7 Greatest Adventure Movies of the Last 10 Years, Ranked

5 days ago 14

Published Jul 22, 2026, 5:34 AM EDT

In over three years at Collider, senior author Jake has now penned over 3000 articles covering a wide range of TV and film for the resources, lists, utilities, news, and interview teams. Alongside interviewing stars such as Selin Hizli, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Harlan Coben, and Chelsea Peretti, Jake was lucky enough to visit the set of Aardman and Netflix's Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl in 2024, getting the chance to chat with four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. Jake has also worked for other publications, including Agents of Fandom. You can also hear Jake every week as the resident film and TV journalist on Track Radio.

Of all the biggest genres in filmmaking, "adventure" seems the most malleable. Simply defined by featuring a hero on a quest, adventure movies can blend seamlessly into any other genre. Some of the very best examples of the genre include a fantasy adventure in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, a Western adventure in Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and a sci-fi adventure in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Although the most famous adventures in cinema are now at least several decades old, that doesn't mean the genre hasn't benefited from several soon-to-be classics in the past decade. With bigger budgets and greater technology helping push the limits of filmmaking, it's rare to find a blockbuster in the 21st century that isn't at least spiritually an adventure movie. So, with all that in mind, here's a list of seven of the best adventure movies of the last 10 years.

7 'Avengers: Endgame' (2019)

With 22 movies and many billions of dollars in its rearview mirror, a lot was riding on 2019's Avengers: Endgame. This ambitious three-hour conclusion to an epic superhero saga would need to pull off a miracle if it wanted to impress everyone. This is why, despite not being perfect, it deserves its place on this list, as a film many consider to be one of the MCU's best.

Avengers: Endgame, directed by the Russo Brothers, is quite the impressive cinematic achievement. Although it might not boast the most detail when it comes to character or narrative detail, what it does instead is take your breath away with several jaw-dropping sequences, all culminating in one final battle that very few films could match.

6 'Top Gun: Maverick' (2022)

The movie that saved cinema. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were genuine fears that the theatergoing experience as we had long known it would be lost to time. Thankfully, the ever-reliable Tom Cruise and his need for speed returned at the perfect time, scoring one of the highest box office revenues of the decade and reminding everyone why there is no better experience than a blockbuster on the big screen.

Director Joseph Kosinski truly understood the high-flying assignment when it came to delivering this epic legacy sequel, managing to both pay homage to the action classic that came before it while navigating this heavy aircraft to a smooth landing. A breathtaking visual experience that reminded the world why cinema matters, cinephiles owe Top Gun: Maverick a lot.

5 'Project Hail Mary' (2026)

The most recent entry on this list more than deserves its title as one of the best adventure movies of the past decade. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Project Hail Mary tells the emotionally grounded yet impressively ambitious story of Ryan Gosling's science teacher, Ryland, as he is sent to space on a one-way mission to save the universe. During his trip, he becomes unlikely friends with an alien he names Rocky.

Based on the bestseller by Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary is perhaps the most defining film of 2026 so far. It's long been known that Gosling can easily walk the tightrope between hilarious and heartbreaking, with the Hollywood favorite leaving everyone laughing through their tears in this future sci-fi classic.

Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars

Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive.

💊The Matrix

🔥Mad Max

🌧️Blade Runner

🏜️Dune

🚀Star Wars

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.

APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone.

NEXT QUESTION →

In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.

AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely.

NEXT QUESTION →

What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of.

AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.

ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen.

NEXT QUESTION →

Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.

AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches.

NEXT QUESTION →

Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.

AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts.

NEXT QUESTION →

Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of.

AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are.

NEXT QUESTION →

What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.

AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot.

REVEAL MY WORLD →

Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…

Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.

The Matrix

You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things.

You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door.

Mad Max

The wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you.

You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.

Blade Runner

You'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.

You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either.
In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything.

Dune

Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.

Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it.

Star Wars

The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way.

You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

4 'The Wild Robot' (2024)

Fink and Pinktail stand on Roz's shoulders

Thanks to the boundless nature of animation, some of cinema's greatest adventures aren't live-action. In the past decade, perhaps the best example of adventure animation is The Wild Robot, the tale of ROZZUM robot 7134 (Lupita Nyong'o), who is washed ashore on a gorgeous island and must learn to adapt to her new surroundings, finding an unlikely bond with a gosling, whom she names Brightbill (Kit Connor).

Featuring a stacked voice cast including the aforementioned Nyong'o, Connor, and Pedro Pascal, The Wild Robot became not just DreamWorks' best movie in years, but also one of the greatest animated movies of the decade so far. Across the world, audiences were left stunned by undeniably breathtaking animation and left in floods of tears as the film burrowed deep into hearts with a sentiment both universal and personal.

3 'Paddington 2' (2017)

The Professor, Paddington and Phibs all sit at the lunch table while looking alarmed in 'Paddington 2'.

As an adventure movie, what Paddington 2 lacks in jaw-dropping scope, it makes up for in heart. Everyone's favorite immigrant tale continues as Paddington (Ben Whishaw), now settled into London life, battles cultural misunderstandings and champions diversity and understanding.

Its powerful message couldn't be any more poignant, and Paddington 2 couldn't be any funnier. One of the most hilarious family films of the 21st century, there is no doubt that Paddington 2 isn't just a sequel worthy of enormous praise; it is simply one of the most celebrated films of all time.

2 'Dune: Part Two' (2024)

Later this year, the final installment in Denis Villeneuve's acclaimed adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune novels will debut to a global audience and will likely earn itself a place on this list. Until then, the masterpiece that came before it will have to do. After the fall of House Atreides, Paul's (Timothee Chalamet) journey continues in this immersive, expansive sequel.

The winner of two Oscars — for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects — the fact that so many remain outraged that Dune: Part Two didn't pick up more on the most prestigious night in the cinema calendar is telling. The limits of filmmaking continue to be pushed, and Villeneuve's epic sequel is the perfect example of what genius can be made with a camera, crew, and, admittedly, a mammoth production budget.

1 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' (2022)

Jamie Lee Curtis holds up the drawing of a circle in Everything Everywhere All At Once

Spider-Man: No Way Home might've made the most famous example of the multiverse in cinema, but Everything Everywhere All at Once perfected it. Directed by the Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), this Academy Award-winning masterpiece shows a seemingly ordinary woman living a dull modern life who is the most important person to exist, with the state of several realities resting on her unsuspecting shoulders.

From the most unthinkable reaches of the multiverse to the beautiful mundanity of doing laundry and taxes, Everything Everywhere All At Once is the most impressive adventure movie of the past 10 years simply for its detailed understanding of the many places adventure can be found. It even broke the record for A24's highest-grossing film of all time, although that has since been broken again by the viral horror hit Backrooms.