97
Spirited Away review
A sulky ten-year-old wanders into a world of spirits, loses her name, and has to work for a living. Miyazaki's most complete film and his most quietly…
★★★★★ 5.0/5
Adventure films, reviewed
Adventure is the genre of movement — journeys, quests, and the accumulation of distance between a character and home. It is structurally generous, which is why it so often overlaps with fantasy and science fiction, and it depends almost entirely on whether the audience believes in the destination. A journey film with no sense of arrival is a travelogue.
What we look for in adventure
- A destination that means something to the characters
- Episodic structure that builds rather than repeats
- Worlds that feel inhabited rather than constructed
- A cost to the journey that persists
This hub currently collects 10 reviews. Our library is curated rather than comprehensive, and every genre page grows as we publish.
Every adventure film we have reviewed
Ordered by our score, highest first.
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97
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96
Seven Samurai review
A farming village hires seven wandering swordsmen to defend it from bandits. Seventy years on, it is still the most influential action film ever made.
★★★★½ 4.9/5
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95
Mad Max: Fury Road review
A two-hour chase across a desert wasteland with almost no dialogue and an extraordinary amount of practical stunt work. The best action film of its de…
★★★★½ 4.9/5
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95
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring review
The first and best of the trilogy, and the film that proved a sincere fantasy adaptation could be a serious piece of filmmaking rather than a novelty.
★★★★½ 4.9/5
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93
Toy Story review
A cowboy doll and a space ranger learn to share a boy's affection. The first fully computer-animated feature and still one of the best-written.
★★★★½ 4.8/5
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92
Everything Everywhere All at Once review
A laundromat owner discovers she must connect with parallel versions of herself to save existence, and the film turns out to be about a mother and a d…
★★★★½ 4.7/5
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92
Interstellar review
An unusually earnest science-fiction film that treats relativity as a source of grief. When it works it is overwhelming; when it explains itself it st…
★★★★½ 4.7/5
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91
Dune review
The first half of Frank Herbert's novel, adapted with unusual fidelity and an extraordinary sense of scale. Patient, enormous, and confident.
★★★★½ 4.7/5
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91
The Grand Budapest Hotel review
A legendary concierge and his lobby boy navigate a stolen painting, a family fortune, and the collapse of Europe. Anderson's funniest and saddest film…
★★★★½ 4.7/5
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88
Gladiator review
A Roman general is betrayed, enslaved, and fights his way back through the arena. The film that proved the sword-and-sandals epic could still work.
★★★★½ 4.6/5
Adventure index
Year, director, runtime and score for every film in this genre.
| Film | Year | Director | Runtime | Score | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirited Away | 2001 | Hayao Miyazaki | 125 min | 97 | ★★★★★ |
| Seven Samurai | 1954 | Akira Kurosawa | 207 min | 96 | ★★★★½ |
| Mad Max: Fury Road | 2015 | George Miller | 120 min | 95 | ★★★★½ |
| The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | 2001 | Peter Jackson | 178 min | 95 | ★★★★½ |
| Toy Story | 1995 | John Lasseter | 81 min | 93 | ★★★★½ |
| Everything Everywhere All at Once | 2022 | Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert | 139 min | 92 | ★★★★½ |
| Interstellar | 2014 | Christopher Nolan | 169 min | 92 | ★★★★½ |
| Dune | 2021 | Denis Villeneuve | 155 min | 91 | ★★★★½ |
| The Grand Budapest Hotel | 2014 | Wes Anderson | 99 min | 91 | ★★★★½ |
| Gladiator | 2000 | Ridley Scott | 155 min | 88 | ★★★★½ |
Frequently asked questions
What distinguishes adventure from action?
Adventure is organised around a journey and the accumulation of experience; action is organised around conflict and its resolution. Most adventure films contain action sequences, but the spine is travel.
Why do adventure films so often run long?
Because the genre's pleasure is the accumulation of distance. Compressing a journey removes the sense of scale that justifies the form.
Which adventure film best demonstrates the genre?
The Fellowship of the Ring, for the way it assigns each region a distinct visual and emotional identity.
Read around adventure
Our ranked lists place these films against each other within a decade or a genre, and explain the ordering.