The 8 Most Fun Movies of the 1980s, Ranked

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Cary-Elwes and Robin-Wright as Westley and Buttercup in The-Princess-Bride

Published Sep 2, 2026, 7:51 AM EDT

Ryan Heffernan is a Senior Writer at Collider. Storytelling has been one of his interests since an early age, with his appreciation for film and television becoming a particular interest of his during his teenage years.

This passion saw Ryan graduate from the University of Canberra in 2020 with an Honours Degree in Film Production. In the years since, he has found freelance work as a videographer and editor in the Canberra region while also becoming entrenched in the city's film-making community.

In addition to cinema and writing, Ryan's other major interest is sport, with him having a particular love for Australian Rules football, Formula 1, and cricket. He also has casual interests in reading, gaming, and history.

An era of excess and exuberance, the 1980s is fondly remembered for its unrestrained sense of style, its appetite for daring new horizons, and the many ways in which it saw technological advancements transform the world. Unsurprisingly, the movies of the ‘80s hold some very similar qualities, with the cinema of the decade today being renowned for its pioneering, genre-blending bravado, its unreserved sense of action awe, and its innovative use of filmmaking tools like practical special effects and early CGI.

It was also a decade of fun-loving cinema. Many movies were designed to be epic experiences that excite and enthrall, and while not every picture from the era has aged gracefully, many of the best have endured as beloved classics that people still return to 40 years later for a dose of gleeful escapism and enchanting joy. From some of the decade’s most defining action masterpieces to sci-fi adventure gems that are the pinnacle of movie magic, these eight ‘80s flicks stand as some of the most fun pictures the medium has ever seen.

8 'Evil Dead 2' (1987)

A bloody Ash Williams smiling maniacally in Evil Dead 2 while staring at the camera

Wedged between the frenetic indie chills of The Evil Dead and the comedic fervor of Army of Darkness, Evil Dead 2 thrives as a faultless marriage of humor and horror that stands as one of the greatest mid-trilogy movies of all time as it soars off the back of Sam Raimi’s inspired, kinetic direction and Bruce Campbell’s iconic performance. He stars as Ash Williams, a university student who takes his girlfriend to a remote cabin for a getaway only to find himself plunged into a waking nightmare when he plays an audio tape that summons the spirits of the dead.

While there are plenty of frights and thrills on offer, Evil Dead 2 handles them with a sense of infectious fun that makes every jolting jump scare feel like an eruption of chaotic excitement. This approach is beautifully complimented by the film’s eccentric mixture of cartoonish gore and slapstick comedy, which works in tandem with its fast-paced storytelling and Campbell’s committed performance to create a spectacle of bloodshed and bravado that makes for one of the most maniacally magnificent movies ever made.

7 'Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure' (1989)

There’s an old adage that states, “if it’s stupid, but it works, it ain’t stupid.” This applies to few comedy movies quite as well as it does the irreverent 1989 cult classic, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Powered by the winning chemistry between stars Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, it follows the two titular high school heavy metal heroes as they receive help from a time traveler to pass their history assignment by journeying to pivotal historical moments to return with key figures who will aid them in their presentation.

Charming, goofy, and smart enough to never outstay its welcome, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure blends the absurdity of its premise with a cheerful tale of friendship and teenage ambition that has the ability to endear itself to everyone. Bereft of cynicism and mean-spirited judgment, it delivers 90 minutes of chaotic time-travel lunacy that is never anything but a triumphant treat of escapist glee and shambolic hilarity, no matter how many times it is rewatched and enjoyed anew.

6 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' (1981)

Indiana Jones thinking about seizing a gold statue in the opening of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Steven Spielberg is undoubtedly one of the defining filmmakers of the ‘80s, a pioneer of blockbuster brilliance who spent the decade churning out some of the most agelessly exciting movies ever made. Raiders of the Lost Ark is among his greatest triumphs in the realm of sheer cinematic fun, with the rollicking action-adventure classic blending fast-paced thrills with old-fashioned serial charm as it follows archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in his globe-trotting quest to locate the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis can acquire it and use its power for evil.

Contrary to much of the machismo of the decade, Raiders of the Lost Ark thrives at realizing Indy as a deeply relatable hero who relies on luck and his wits to accomplish his mission without dying. Further enhanced by its ravishing action set pieces, Spielberg’s absorbing directorial style, John Williams’ iconic score, and the relentless tempo of the story, Raiders of the Lost Ark is a fiery, fun-filled masterclass in action blockbuster cinema at its most engaging that is every bit as enjoyable today as it was when released 45 years ago.

Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt

Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.

🎖️Rambo

🍸James Bond

🏺Indiana Jones

🔧John McClane

🎭Ethan Hunt

FIND YOUR PARTNER →

You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.

ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.

NEXT QUESTION →

You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.

AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.

NEXT QUESTION →

You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.

ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.

NEXT QUESTION →

The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.

AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.

APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.

NEXT QUESTION →

Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.

AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.

NEXT QUESTION →

Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.

ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.

NEXT QUESTION →

What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.

ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.

NEXT QUESTION →

Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.

AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.

NEXT QUESTION →

It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.

AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.

REVEAL MY PARTNER →

Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Rambo

Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.

James Bond

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Indiana Jones

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

John McClane

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Ethan Hunt

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

5 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' (1988)

Bob Hoskins looks annoyed as he is handcuffed to Roger the cartoon rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Meshing together the joys of 20th century cartoon chaos with a clever reinvention of old-school film noir, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is an icon of ‘80s cinema that excels even today as one of the most delightfully unhinged and creative movies mainstream comedy has ever seen. Set in a world where animated critters and humans co-exist, it follows a private detective in 1940s L.A. who struggles to overcome his prejudice against “toons” when he becomes the last hope of movie star Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer), who has been framed for the murder of a Hollywood studio exec.

Bob Hoskins’ ability to give a convincing performance and conjure a sense of chemistry while acting against thin air is a feat to behold, as is the sheer creative might of the innovative blending of animation and live-action. It would be easy to remember Who Framed Roger Rabbit for its groundbreaking ambition, and while that is a significant part of the film’s legacy, the 1988 classic is rightfully heralded by many today primarily for its magnetic madcap humor, crafty toying with film noir tropes, and its air of pervasive playfulness that has seen it endure as one of the most energetic and fun films of all time.

4 'Die Hard' (1988)

Bruce Willis, playing John McClane, crawls through a duct with a lighter in Die Hard.

Throughout cinematic history, there has been no better decade for action than the 1980s. Die Hard stands tall among the very best movies the genre has ever seen as it combines its era’s penchant for all-out explosive excess with razor-sharp screenwriting, relentless high-stakes thrills, and one of the greatest movie heroes of all time. It follows John McClane (Bruce Willis), a NYPD cop visiting his family in L.A. for the holidays when his estranged wife’s office Christmas party is taken hostage by a crew of European terrorists. McClane enters a deadly battle of wits against Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) to save the hostages before time runs out.

More than just a masterpiece of action cinema, Die Hard actively recalibrated the style of the genre by implementing the contained suspense of its confined setting and reinventing machismo heroism with an air of vulnerability and human flaws. Coupled with its frenetic pacing, ensemble of unforgettable characters, and its underlying festive fun, Die Hard is the pinnacle of action movie awe that, even almost 40 years on, remains the gold standard of blockbuster cinema.

3 'Back to the Future' (1985)

Marty and Doc test out the Doctor's remote-controlled time machine/car hybrid in Back to the Future.

Back to the Future has been receiving high praise from critics and fans alike for 41 years now, and somehow all the acclaim isn’t enough to truly recognize its brilliance. Bolstered by a masterful screenplay, a litany of unforgettable characters, and genre-blending perfection, every second of the sci-fi adventure delivers ecstatic excitement as it follows 17-year-old Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) who, after traveling 30 years back in time and interrupting a pivotal moment in his parents’ relationship, must save his own existence by saving their first date all while trying to figure out a way to return to 1985.

Its adventurous spirit is never anything short of triumphant, while its comedy fun, sci-fi spectacle, and romantic charm are all deftly entwined to make for one of the most addictive and absorbing viewing experiences in cinematic history. From the one-liners to the heroic triumphs, the quirky joyousness, and even to Alex Silvestri’s enthusing score, every element of Back to the Future works in tandem to deliver what is one of the most engrossing and innocently fun movies ever made.

2 'The Princess Bride' (1987)

Westley with a wounded shoulder stands on guard with his sword while Buttercup stands behind him in The Princess Bride

A playful spin on fantasy storytelling that pokes fun at the genre’s tropes while finding new ways to perfect them, The Princess Bride is the ultimate post-modern fairy tale. A rollicking adventure accentuated by inflections of enrapturing hilarity and a touching heart of romantic earnestness, the ‘80s cult classic is the epitome of cinematic fun. Operating with a beautiful story-within-a-story premise, it largely transpires in the magical realm of Florin as a farmer-turned-swashbuckler journeys to rescue his love from a forced marriage to a cruel prince with help from a friendly giant and a vengeful Spaniard.

A beautiful concoction of Rob Reiner’s astute direction and William Goldman’s infectious writing, The Princess Bride brims with enrapturing fun and intoxicating adventure. Every single character is brought to the screen with popping personality and precision, while sequences like the duel atop the Cliffs of Insanity and Inigo Montoya’s (Mandy Patinkin) fateful clash with the man who murdered his father make some of the most entertaining and emotionally gratifying action sequences of all time. Absorbing, charming, and relentlessly enthusiastic, The Princess Bride embodies cinematic fun at its most vibrant and universally accessible.

1 'Airplane!' (1980)

Leslie Jordan in the cockpit with a pilot and a pilot doll in Airplane!

When done well, spoof comedy makes for one of the most enjoyable forms of cinematic entertainment. No movie in the subgenre has proven this quite like Airplane!, with the 1980 comedy classic delivering multiple laughs every minute as it lampoons the disaster movies of the 1970s with acidic wit, hilarious wordplay, and a healthy appetite for unbridled comic absurdity. It transpires aboard a commercial flight as a vicious bout of food poisoning runs through the passengers and crew, leaving a traumatized ex-fighter pilot to land the plane safely while Dr. Rumack (Leslie Nielsen) sees to the sick.

Complimented by its strait-laced delivery, Airplane! revels in the juxtaposition of high-stakes tension—a point accentuated by Elmer Bernstein’s score—and sheer lunacy, giving it a certain unpredictability that allows every gag, even the background ones viewers won’t see until a second watch, to land with uproarious results. Its success and lasting cultural impact have inspired parody comedy movies over the past 46 years, but none have come close to matching the hysterical brilliance and sheer fun lunacy that Airplane! delivers with every single second of its 88-minute runtime.