is encompassed by its central figure, Jeffrey ‘The Dude’ Lebowski: so laid-back he’s basically horizontal; living for the pursuit of simply floating by; out of step with the wildness of the world around him. Bridges’ Dude really is The Big Lebowski. Except, he’s not, because the entire plot hinges on a case of mistaken identity, when he’s attacked by thugs looking to extort rich philanthropist Jeffrey Lebowski. Thus begins a shaggy-dog farce with bowling, marmots, and a urine-stained rug, resulting in arguably the funniest movie of the ’90s. The Coens manage to construct a kidnap mystery in which the detective isn’t a detective, and nobody was actually kidnapped. As ever, The Dude abides.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of The Big Lebowski

62) Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)

Director: Michel Gondry
Starring: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo

Director Michel Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman are two of the most imaginative filmmakers around – so their collaboration on an anti-romcom (or is it?) it bursting with invention. Eternal Sunshine deconstructs the relationship drama via a fantastic psycho-sci-fi device, as Jim Carrey’s Joel races through his own mind to reverse a process by which all the memories of his failed relationship with Kate Winslet’s Clementine are about to be erased. Which is a brilliantly weird, round-the-houses way of reminding us that heartbreak should be valued as one of the things that makes us. Better to have loved and lost, and all that.

Streaming on: Netflix | Sky Store

Read Empire’sreview of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

61) The Social Network (2010)

Director: David Fincher
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer

Or, I’m Gonna Git You Zuckerberg. Portrayed as an über-ruthless ultra-nerd by Jesse Eisenberg, it’s fair to say the Facebook founder came out of David Fincher’s social-media drama smelling less of roses than the stuff you grow them in. But it is great drama, expertly wrought by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who exploits the story’s central paradox (a guy who doesn’t get people makes a fortune getting people together online) to supremely juicy effect, amped up by a pulsating masterpiece score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of The Social Network

60) Fargo (1996)

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Starring: Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi

Just like the Coen brothers’ entire filmography, Fargo is a work of contrasts. With all those kindly Midwestern accents and the filmmakers’ signature wit, there’s a cosiness to be found here; but it’s also a chilly film of murder and woodchipper-ed corpses. McDormand is a delight as heavily-pregnant cop Marge Gunderson, investigating a tangled web of crimes in the titular North Dakota town – a joyful presence, even when the case she has to unpick is bleak and violent. It’s part of the Coens’ tonal mastery that the humour never negates the thrills, and the stakes never sour the chuckles.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Fargo. Read the complete Coen Brothers ranking.

59) The Exorcist (1973)

Director: William Friedkin
Starring: Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow

For many still the definitive exorcism film (sorry The Pope’s Exorcist!), William Friedkin’s 1973 masterwork is the stuff of horror legend. The movie, which sees Linda Blair’s 12-year-old Regan possessed by demonic spirit Pazuzu, endures as a jump-out-of-your-skin shocker thanks to its pea-vomiting, spider-crawling, crucifix-screwing sequences. But the real reason it continues to affect audiences so deeply today is because of the way Friedkin – through the figures of Fathers Damien Karras (Jason Miller) and Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow) – so skilfully stages a soul-shaking crisis of faith, sustaining and building an atmosphere of such dread, such spiritual torment, that you can’t help but feel you’ve unleashed something satanic simply by watching it.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of The Exorcist. See where it came in our list of the 50 Best Horror Movies here.

58) Titanic (1997)

Director: James Cameron
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates

What to say about James Cameron’s epic romantic tragedy? It’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’. It’s “Paint me like one of your French girls.” It’s a steamy handprint on a cab window, and a floating door that’s definitely big enough for two. It’s sparks flying between Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and Billy Zane being the ultimate shit-eating grinning baddie. It is – figuratively and literally – one of the biggest movies ever made. With a difficult, overrunning shoot, it was predicted to be a career-ending flop for Cameron. Instead, it became one of the most successful films of all time, both at the box office and at the Oscars. As Cameron himself proudly declared, it made him “king of the world!”

Streaming on: Disney+ | Apple TV+

Read Empire’sreview of Titanic

57) Seven Samurai (1954)

Director: Akira Kurosawa
Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Keiko Tsushima

A film so good they remade it twice — as The Magnificent Seven, then as Battle Beyond The Stars. Or four times, arguably… if you count A Bug’s Life and the remake of The Magnificent Seven. You could also make the case that Avengers Assemble is a version, too. The point is this: Akira Kurosawa’s epic, 16th century-set drama about a motley gang of warriors uniting to save a helpless village from bandits couldn’t be more influential. With its satisfying and pacy get-the-band-together suite, followed by its action-packed katana-filled finale, this is masterful character drama meets action classic, beautifully lensed in monochrome. Cinema simply wouldn’t be the same without it.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Seven Samurai

56) Spirited Away (2001)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: Miyu Irino, Rumi Hiiragi

The film that truly broke Studio Ghibli into Western cinema. In a cinematic culture rooted in the easy good-vs-evil dichotomies (and European folktale narrative traditions) of Disney movies, Spirited Away proved a bracing change of pace – pure, uncut Ghibli. Taking in bathhouses, spirits of Shinto folklore, and obfuscated morality, Hayao Miyazaki’s major crossover hit is distinctly Japanese, overflowing with imaginative imagery, brimming with breathtaking fantasy sequences, all tethered to a story that changes direction at a moment’s notice. That unruliness and cultural specificity is what made Spirited Away so groundbreaking – bringing anime at large to mainstream Western audiences, an influence increasingly felt in the likes of Moana and Frozen II.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Netflix

Read Empire’s review of Spirited Away. See where it ranked in our list of the best anime movies.

55) Hot Fuzz (2007)

Director: Edgar Wright
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Timothy Dalton, Rafe Spall, Paddy Considine

How do you one-up Shaun Of The Dead? You go bigger, bloodier, and even funnier. Wright, Pegg and Frost’s tribute to big American cop movies isn’t just a great fish-out-of-water comedy, sending high-achieving London policeman Nick Angel (Pegg) to the most boring place in the UK (or so it seems). It also manages to wring every last drop of funny out of executing spot-on bombastic, Bayhem-style action in a sleepy English small-town setting. As a result it brings pulse-pounding thrills of its own, with a script boasting some of the best gags ever committed to film. Put it in the pantheon between Point Break and Bad Boys 2.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Hot Fuzz. Read Empire’s original interview on the film here.

54) Get Out (2017)

Director: Jordan Peele
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Alison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener

Even given the darker tones of a few Key And Peele sketches, no one could have predicted that Jordan Peele would place himself on track to become a modern master of horror. And it all started with this, the Oscar-winning kick-off to his film career in which Daniel Kaluuya’s Chris meets his girlfriend Rose’s (Allison Williams) parents and discovers some truly shocking secrets. White guilt, outright racism, slavery and more blend into a socially conscious terror tale that rings every note with pitch-perfect accuracy. You’ll never look at a cup of tea the same way again.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Get Out. See where it ranks in our list of the 50 best horror movies of the 21st century.

53) Vertigo (1958)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak

Across his legendary filmography, Alfred Hitchcock explored all kinds of sub-genres – animal-attack movies, psycho thrillers, mystery adventures and the like. But of everything, Vertigo is perhaps his greatest exercise in pure suspense – a film that gets properly under your skin, appropriately enough for it exploration of obsession. With James Stewart’s detective stalking Kim Novak’s mysterious woman, witnessing her suicide, then becoming obsessed with her double, it’s certainly disturbing and most definitely (as the title suggests) disorientating, in the most artful and inventive way. A thrilling cinematic rabbit-hole down which to tumble.

Streaming on:Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Vertigo

52) Citizen Kane (1941)

Director: Orson Welles
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead

‘Rosebud’ might be the operative word when it comes to Citizen Kane, but this is arguably the film where the entire medium of cinema went into full bloom. Orson Welles’ game-changing fictional biopic fundamentally evolved the language of movies, managing to both launch his film career and ruin it at the same time (turns out it’s not a good idea to piss off powerful newspaper magnates by viciously satirising them). Not only did he use impressive new film-making techniques that make Kane feel like a movie far younger than its 80+ years, but its power-corrupts story still resonates loudly.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Citizen Kane

51) Rear Window (1954)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly

Photographer LB Jeffries (James Stewart, one of Empire’s greatest actors of all time) is on sick leave, with a broken leg. He’s bored to tears, so he starts spying on his neighbours. Then he witnesses a murder. Or does he? Alfred Hitchcock really knew how to take a corker of a premise and spin it into a peerless thriller (that’s why they called him The Master Of Suspense), but Rear Window also deserves praise for an astonishing set build: that entire Greenwich Village courtyard was constructed at Paramount Studios, complete with a drainage system that could handle all the rain.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Rear Window

50 — 26

50) No Country For Old Men (2007)

Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Starring: Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson,

A perfect meeting of artistic sensibilities, the Coen brothers’ adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s literary great sees the directorial duo imbue the existentialism of McCarthy’s book with their signature brand of dark, violent filmmaking. The result is a tense, slow, and mysterious take on the chase movie format, lensed immaculately by legendary DP Roger Deakins. It’s also a film that thoughtfully considers the question of how — or even if — good people can ever hope to deal with a world that’s entirely gone to shit. And lest we forget, this was the movie that gave us Javier Bardem’s cold-blooded sociopathic killer Anton Chigurh, a villain so terrifying that Hollywood has cast Bardem as the go-to bad guy ever since.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of No Country For Old Men

49) Psycho (1960)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins

Imagine seeing Psycho in 1960. No late entry. Virtually no marketing beyond some shots of the Bates Motel. And then, for the entire opening act, you’re watching a good old-fashioned noir! Janet Leigh’s on the lam with a bunch of her boss’ money, stopping at said motel, and encountering the strange-but-nice-enough Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins). Then, she hops in the shower, and the whole film shifts on its axis. From that moment on, you’re rooted to your seat, in thrall to a madman (whether that’s Hitch or Norman is your call), certain to never be the same again. One of the best horror movies ever made, Hitchcock’s monochromatic masterwork is pure cinema. (Also, don’t sleep on Psycho II, an unexpected, underrated gem.)

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

48) Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Starring: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Chadwick Boseman, Chris Hemsworth, Sebastian Stan, Josh Brolin

It was the biggest crossover event in cinematic history, and the biggest cliffhanger we never saw coming. After ten years and eighteen movies, Marvel took superhero filmmaking to a new level when they united all of Earth’s mightiest heroes (and several more) against The Mad Titan himself – and incredibly, devastatingly, they lost. Infinity War crashed much-loved characters into each other’s orbits, flitting between planets at breakneck speed as the Avengers desperately tried to stop Thanos from clicking his fingers and wiping out half the universe. Spectacular action, punch-the-air moments and big-scale battles are perfectly balanced – as all things should be – with hilarious interplay and aching emotion. Oh snap.

Streaming on: Disney+ | Apple TV+

Read Empire’sreview of Avengers: Infinity War

47) It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

Director: Frank Capra
Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barryone, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers

Frank Capra’s Christmas fantasy was the movie that coaxed a war-battered James Stewart back to acting, and a good thing, too: as George Bailey, who’s shown a mind-blowing parallel reality in which he never existed, Stewart was never more appealing. Rightly, the film has gone down as a festive favourite, sending audiences out on a warm, fuzzy high as Bailey gets a Christmas Carol-esque recalibration of the soul just in time for the big day. But Stewart and Capra temper any potential schmaltz, too, with a sense of underlying world-weariness — there’s real darkness to the existential quandary that plays out before that finale, one that only makes the ending all the more touching and beautifully earned.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of It’s A Wonderful Life. See where it came in our list of the best Christmas movies.

46) Whiplash (2014)

Director: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons

If Damien Chazelle’s semi-autobiographical drama taught us anything, it’s that jazz drumming is more hazardous to learn than base jumping. Especially when your mentor is J.K. Simmons’ monstrous Fletcher: a raging bully who makes army drill instructors look like Care Bears. Though, of course, you could always argue that Fletcher’s methods certainly got great results out of Miles Teller’s battered but triumphant Andrew, in a tale of what it takes (or does it?) to strive for GOAT status. This is a firecracker first feature proper from Chazelle, staying entirely on beat across a taut runtime, closing out in a breathless drum-solo of a finale – both figuratively and literally. Cue standing ovation.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Whiplash

45) Past Lives (2023)

Director: Celine Song
Starring: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro

There’s far more to Past Lives than a simple love triangle. Celine Song’s astonishing feature debut is so affecting because it’s about more than romantic desire – it’s about the roads not taken, the choices we make, the things that could have been, the things that are. In this case, it’s personified by a trio of people: Nora, who lives in New York with her writer husband Arthur, and faces an unexpected reunion with the childhood friend Hae Sung she left behind in Korea. It opens up a world of feeling, never simplified into will-they-won’t-they drama, but exploring the moments that reverberate through our lives. It’s quietly done, but deeply affecting – the final moments are heart-swelling perfection.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of Past Lives

44) Taxi Driver (1976)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks

The haunting power of Taxi Driver hasn’t waned a single bit since its release – this is a film that you still need to scrub off your skin after a rewatch, such is its potency and corrosive atmosphere. Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader’s violent noir is a gripping portrayal of a mentally crumbling Vietnam vet (Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle), who ultimately figures out that the only way to wash the crime-caked streets of New York is with a nice, big bloodbath. Everyone here’s at the top of their game: director, writer, actor, 14-year-old Jodie Foster and composer Bernard Herrmann. Yes, it’s still talkin’ to us.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Taxi Driver

43) La La Land (2016)

Director: Damien Chazelle
Starring: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, J.K. Simmons

As much a technical marvel as it is an acting tour-de-force, Damien Chazelle’s Los Angeles love letter proved a ridiculously easy movie to fall in love with, even for those who may have grumbled that they weren’t really into musicals before sitting down to watch it. It’s an ode to “the fools who dream”, as Emma Stone’s aspiring actress Mia and Ryan Gosling’s jazz-obsessed Sebastian try to seize their artistic ambitions in the Hollywood hills – with hope and heartbreak awaiting them. It’s a razzle-dazzle triumph. Go on, admit it: You’re still humming ‘Another Day Of Sun’, aren’t you?

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of La La Land

42) Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Giovanni Ribisi, Adam Goldberg

There had never been a war movie quite like Saving Private Ryan – and, frankly, there still hasn’t been one since. Much of its impact comes from the sheer bludgeoning, blood-spilling, visceral power of its Omaha Beach, D-Day-landing opening act, an overwhelming suite that ensured Steven Spielberg’s fourth World War II movie set the standard for all future battle depictions. There’s more heart – and heartbreak – in the rest of its story, as a band of brothers set off to save the lone surviving son of a mother whose entire brood have been killed across the combat. Private Ryan‘s shaky-staccato-desaturated style (courtesy of Janusz Kaminski’s ingenious cinematography) has been often copied, but rarely bettered.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Saving Private Ryan

41) Schindler’s List (1993)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall

For all the blockbuster spectacles he’s committed to the screen, Schindler’s List finds Spielberg at the peak of his powers. There are no flaws to be found in his harrowing, (mostly) monochromatic depiction of Nazi persecution of the Jewish community in Krakow, while Neeson’s Oskar Schindler attempts to save the lives over a thousand Jewish people by employing them in his factories. Spielberg puts all his abundant talent for creating dynamic cinema into portraying a haunting piece of history that should never be forgotten – and though it’s not an easy watch, it’s a masterful work from one of the all-time-greats. If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing out.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Schindler’s List

40) Mulholland Drive (2001)

Director: David Lynch
Starring: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux

David Lynch messes with Hollywood itself in a mystery tale that’s as twisted as the road it’s named after, while presenting Tinseltown as both Dream Factory and a realm of Nightmares. (Try not to have a sleepless night after that Winkie’s Diner sequence.) The result is a hallucinatory odyssey, that refuses to spell out what is or isn’t real – a film that put Naomi Watts on the map; her audition scene remains as stunning as it was 20 years ago.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Mulholland Drive

39) Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)

Director: David Lean
Starring: Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif

If you only ever see one David Lean movie… well, don’t. Watch as many as you can. But if you really insist on only seeing one David Lean movie, then make sure it’s Lawrence Of Arabia, the movie that put both the “sweeping” and the “epic” into “sweeping epic” with its breath-taking depiction of T.E. Lawrence’s (Peter O’Toole) Arab-uniting efforts against the German-allied Turks during World War I. It’s a different world to the one we’re in now, of course, but Lean’s mastery of expansive storytelling does much to smooth out any elements (such as Alec Guinness playing an Arab man) that may rankle modern sensibilities.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Lawrence Of Arabia

38) The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)

Director: Sergio Leone
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef

The culmination of Sergio Leone’s ‘Man With No Name’ trilogy is a true Western epic – three hours of Spaghetti Western cooked perfectly al dente. Following A Fistful Of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More – thematically, if not narratively – this one sets three renegades against each other in a treasure hunt backdropped against the chaos and madness of the American Civil War. The result is the movie on Leone’s CV which best balances art and entertainment. Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef are great value as Blondie and Angel Eyes, but it’s Eli Wallach’s Tuco who steals this Wild West show: “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.” Cue the howling flutes of Ennio Morricone’s immortal score.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

37) Fight Club (1999)

Director: David Fincher
Starring: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Jared Leto

Forget the rules: we really should talk about Fight Club. David Fincher’s adaptation of the Chuck Palahniuk novel is so many things in one: a psychological thriller, a bruising drama, and – perhaps most importantly – a tar-black comedy. There’s a smirking Gen X disdain to the satire here, as 1990s consumerism clashes with raw masculinity run wild – with literally explosive results. The now widely-known twist is brilliantly handled, as are the twin performances of Edward Norton’s unnamed whacked-out drone, and Brad Pitt’s wiry brawler Tyler Durden, who draws disenfranchised men into his underground fight club (and, eventually, terrorist-cult). All these years on, we’re still talking about it.

Streaming on: Disney+ | Apple TV+

Read Empire’sreview of Fight Club

36) Point Break (1991)

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Gary Busey, Lori Petty

“Ever fired your gun in the air and gone ‘Ahhhh?'” PC Danny Butterman’s well-placed reference in Hot Fuzz confirmed, if confirmation were ever needed, that Point Break is a fundamental pillar of ’90s pop culture cool, and one of the most memorable action blockbusters ever made. In Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, we get two smouldering sides of the same anti-heroic coin; in W. Peter Iliff’s screenplay, we get gems of dialogue like, “The correct term is ‘babes’, sir”; and in Kathryn Bigelow’s frenetic, confident direction, we get intense foot chases, fiery shoot-outs, epic surfing, and a spot of light skydiving. It shouldn’t work: extreme sports, bank robberies and male bonding? But it does, every time.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Point Break

35) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Director: George Miller
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Riley Keough

In the 30 years following Beyond Thunderdome, George Miller dreamed up his maddest Max yet. Fury Road puts pedal to the metal, roaring out of the gates with eyes bulging and maw snarling – this time with Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky, caught up in a Wasteland power struggle when Charlize Theron’s instantly iconic Furiosa flees apocalyptic warlord Immortal Joe. Playing out like a feature-length action sequence, with boundless imagination and impeccable craft, Fury Road felt like a classic from the day it hit cinemas – gloriously operatic to its very last frame.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of Mad Max: Fury Road

34) The Shining (1980)

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd

The ultimate haunted house move is actually a haunted hotel movie. The Overlook is a place of pure evil, its vast (intensely-patterned) hallways holding decades of horrifying history in ghostly entities that drive Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance to murderous madness. (Admittedly, he was already somewhat close.) Stanley Kubrick elegantly translates Stephen King’s ghostly novel into one of the scariest movies ever made – though King famously hated the adaptation for the tweaks it made to the story. Still, for the rest of us it’s a total masterpiece, both in its quietly unsettling moments, and in its nerve-shredding Jack-with-an-axe finale.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’s review of The Shining. See where it came in our Stephen King movie ranking.

33) The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom

The middle chapter of Peter Jackson’s trilogy could have suffered from not being either the opening or closing of the Lord Of The Rings story. Instead, it deepens everything that made Fellowship so great – offering Shakespearean human drama in the Rohan plot line, bringing ancient mythology to life in the walking-talking tree-people Ents, and delivering the slipperiest fish to Frodo and Sam as they trudge closer to Mordor: Gollum. Andy Serkis’ performance is one for the ages, bringing sinister edge and serious pathos to the wretch ensnared by the One Ring. Oh, and it all builds up to the battle of Helm’s Deep, a ferocious action crescendo, which features gratuitous scenes of dwarf-tossing.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of The Two Towers

32) Seven (1995)

Director: David Fincher
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow

David Fincher’s second film (the first that he was actually happy with, since he famously loathed Alien 3) goes toe-to-toe with The Silence Of The Lambs for the darkest, scariest serial-killer thriller Hollywood ever made. There’s a novelty factor to the premise of Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman’s cops tracking down a murderer taking tenets from the seven deadly sins – but in Fincher’s hands it becomes an exercise in properly rattling terror, delivering nightmare images in the killings set up by warped murderer-moralist ‘John Doe’. From its shocking central twist, to that “what’s in the box?!” gut-punch, it’s a film you need to scrub off your skin come the end credits.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

31) The Thing (1982)

Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur

Taking its bones from Howard Hawks’ 1951 film The Thing From Another World, John Carpenter’s chilly paranoid terror is perhaps the ultimate example that a remake can outstrip the original. The Thing is both a stomach-churning sci-fi horror bursting with gruesome gore, as its shape-shifting intergalactic menace revels in fleshy mutations; but it’s also a tense brainteaser, as everyone (the audience included) tries to sniff out which character, at any time, might be the Thing in disguise. It wasn’t a hit at the time, but Carpenter’s biological nightmare has proved an endlessly rewatchable frightfest, particularly thanks to Rob Bottin’s SFX genius.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

Read Empire’sreview of The Thing

30) Casablanca (1942)

Director: Michael Curtiz
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains

If you had a drink of gin every time an all-time-classic line is spoken in Casablanca, you’d be comatose before the end credits. Part political thriller, part aching romance, it’s a film that shifts in shades of grey (and not just because of that gorgeous black-and-white photography), set against the backdrop of World War II. Humphrey Bogart’s elusive Rick has left the conflict to set up a bar in Morocco, a place where all people pass through – including, to his shock, his big ex, Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa. Will Rick help her evade the Nazis, even if he risks putting himself in the firing line? Blending personal heartbreak with the sweep of history, it’s a tender and tense masterpiece.

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29) 12 Angry Men (1957)

Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam

Juries most often amount to little more than set dressing in courtroom dramas. But Sidney Lumet’s film finds all its drama outside the courtroom itself and inside a jury deliberation room packed with fantastic character actors, who are forced to re-examine a seemingly straightforward case by lone-voice juror Henry Fonda. It’s all about the value of looking at things differently, and a reminder that nothing is more important than great dialogue, as the titular jurors change their minds one-by-one through reasoned discussion and open ears.

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28) Apocalypse Now (1979)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall

The making of Apocalypse Now was famously not fun. Budgets blown, schedules vastly overrunning, actors going rogue – it was a shoot of sweltering madness. Which is exactly what Coppola’s Vietnam war epic needed, channelling Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness in its tale of a Colonel gone mad (Marlon Brando’s magnetic Kurtz) and the soldier dispatched to track him down (Martin Sheen’s Captain Willard), going up-river into ever-deeper thickets of the jungle on his quest. The results are mesmeric, tapping into something primal and translating it onto the context of a specific conflict. It’s gone on to influence an entire generation of filmmakers – not just war movies, but across the cinematic spectrum.

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27) Parasite (2019)

Director: Bong Joon Ho
Starring: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Park So-dam, Choi Woo-sik

Few award ceremony moments stick in the mind more than Parasite taking the Best Picture gong at the Oscars in 2020. It’s no surprise that it made history as the first non-English language movie to do so – this South Korean genre-defying delight offers some of the biggest twists and expertly mounted tension in recent memory, with a family of excellent performances. Or two, since we follow both the rich Park family, and the poor Kim clan who inveigle their way into the Parks’ lives, with spiralling consequences. Bitingly satirical, darkly comedic and made with unmatched precision, Parasite doesn’t just overcome the ‘one inch barrier’ of subtitles, as referenced in Director Bong’s acceptance speech – it obliterates it entirely.

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26) Gladiator (2000)

Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou

You think Ridley Scott, chances are you think sci-fi: Alien, or Blade Runner. But Gladiator made him a master of the sword ’n’ sandals epic too, after a tricky directorial run (1492, White Squall and GI Jane). Russell Crowe got his big Hollywood breakthrough as Maximus Decimus Meridius (father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife etc etc), making a name for himself in the Colosseum by surviving bloody battles aplenty. Gladiator was a leap forward in CGI too – the movie that showed the industry you could make colossal historical epics commercially viable once more. Yes, we were entertained.

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25) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter

Of all Stanley Kubrick’s work, his game-changing science-fiction film is arguably his greatest gift to cinema – an infinitely ambitious vision of a space-faring future whose narrative centres on the most pivotal moment in human evolution since some ape-man first bashed another ape-man with an old bone. 2001 is both deeply architectural, as a series of chapters depicting moments across the vastness of time where humanity transcends itself, but also unknowable and mysterious – and the sheer technical craft of it remains gobsmacking. It’s graceful, gorgeous, unwearied by time’s passing. Rather like those mesmerising monoliths.

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Read Empire’sreview of 2001: A Space Odyssey. See where it ranked on our list of thebest sci-fi movies of all time.

24) There Will Be Blood (2007)

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciarán Hinds

If America were a person, then oilman Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a vampire. (A milkshake-drinking vampire, if you feel like mixing our metaphor with his own.) Which is why it’s appropriate that Paul Thomas Anderson gives his gargantuan American epic a bit of a horror-movie vibe throughout, depicting a rot of the soul as Plainview drains the very land beneath his feet – and exploits everyone around him – in the pursuit of bounteous riches. Day-Lewis delivers such a deliciously monstrous performance, imbuing one of cinema’s most gleefully hissable villains with a glint of oil-black humour, right up to the spine-chilling finale in an empty mansion, where he’s haunted only by himself.

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23) Die Hard (1988)

Director: John McTiernan
Starring: Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson

It’s no hyperbole to say that Die Hard reinvented action cinema as we know it. Even now, all these years later, so many modern action films could be teed up as, “It’s Die Hard in [insert location here].” In the case of actual Die Hard, it’s Die Hard in an office block – as Bruce Willis’ ordinary cop John McClane attends his estranged wife’s Christmas office party, and finds himself thwarting a terrorist plot led by Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber. The action is crisp and propulsive, matched in tempo by the rapid-fire sarcasm of McClane himself, grumbling his way through a very, very bad Christmas Eve. It made Willis into a movie star; it made Rickman immortal; it even made air vents into cinematic gold.

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22) The Matrix (1999)

Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving

Blending kung-fu brawls, philosophy, identity politics, apocalyptic sci-fi, and a sense of digital dread, The Matrix took every rule of cinema and bent it to its own end. The Wachowski sisters followed up Bound with a mind-bending action classic, tapping into cyber-anxieties and Gen X disenfranchisement to reimagine the world we know as a simulation, blinding us from the truth. As we watch Keanu Reeves’ Neo find his liberation, we see him unlock the ability to ‘hack’ himself, and the world around him, for good. Still finding new resonances after all this time, The Matrix keeps revealing new depths – while simply remaining one of the coolest blockbusters ever made. (Oh, and the sequels are better than you remember.)

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21) The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003)

Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom

It all led to this. The Lord Of The Rings trilogy was always heading for a fiery conclusion, and Peter Jackson doesn’t hold back on the operatic drama as Frodo, Sam, and Gollum make for Mount Doom – while the rest of the Fellowship battles for the soul of Middle-earth. This Academy Award-laden trilogy-closer has some of the most colossal and entertaining battle scenes ever mounted; it has an awesome giant spider; it has that fantastic dramatic-ironic twist when Gollum saves the day through his own treachery; and it has that bit where Eowyn says, “I am no man.” In short, it deserves every Oscar – even if, yes, it does have a lot of endings.

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Read Empire’sreview of The Return Of The King

20) Heat (1995)

Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight

There’s a reason why Heat has remained the pinnacle of epic crime cinema for over three decades. Combining the directorial sweep of Michael Mann, with the ultimate mano a mano between Al Pacino (as LA detective Lt. Vincent Hanna) and Robert De Niro (as criminal Neil McCauley, this is the one of the all-time-great cat-and-mouse thrillers. The duo only share the screen twice across the runtime, but they are monumental showdowns, where every word feels weighted not just with Heat’s own heft, but the entire cinematic legacies of each star. Those scenes virtually fizz with alpha-star electricity – the exact reason Heat remains so hot.

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19) Interstellar (2014)

Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain

To an extent, Interstellar stands as Christopher Nolan’s brainiest movie – its evocation of black holes, gravity distortions and extra-dimensional science was cooked up with physicist Kip Thorne for cutting-edge fidelity. But it’s all in service of his most heartfelt message – using those PhD smarts to convey that the most powerful force in the entire universe is love, actually. Matthew McConaughey is heartbreaking as the NASA pilot who mans a last-ditch mission to space to save the human race from a dying Earth – even though it means leaving his daughter behind. Across the stars, he hopes to find a new home for humanity, all the while reckoning with his own. Epic and emotional in equal measure, with a sarcastic robot to boot.

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18) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

Director: James Cameron
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick

Making Arnie’s T-800 a protector rather than a killer for part two could have been a shark-jump moment for the Terminator series. But we’re talking about James Cameron here, so it paid off – to a mind boggling degree. For all the greatness of the original, this sequel has really become the Terminator movie, turning the tables on the original premise as the T-800 protects a young John Connor from the slick liquid-metal T-1000. The action is bigger, the effects still excellent, and the heart so clear, as Connor and his metal protector teach each other the ways of the world. And don’t get us started on the evolution of Sarah Connor, both badass and tragic. Hasta la vista, baby.

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Read Empire’sreview of Terminator 2: Judgment Day

17) Alien (1979)

Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton

Talk about a perfect organism. This masterful sci-fi horror is, in its first half, so mysterious and unknowable, conjuring grand interstellar imagery as the crew of the spaceship Nostromo follows a distress call to an inhospitable planet to investigate. And then, in its second half, it brings the terror, as the titular life-form bursts onto the scene (quite literally) and starts picking them all off one by one. Ridley Scott conjures astonishing imagery, and wrangles the chaos with careful precision once the blood starts spraying (whether regular or acid), while Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley emerges from the ensemble not just as a hero, but – arguably – the hero.

Read Empire’sreview of Alien. See where it came in ourAlien movie ranking.

16) The Godfather Part II (1974)

Godfather Part II, The © TMDB films 240

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, John Cazale, Diane Keaton

One of the strongest examples of a sequel that stands toe-to-toe with the original, The Godfather Part II is something of a two-for-one – part sequel, tracing Michael’s (Al Pacino) consolidation of power having ascended as the new Don in Part I; and part prequel, casting none other than Robert De Niro as the young Vito Corleone, making the move from Sicily to New York as he enters a life of organised crime. It’s just as epic in scope and intimate in character stakes, mesmerising in the ways the two stories mirror each other. In a world of follow-ups you’d prefer to forget, The Godfather Part II instead enriches the original so much, you can’t imagine it not existing.

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15) Blade Runner (1982)

Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah

Just like the steam-spewing rain-lashed streets of the future LA it depicts, Blade Runner boasts a sweltering, palpable atmosphere. Ridley Scott’s second sci-fi masterpiece adapts Philip K Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep into a mesmerising moodpiece that’s part noir, part thriller, part existential crisis. Harrison Ford is on quieter, inquisitive form as Rick Deckard, tasked with hunting down rogue ‘Replicants’ – bioengineered synthetic humans who have fled their colonial duties. It leads to chases and shootouts, but also deep introspection as Deckard questions his mission, and his own identity; it all peaks with Rutger Hauer’s stunning monologue as Replicant Roy Batty: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…” Spine-tingling stuff.

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14) Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, John Rhys-Davies

What do you get when you combine the sheer blockbuster power of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas? You get a new instant cinema icon: Indiana Jones. Release between Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, Raiders saw Lucas at the peak of his powers, while Spielberg was ready to prove himself again after 1941 flopped. The result is a pitch-perfect adventure movie, drawing on everything from Bond, to Lawrence Of Arabia – unleashing Harrison Ford as a whip-cracking archaeological hero who’s both unrepentant in his Nazi-punching, but far from an invincible action hero. From its tomb-raiding opening, to that Ark-cracking finale, it still feels like looking into the eyes of God.

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Read Empire’sreview of Raiders Of The Lost Ark.Read why it’s the best Indiana Jones film here.

13) Jurassic Park (1993)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough

In the 1990s, Steven Spielberg reinvented the summer blockbuster all over again. Jurassic Park was a visual effects revolution, quite literally bringing dinosaurs back to life with breathtaking realism, courtesy of ILM’s groundbreaking CGI. But beyond the sheer movie magic of it all, Jurassic endures as another Spielberg firing-on-all-cylinders thrill ride. The raptors in the kitchen. The T-rex escape. Jeff Goldblum’s unexpected shirtlessness. Jurassic Park delivers spectacle after spectacle following a masterful build-up, all anchored by smart heroes (Sam Neill’s Alan Grant and Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler), dynamic direction, and – of course – those terrifying toothy lizards.

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12) Back To The Future (1985)

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover

Ask anyone: Back To The Future has one of the strongest scripts ever written. That’s not just for the indelible characters, like teenager Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) and his eccentric inventor friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), or its witty observations on both the 1950s and the 1980s, or that breathlessly exciting final race against time; no, it’s the sheer neatness of it all. It feels like every line, every moment, has a knock-on effect elsewhere, with every thread perfectly intertwined as Marty is zapped back to the time of his parents’ youth, and has to ensure they meet-cute so that he eventually gets born – all while figuring out how to zap himself back to 1985. It was a smash at the time, but even now, your kids are gonna love it.

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11) Pulp Fiction (1994)

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis

After Reservoir Dogs announced Tarantino as a blistering new voice in American indie cinema, he took everything that made his debut great and expanded on it. Across a set of interweaving tales, a host of hitmen, armed robbers, fixers and an ageing boxer find themselves entangled in stories of death, drugs, and lucky escapes in ’90s LA – all interspersed with self-aware conversations on pop culture, religion, and the nature of crime itself. Pulp Fiction embodies everything that made early ’90s independent cinema (and Tarantino himself) so exciting and fresh – playful and unexpected, steeped in genre knowledge, the coolest images set to the coolest soundtrack. The whole thing is an embarrassment of cinematic riches, both of its time and entirely timeless.

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10) The Dark Knight (2008)

Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman

And away… we… go! After constructing a whole new Gotham in Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan introduced the clown intent on tearing the whole thing down. Despite being a Batman movie (albeit the first ever not to have ‘Batman’ in the title), The Dark Knight is absolutely The Joker’s show – the late, great Heath Ledger putting in a visceral, transformative, truly terrifying performance as the Clown Prince Of… not exactly Crime, but pure, unadulterated Chaos. Less than a decade after 9/11, the film re-conceived Batman’s greatest foe as an unpredictable terrorist intent on turning the people of Gotham against each other. The Dark Knight is full-strength, no-holds-barred, firing-on-all cylinders Nolan – not just an all-time-great comic book movie, but an all-time-great movie period.

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Read Empire’sreview of The Dark Knight. See where it came in ourBatman movie ranking.

9) The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)

Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean, Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler

A wizard is never late. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he… well, you know the rest. Peter Jackson’s game-changing fantasy epic was an astonishing achievement, akin to clambering up Mount-Doom itself – and while the entire trilogy stands far taller than its Hobbit protagonists, this first chapter is perhaps the most breathtaking of the three. The Fellowship Of The Ring contains so much movie. Even at the halfway point, as the characters take a breather to bicker in Rivendell, you already feel sated, like you’ve experienced more thrills, more suspense, more jollity and ethereal beauty than a regular film could possibly muster up. Come the conclusion, you’re left feeling euphoric, bereft and hopeful, all at the same time.

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Read Empire’sreview of The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. See where the LOTR films came in our list of the best movie trilogies of all time.

8) Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)

Starring: Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill

Such is its cultural ubiquity today that it’s hard now to even imagine the seismic impact of the original Star Wars — of that opening moment in which the Star Destroyer looms over the camera for a seeming infinity; of that first glimpse of a binary sunset; of that first, well, everything. Bursting with iconic aliens, hyper-space travel, and galactic overlords, George Lucas transplanted the classic hero’s journey narrative into a boundlessly imaginative universe of laser-swords and mystical religions, space-princesses and loveable rogues. From its incredible model work, to its cosmic dogfights, to the opening crawl credits that drift off into the stars – the world at large has been feeling the Force ever since.

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7) Goodfellas (1990)

Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino

No film hits like Goodfellas. Just like the cocaine that turns effortlessly charismatic gangster fanboy Henry Hill into a reckless maniac, the film enters your system with a jolt, giving you an immediate rush, and keeps you wanting more, more, more, MORE, until it finally comes crashing down. And you have to live the rest of your life like a schnook, because, frankly, few films compare to Goodfellas. The only solution: another big snort of Goodfellas. Scorsese, writer Nicholas Pileggi and editor Thelma Schoonmaker constructed almost the entire film like a trailer, one scene bleeding into the next, not giving you the opportunity to stop watching, to let go, to take a breath. It’s an unstoppable feat of propulsion. Now that’s cinema.

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6) Inception (2010)

Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Elliot Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Talk about a true original. Christopher Nolan’s dreamy blockbuster takes layers of subconsciousness and turns them into action playgrounds, as a group of benevolent criminals set about planting the seed of an idea in the mind of a business magnate. Along with Tenet, this is the closest Nolan has come to making a Bond movie – just check out that snowy setpiece. While there’s plenty of braininess here (and a tantalising make-your-own-mind-up ending), there’s real brawn too: the climactic action sequence is so huge it takes up almost half the movie, and is actually three big action sequences temporally nested inside each other around a surreal, metaphysical-conflict core. Couldn’t be simpler, really.

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5) Aliens (1986)

Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Paul Reiser, Bill Paxton

It’s official: you rated Aliens higher than Alien. James Cameron’s self-penned follow-up to Ridley Scott’s original is one of the great sequel pivots, abandoning the ‘haunted house in space’ atmosphere for all-out war – a gun-toting epic in which Ripley and the inhabitants of Hadley’s Hope battle a whole gaggle of Xenomorphs, spawned from an egg-popping Queen. The result is one of the greatest ever action movies, upping the scale while losing none of the character drama – particularly as Ripley takes kid Newt under her wing. Packed with memorable quotes (“Get away from her, you bitch!”), underpinned with a Vietnam metaphor, and still scary as hell, it was the first evidence that Cameron would be the master of mind-blowing sequels.

Streaming on: Disney+ | Apple TV+

4) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Director: Irvin Kershner
Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, David Prowse

If Star Wars gave us a whole new cinematic galaxy, Empire made that galaxy feel so much larger, deeper, and richer. Bolstered by the original’s success, George Lucas shot for the moon a second time around, teaming up with director Irvin Kershner to tell the story of Luke training under Master Yoda, Han and Leia heading to Cloud City, and Darth Vader dropping the daddy of all twists. Episode V ramped up the scope with more astonishing model work, dizzying dogfights, the snowy Hoth battle, and a ferocious lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader. It is, simply, bigger and better than the original Star Wars, influential in its own right with its downer-ending and game-changing familial revelations. We love it. You know.

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Read Empire’sreview of The Empire Strikes Back

3) The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Director: Frank Darabont
Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, William Sadler

It’s hard to fathom that Shawshank was largely ignored on release. And yet, it’s blindingly obvious why it became a word-of-mouth all-timer when released on VHS – it’s a soulful, smart adaptation of Stephen King on non-horror form. Frank Darabont doesn’t shy away from the harshness of prison life, as Tim Robbins’ Andy Dufresne is wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and incarcerated in Shawshank. Per its title, he eventually gets his redemption – but in the meantime, entire lives are lived, friendships forged, attitudes changed, leaving a constant trickle of hope amid the vast darkness. The sheer emotional release of it all has made it a perennial favourite, deftly constructed by Darabont’s masterful hands.

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Read Empire’sreview of The Shawshank Redemption

2) The Godfather (1972)

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale, Talia Shire

Stanley Kubrick once described Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel as the best film ever made – though having previously topped this list, this time it falls to bronze position. At once an arthouse drama and a commercial blockbuster, The Godfather marked the dawn of the age of the mega-movie. An icon of the gangster genre, it’s imprinted in popular culture – “Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes”, the horse’s head in the bed – but the first instalment of Brando’s cotton-cheeked patriarch’s fight for power is so much more than those moments. With performances, style and substance to savour, it managed to both smash box office records and live on as a staple of cinematic canon.

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Read Empire’sreview of The Godfather

1) Jaws (1975)

Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss

The impact of Jaws simply cannot be overstated. It created the notion of the summer blockbuster. It made millions feel it wasn’t safe to go back in the water. And, for all the clear potential of his early work, it well and truly put Spielberg on the map. It was, famously, nightmarish to shoot — waterlogged, behind schedule, over budget, and with a mechanical shark that kept breaking. But for all that churn beneath the surface, what the audience sees is effortless brilliance — a tense, beautifully-shot shark-attack thriller with deeply-layered characters, outstanding dialogue, and heart-stopping moments forever burned in the cultural landscape. The performances are all outstanding, but the real star here is Spielberg himself, delivering a pure display of movie mastery from first minute to last — the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.

Streaming on: Apple TV+ | Amazon Prime

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