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25 Essential Road Trip Movies of the Last 25 Years

We’re looking down the horizon and beyond for some of the best road trip movies that defined the genre over the last 25 years! To rev up this list, we selected American movies movies, journeys that begin in the States (where they actually finish is part of the fun). The movies celebrate the sights and sounds of the country, or at least will inspire you to pull out that camping gear, putting the convertible top down, and hitting the open road. These rides can be cross-county ( Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle ), on the freeway ( Dog , Sideways ), trekking across a few state lines ( Little Miss Sunshine , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ), hitting a new time zone ( Road Trip ), or even runnin’ coast-to-coast ( Rat Race , Transamerica ). Even the Academy has felt the need for reasonable speed, awarding Best Picture to both Green Book and Nomadland . Carpool lane? Of course: we’ve got an Oscar strapped in the passenger seat!

So whether you’re looking for a map to a long summer drive or fixing a flat in your life, turn to these essential 25 road trip movies of the last 25 years (in chronological order)!

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) 51%

The Straight Story (1999) 94%

Tumbleweeds (1999) 82%

Almost Famous (2000) 91%

Road Trip (2000) 57%

Rat Race (2001) 45%

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) 75%

Sideways (2004) 97%

Transamerica (2005) 77%

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) 91%

Cars (2006) 75%

Zombieland (2009) 89%

Away We Go (2009) 67%

Paul (2011) 70%

We're the Millers (2013) 48%

Chef (2014) 87%

Grandma (2015) 91%

Mississippi Grind (2015) 91%

Pee-wee's Big Holiday (2016) 83%

Green Book (2018) 77%

Nomadland (2020) 93%

The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021) 97%

Bad Trip (2021) 79%

Dog (2022) 77%

Joy Ride (2023) 90%

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Yearning for the open road? Look no further! Hollywood is no stranger to producing entertaining road trip movies that feature iconic cross-country adventures. While some audiences just can’t seem to get enough of this comedy staple, others flock to theaters for films that take a more heartfelt approach to the genre, utilizing the road trip as a way to express maturation, character development, and coming-of-age themes. Sometimes it's nice to live vicariously through the lives of these big-screen characters. With such an impressive list of beloved classics to choose from, determining the greatest among these films is difficult.

Updated May 18th, 2023: If you're a fan of the open road, you'll be glad to know this article was recently updated with new content by fellow travel enthusiast Amanda Minchin .

So whether you're yearning for some comedic relief from life's difficulties or are just wanting to see the world from a new perspective, these films, with their array of hijinks and chaos, will prove entertaining for audiences of all ages. Instead of needing to hop in the car, sit down, grab the remote, and explore the open road from the comfort of your home. Here is our deep dive into the best road trip movies throughout cinema history.

13 Dumb and Dumber

The iconic buddy-comedy Dumb and Dumber stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels as two dimwitted yet well-meaning friends who set off on a cross-country road trip from Providence, Rhode Island, to Aspen, Colorado, in order to return a briefcase full of money.

Related: Why Dumb and Dumber Is a Perfect Road Trip Movie

The charm of this film lies in the delightful ignorance of Lloyd and Harry, whose personas simply don’t allow for a light bulb moment. They have absolutely no desire to either learn or grow during their hilariously harrowing journey and, as a result, they ultimately go off on many a zany adventure without learning all that much. Dumb and Dumber found great success at the box office upon its release, becoming one of the most iconic of 1994 .

12 Y Tu Mamá También

Y Tu Mamá También is the coming-of-age tale of two teenage boys who set out on a road trip with an older woman in her late twenties. This Alfonso Cuaron road movie features a talented cast, including Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, and Maribel Verdú, who shine against the backdrop of Mexico’s economic and political realities in 1999.

This intimate and tender story is also an exploration of sexuality and maturity. The young men's journey leads to self-discovery and a loss of innocence amidst the stunning road trip setting. The film uses travel and journey as a metaphor. As a result, audiences are able to witness the transformation of the leads from adolescence to adulthood in a fresh and authentic way.

11 Easy Rider

Easy Rider is arguably one of the most important road trip movies in cinema history. This film, which received critical praise upon its release, is credited with helping to spark the New Hollywood era of the 1970s. This 1969 independent road drama tells the story of two bikers who embark on a journey through the American South and Southwest, transporting the proceeds of a cocaine deal.

The film stars Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper as the lead bikers, alongside the memorable performance of Jack Nicholson as the boozy lawyer they pick up along the way. This classic flick focuses heavily on the journey, not the destination, as the free-spirited bikers get a harsh dose of reality during their travels across the country.

10 It Happened One Night

It Happened One Night is an infamous screwball comedy , and with good reason. Widely considered the first, it soon became the roadmap for others to follow after its release in the early 30s. The movie also arguably launched the careers of stars Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. In the film, Colbert played an heiress on the run back to her true love. Gable, meanwhile, played the intrepid reporter following shortly behind. They travel from Florida to New York in increasingly jerry-rigged modes of transportation and, of course, wind up falling in love in the process.

At the time, a movie about an unmarried couple traveling together was sure to ruffle a few feathers. Considered a Pre-Code film (though the Hays Code was in effect, it was not officially enforced for all pictures until shortly thereafter), this movie managed to skirt the censors by covering any sense of impropriety with snappy dialogue, cheeky humor, and endless innuendo... thus creating the screwball comedy in the process. For example, Frank Capra and crew got around the pair sharing a room together during their travels by dividing said room with a bedsheet that the characters literally nickname “The Walls of Jericho.” Any source of seduction was at most a suggestion, as demonstrated by Colbert’s last-ditch use of her *gasp* bare leg to hail a passing car, though that too was considered rather scandalous in passing.

The touching and deeply endearing 1988 classic Rain Man tells the story of conceited jerk Charlie Babbitt who, upon his wealthy father’s death, discovers the inheritance has been left to his unknown autistic-savant brother Raymond. Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman deliver powerful performances as Charlie and Raymond, for which the latter earned an Academy Award.

As the brothers travel from Cincinnati to Los Angeles, Charlie witnesses the restrictions of Raymond’s condition and, in turn, gains a new perspective on life. The film’s unique premise and the chemistry between Cruise and Hoffman as they travel the country, make this a road trip staple.

8 Little Miss Sunshine

Oscar-winning dramedy Little Miss Sunshine features an all-star cast (including Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, and Abigail Breslin). It tells the story of a barely-functional family who are determined to get their daughter to the finals of a beauty pageant. Setting off in their VW bus (which requires a rolling start), the Hoover clan soon embark on an 800-mile road trip to California. Their goal of reaching the beauty pageant is what ultimately brings the family together.

The script for this film is both funny and heartfelt, and Michael Arndt received the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for his effort. The colorful characters add depth and humor to the plot, which is tied up nicely by the end. Little Miss Sunshine was one of those indie films from the 2000s that broke out with mainstream audiences, and part of that is it perfectly captures what it is like to be stuck with one's family for a long road trip.

7 Into the Wild

This film is for those whose wanderlust leads them to less tread pastures. Based on the book by Jon Krakauer, Into The Wild tells the true story of an Emory college graduate and athlete who renounces his family fortune and sets off on a hitchhiking adventure that leads him deep into the Alaskan wilderness. Written, directed, and produced by Sean Penn, the film version stars Emile Hirsch as Chris McCandless, a.k.a. Alexander Supertramp.

Upon its release, the film was nominated for many awards, including Golden Globes and Academy Awards. It was soon added to many of the top lists that year. The abandoned bus that housed the final days of the real-life McCandless even became a pilgrimage site for fans until it had to be airlifted to a safer location. Those wanting to dive into a smaller, safer venture should carve out the 2 ½ hours for this film.

6 Almost Famous

The critically acclaimed Cameron Crowe dramedy Almost Famous is the ultimate coming-of-age film with an ensemble cast of Hollywood heavy hitters like Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, and Jason Lee. The movie is loosely based on Crowe's own experience as a writer for Rolling Stone magazine.

Almost Famous tells the story of a young 1970s Rolling Stone journalist William Miller and his epic journey of self-discovery as he travels with the fictitious rock band Stillwater. As he follows them across the country, William experiences the highs and lows of adolescence: falling in love, being rejected, making friends, and ultimately accepting himself. The movie received critical acclaim and numerous accolades and is included in many lists of the greatest films ever made.

5 Thelma and Louise

Arguably the ultimate female buddy movie , 1991’s Thelma and Louise tells the unforgettable tale of two best friends who take off for the open road after a tragic event forces them to flee for greener pastures. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon star as the ride-or-die duo who zip across the country in Thelma’s 1966 Ford Thunderbird.

Related: How Thelma and Louise Is a Queer Allegory

The iconic friendship of the film's titular leads, impressively performed by Davis and Sarandon, firmly cements it as a landmark feminist film. The movie also features a young Brad Pitt in one of his first major roles as a drifter who catches Thelma's eye. The iconic ending of Thelma and Louise remains one of the greatest in Hollywood history to this day.

4 The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert quickly cemented Australia’s cultural status as a producer of quirky, independent cinema when it was first released in 1994. What could have ended as a dumpster fire of epic proportions was instead a surprisingly tender and thoughtful road movie. Featuring a soundtrack of campy classics bolstered by supreme performances from Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, and Guy Pearce, the plot follows two drag queens and one transgender woman as they go on tour in Australia.

While the movie arguably may have been even better having an actual trans woman or drag culture enthusiast cast, the trio sure put on one hell of a show as they traverse the literal Outback in sequins, beads, and platform heels. The film, which was written and directed by Stephan Elliott, would later be adapted into a musical. The play premiered in Sydney in 2006 before touring throughout the country. It would eventually be welcomed onto the Broadway stage a few years later in 2011.

3 The Blues Brothers

Beloved Saturday Night Live alums John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd reprised their sketch characters for the silver screen as “Joliet” Jake Blues and blood brother Elwood in 1980s The Blues Brothers . The pair are hilarious as sleazy musicians who make it their mission to save the orphanage they were raised in from foreclosure.

The classic comedy focuses on Jake and Elwood as they reunite their R&B band and travel around Chicago in their “bluesmobile,” playing music for money. With exciting car chases, comical shootouts, and unforgettable musical numbers, The Blues Brothers remains an iconic classic of road-trip cinema.

2 National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

This film kick-started a beloved comedy franchise that continues to this day. 1983’s National Lampoon’s Vacation focuses on the Griswold family as their patriarch leads them on a cross-country trip to an amusement park... Naturally, chaos and hilarity arise. The ultimate success of this movie led to a barrage of sequels.

Starring Saturday Night Live alum Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, Vacation also features the talents of Beverly D’Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, and Dana Barron as his wife and less-than-adoring children. Chase is brilliant as the comical and determined Clark. This outrageous farce depicts the reality of a family on vacation. None of them are perfect, and all of them are full of endearing dysfunction as they try and fail to have a good time.

1 Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Comedy legends Steve Martin and John Candy partnered up with famed director John Hughes for 1987’s Planes, Trains and Automobiles . Martin starred as uptight Neal Page, while Candy portrayed the overbearing but kind-hearted Del Griffith. Stuck together, the pair join forces in an effort to get Neal home to Chicago in time for his family's Thanksgiving dinner. Because of this, it has since become a Thanksgiving classic.

The chemistry between the two leads in this film is as effortless as it is hilarious. This movie features plenty of sidesplitting situations while also being surprisingly emotional at times. Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a heartfelt flick that utilizes its comedic talent to the fullest. Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a comedic masterpiece that has endured for decades.

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The 10 Best Road Trip Movies, from ‘It Happened One Night’ to ‘Easy Rider’

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A good road trip is one of the most cinematic experiences that a person can have in real life. Different cities and landscapes blur together as scenery flies by your windows and day gradually turns into night. The car can begin to feel like an isolated bubble where nothing matters except the people inside. Whether you’re laughing and singing with friends, fighting with your family, or simply letting your thoughts settle while you drive solo, road trips seem to stop time and create distinct memories that can be revisited over and over again .  

So it’s not surprising that filmmakers have been inspired by road trips for as long as there have been movies. From the titans of the Old Hollywood studio system to international arthouse auteurs and contemporary independent directors, virtually every great filmmaker has tried their hand at a road trip movie at one point or another. Locations and genres can change, but the motif of people going from one place to another in a car is one of the building blocks of the international language of cinema.  

Road trip movies are versatile enough to encompass a wide variety of subject matter, but they often fall into two genres: comedies and contemplative dramas. The road trip comedy is a Hollywood standard because its built-in structure (characters need to get somewhere in a finite amount of time and are stuck together in a small space) lends itself to endless funny scenarios. From disgruntled fathers driving their badly-behaved children to strangers who fall in love after being forced to travel together, cars serve as confined spaces that allow a variety of relationships to flourish. On the other end of the spectrum, you have dramas from auteurs like Wim Wenders and Ingmar Bergman that see the road as a place for humans to think. Those films prioritize the destination much less than the self-discovery that can take place when you’re not in any particular rush to get somewhere.  

The road trip movie has endured for over a century, and its timeless appeal means that it’s unlikely to disappear any time soon. Keep reading for ten of our favorites, listed in chronological order.  

“It Happened One Night” (1934)

What It Is:  The archetypal Hollywood romantic comedy, Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night” stars Claudette Colbert as pampered socialite Ellie, who boards a Greyhound bus from Florida to New York City to reunite with her new husband, pilot King Westley (Jameson Thomas), after her father attempts to annul the marriage. Unused to fending for herself, she ends up relying on the help of sarcastic newspaper reporter Peter (Clark Gable) to make the journey, despite despising his personality. At least at first — hitchhiking adventures and stays in motels quickly cause sparks to fly between the mismatched pair.

Perfect For:  Couples looking for date night films, “Looney Tunes” fans who want to watch the Gable performance that inspired Bugs Bunny, and lovers of pretty much every romantic comedy made in the last nine decades. —WC

“Wild Strawberries” (1957)

What It Is:  Not exactly the fun road trip romp the genre usually promises, “Wild Strawberries” uses a long car ride as the backdrop for a surreal exploration of aging, loneliness, and death. Ingmar Bergman’s film stars Victor Sjöström as cold-hearted professor Isak Borg, who is set to receive a lifetime achievement award for his career in bacteriology. On the drive to the university where the ceremony will take place, he’s accompanied by his pregnant daughter-in-law Marianne (Ingrid Thulin) and a group of young hitchhikers — one of whom is a double in looks and name for his childhood sweetheart Sara (played by Bibi Andersson). Over the course of the trip, Isak slowly warms to his younger companions, and experiences a series of flashbacks and dreams that forces him to confront the impending end of his life and his many regrets from his empty existence.

Perfect For:  Existential types, dying old men, and those whose only exposure to Bergman’s films are the HBO “Scenes From a Marriage” remake and the chess scene from “Seventh Seal.” —WC

“Easy Rider” (1969)

What It Is : A counterculture classic, Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider” stars the director and Peter Fonda as two drug-smuggling motorcyclists on a journey from Los Angeles to New Orleans, where they’re hoping to celebrate Mardi Gras. Along the road, they encounter a colorful cast of hippies, free love commune residents, addicts, prostitutes, and other outsiders. Their free-wheeling adventures are contrasted by the judgment they face from small town types and law enforcement looking to lock them up.

Perfect For:  Rebels, stoners, general miscreants everywhere, and fans of the iconic rock bands like The Byrds, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Steppenwolf that soundtrack the film. —WC

“Two-Lane Blacktop” (1971)

What It Is: “Two Lane Blacktop” is so clearly a product of its time that we could never hope to reverse engineer it. But when watched in 2023, it’s a fascinating countercultural artifact and a remnant of a film industry that now looks completely unrecognizable. Monte Hellman’s portrait of youthful angst and the freedom of the open road stars James Taylor and Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson as speed-obsessed drifters whose encounter with a mysterious driver named GTO prompts them to embark on a cross-country race.

Who It’s For:  Anyone with a need for speed and pop culture geeks who enjoy seeing famous non-actors trying to act. —CZ

“Paris, Texas” (1984)

What It Is: After making a name for himself in the German arthouse scene with his Road Movie Trilogy consisting of “Alice in the Cities,” “The Wrong Move,” and “Kings of the Road,” Wim Wenders brought his brand of contemplative cinema to America and made his magnum opus. “Paris, Texas” tells the story of a broken man (Harry Dean Stanton) wandering through the desert before his brother finds him and convinces him to reconnect with the family he walked out on. Wenders continued to find poetry in the loneliness of the road, and the desolate American scenery and Stanton’s heartbreakingly expressive face ended up being the best muses of his career. 

Perfect For:  Fans of slow cinema and anyone looking to brush up on the 20th century’s most impressive works of filmmaking. —CZ

“Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” (1985)

What It Is: After developing a cult following from his stage show at the Roxy, Paul Reubens brought his comedic persona known as Pee-Wee Herman to the big screen in a whimsical road trip comedy directed by a young animator named Tim Burton. The film sees the idiosyncratic man-child traveling across the country to recover his stolen bike — and using his charm and joie de vivre to defuse conflicts with all of the shady characters he meets along the way. 

Perfect for: Loners, rebels, and anyone who wants to revisit the work of a comedic genius at the height of his powers. —CZ

“Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” (1987)

What It Is:  John Hughes’ holiday classic stars Steve Martin and John Candy as a mismatched pair of travelers who team up to make it home to Chicago for Thanksgiving. Martin’s suave ad executive constantly clashes with Candy’s bumbling shower curtain ring salesman as their cursed trip leads them onto — you guessed it — planes, trains, and automobiles in an attempt to get home before the holiday ends. Utterly ridiculous until it gets touching, the film is one of the strongest entries in the seemingly endless string of hits that Hughes churned out in the 1980s. 

Perfect For:  Families at Thanksgiving and anyone on a delayed flight who wants to remember that things could be so much worse. —CZ

“Thelma & Louise” (1991)

What It Is:  Ridley Scott and screenwriter Callie Khouri flipped the script on the conventional gender roles of the buddy comedy genre, opting to tell a story about two women having a blast while running from the law. Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis give career-best performances as the eponymous duo — and both picked up well-derved Oscar nominations for Best Actress. The film is best remembered for its shockingly bold ending, but stands out as one of the 20th century’s most vibrant portrayals of friendship and the highways of America.

Who It’s For:  Ridley Scott completionist s, feminist film scholars, and anyone in the mood for a great time. —CZ

“The Straight Story” (David Lynch, 1999)

What It Is: Perhaps the biggest anomaly in David Lynch’s filmography, “The Straight Story” saw the beloved auteur shifting away from surrealism to tell a G-rated story of a man who travels the country on a riding lawnmower. While the Disney movie doesn’t feature any of the twisted nightmares that define many of Lynch’s best works, it’s filled with the wholesome Americana imagery that appears throughout his filmography. The film is a reminder that for all of his signature stylistic flourishes, Lynch is a filmmaker whose grasp of the fundamentals allow him to tell compelling stories without hiding behind bells and whistles.

Perfect for:  Anyone whose favorite parts of “Twin Peaks” were the wholesome small town antics. —CZ

“Little Miss Sunshine” (2006)

What It Is:  One of the most darkly amusing road trip comedies in recent memory follows the plight of a dysfunctional family who takes an 800-mile road trip to support their daughter’s entry in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Piling into a van that’s breaking down almost as rapidly as the familial ties that bind them, they find themselves confronting their delusional dreams and long-simmering resentments (and a horn that never stops honking). While “Little Miss Sunshine” is a classic example of the “Sundance road trip movie” trope that’s often maligned in indie film circles, there’s no denying that it’s one of the best entries in the subgenre. 

Perfect For:  Anyone who is beginning to question their belief that child beauty pageants are an unambiguous societal good. —CZ

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The 27 best road trip movies to watch so you forget you're stuck at home

• Can't go anywhere right now? A good road trip movie could put you in a better mood.
• Here are the 27 all-time best.
• Classics like "Easy Rider" and "Thelma & Louise" are on our roundup.
• There are also more recent movies like "Logan" and "Magic Mike XXL." 
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories .

Hollywood has always had a soft spot for road trip movies, and some have become memorable not just for what was shown on screen, but what the spirit of the movie meant for the people who saw them.

Take "Easy Rider" for example, whose no-rules approach launched a new way that movies were made for decades. Or "Thelma & Louise," which was as much about female empowerment as it was about a movie about two people on the run from the law.

Here are 27 road trip movies (listed alphabetically) you should check out before heading on your own adventure:

"Almost Famous" (2000)

Cameron Crowe's love letter to the 1970s rock and roll scene, which he covered as a writer for Rolling Stone, is a fun look at adolescence, fame, and highlights the non-stop grind of a band being "on the road."

"The Blues Brothers" (1980)

John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd play two brothers on a mission from God. Trying to get on the straight-and-narrow after getting out of prison, Jake Blues (Belushi) and his brother Elwood (Aykroyd) decide to help raise the money the Catholic home they were raised in needs to stay open. That leads to a road trip around Illinois to get the band back together.

"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" (2006)

With the help of director Larry Charles, Sacha Baron Cohen creates one of the funniest road trip movies ever made as he takes his character, Borat, to America to marry Pamela Anderson. But in the process, the movie highlights the US itself, as Borat travels the country doing everything from singing the Kazakhstan national anthem at a rodeo to hanging out with some fraternity kids.

"Dumb and Dumber" (1994)

In this Farrelly brothers classic, friends Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) are convinced the gas man is out to get them after the death of their bird, so they decide to drive to Aspen to hand-deliver a briefcase the beautiful Mary (Lauren Holly) "forgot" at the airport. Oh, and they are hitting the road in a truck that's made up to look like a dog.

"Easy Rider" (1969)

It's the movie that launched the "New Hollywood" era of the 1970s and was made with little money and lots of drugs.

Directed by Dennis Hopper, the Hollywood bad boy also stars alongside Peter Fonda as two hippie bikers (Jack Nicholson also shows up) who travel from LA to New Orleans after cashing in on smuggling cocaine from Mexico. On their freewheeling trip, they find an America that's split between the stuffy establishment and the younger generation that is starving for change.

"The End of the Tour" (2015)

The days of conversations between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) and author David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) are beautifully profiled in director James Ponsoldt's intimate story that has the two men interacting while on the road for Wallace's book tour.

"Into the Wild" (2007)

Based on a true story, Christopher McCandless' quest to go off the grid and hitchhike to Alaska to live in the wilderness is a powerful exploration of human desire and the kindness of strangers.

"It Happened One Night" (1934)

Frank Capra's famous movie is romantic comedy at its best. Claudette Colbert plays a spoiled heiress running from home, and Clark Gable is a reporter who finally thinks he's found a story that will get him some attention as he follows her to New York. But it will be forever known for its hitchhiking scene in which Colbert's character gets them a ride by pulling up her skirt to show off her legs.

"Little Miss Sunshine" (2006)

Filled with an all-star cast including Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, and Abigail Breslin, we follow a dysfunctional family as they jump in a VW bus to drive the young Olive (Breslin) on a cross-country trip to the finals of a beauty pageant she's competing in.

"Logan" (2017)

Marking the coda of the Hugh Jackman era as Wolverine, director James Mangold delivers a somber drama of the superhero's final days. Here he and Charles Xavier set out to drive a young mutant to a refuge in North Dakota. That sounds simple, but it definitely isn't.

"Magic Mike XXL" (2015)

In this fantastic sequel to the 2012 original, Mike (Channing Tatum) sets out on the road with the remaining members of the Kings of Tampa in a food truck to Myrtle Beach for one final performance.

"Midnight Run" (1988)

Robert De Niro is fantastic in this foul-mouthed comedy as bounty hunter Jack Walsh who plans to cash in when he tracks down a sneaky accountant (played by Charles Grodin) who has jumped bail.

But with the FBI, other bounty hunters, and the mob also trying to get their hands on his bounty, things aren't easy for Jack.

"The Motorcycle Diaries" (2004)

Based on the Che Guevara memoir he wrote before becoming the Marxist revolutionary, Gael García Bernal plays young Guevara who, in 1952, went on a trip across South America with his friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna). The experience shaped Guevara's life as it showed him the injustices of the world.

"The Muppet Movie" (1979)

Marking the first time the Muppets appear on the big screen, Kermit, Fozzie Bear and the rest of the gang go on a cross-country drive to Hollywood in hopes of making it big. A load of cameos, songs, and hilarity occur along the way.

"National Lampoon's Vacation" (1983)

This classic from director Harold Ramis stars Chevy Chase as one of his most memorable characters, Clark W. Griswold, the ambitious father whose vacation plans always never work out.

Clark takes the family cross-country to Walley World and in the process leaves chaos in his wake.

"On the Road" (2012)

Based on the iconic Jack Kerouac novel, Sam Riley plays the book's narrator, Sal Paradise, who after meeting Dean (Garrett Hedlund) and Marylou (Kristen Stewart), head on a free-spirited road trip across the country.

"Over the Top" (1987)

Sylvester Stallone plays trucker and arm wrestling pro Lincoln Hawk who needs to get to Las Vegas to compete in the world arm wrestling tournament. But he also has to get his estranged son to his dying mother. This all leads to a big-rig father-and-son road trip.

"Pee-wee's Big Adventure" (1985)

A loose parody of Vittorio De Sica's classic "Bicycle Thieves," Tim Burton makes his own classic around the zany antics of Paul Reubens' hit character Pee-wee Herman.

The movie follows the "boy" as he goes to search of his stolen bike, which he's been told by a psychic is in the basement of the Alamo (spoiler alert: there's no basement in the Alamo).

"Planes, Trains & Automobiles" (1987)

Steve Martin and John Candy play two men who suddenly have to become travel companions as they try to get home for the holidays. Written and directed by John Hughes, Martin and Candy together are a delight.

"Rain Man" (1988)

Tom Cruise plays sleazy Charlie Babbitt and Dustin Hoffman is his brother Raymond, who suffers from savant syndrome. Hoping to cash in on the fortune Raymond got from their father, Charlie sets the two out on a cross-country trip leading to a lot of self-discovery.

If you've never seen Barry Levinson's Oscar-winning movie, now's the time.

"Road Trip" (2000)

Of course "Road Trip" was going to be on this list. Todd Phillips' insane raunchy comedy about four college friends on a race against time to retrieve a sex tape sent in the mail to one of their girlfriends is always a fun watch.

"Smokey and the Bandit" (1977)

Burt Reynolds teams with his pal and longtime stunt double Hal Needham for his first directing effort, and it would go on to become a classic road trip movie.

Reynolds plays a fast-driving bootlegger who has to transport 400 cases of Coors beer safely from Texarkana to Atlanta. But things get complicated when Reynolds picks up a runaway bride (played by Sally Field) along the way.

"The Straight Story" (1999)

In one of David Lynch's most traditional storytelling offerings, Richard Farnsworth plays a man who sets out on a trip via riding a lawnmower to make things right with his ill brother.

The story is based on a real-life event, in which Alvin Straight traveled 240 miles from Iowa to Wisconsin on a lawnmower.

"Stranger Than Paradise" (1984)

Jim Jarmusch's second feature film follows Willie and his friend Eddie as they set out on a road trip to Cleveland to visit Willie's cousin from Hungary, Eva.

The movie went on to be regarded as a landmark work in the independent film world for its unconventional long takes and do-it-yourself aesthetic.

"Thelma & Louise" (1991)

Ridley Scott's look at the road-trip-turned-manhunt adventure of friends Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) is arguably more powerful today because of the #MeToo than when it opened in the early 1990s.

"Tommy Boy" (1995)

Perhaps the best Chris Farley/David Spade collaboration, in this one Farley plays an underachieving college graduate who suddenly has to travel the nation (with Spade as the geeky sidekick) to keep the accounts for his auto-parts family business after his father dies. This one truly shows off Farley's high-energy comedy greatness.

"Y Tu Mamá También" (2001)

Director Alfonso Cuarón received a best screenplay Oscar nomination with his brother Carlos for this powerful road trip movie that made Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal international stars.

• Main content

17 Essential Road Trip Movies That'll Have You Craving the Open Road

Let's hit the road.

Rev your engines and hit the pedal for an unforgettable adventure as we dive into the world of the best road trip movies. These films aren't just about getting from point A to B — they're a wild ride full of laughter, friendship and the kind of chaos that can only happen on the open road. As the asphalt stretches ahead, characters find themselves on transformative voyages, both in the literal and metaphorical sense. Whether it's a band of quirky friends, a reluctant pairing of two completely opposite characters or a lone traveler in pursuit of a deeper meaning, these films navigate far more than sprawling highways and convoluted road maps.

Road trip movies are the ultimate recipe for fun, mixing in unexpected and bizarre pit stops, outrageous characters and the kind of bonding that can only happen when you're stuck in a car together for days on end. So buckle up, because we're about to cruise through a curated list of the most entertaining, laugh-out-loud and heartwarming road trip flicks that'll make you want to grab your friends, hit the road and create some unforgettable memories of your own.

Here are the 17 best films about road trips ever made.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Who's in it: Steve Carrell, Alan Arkin, Paul Dano, Toni Collette, Abigail Breslin

A dysfunctional family sets off on a hilarious road trip to get their young daughter Olive to a beauty pageant. With a VW bus as their vessel, they navigate absurd obstacles, personal quirks and unexpected revelations, learning that winning might not be everything but the journey itself is a triumph of togetherness.

National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

Warner Bros.

Who's in it: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Dana Barron, Anthony Michael Hall

The Griswold family embarks on a chaotic cross-country expedition to reach the ultimate destination: the amusement park Walley World. Along the way, they encounter a series of hysterical misadventures that turn their vacation into a side-splitting roller coaster of mishaps and mayhem.

Thelma & Louise (1991)

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.

Who's in it: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Brad Pitt, Harvey Keitel

Seeking an escape from their mundane lives, friends Thelma and Louise embark on a liberating road trip. However, a series of tragic events lead them down an unexpected path, turning their journey into a thrilling and unforgettable adventure of empowerment and self-discovery.

Almost Famous (2000)

DreamWorks Distribution, LLC.

Who's in it: Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Patrick Fugit, Anna Paquin

A young music enthusiast lands a gig writing for a rock band on tour. As he navigates the world of rock 'n' roll, he experiences a whirlwind of backstage antics, heartaches and self-discovery. This coming-of-age road trip through the music scene of the 1970s becomes a transformative journey of love, passion and growth.

Into the Wild (2007)

Paramount Vantage

Who's in it: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt

Based on a true story, this film follows Christopher McCandless as he abandons his conventional life to trek across North America's wilderness. His quest for a deeper connection with nature and his own soul takes him on a road less traveled, testing his limits and leading to a contemplative exploration of freedom and isolation.

Tommy Boy (1995)

Who's in it: Chris Farley, BO Derek, David Spade, Dan Aykroyd

After his father's death, an inept but well-meaning heir to an auto parts factory embarks on a cross-country road trip to save the family business. Alongside his reluctant assistant, he dives into a series of comedic escapades, transforming their journey into an uproarious adventure of friendship and redemption.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

Who's in it:  Steve Martin, John Candy, Kevin Bacon

In a desperate bid to get home for Thanksgiving, an uptight executive and a lovable but obnoxious shower ring salesman endure a calamitous journey. As their flight gets rerouted, the duo navigates a series of mishaps involving various modes of transportation, resulting in a hilariously heartfelt exploration of friendship and patience. It's also one of the most memorable Thanksgiving movies to add to your holiday watch list.

Dumb and Dumber (1994)

Getty Images

Who's in it:  Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels

Two dim-witted friends embark on a road trip to return a briefcase to its rightful owner, unknowingly becoming ensnared in a criminal conspiracy. Their comically inept adventures take them across the country, with each blunder leading to side-splitting chaos and unexpected encounters.

Midnight Run (1988)

Universal Pictures

Who's in it: Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Dennis Farina

A bounty hunter is tasked with apprehending a bail-jumping mob accountant. Their cross-country pursuit is fraught with obstacles as they dodge both the mob and the FBI. This action-packed road trip blends buddy comedy with thrilling intrigue, resulting in a whirlwind of quips and high-stakes escapades.

Road Trip (2000)

DreamWorks SKG

Who's in it:  Todd Phillips, Breckin Meyer, Amy Smart, Seann William Scott

In a desperate attempt to save his relationship, a college student hits the road with his friends to retrieve an incriminating videotape he mistakenly sent to his long-distance girlfriend. This raunchy comedy navigates a series of wild detours, outrageous mishaps and unexpected adventures, all in the name of love and redemption.

Rain Man (1988)

Who's in it:  Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Bonnie Hunt, Valeria Golino

When a young man discovers his estranged father has left his fortune to an older brother he never knew existed, they embark on a road trip to forge a connection. With the older brother's autism spectrum disorder adding a layer of complexity, the journey becomes a heartwarming exploration of family and understanding.

Easy Rider (1969)

Who's in it: Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Karen Black

Two counterculture bikers travel across the American Southwest in search of freedom and the true essence of America. Their journey is symbolic of the turbulent 1960s, exploring themes of rebellion, self-discovery and the clash between traditional values and the changing cultural landscape.

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Who's in it: Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, Maribel Verdú

In this Mexican coming-of-age road trip drama, two friends embark on a trip with an older woman in search of a secluded beach. Along the way, their friendships and desires are tested as they grapple with the complexities of relationships, intimacy and the passage from youth to adulthood.

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Universal Picture

Who's in it: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi

To save the orphanage they grew up in, two soul-singing brothers set off on a mission from God to put their old band back together and raise funds through a benefit concert. Their journey becomes a high-energy musical odyssey, replete with outrageous car chases, wild stunts and iconic performances.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)

Twentieth Century Fox

Who's in it: Sacha Baron Cohen, Pamela Anderson

In this mockumentary comedy, the titular Kazakh journalist embarks on a cross-country journey across America, encountering unsuspecting citizens and exposing the absurdities of their beliefs and behaviors. Through outrageous encounters and cringe-worthy situations, the film satirizes cultural differences and societal norms.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)

Warner Bros

Who's in it: Paul Reubens

Eccentric man-child Pee-wee Herman embarks on a whimsical quest to recover his stolen bicycle, leading him on a cross-country adventure filled with quirky characters and surreal landscapes. With boundless energy and childlike wonder, Pee-wee's journey becomes a colorful and lighthearted exploration of imagination and determination.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Universal Studios

Who's in it: Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed, Jackie Gleason

A trucker and his partner-in-crime take on a high-stakes challenge: smuggling a shipment of Coors beer across state lines while eluding a determined sheriff in hot pursuit. This action-packed road trip comedy boasts high-speed chases, witty banter and a dose of Southern charm, making it a classic of its genre.

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10 Best Road Trip Movies of All Time

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Road trips have served as the basis for some of Hollywood's best stories for decades, especially in the comedy genre. These movies often follow characters who, through shared adversity, become closer as friends. Everything from buddy-style dynamics to family trips makes the road trip one of the most enduring, successful formulas on film, merging elements of adventure with relatable situations as characters battle the odds to reach their destinations.

Road trips can take on a variety of forms, from tense modern Westerns to comedic adventures, but all of them share the same focus on character growth and overcoming adversity. There aren't nearly enough of these movies, but some stand out as a testament to the value of a good road-faring adventure. Whether through a modern cross-country story of self-discovery or an old-school crime tale, these films are the best road trip movies out there.

10 Every Which Way But Loose Is Silly Fun

Every which way but loose (1978).

The San Fernando Valley adventures of trucker turned prize-fighter Philo Beddoe and his pet orangutan Clyde.

10 Best Comedy Adventure Movies

Adventure films are full of larger-than-life heroes and fun adventures and comedy adventure movies like The Goonies are some of the best it can offer.

Every Which Way But Loose focuses on a bare-knuckle boxer, Philo Beddoe, who hustles his way through off-the-books fights to make a living. When he meets an aspiring country music singer, Lynn, he falls in love but must contend with a seemingly-violent ex-boyfriend of hers. After spending the night with her, he is shocked to discover that both she and her trailer have disappeared. Not content to let things end there, he sets off with his orangutan friend, Clyde, and brother, Orville, to head to Lynn's hometown of Denver so he can find her. However, he draws the ire of a violent motorcycle gang and a pair of angry cops, who pursue him down to Colorado.

Every Which Way But Loose is a charming buddy comedy, casting Eastwood in one of the more upbeat roles of his career. A box office success, the movie earned a sequel, Any Which Way You Can , which continues the adventures of Philo and Clyde. The movie includes plenty of action as the hero takes on hustlers and enemies, proving himself the toughest guy around.

9 The Gauntlet Is An Action-Packed Road Trip

10 best clint eastwood movies (that aren't westerns).

Clint Eastwood is best known for his prominent roles in Western films, but that is far from the only genre he's appeared in.

The Gauntlet follows an alcoholic Arizona cop, Ben Shockley, who is sent to Las Vegas to find a criminal witness, Gus Malley, and bring her back so she can testify in court against the mob. When he finds her hiding out in her house, Shockley discovers that there's a bet against them making it back to Phoenix, as the mob and corrupt cops make their move against them.

The Gauntlet is one of Clint Eastwood's best action movies, one that slowly sees his character prove he's not a washed-up cop as he fights his way across state lines. With the odds stacked against them, the pair fall in love and use an armored bus to try and survive the hail of gunfire orchestrated to keep Gus from making it to court.

8 Zombieland Follows Survivors of the Apocalypse Fighting the Undead

*Availability in US

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A shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, a gun-toting bruiser in search of the last Twinkie and a pair of sisters striving to get to an amusement park join forces in a trek across a zombie-filled America.

Zombieland takes place in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, one that has left humanity all but extinct. The movie follows and is narrated by Columbus, a young man who abides by a series of rules to stay alive. When he meets a twinkie-loving, gun-obsessed modern-day cowboy, Tallahassee, the pair join forces, and soon cross paths with a pair of con artists, Wichita and Little Rock. Setting their differences aside, the four decide to travel the country together, realizing strength in numbers. At every turn, they're forced to contend with the brain-eating zombies who stalk the Earth.

Zombieland is a hilarious zombie movie, but makes the road trip of its four heroes the heart and soul of the story, with the four eventually running into Bill Murray . The movie is something of a cult classic of its decade, and one of the best modern zombie movies there is, effectively serving as a relatable "what if you survived the zombie apocalypse?" style movie.

7 Road Trip Adapted American Pie's Formula To The Open Road

Four college buddies embark on a road trip to retrieve an illicit tape mistakenly mailed to a female friend.

After the success of 1999's American Pie , the comedy genre took a notable turn towards fun, juvenile, and raunchy humor. The first and most obvious successor of the movie was Road Trip , which follows college freshman Josh, who cheats on his long-distance girlfriend and accidentally mails her a tape of the tryst. Hoping to race from New York to Texas so he can intercept the tape, he enlists three friends, E.L., Rubin, and Kyle to join him on a road trip. When they destroy their car, the four friends are forced to lie and steal their way to Austin.

Road Trip is a brilliant comedy for people who enjoy the '90s style of humor, even casting Seann William Scott in the road of E.L., a character modeled after Steve Stiffler. The movie is full of timeless humor centered around youth and friendship, alternating between Josh's trip and the story of his delinquent friend, Barry, who narrates the whole thing.

6 Midnight Run Is A Comedic Bounty Hunter Movie

Every martin scorsese and robert de niro movie, ranked.

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro are two of the most legendary figures in Hollywood, and they've teamed up to make some of the greatest films ever.

Midnight Run focuses on a Los Angeles-based bounty hunter, Jack Walsh, who agrees to take on a high-profile job to find Jonathan "the Duke" Mardukas, a mob accountant who has skipped his bond. He locates the fugitive in New York and tells his bail bondsman employer he'll have him back soon. However, when Mardukas pretends to be afraid of flying, he forces Jack's hand, and the pair begin an epic cross-country road trip, taking trains and coaches along the way. With the mob, FBI, and a rival bounty hunter after them, the pair develop a respect for one another as they learn about the other's lives.

Midnight Run covers a range of topics and even genres in one movie, combining a mob crime movie, a comedic buddy story, and an old-school road trip. With hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line and trained killers close behind, Jack decides to flip the script on his gangster enemies to save the Duke but collect on his fee. The film is one of DeNiro's best, as he makes for a great partnership alongside Charles Grodin's Mardukas.

5 The Blues Brothers Combines Musical Comedy With The Road Trip

The blues brothers.

The Blues Brothers begins with the release of Jake Blues from prison, with his brother, Elwood, waiting for him. Reunited after years apart, they visit the Penguin, an elderly nun who runs the orphanage they grew up in. When she informs them that the building is facing foreclosure if they can't pay $5000 in property taxes to Cook County. After visiting a church, the brothers have a revelation: they have to reform their old band, the Blues Brothers, to raise money, declaring a mission from God. They head out on a trip to find the old members and get them back in, touring the state to raise cash as they go.

The Blues Brothers is a brilliant combination of musical and road trip comedy, as Jake, Elwood, and the band win over the hearts of everyone through their music. The film includes a variety of brilliant cameos from blues musicians, such as Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, and Ray Charles, all of whom turn in one of the best musicals of the decade. With a growing list of enemies chasing them down, the film follows the heroic singers on their quest to save the orphanage.

4 National Lampoon's Vacation Follows A Dysfunctional Family Trip

National lampoon's vacation (1983).

The Griswold family's cross-country drive to the Walley World theme park proves to be much more arduous than they ever anticipated.

National Lampoon's Vacation tells the story of Clark Griswold, a well-meaning but hapless family man from the suburbs of Chicago. One day, he decides to treat his family to a vacation at the vaunted Wally's World, situated in California. Intent on ensuring his family has the trip of their lives, he insists on driving the entire journey. As they cross America, they experience crime, a family tragedy, personal tensions, and the hospitality of the family's oddball cousin, Eddie.

National Lampoon's Vacation started a movie franchise centered around the misadventures of the Griswold family, with sequels exploring their attempt to host a Christmas dinner for their trip to Las Vegas. However, the original movie remains king, thanks to Chevy Chase's brilliant, career-defining performance as the lovable yet bumbling Clark Griswold.

3 Mad Max: Fury Road Is Hell On Wheels

Mad max: fury road.

In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper and a drifter named Max.

Chris Hemsworth Enjoyed His 'Sick and Twisted' Role in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Chris Hemsworth discusses his role in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, revealing he thoroughly enjoyed playing Dementus.

Mad Max: Fury Road begins when Max Rocketansky is captured by desert raiders, who report to the tyrannical ruler of the water supply, Immortan Joe. However, when one of Joe's finest warriors, Furiosa, flees with his wives, he leads a war party into the desert to stop her, with Max strapped to a car as a blood bank for its half-life boy driver, Nux. After a sandstorm throws everything into chaos, Max escapes, and forces his way into Furiosa's war rig, aiding the women in their escape to avoid the wrath of Joe.

While Mad Max isn't the traditional road trip movie, it still follows all the basic rules of one, with the characters growing closer along their journey. As they flee into the desert, the characters begin their plan to liberate the Citadel from Immortan Joe's rule, narrowly escaping the violence of the villain and his allies along the way. Not only is the movie a brilliant action romp, it brings high-octane energy to the road trip.

2 Logan Is A Dystopian Superhero Neo-Western

In a future where mutants are nearly extinct, an elderly and weary Logan leads a quiet life. But when Laura, a mutant child pursued by scientists, comes to him for help, he must get her to safety.

Logan takes place at the end of Fox's X-Men timeline , and features an aging, dying Wolverine as he is charged with escorting his young female clone, Laura, to Canada to escape a team of mercenaries, the Reavers. He brings along Professor X, whose ailing health and old age have made it difficult to control his abilities, leading to occasional bursts of harmful psychic intrusions in the minds of those around him. Pursued by the cybernetically enhanced mercs, the hero makes his way north, fighting off villains along the way.

Logan is a fun twist on several genres, from dystopian science fiction and superheroes to Westerns and road trips. The film marks the conclusion of Hugh Jackman's Wolverine story arc and serves as one of the best character send-offs in modern cinema. James Mangold's story borrows expertly from classics like Shane, reminding everyone of the hero Logan is as he helps families and children against the violent and corrupt.

1 Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Is the Definitive Road Trip Movie

Planes, trains and automobiles.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles stars Steve Martin as Neal Page, an advertising executive on his way home to Chicago for the Thanksgiving holiday, but his journey is besieged with one problem after another. Things turn for the worst when a boisterous but lovable shower ring curtain salesman Del Griffith (John Candy) crosses paths with him. Now somehow stuck with Del, Neal will attempt to make it across the country in a series of increasingly zany incidents to make it home for the holidays.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles begin when an advertising agent, Neal Page, tries to make his way home from New York to the suburbs of Chicago for Thanksgiving. However, with a raging snowstorm, his flight is delayed indefinitely. He meets a jovial, optimistic shower curtain ring seller, Del Griffith, and the pair attempt to pool resources to make it back. While Neal's more abrasive, frustrated mood clashes with Del's endless upbeat nature, the two do become friends as they make their way across the country. Along the way, they face bad weather, thieves, a car fire, and more, setting them back at every turn.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles doubles as the ultimate road trip movie as well as the perfect Thanksgiving story, revolving around the importance of friendship and understanding. As one of John Hughes' best films, it casts John Candy and Steve Martin as Del and Neal, with the two comedy icons turning in some of their best work as mismatched companions.

Top 20 Best Road Trip Movies Of All Time

1. We're the Millers

2. Me, Myself & Irene

4. Around the World in 80 Days

5. The Fundamentals of Caring

6. The Darjeeling Limited

7. Zombieland

8. Due Date

10. The Mitchells vs. the Machines

11. Zombieland: Double Tap

12. The Hitman's Bodyguard

13. Hunt for the Wilderpeople

14. Vacation

15. Love and Monsters

16. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

17. Little Miss Sunshine

18. EuroTrip

19. Dumb and Dumber

20. Vacation

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16 Road Trip Movies That Make Us Want To Hit The Road

One type of film that always tends to put a smile on your face by the end is the road trip movie . You get all of your main characters stuck with each other in a car or any other form of transport and you watch how their relationships are forced to grow. The best road trip movies also tend to put you in the mood to go on a road trip of your own. 

They make you want to take a week off of work, pack up the suitcases, fire up a playlist , and hit the road with friends and family. Still, a spontaneous road trip isn't always possible. That's okay! Just watch these films and enjoy the ride with your favorite characters. 

We're the Millers

• Warner Bros. Pictures

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  In order to smuggle a large haul of drugs in Mexio, drug dealer David (Jason Sudeikis) hires a stripper named Rose (Jennifer Aniston) and two local teens to pretend to be his family. Looking like a normal suburban family should hopefully help them get past customs while crossing the border. 

Highlight Of The Journey:  David and Rose try to act like actual parents by meeting the man that’s picking up Casey (Emma Roberts) on a date. Meet Scottie P., a carnival worker with a chest tattoo with the saying “No Ragrets,” a simple credo he lives by. The irony is not lost on anyone. 

Fun Fact About The Movie:  Will Arnett and  Jason Bateman were both considered to play David in the film, before the job went to Jason Sudeikis.  

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• Columbia Pictures

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  Zombieland follows four characters who eventually cross paths on their journeys. You've got zombie survivalist expert Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) trying to find his parents. Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin) are con artist sisters who want to get to the Pacific Playland theme park. Then there's Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), who's just enjoying the open road, killing zombies in the coolest way possible.  

Highlight Of The Trip: In one of the best cameos of all time, the characters find themselves exploring the Hollywood Hills, eventually taking shelter in the house of comedy legend Bill Murray. While Murray pretends to be a zombie to scare Columbus, he's unceremoniously shot in the chest due to Columbus's quick survival instincts. Whoops.

Fun Fact About The Movie: Zombieland was originally sold to CBS as a TV show , but like many scripts, it didn't have a chance of seeing the light of day. Thankfully, producer Gavin Polone loved the script so much that he took it to Columbia Pictures to have it turned into a film.  

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• Paramount Pictures

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  After his father dies from a heart attack, man-child Tommy Callahan (Chris Farley) tries to save his father’s company. Being joined by his father’s assistant, Richard (David Spade), the two set off on a cross-country trip to find more clients. As with any Chris Farley film, hilarity ensues along the way.

Highlight Of The Trip: Tommy is not the best salesman, and he’ll be the first to tell you. Tommy tries to sell a client brake pads, using toy cars for an all-too-vivid demonstration of what would happen if the wrong brakes were used. Tommy goes so far as to light one of the toy cars on fire directly on the desk, all with the great physical comedy that only Chris Farley could do. 

Fun Fact About The Movie: According to an interview on Rob Lowe's podcast , David Spade and Chris Farley got into a fight on set. This was due to Chris being jealous of David hanging out with Rob Lowe so much. 

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National Lampoon's Vacation

• Warner Bros.

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) wants to take his family to Walley World. While they could’ve easily flown from Chicago to California, Clark pines for that picture-perfect family road trip instead, cramming everyone into his metallic pea-colored Family Truckster. 

Highlight Of The Trip: Despite having been on the worst road trip imaginable, the Griswolds finally make it to Walley World, only to discover it’s closed for two weeks. Clark, always wanting the best for his family, uses a BB gun to hold a security guard hostage and force him to take everyone on the rides. 

Fun Fact About The Movie: The original ending saw Clark show up at the house of Walley World owner Roy Walley (Eddie Bracken), and holding him hostage for closing the park. Test audiences didn’t like this ending as they felt cheated out of the Walley World payoff. 

Almost Famous

• DreamWorks Pictures

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  Young freelance writer William Miller (Patrick Fugit) gets the opportunity of a lifetime from Rolling Stone magazine to write about the new band Stillwater by accompanying them on tour. The tour gives William a first-hand look at the hectic world of rock-n-roll.

Highlight Of The Trip:  William and Stillwater’s lead singer Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) find themselves at a high school party after Russell gets into a fight with the band. After a few too many substances, Russell stands on the rooftop and delivers the now iconic “I am a golden god” line. 

Fun Fact About The Movie:  The film is semi-autobiographical from writer/director Cameron Crowe, who toured with several bands for Rolling Stone magazine. The movie’s fictional band Stillwater is based around a few bands, such as The Who, The Allman Brothers Band, and the Eagles. 

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Planes, Trains and Automobiles

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  Neal Page (Steve Martin) is an uptight marketing executive who just wants to get home for Thanksgiving. However, due to bad weather, his plane to Chicago is forced to land in Kansas. Neal has no choice but to travel by car alongside the talkative but kind-hearted Del Griffith (John Candy), whom he met at the airport.

Highlight Of The Journey:  An infuriated Neal tries to rent a car in St. Louis but no longer has his rental agreement. This causes him to go on a legendary tirade to the poor rental agent, dropping the f-bomb for about every other word he says. 

Fun Fact About The Movie:  Writer/director John Hughes based the film on a very similar experience he had when he was an advertising copywriter. He was flying from New York to Chicago, but bad weather forced the plane to land in Kansas, just like in the film. 

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What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  While trying to mail a tape to his long-distance girlfriend detailing his life in college so far, Josh (Breckin Meyer) accidentally sends a tape of him cheating on her instead. His other friends join him on long road trip to Austin to prevent her from seeing the tape. 

Highlight Of The Journey:  The gang ends up being stopped by a broken bridge on the road, requiring them to have to jump the gap instead. One of the friends Rubin insists that the physics are correct and that they could make it. Against all odds, they do make the jump, though the car itself doesn’t survive the fall.  

Fun Fact About The Movie:  The man who tries to lick Beth’s (Amy Smart) feet on the bus is the film’s writer/director Todd Phillips. Yes, the same Todd Phillips would go on to direct smash-hits such as  The Hangover, Old School , and  Joker .

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Dumb and Dumber

• New Line Cinema

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take? Harry (Jeff Bridges) and Lloyd (Jim Carrey) are two dimwitted best friends who drive to Colorado to return a briefcase to Mary (Lauren Holly), a woman Lloyd is hopelessly in love with. Little do they know, the briefcase is filled with ransom money that Mary assembled to free her kidnapped husband, putting them in the crosshairs of some violent criminals. 

Highlight Of The Trip: Joe “Mental” Mentalino, one of kidnappers, is nearly pushed to his limit as he's stuck riding in between Harry and Lloyd in the van. Between Harry and Lloyd playing tag to Lloyd attempting his “most annoying sound in the world” scream, Joe is about to ready to pull his gun out on both of them. 

Fun Fact About The Movie: Jim Carrey was originally offered $350,000 for the film, but after Ace Ventura: Pet Detective opened big at the box-office, his salary was renegotiated to $7 million , which was very high at the time for a comedic actor.

• Dig Deeper... Behind-The-Scenes Stories From 'Dumb And Dumber'
• And Deeper... 'Dumb And Dumber' Is Far Darker And Creepier Than You Remember
• # 86 of 379 on The Best Movies Of The '90s, Ranked

The Muppet Movie

• Sony Pictures

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  Kermit the Frog tries to make his way to Hollywood for a life in show-business. On the way, he runs into some new friends like Fozzie Bear and Miss Piggy, all while evading the ruthless Doc Hopper, who just wants Kermit to be his spokesperson for his frog legs business.

Highlight Of The Journey:  The musical number “Movin’ Right Along” sees Kermit and Fozzie Bear driving along the highway. It’s a super-catchy song that contains the amusing bit where Kermit tells Fozzie to avoid the fork in the road, which is an actual giant fork on the road. 

Fun Fact About The Movie:  The final sequence took over 150 puppeteers to film.  In an interview with John Landis , he claims to have been one of those puppeteers, along with future legendary director Tim Burton. 

• # 402 of 769 on The Most Rewatchable Movies
• # 61 of 204 on Musical Movies With The Best Songs
• # 242 of 707 on The All-Time Greatest Comedy Films

Thelma & Louise

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) are two best friends who decide to leave their mundane lives and hit the road together. Unfortunately, a man tries to assault Thelma, leading to Louise killing the man and forcing both women to go on the run from the police. 

Highlight Of The Journey:  In desperate need of money, Thelma ends up robbing a convenience store at gunpoint, though Louise is not aware of this until Thelma comes running out. Louise is none too happy as they drive off. In Thelma’s defense, at least she didn’t kill anybody.  

Fun Fact About The Movie:  This was Brad Pitt’s breakout role. On The Graham Norton Show , Geena Davis told audiences that she was the one who gave the thumbs up to cast Brad Pitt, so you have her to thank. 

• Dig Deeper... Behind-The-Scenes Stories From The Making Of 'Thelma & Louise'
• # 102 of 379 on The Best Movies Of The '90s, Ranked
• # 462 of 769 on The Most Rewatchable Movies

• Open Road Films

What Kind of Journey Do They Take? After famed chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) has a meltdown that goes viral, he decides to start fresh and buy a food truck, taking it from Miami to Los Angeles with his son Percy and friend Martin. Through this trip, Carl hopes to fix his estranged relationship with Percy, while also re-discovering his passion for cooking.

Highlight Of The Trip: At the end of the trip, Percy sends Carl a video where he captured one second of each day from the trip. Carl can't help but smile and cry as he views the joyous memories he just made with his son.

Fun Fact About The Movie: The film was inspired by famous chef Roy Choi , who is known as one of the architects behind the modern food truck movement. Chef Choi was a consultant for the film and ensured that the food shown on-screen was accurately made, including the delicious looking Cubano sandwiches.

• # 1 of 59 on The Best Movies About Cooking
• # 25 of 50 on The Best Movies About Men Raising Kids
• # 43 of 57 on The Best Single Dad Movies Ever Made

Little Miss Sunshine

• Fox Searchlight Pictures

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  Sherry (Toni Collette) and Richard (Greg Kinnear) have two days to drive from New Mexico to California so their spunky daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) can compete in the “Little Miss Sunshine” beauty pageant. Joining them in their bright yellow Winnebago is their weird son Dwayne (Paul Dano), Sherry's depressed brother Frank (Steve Carell), and Richard's foul-mouthed father Edwin (Alan Arkin).

Highlight Of The Trip: Once Olive gets to do her performance on stage, everyone is caught off-guard by her suggestive dance to Rick James's “Superfreak." Not wanting her to embarrass herself in front of everyone, each family member eventually joins in, much to the disapproval of the judges. It's an incredibly heartfelt scene that shows how close the family has become over the long trip.

Fun Fact About The Movie: Steve Carell was not a huge star when initially cast, with some of the producers wanting to go with someone more well-known at the time. Between the filming of the movie and its release, both The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Office had come out, causing the producers to heavily market the film around Carell.

• # 674 of 769 on The Most Rewatchable Movies
• # 173 of 636 on The 600+ Funniest Movies Of All Time
• # 388 of 707 on The All-Time Greatest Comedy Films

• Universal Pictures

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  In the 1960s, Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) is hired to drive Black classical pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) across the deep south for a tour. The pair use  The Negro Motorist Green Book , which was a guide to tell Black travelers where all the safest places to visit across the south are.

Highlight Of The Journey:  After leaving a country club that Don was supposed to play at, due to him being refused a table in the dining room, Don and Tony end up at a Black blues club. Don decides to hop on the piano and play classical music. Though hesitant at first, the rest of the bar patrons end up very impressed, with the rest of the blues band later joining Don on stage. 

Fun Fact About The Movie:  The real-life Frank Vallelonga ended up becoming an actor . His most notable role was mob boss Carmine Lupertazzi Sr. in HBO’s  The Sopranos .

• Dig Deeper... Who Was Don Shirley, The Virtuosic Pianist At The Center Of 'Green Book'?
• And Deeper... Movies That Won Best Picture at the Oscars and Golden Globes
• # 70 of 96 on The Very Best Oscar-Winning Movies For Best Picture

Are We There Yet?

• Columba Pictures

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  Though Nick (Ice Cube) isn't the biggest fan of kids, he ends up dating Suzanne (Nia Long), a single mother of two. Nick ends up with the task of having to take both kids to Vancouver. Little does he know that both kids are dedicated to sabotaging any man who tries to date their mom. 

Highlight Of The Journey:  Not even a split-second after Nick tells both kids to be careful opening his door, Kevin (Philip Daniel Bolden) immediately hits the door on a bollard, getting yellow paint on Nick’s brand new Lincoln Navigator. It’s Ice Cube’s great comedic timing that really makes this scene hilarious.   

Fun Fact About The Movie:  This would be Ice Cube’s first PG movie. In an interview with HipHopDX , Cube stated that he was thrilled to do Are We There Yet? as it would introduce him to the kids of all his fans. 

• # 519 of 707 on The All-Time Greatest Comedy Films
• # 163 of 472 on The Best Black Movies Ever Made, Ranked
• # 50 of 125 on The Funniest Black Movies Ever Made

Pee-wee's Big Adventure

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens) adores his red bike. In fact, he won't even sell it for $100 million, billion, trillion dollars. When the bike is stolen, Pee-wee makes it his mission to find his beloved bike, forcing him to hitchhike to Texas, running into a colorful cast of characters on the way. 

Highlight Of The Trip: Pee-wee finds himself inside a biker bar to use the phone. After Pee-wee accidentally knocks over the motorcycles, the bikers are ready to kill Pee-wee. Thankfully, the bar has a jukebox machine, and the busboy conveniently has a pair of dancing shoes. Pee-wee ends up winning all the bikers over with his dance routine to the song “Tequila.” The bikers are so impressed that they embrace Pee-wee as one of their own. 

Fun Fact About The Movie: Paul Reubens was given a 1940s Schwinn bike to ride around the studio. Reubens loved the bike so much he dropped the original plot and rewrote the film to be about Pee-wee searching for his missing bike.

• Dig Deeper... 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure' Is A Weirdly Traumatizing Classic
• # 17 of 96 on The 90+ Best Movies Of 1985, Ranked
• # 229 of 636 on The 600+ Funniest Movies Of All Time

What Kind Of Journey Do They Take?  Depressed author Miles (Paul Giamatti) and soon-to-be married Jack (Thomas Haden Church) are two middle-aged men who decide to go on a road trip across California’s wine country. While Miles just wants it to be a relaxing trip, Jack decides he wants to have one little fling with a random girl before he gets married. 

Highlight Of The Journey:  Miles wishes to drown his sorrows in wine after his book is rejected by a publisher, but the server cuts him off since this is a tasting. Insisting on getting all the wine he wants; Miles grabs the bucket that everyone had been spitting in for their tasting and pours it all over himself. 

Fun Fact About The Movie:  In the DVD commentary, Giamatti revealed that after filming the scene where they eat at Miles’s mother’s house, all three actors got food poisoning from the food. 

• # 199 of 675 on The Best Movies Roger Ebert Gave Four Stars
• # 459 of 707 on The All-Time Greatest Comedy Films
• # 38 of 99 on The Best Movies Of 2004, Ranked
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The basest definition of a road trip is simply this: a person or people moving across a great distance, usually in an automobile. Road trips, despite our romantic cultural idea of them, are usually unremarkable chores – moving (the worst), driving home for the holidays, heading to school, etc. Even when driving to a vacation, the travel usually ends up being the worst part. Exciting, sure; but eventually those trips drone, and drone, and drone and… are we there yet?

In cinema, though, road trips are important in ways that seldom match reality. Some are heroes’ journeys, transformative experiences that elevate characters or bring them to age. Others are farcical comedies of error, presenting hilarious roadblocks and setbacks that exist only in fiction. Some are both, and few are neither. Despite having tonal differences and unique genre elements, road trip movies constitute a category all themselves. This list is about the best of that category.

These are the 17 Greatest Road Trip Movies of All Time.

17. Road Trip

Road Trip is a time capsule, stuffed with what young adults found funny around start of the century. The film grossed $120 Million against a $16 million dollar budget, and the credits list includes names like Seann William Scott, Amy Smart, Fred Ward, and Tom Green. If those names don’t induce flashbacks, maybe the film’s plot will.

Road Trip is about a college kid who, as a way to maintain a long distance relationship with his girlfriend, films himself in daily video blogs. On tape . He then mails the tape – in the mail – across the country to his girlfriend. This system works fine, until a tape that captured the boyfriend’s infidelity is accidentally mailed. So he and his friends get in an car and drive across the country to try to intercept the tape.

The film is ultimately a forgettable entry in the road trip genre – it comes in last on the list, included because its premise is an homage to the road trip itself, and because its name is, well, Road Trip.

16. Zombieland

Some film road trips are quests of self-discovery. Some serve practical purposes, like recovering an accidental sex-tape or heading to vacation. Or running from zombies.

When Zombieland arrived in theaters in 2009, we saw a polar extreme of road trip insanity. Starring Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eiesenberg, and Abigail Breslin, the film takes place in a world ravaged by the zombie apocalypse. These characters aren’t traversing the country on some field trip, they are desperately (and hilariously) seeking asylum - and twinkies.

As with any good road trip, barriers are broken down in the film, and relationships are formed.  When we first meet the protagonists of Zombieland , they identify themselves by birthplace exclusively (“ Hi, I’m Columbus ”) as a way to resist forming bonds, but by the end of the film romances spark and surprising friendships form. The film presents the road trip as a transformative event, with a satisfying emotional payoff. Plus a whole lot of zombies ( and maybe more to come) .

Borat : Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan , which we will call simply Borat moving forward, was either ahead of its time or timeless in its lampooning of xenophobia, homophobia, and jingoism in America. Sacha Baron Cohen plays the film's titular character, driving cross country to do two things: chronicle American culture, and find Pamela Anderson, who he saw on TV and is determined to take for a wife.

There’s a chance that whatever freshness or edginess  defined Borat when it released has been worn away, blunted by the bad impressions and recountings that were inescapable for a long time after the film’s initial release. But what Borat did as a road trip film was ingenious. By perverting the relationship between road trip and country (a relationship usually defined by discovery, and understanding), Sacha Baron Cohen turned a fun house mirror toward our national image. It was hilarious.

14. Mad Max: Fury Road

Fury Road is one of two things: it is either a stretched definition of “road trip”, or it is the apotheosis of “road trip”. We lean toward the latter. The film’s protagonists, Max (Tom Hardy) and Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) do, in fact, complete two long journeys in a truck, and all the hallmarks of a film road trip are present. The pressures of travel reveal hidden truths about the characters, who both discover each other and discover themselves. Relationships are formed; others, more destructive, are shed.

That the “pressures of travel” in this case includes radiated war-boys launching fire spears into trucks, sandstorms destroying caravans, and one faceless man playing a flamethrower guitar do not in any way discount the road-trip tropes highlighted above. If anything, the unique perils of this particular trip reinforce what we love about travel films, at the same time adding some of the best action  films anyone has ever seen.

13. Into The Wild

Into The Wild doesn’t follow the normal road trip format, usually including one or more characters in a car on the way to wherever, only to discover that the trip itself was more important than the destination. For Into The Wild , and the film’s protagonist Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch), the trip was never about anything other than the trip, destinations be damned.

In Into The Wild , McCandless strips himself of society’s strappings entirely, and resigns himself to travel wherever the wind blows. The film’s perspective is ultimately disturbing, but refreshingly original – what starts predictably as a paean to nature and a condemnation of society turns into a nightmare, as McCandless’ life comes to its conclusion, alone and afraid, having misjudged just how cruel nature could truly be.

The films’ finish is depressing and confounding, but it succeeds in playing sickly with our expectations of how road trips and retreats are supposed to work – the protagonist in this story may have found himself, but part of that discovery was just how unequipped he was to deal with his surroundings in the end.

12. Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is the indie film that other indie films use as a success marker, after grossing $100 million at the box office against an $8-million-dollar budget and was nominated for four academy awards. Its easy to see how the film was so successful; it nimbly presents a funny and heartfelt story that could have easily been cloyingly sweet in the wrong hands.

The film follows a family, dysfunctional in their own way, that travels across the country to enter their youngest girl in a beauty pageant. The family consists of personalities that defy convenient descriptors. A teenage son, in the middle of a vow of silence until he becomes a test pilot. A scholarly brother, who also happens to be homosexual and is recovering from a suicide attempt. A grandfather, booted from his retirement home for snorting heroin.

The trip in Little Miss Sunshine brings the family together, moves them past the petty conflicts of the film’s early going. Instead of changing for one another, though, the family becomes galvanized around Abigail Breslin’s character, happy to be with each other even though they are all screwed up In one way or another.

11. Rain Man

It’s shocking now – with the tent pole culture that pervades our theaters – that Rain Man was the highest grossing film of 1988. But it was, with $354 million against a budget of twenty-five and four Oscar wins (including Best Picture and Best Actor) to boot. The film follows Tom Cruise as Charlie, a slick salesman with debts to pay. Charlie’s father passes away and leaves the family’s considerable wealth to Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), a brother Charlie never knew existed. Raymond is an autistic savant who is living at a mental institution at the film’s start.

The road trip in Rain Man is predictably transformative for Charlie, who starts the film as a slave to his own self-interest and finishes with a newfound perspective on what relationships can mean.  As the two brothers travel from Cincinnati to Los Angeles, hampered by the restrictions of Raymond’s condition, Charlie discovers his brother to be more than just a roadblock in front of the family fortune.

10. The Motorcycle Diaries

The Motorcycle Diaries is as much an ode to the road movie genre as it is a biopic of a young Che Guevara as he traverses the South American continent by, you guessed it, motorcycle. The film could have been a by-the-numbers historical recounting of a revolutionary in the making, but it instead takes a romantic stance toward the road trip as a transformation event. It’s poetic, while still historically accurate.

The film adapts the real life memoirs of Che Guevara, the story of his journey across South America during his last year of medical school. Ostensibly traveling to volunteer at a leper colony, Guevara and his riding partner are confronted with the disparity between the upper class that they belong to and the abject poverty that they discover along the way. The Motorcycle Diaries makes the road trip multifunctional – it is a tool of personal discovery, of chronicling a continent, and of forming a revolutionary.

9. Almost Famous

At the intersection of road movie and coming-of-age movie, you can find Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical   Almost Famous , a story about a teenage rock and roll journalist and the band he is following.

At his best, Crowe is adept at toeing the line between oversweet sentimentality and sharp emotional resonance. Almost Famous is Crowe at his best. The film follows William Miller, a budding music critic with only fifteen years of life under his belt. He follows Stillwater - a band on the rise - across the country, discovering on the way what it feels like to fall in love, be accepted, make friends, be let down, be rejected, and be embarrassed. If the hallmark of road trip films is travel as a conduit for change, Almost Famous is that idea distilled down to its core.

A young Patrick Fugit gave depth and life to the main character of William, alongside a star studded cast including Kate Hudson in the role of Penny Lane, veteran groupie. All the characters in the tour bus are tainted, broken in one way or another, and yet they are all likeable. It makes for an intoxicating mixture of joy and sadness, and a trip that we would love to take.

8. Y Tu Mama Tambien

Y Tu Mama Tambien is a 2001 film directed by Alfonso Cuaron that follows two teenagers and a woman in her twenties as they traverse Mexico in search of a particular secluded beach. Cuaron would go on to direct giant, visionary films like Gravity and Children of Men , but Y Tu Mama Tambien is a small, ruthlessly intimate tale.

Some road trip films, specifically about young men discovering themselves, presents sexuality as an end goal, something worth traveling to discover. Not even sex, the act; just a character’s own sexuality, the threshold between boyhood and manhood. Y Tu Mama Tambien presents sexuality as a nuclear bomb. The two protagonists cling to their illicit history with women, and strive to sexualize themselves in the eyes of the world. That quest eventually destroys the foundation of their relationship, as they divulge corrosive truths about themselves and cross lines that cannot be uncrossed.

That summary may feel vague, because it is. The film itself is starkly explicit and frank in ways that we really can’t be here. Its presentation of sexuality is aggressively subversive, and it’s use of the road trip as a tool for that subversion is startling. It is a singular entry into the road movie genre, and one that will stay with you for a while after the trip has ended.

7. Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

Harold and Kumar  Go to White Castle is road-trip-as-farce, with two titular characters that - after engaging in some recreational drug activity - decide to make the quest to White Castle for hamburgers. On its surface, the film is indistinct from other stoner comedies like Half Baked , How High, et al. What sets it apart is the film’s characters, which are fully realized and relatable, and the lead actors, who breathe life into a film that is otherwise constricted by the well-tread genre that defines it.

Harold and Kumar, played by John Cho and Kal Penn, are markedly different from the other slackers and underachievers that often populate comedies like this one. They are both second generation immigrants, and both relatively high achievers. The impetus for their drug-addled escapade isn’t arrested development. Instead, it’s the reality that maybe they don’t have agency over their lives at a crucial age. Kumar (Penn) must decide whether he wants to be a doctor, or whether he is fulfilling a destiny that he didn’t choose, a destiny that he also feels is completely ethnically unoriginal. Harold is a lonely investment banker, stagnating and in unrequited love with his neighbor.

The characters are easily relatable, have tangible feelings and goals, and are as such sympathetic figures to their audience. Like any good road movie, they change along the way, discovering their true desires and regaining power over their choices.

6. The Straight Story

The Straight Story is based on the true events surrounding Alvin Straight’s journey across Iowa and Wisconsin. The fact that Alvin’s journey takes place on a lawn mower is just the first in a series of distinctions between The Straight Story and other road trip films.

Richard Farnsworth stars as Alvin, an elderly man who lives with his daughter. He is visited with the news that his estranged brother has suffered a stroke, prompting Alvin to visit him before he dies and make amends. Alvin, saddled with the physical impairments that come with advanced age, can’t procure a driver’s license. So, determined, he makes the journey on his extremely slow lawn tractor.

David Lynch directed the film, shooting the entire movie along the actual route Alvin took to find his brother. The Straight Story was nominated for the palm d’or at Cannes film festival in 1999, and was released to nearly unanimous critical acclaim.  It stands apart from Lynch’s normally byzantine works , as an accessible and touching film – one that uses the road trip as a way for Alvin to meet numerous characters along the way and have heartfelt, meaningful interactions with each of them before eventually achieving his goal.

5. Vacation (1983)

Vacation is both outrageously funny and truly poignant in a way that few other films are. By now, the story is well known – Clark Griswald ( Chevy Chase ) is a harried and overmatched husband and father of two who wants only to provide a quality vacation for his family, one devoid of complications.

That Griswold is not a taskmaster, but rather a loving and caring dad and husband, only heightens the comic tragedy of the whole endeavor. Vacation ’s lesson is simple, and instantly relatable: no family is perfect, and nothing ever goes as planned. The canned experiences, the plastic amusement parks and hokey tourist traps aren’t what make family vacations memorable. It’s the diversions, the incidents that could only happen to your family, that make otherwise unremarkable experiences memorable.

Now, Vacation takes that idea to extreme heights, as any good comedy would.  Everything that can go wrong does go wrong, from the vehicle itself, to lost currency, car accidents, crazy relatives, and at least one dead dog. Clark drives himself to the brink of insanity trying to overcome this series of unfortunate events, only to find out that the family’s destination is not even open for business.

It was a blueprint that served for four more sequels, of varying quality. Vacation kept returning to the well, ultimately because we are all Griswalds to one degree or another.

4. Dumb and Dumber

Road trips rarely come funnier than Dumb and Dumber , a comedy of errors about two friends – Harry and Lloyd - driving across the country to return a briefcase of money to its rightful owner. Harry and Lloyd are painfully unaware that a crime syndicate is also after that money, and that their safety is very much in question from the moment they embark.

Unlike other films on this list, Dumb and Dumber doesn’t have much to say about the inherent power of road trips, besides as a plot device. That the film isn’t exactly lyrical about the  forces of travel doesn’t detract from its humor, though, and that is ultimately the point of the entire exercise. What makes the characters of Dumb and Dumber so hilarious is precisely that they don’t change, that they refuse to change, that they don’t even acknowledge change as an option.  They can’t be transformed by the road trip, because their very essence makes that impossible.

The film, despite being pretty blue in its humor, is actually thoughtful in that regard. Where most road trip films zig, Dumb and Dumber zags. If the movie concluded with its idiot protagonists having learned something, it would feel cheap, unearned. Instead, when Harry and Lloyd unthinkingly pass up the opportunity to be oil boys for a busload of models at the film’s end, only to continue walking on foot, it feels hilariously perfect .

3. Thelma and Louise

Thelma and Louise is a road trip film with something to say, something prescient and relevant today that was remarkably ahead of its time in 1991. The film follows two friends , Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) who take to the road for a two-day vacation. What begins as a regular retreat ends in disaster, marked by murder, robbery, and suicide.

The film’s attitude toward male oppression - and the appropriate female response - is complicated, and difficult to unpack in this space. The titular characters have both been affected by male violence in one way or another, and their decision to deliver  retribution in kind ultimately leads to their untimely death.

The above description might make an uninitiated reader expect Thelma and Louise to be dark, disturbing, and tragic - and it is that. But remarkably, the film is also vibrant and funny, populated with characters that jump off the screen. Whether it is a truly feminist statement, or an armed and violent perversion of feminist ideology, or anti-male, or none of the above is really is an argument for a different space entirely. We are concerned with Thelma and Louise as a road trip movie, and it succeeds in being a completely unique and rewarding entry in that category.

2. The Blues Brothers

In road trip films, by definition, the travel serves a purpose; it isn’t just a matter of circumstance. T he Blues Brothers might just be the exception that proves the rule in that regard. The trip in question isn’t one of self-discovery, or transformation. The miles logged don’t have inherent power or value. Instead, the road trip in The Blues Brother  gives the film itself shape. As characters move from one place to the next, the film gains momentum and the stakes grow exponentially higher.

Jake and Elwood Blues are a pair of seedy musicians, seeking to save the boys home where they grew up from closure, if only to give themselves some form of redemption. To do so, they must reassemble their old group and play music for money. To a certain extent, that is the gist of the entire film. What actually appears on screen, though, is a demolition opera, complete with car chases, crashes, shootouts, and fantastic musical numbers. The road trip doesn’t contribute to the film’s function, but it certainly defines the film’s form.

1. Easy Rider

This list began with Road Trip , a time capsule distinctly from the year 2000. We will finish it with Easy Rider , the best road movie of all time and a film unmistakably from 1969.

Easy Rider is all about the trip. The film presents two protagonists, latched onto a reality that is quickly disappearing around them. The two are free spirits, counter-cultural travelers at the end of the sixties - a time when ideas of renegade spirit and true freedom were slowly corroding. Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy ( Dennis Hopper ), travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans by motorcycle, hoping to make it in time for Mardi Gras. They are flush with cash from a recent drug deal and open to whatever the road has in store for them.

What they find is unexpected – it seems the country, at least where they are, isn’t as welcoming to free spirited weirdos as it once was. Wyatt and Billy, two bikers who just want a taste of true freedom and the road, stand out in the small towns and rural communities along their trail. They are marked as outsiders, vagrants, and tragedy ultimately befalls them.

It’s a tale that couldn’t possibly have been told in one place. The road trip was vital in unearthing the truth about America, at least the truth that the filmmakers and the protagonists were living. Easy Rider is the quintessential road movie, and the best the category has to offer.

27 Road Trip Movies Every Traveler Needs To Watch

The road is one of the most enduring images in film history because it can be used for so many different purposes. It can mean the freedom of adventure, or adventure's inevitable dead-end. Road trips can result in meeting interesting new characters, or they can be the worst kind of isolation or even the worst kind of forced bonding. Filmmakers from all over the world are continually drawn to the road movie and specifically the road trip movie, where a simple car or bus ride can become something much more meaningful. It offers plenty of opportunity for unexpected change, and it often does so in front of beautiful, overwhelming landscapes. They'll never stop making movies about road trips because people will never stop taking them, always wanting to see the sights and maybe become a little wiser in the process.

The 27 films in this list all take their own approaches to portraying the road trip cinematically, emphasizing its best and worst tendencies and playing them for both comedy and drama. But even the worst trips taken here offer something to appreciate, sometimes deep thought about the meaning of the road and sometimes a laugh at the expense of the poor fools stuck in the car.

1. Easy Rider

One of the most iconic road trips in cinematic history was taken by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in Hopper's 1969 classic "Easy Rider." The legendary image of Fonda and Hopper riding their motorcycles while Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild" plays remains people's main association with "Easy Rider." But the movie itself is more complicated than just the thrill of riding down wide-open roads. The tagline tells of a man who went looking for America and "couldn't find it anywhere," and that's a good summation of the cynical eye this takes toward the country it explores.

Fonda and Hopper encounter some friendly people in their travels, most famously Jack Nicholson in his breakout role as a drunken lawyer. They encounter just as much resistance as they do support, from people with no tolerance for their countercultural attitudes and long hair. In one scene, Nicholson tells Hopper that people are scared of him because "what you represent to them is freedom," and the film's bleak ending offers little hope that freedom can be maintained in the face of such strong opposition. But the power of the film's images of freedom and joy is still enough to keep this as one of the beloved road movies.

2. Lost in America

Despite its cynicism, "Easy Rider" inspired many Americans to go out on the road themselves, even ones who couldn't be further away from Fonda and Hopper's biker lifestyle. This is the subject of writer, director, and actor Albert Brooks's 1985 film "Lost in America," in which a middle-class yuppie couple (Brooks and Julie Hagerty) hits the road and quickly realizes they can't handle it. By the end of the trip, they've destroyed their lives and their savings, and they've rid themselves of any romantic notions about traveling America without a plan.

Brooks' directorial work is defined by bitterness and discomfort as much as by laughs, and "Lost in America" can be particularly caustic. Brooks and Hagerty sink to some miserable depths during the course of their trip, reduced to begging for the money they just lost gambling or treating each other with naked hostility. A trip to the Hoover Dam doesn't offer scenery, instead serving as a backdrop to the couple's most vicious fight. "Lost in America" is a satire of the waste and excess of the American '80s, but it's also a reminder to make sure you've carefully thought through your road trip before you embark on one. Some people aren't ready for the road, and Brooks and Hagerty learn that too late.

3. The Color Wheel

Getting stuck with someone annoying on a long road trip can be a miserable experience, so spending the entirety of the 2011 comedy "The Color Wheel" with two annoying people on a road trip can make it a tough sell. But the film's writer-director, Alex Ross Perry, has an uncommon talent for writing people who only seem to be awful and irritating so that they're both funnier and more tragic than they would be in real life. That skill serves him especially well for the two leads of "The Color Wheel," an obnoxious brother and sister (played by Perry and Carlen Altman) whose road trip through New England leads them to meet strangers and old friends who are all even more awful than they are. The scenery offers little comfort when every scene becomes a passive-aggressive argument.

"The Color Wheel" is above all else a comedy, happy to laugh at its main characters for their abysmal social skills and undisguised contempt for each other and everyone around them. But as the trip goes on and they keep meeting hostile exes and classmates, their situation starts to seem a little sad, like they've been molded into hateful jerks by the whole world around them. Their final attempt to escape the cycle of anger and venom is shocking, but it's also unexpectedly tender, because Perry respects his characters even as they embarrass themselves.

Even the awful road trip of "The Color Wheel" can't compare to the nightmare trip taken by the title character of "Zola," and hers really happened. "Zola" was adapted from the famous Twitter thread detailing a disastrous trip to Florida taken by a part-time stripper (Taylour Paige) and a woman she just met (Riley Keough). There's not much time to enjoy Florida on this trip, the scenery consists of strip malls and different men's hotel rooms, and the business Zola has been dragged into quickly spirals into exploitation and violence.

"Zola" is about very bad events in a woman's life, but like the Twitter thread, it believes those events to be hilarious above anything else. The band of fools Zola winds up with can seem dangerous, particularly Colman Domingo's ambiguously accented pimp, but mostly they're all bluster and no brains. When they encounter people who are actually dangerous, they escape by the skin of their teeth. There's tension but never fear in "Zola," and that helps to make it a wonderful comedy even once the blood starts getting shed.

5. American Honey

"Zola" isn't the only movie where Riley Keough is a uniquely awful road trip presence. There's also the 2016 drama "American Honey", where Keough enlists a young girl played by Sasha Lane into a crew of door-to-door magazine salespeople. They travel blissfully across the Midwest, and Lane falls in love with a member of the crew, played by Shia LaBeouf. But their peaceful, off-the-grid existence is threatened by Keough and the precarity of their jobs.

A common thread across many of the great American road movies is that they're not directed by Americans, with international directors often looking at American landscapes in a different way than their American counterparts who've grown up with them. English director Andrea Arnold joins that group of directors with how she films America here, pushing the colors of the landscapes to such extremes that the emotions associated with them are also heightened, whether they be romance or danger. Her beautiful imagery is accentuated by her pulsing soundtrack, which switches between big-name pop hits and obscurities that perfectly match the mood of youthful excitement and negligence that defines "American Honey."

6. Stranger Than Paradise

While road trips can be fun and exciting, they can also be tedious, especially when there's not much scenery to look at. Writer-director Jim Jarmusch expertly captured the boredom of a bad road trip in his 1984 breakthrough "Stranger Than Paradise," in which the three leads take off in search of new experiences and don't find them anywhere they look.

Two of the leads are Hungarian émigrés hoping to find more from America than they did from their home. But the America portrayed in "Stranger Than Paradise" is just the most unremarkable areas of New York, Ohio, and Florida, presented so that the camera is just as unimpressed by them as the characters are. And only the most monotonous aspects of the road trip are shown, like driving through the endless expanse of Pennsylvania or arguing about who has to sleep on the cot when they get to a motel. Despite its tedium, "Stranger Than Paradise" is a very funny study of how the myths of the road can collapse in the face of the realities of going out on the road.

7. Badlands

Not all road trips start from good intentions. The one undertaken by Kit (Martin Sheen) and Holly (Sissy Spacek) in 1973's Bonnie and Clyde story "Badlands" starts after Kit murders Holly's father and burns down their house. That's where the journey begins, and eventually Kit is responsible for much more than one murder. But there's still an innocence to young Kit and Holly's trip, where they create their own society out in the wilderness and encounter all kinds of gorgeous nature. "Badlands," writes Sheila O'Malley for Criterion , is based on the 1958 murder spree of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, but its power doesn't come from its killings so much as its troubling naivete, where the blinkered teenage attitudes of its protagonists and the pastoral beauty of their surroundings say nothing about the horrible violence occurring right in front of them.

"Badlands" was the debut of writer-director Terrence Malick, who would go on to develop a reputation for his eye for natural landscapes. That's present even this early, shooting trees and sunsets so that they appear magical more than natural. But that magic here comes with a terrible price, and Malick seems as disturbed by nature's non-reaction to the evil committed all around it as he is entranced by its power.

8. My Blueberry Nights

Wong Kar-wai has directed some of the most beloved films of all time in his native Hong Kong, but to date, he's only made one movie in the United States. That was 2007's "My Blueberry Nights," which explores the unique geography of America through a road trip starting in New York and ending in Las Vegas. Wong is renowned for his intensely stylized movies, and "My Blueberry Nights" is no exception. Wong's America is beautiful in a way it isn't in real life — only Wong's oversaturated colors and beautiful golden light could make it look this gorgeous. In this way, Wong captures the feeling of a great road trip, of falling in love with every location you pass. And Wong ties all these stunning locales to his usual themes of heartbreak and melancholy, showing beautiful places inhabited by sad, lonely people.

"My Blueberry Nights" is held back from the levels of Wong's best movies by a weak script and inconsistent performances. Otherwise talented actors like Natalie Portman and Rachel Weisz go over the top, while even strong performances from Jude Law and David Strathairn have to go against the bland lead performance from singer and first-time actor Norah Jones. But such flaws don't matter too much in light of how enchanting Wong's vision of the world is. This is the kind of movie that makes people want to keep taking road trips.

9. Alice in the Cities

Few directors are as synonymous with the road and road movies as Wim Wenders, the German director who's made several of the best-loved movies about the road ever made. His most overt takes on the road genre are the three movies that make up his "Road Trilogy," starting with "Alice in the Cities" in 1974. "Alice in the Cities" concerns German writer Philip (Rüdiger Vogler), who follows a disappointing assignment by meeting a woman (Lisa Kreuzer) and her young daughter Alice (Yella Rottländer), then agreeing to go on a trip through Amsterdam. Their trip is marked by complications, boredom, and a lot of music, including a Chuck Berry concert and a jukebox playing Canned Heat. And all the while, Philip and Alice begin to develop a friendship.

"Alice in the Cities" is one of the most lasting Wenders movies, inspiring the work of filmmakers like Allison Anders and Mike Mills, particularly Mills' own adult-and-child road movie "C'mon C'mon." "Alice in the Cities" holds special power for its tale of unexpected companionship, where the road has the magic to bring together people who never would have even met under different circumstances. Even when the sights aren't exciting, getting to experience those sights with someone new can be a rewarding experience.

10. Magic Mike XXL

The success of the male-stripper comedy "Magic Mike" left star Channing Tatum and writer Reid Carolin with the duty of following up a movie that seemed to neatly wrap up at the end. Rather than repeat the first one's formula, Tatum and Carolin decided to go in another direction, turning 2015's "Magic Mike XXL" into an exuberant road trip movie about friends and the joy of performing. "Magic Mike" was an often melancholy movie about the recession, and while there are still economic worries all over "Magic Mike XXL," they mostly take a back seat to just enjoying the chance to escape from them for a few days.

The first film's director, Steven Soderbergh, didn't return to direct "Magic Mike XXL," but he did serve as its cinematographer, and he deserves special credit for how beautiful he makes the film's Southern locations look. Even an ordinary gas station comes to life with Soderbergh's golden light, to say nothing of the beaches and palatial estates Mike and his friends visit on their journey. The beauty of these locations also represents the simple beauty of hanging out with people you love, and this is where "Magic Mike XXL" separates itself from its predecessor. Mike's fellow strippers barely had personalities in the first one, but here they're best friends who love each other's company even as they razz each other. It's a unique pleasure to go on the road with such a tight-knit group.

11. Y tu mamá también

After making 2001's "Y tu mamá también," Alfonso Cuarón stuck to making large-scale spectacles and big-budget blockbusters. But in "Y tu mamá también," Cuarón applies his usual technical excellence to a simple story of a woman and two teenage boys going on a road trip. The Mexican landscapes they drive past are beautifully shot by future Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, and their conversations are profane and hilarious, especially as delivered by Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal in their breakthrough roles. But a serious side creeps into "Y tu mamá también" as it goes on, eventually taking it over entirely.

As the three take their trip, they pass by political strife and Mexican culture soon to die out entirely. The characters may only be passing through these areas, but there are people living in the areas whose lives will be very difficult long after the leads are gone. Despite its main characters' immaturity, this is a surprisingly thoughtful road trip movie, understanding that even the most pristine locales are burdened by troubling history. That also turns out to be true about the main characters' dynamics, where the teenage leads eventually realize the depths of sadness and desperation they and their traveling partner carry with them. But before they get to that point, they have a great time, and so does the viewer watching them.

12. My Own Private Idaho

Gus Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho" opens with River Phoenix's character, Mikey Waters, saying that he's traveled so much down so many roads that he can recognize the roads just by sight. His life on the road is a beautiful but lonely one until he finds someone he can briefly share it with, a senator's son, Scott Favor ( Keanu Reeves ). Their journeys across deserted roads and rocky landscapes are sometimes silly but mostly poetic and sad, showing two young men as lost in the scenery as they are in their own lives.

Van Sant makes a lot of odd digressions in "My Own Private Idaho," including a sequence with talking erotic magazines and an entire plot loosely adapted from Shakespeare's "Henry IV" saga, writes Amy Taubin for Criterion . But the heart of the film is the relationship between Mikey and Scott, one where Mikey may be the only one of the two to realize how special and intimate it is. A heartbreaking scene at a campfire sees Mikey get tantalizingly close to professing his love to Scott and not quite doing so. While Mikey may have lived his life by the isolation of the road, he needs Scott to share that life with him, and the film offers little hope that this will happen.

13. The Straight Story

The films and TV of David Lynch are usually filled with the darkness and violence that lurk beneath the beautiful landscapes of America. But Lynch still loves those landscapes and the people who inhabit them, and never is that clearer than his only movie to get a G rating, 1999's "The Straight Story." He tells the story of a real-life road trip, where an elderly, almost blind farmer named Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth) drove a lawn mower from Iowa to Wisconsin to see his ailing brother (Harry Dean Stanton).

There's not much dialogue in "The Straight Story," especially for the long stretches where Alvin is on his own out on the road, but it's not necessary when Lynch is working with the wide-open expanses of the midwest. He finds magic in the crop dusters and near-empty roads Alvin encounters, setting the sights to a moving Angelo Badalamenti score and making them even more powerful. And when Alvin does meet other people, their encounters are simple and touching, showing the hard lessons Alvin has learned about family over the course of a long, difficult life.

Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin made their directorial debuts in February 2022 with "Dog," which followed the "Magic Mike XXL" model of a road trip encountering lesser-known sections of American life. "Dog" is a sadder movie than "Magic Mike XXL" because the trip's ultimate destination is a military funeral, and along the way, Tatum and his dog co-star must contend with the trauma they've suffered as soldiers. This makes the bond of friendship between Tatum and the dog even more important than it is in "Magic Mike XXL," as it provides both of them life-saving help when they need it the most.

The most impressive aspect of Tatum and Carolin's first directing job is how well they film the landscapes encountered over the course of the trip. They make them symbols of the beauty of everyday life without making them overly stylized. The duo learned well from Steven Soderbergh's visual excellence without merely copying it. While "Dog" has its faults, including some awkward comedy at the beginning and a too-brief attempt to deal with the racism instilled into Iraq War soldiers, the strength of Tatum and Carolin's filmmaking and storytelling suggests that they could have a good future as directors.

15. Kings of the Road

The third film in Wim Wenders' Road Trilogy, "Kings of the Road" is a three-hour opus combining two of Wenders' favorite subjects: the road and cinema. The two titular "kings" are a movie theater projector repairman (played by "Alice in the Cities" lead Rüdiger Vogler) and a depressed psychologist (Hanns Zischler), who band together on a road trip after the psychologist has experienced a life-shattering breakup. They drive across what was then the East German border, touring worn-down movie theaters so that Vogler can make repairs.

"Kings of the Road" offers even less of a plot than "Alice in the Cities" does, also offering one of the purest, simplest depictions of a road trip on film. There's no inevitable endpoint for the characters to reach, just a sprawling journey where they come to slightly better understand each other and themselves. It encompasses all the joy and melancholy of road trips in one package, people searching for more from life hoping that they'll find it behind the wheel.

16. Having a Wild Weekend

1965's "Having a Wild Weekend," also known as "Catch Us If You Can," is technically a vehicle for The Dave Clark Five, the British group that came into popularity at the same time as The Beatles . "Having a Wild Weekend" would seem to put the band in a comedy just like "A Hard Day's Night," but director John Boorman instead made a lovely, melancholy road movie, showing two people trying in vain to escape their confining lives back home.

Dave Clark plays a stuntman who takes off on a road trip with a model (Barbara Ferris) dissatisfied with her position as the face of ad campaigns for meat. On their journey, they encounter the youth who will soon become the counterculture and the old men still obsessed with the imagery of old Hollywood. Everywhere they go, Clark and Ferris are reminded of the culture they're trying to fight against, but they're powerless to stop it. The two have impressive chemistry together, but their relationship is a sad one, one that can only last the length of the road trip even though they're the only people who could possibly understand each other. Even once the remaining four Dave Clark Five members show up to do some slapstick, the tone is more elegiac than silly.

17. Wild at Heart

For a more representative David Lynch road trip movie, there's "Wild at Heart," which manages to be funny and romantic as well as frightening. Sailor and Lula, the giddy young couple played by Nicolas Cage and Laura Dern, hit the road only after Lula's mother has unsuccessfully tried to kill Sailor, and on their journey they'll deal with more killers and more victims. But their love may be strong enough to keep them safe every step of the way.

The giddy energy of "Wild at Heart" is unusual for Lynch movies, which usually have a more deadpan tone. Cage and Dern are balls of energy in this, engaging in grand romantic gestures and, in Cage's case, frequently falling into Elvis impersonations. The world around them has gone mad with rage and violence, the road bringing as many terrors as beauties, and they seem to have adapted to that madness by matching it. The title doesn't lie — these are two wild kids who will let nothing, not even a horrifying figure like Willem Dafoe's psychopathic Bobby Peru, stand in the way of their love. And for all the darkness of the rest of the movie, Lynch is still kind-hearted enough to give them a happy ending.

18. Two For the Road

All the good and bad feelings associated with going on the road are present in 1967's "Two for the Road," and they also represent the ups and downs of a marriage. The good and the bad are shuffled together in a nonlinear style, where pieces of the beginning, middle, and end of Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney's characters' relationship are presented as a series of out-of-order road trips. There is some beautiful European scenery over the course of the trips, but the fractured editing means that the destinations of the trips are less important than the trips themselves, and how they function as both bonding exercises and sources of arguments.

The film's most hilarious section is when Hepburn and Finney commit the error of going on a road trip with another couple, an obnoxious American family that makes the two sure of the mistakes they don't want to make in their own relationship. But of course they end up making those mistakes, and by the end "Two for the Road" is a bittersweet movie about how difficult and tricky it is to stay close to someone, whether that means marrying them or staying with them on a long car ride.

19. Don't Come Knocking

Wim Wenders and playwright-actor Sam Shepard first collaborated on the 1984 road movie "Paris, Texas," one of the most acclaimed films in the genre. Their decades-later second collaboration was 2005's "Don't Come Knocking," another road movie that couldn't match the critical success of its predecessor. But "Don't Come Knocking" is a very good movie in its own right, finding a lot of power both in western vistas and the tragic figure passing in front of them.

Shepard wrote and stars in "Don't Come Knocking," playing a washed-up Western star who ditches the set of his new movie in favor of driving to Nevada and then Montana, where both cheap thrills and old family await him. As with Wenders' other films, he makes the western settings of "Don't Come Knocking" look incredibly beautiful, shooting casinos, small-town squares, and vast deserts with the same level of vibrant color and light. And it also shares with Wenders' other work a tremendous sadness, where Shepard has abandoned the people who need him most and has only realized this too late to do much of anything about it. This trip may not be able to redeem Shepard, but it can get him one step closer, and that's better than he's done yet.

20. Highway 61

Canadian director Bruce McDonald followed in Wim Wenders' footsteps and made his own trilogy of road movies through the 1980s and '90s. The middle film in the trilogy was 1991's "Highway 61," a joyous comedy about American rock 'n' roll. Highway 61 is the highway named in Bob Dylan's legendary "Highway 61 Revisited" album, and one of the two leads (Valerie Buhagiar) is a rock-obsessed drug dealer trying to smuggle a dead body from Canada to New Orleans. Her partner (Don McKellar) is a nervous, shy barber who prefers jazz. Their odd-couple dynamic is very charming, and it only gets more charming as the trip brings them closer together.

"Highway 61" is led not just by romance and scenic views of all of North America, but by a great soundtrack at every step of the journey, often from obscure local bands McDonald is kind enough to introduce to his audience. And there's also plenty of oddball humor, particularly with a character who may or may not be the devil (Earl Pastko) chasing the two leads. "Highway 61" doesn't have much of a reputation outside of its native Canada, but it's a blissful film that deserves more attention.

21. Get On the Bus

One of the least commonly filmed ways of going on a road trip is taking the bus, perhaps because getting stuck with many unfamiliar people is not the most romantic way to see the country. But Spike Lee found a lot of drama, comedy, and political relevance in a story of a bunch of guys trapped on the bus. That story is 1996's "Get On the Bus," following a group of Black men en route to the famed Million Man March. Lee believes that every one of those million men has their own story, and he fits as many of those stories as he can into one bus.

As usual with Lee, "Get On the Bus" has an impressive cast, including Ossie Davis, Charles S. Dutton, Andre Braugher, and Bernie Mac. The characters touch on social issues, including homophobia and the anti-Semitism of Million Man March leader Louis Farrakhan, but mostly they have frank and funny conversations that naturally reveal their prejudices and moral stances rather than shout them out. Lee didn't write "Get On the Bus" (that was Reggie Rock Bythewood), but it shares the perceptive dialogue and unexpected comedy of Lee's best screenplays, including his beloved "Do the Right Thing." "Get On the Bus" is a smaller movie than "Do the Right Thing," but its confined setting doesn't mean it's any less riveting.

22. Thelma & Louise

The road trip that runs through 1991's "Thelma & Louise" is most famous for where it ends, with Thelma and Louise's car in the middle of a jump off a cliff. But their journey shouldn't just be defined by its endpoint, as the entirety of "Thelma & Louise" is a rollicking ode to female friendship and the healing power of the road trip, showing it as a rare opportunity for two women to take their lives into their own hands.

A few things remain consistent throughout Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise's (Susan Sarandon)'s road trip, namely the beauty of the southwest locations as shot by director Ridley Scott and the appalling behavior of the men both women meet along the way. "Thelma & Louise" is today best-known as the breakthrough film for breakout film for Brad Pitt , but he's only one of the film's parade of awful, often violent men, including the rapist who begins the journey in the first place. With such overpowering adversity, it's no wonder Thelma and Louise are so tight-knit — they must make their bond as strong as the forces united against them. And their bond can sustain even the steepest fall from a cliff.

23. Little Miss Sunshine

"Little Miss Sunshine" was the sensation of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival (per IndieWire ), its story of a dysfunctional family trapped in a Volkswagen van on the way to a child beauty pageant in California proving irresistible to both critics and audiences. The famous images of the film, like the family chasing after the bright yellow Volkswagen, suggest the kind of quirky, Wes Anderson-inspired comedy that was all the rage in the 2000s. But like actual Wes Anderson movies , "Little Miss Sunshine" deals with real pain and hurt, trapping several very fragile people in a small space where they might all combust.

It's helped by having such a sturdy cast playing those fragile people, including Steve Carell in one of his first dramatic performances, a silent Paul Dano, an Oscar-winning Alan Arkin, and most of all an Oscar-nominated Abigail Breslin as the girl all this trouble is in service of. The movie might have collapsed into road-movie cliches without a strong presence anchoring it, and Breslin, then 10 years old, proves more than capable of being that presence.

24. Two-Lane Blacktop

The most existential of all road movies might be 1971's "Two-Lane Blacktop," where driving is the only way of life for its main characters. But they aren't driving with any destination in mind; they're driving because it's the one thing they know how to do. Car culture was a big part of the '60s and '70s, and "Two-Lane Blacktop" has a supporting part for Dennis Wilson, whose work with the Beach Boys helped to cement cars as the ultimate symbol of cool and independence. But it's not all fun for the characters of "Two-Lane Blacktop," with the emptiness of the road ahead of them also representing the emptiness of their own obsessions and personalities.

Shot on the famed Route 66, with minimal dialogue to distract from the scenery, "Two-Lane Blacktop" is not short on great shots of cars in motion. But "Two-Lane Blacktop" also decries the hollowness of making cars the centerpiece of one's life, showing that a lifestyle based solely on speed and appearance cannot be sustained. The film's most famous line is "Those satisfactions are permanent," but the pleasures prove to be a very impermanent, fleeting bliss that doesn't disguise much deeper troubles.

25. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

In addition to being one of the great road trip movies, "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" was also a breakout LGBTQ film when it was released in 1994, offering such a sunny view of its group of drag queens that it would be pointless to resist. The next year, America was already attempting its own "Priscilla" with the fellow drag-queen road movie "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar," but it couldn't compete with the original, particularly regarding the gorgeous vistas passed by the central trio. The stunning deserts of the Australian Outback prove to be an ideal setting for a story with outrageous outfits and colors, offering a plain brown backdrop on top of which every outfit and character pops out.

Not that the characters need any help standing out, especially when they're brought to life with such exuberance and talent. Only Terence Stamp, playing the transgender matriarch of the group, was an internationally known actor at the time of the release of "Priscilla." But the film also catapulted its other two leads, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, to their stardom. Even as all three actors are now almost three decades out from "Priscilla," it remains one of their crowning achievements, as well as one of the most infectiously cheerful road movies yet made.

26. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

One of the goofiest, most enjoyable road trips ever taken on film was the one taken by Pee-Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) as he searched for his lost bike in Tim Burton's feature directorial debut "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure." Pee-Wee would later become famous for his television show, where he created his own wacky universe, but in "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," he travels through the real America and finds that it's just as silly as he is. Whether visiting dive bars, Hollywood backlots, or even The Alamo, he bends every place he visits to his own indescribable wavelength.

Burton has made flashier, more expensive movies since "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," but he's rarely made anything better. His work becomes so defined by production design and special effects after this that it's a shock to see him working mostly with real locations, making the natural world ridiculous rather than creating ridiculous worlds from scratch. And the road movie proves an ideal match for his love of middle-American eccentricity, where every new character Pee-Wee meets on his travels is an oddball in their own way. This remains Burton's funniest and sweetest movie, free of the bitter edge that distinguishes many Burton movies and instead celebrating the goofiness of life.

27. Something Wild

Jonathan Demme's "Something Wild" takes a sharp turn around its midpoint, turning from a joyous road comedy to something scarier and more intense. But all of "Something Wild" is united by Demme's love of the road and of the people you can meet along the way. Sometimes those people can change your life, like how Melanie Griffith's free-spirited Lulu gets Jeff Daniels' yuppie businessman Charlie to admit that he has a wilder side than he presents to the world. And other times they can threaten that life, like Ray Liotta as Lulu's malevolent ex-husband, Ray, who resolves to force Charlie out of Lulu's life and win her back.

Even as "Something Wild" gets dark, Demme still finds something magical in every location visited, and often in places that seem perfectly ordinary. A friendly convenience-store employee, a dog on the back of a motorcycle, and a waitress singing outside of a New York greasy spoon — these details all come to vibrant life in front of Demme's camera. Few people have taken a road trip involving this many wacky, endearing characters, but the world as Demme portrays is a better, brighter place than it is in real life. It's a joy to experience a road trip in this world, even if only for two hours.

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Entertainment News

The 20 best road trip movies

Have you been on any memorable road trips? If not, don’t feel too bad. You can always enjoy a road trip in a movie. Of course, not every memorable road trip in film is a good one. Some of them are downright dreadful and may make you glad you haven’t actually hit the open road much yourself. Whether or not the road trip itself is one we’d like to take, these are the best movies about road trips. Stay home and watch one today.

“Road Trip” (2000)

Is “Road Trip” the best movie on this list? No, the Todd Phillips comedy certainly is not. However, it’s a movie literally called “Road Trip.” The film also has a very turn-of-the-millennium cast, including Breckin Meyer, Amy Smart , and Tom Green.

“Midnight Run” (1988)

What is the best road trip film then? We’re quite partial to “Midnight Run,” one of the best ‘80s action comedies. Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin are both fantastic in the film. De Niro plays a bounty hunter who is taking in Grodin’s character, at least if Grodin doesn’t annoy De Niro so much that the latter takes him out before delivering the bail skipper in.

“The Muppet Movie” (1979)

The very first Muppets film is a road movie! While a bunch of Muppets, and celebrities, show up, the thrust of the film is Kermit the Frog taking a trip across the country to get to Los Angeles. There are musical numbers, silly jokes, a frog legs magnate who wants Kermit to be his spokesperson for his restaurants.

“It Happened One Night” (1934)

“It Happened One Night” is one of only three films to win the “big five” Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. The screwball comedy is one of the last big films before the Production Code took effect and features big names like Frank Capra, Clark Gable, and Claudette Colbert. Maybe the most famous scene in the movie involves hitchhiking as well.

“Smokey and the Bandit” (1977)

Here’s a movie all about action on the road. The premise is simple. Burt Reynolds aka “Bandit” and his pal Jerry Reed aka “Snowman,” take on a bet that says they can’t illegally transport 400 cases of Coors from Texarkana to Atlanta within 28 hours. With the law after them, “Smokey and the Bandit” features a bunch of car chases and some big-time stunts.

“Harry and Tonto” (1974)

Art Carney is best known as the wacky best friend on “The Honeymooners,” one of the first hit sitcoms. Did you know he also won an Oscar for Best Actor? It’s true, and he beat out guys like Albert Finney, Dustin Hoffman , Al Pacino, and Jack Nicholson. He did that for the film “Harry and Tonto,” where he plays a man who goes on a cross-country trip after he finds out his apartment building is being demolished. He’s Harry. Tonto is his cat.

“Bonnie and Clyde” (1967)

When we think of “Bonnie and Clyde,” we think of the bank robberies and the violence. Some consider this a pivotal film in the evolution of the Hollywood post-Production Code. However, it’s also kind of a road movie. We spend a lot of time with Bonnie and Clyde as they travel around from town to town until they meet their untimely demise in their car.

“My Own Private Idaho” (1991)

Yes, this movie has a strange name, but it’s actually a somber, elegiac film. Gus Van Sant based the film on a few Shakespeare plays, and cast up-and-coming actors Keanu Reeves and the late River Phoenix in the main roles. The two of them spend the film on a journey of discovery, with plenty of contemplative moments along the way.

“Something Wild” (1986)

We don’t want to spoil “Something Wild,” because the movie abruptly shifts in tone at a certain point. In fact, it’s one of the few films we can think of that goes from being a wacky comedy to serious thriller. The movie also has a fine cast at his disposal, including Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith, and a young, relatively-unknown Ray Liotta.

“Logan” (2017)

“Logan” is different from many superhero movies. One, it’s a serious R-rated film with plenty of swearing and violence (but not in a “Deadpool” way). Two, it’s a Western in many ways. Three, it’s also a road movie. Logan, aka Wolverine, and a dying Charles Xavier take a young mutant named Laura on a journey to try and find a purported refuge spot for mutants. There is much killing along the way, but not of the flippant variety.

“The Sugarland Express” (1974)

“The Sugarland Express” is about a husband and wife who take a police officer hostage and take off across the country fleeing authorities. It stars Goldie Hawn , which is notable. That being said, the real noteworthy thing about “The Sugarland Express” is that it is Steven Spielberg’s first full-length theatrical film. You can see where everything began for the legendary director.

“Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” (1985)

Pee-wee Herman’s beloved bicycle is stolen. Naturally, this leads to him having to go off on a trip that takes him all across the country, even to the Alamo (sadly, not to its basement). He dances for bikers. He meets Large Marge. The movie is strange but wonderful. Also, speaking of debuts, this is Tim Burton’s feature-length debut, and still one of his best offerings.

“Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)

Yes, Beavis and Butt-Head are goofy, lowbrow characters. They could seemingly sustain a narrative for the entirety of an episode of TV, so how would they survive a movie? Well, it’s not always successful, but there are charms to seeing these two doofuses on a trip across America. David Letterman was willing to do a cameo, so you know it has some things going for it.

“Dumb and Dumber” (1994)

In some ways, “Dumb and Dumber” is “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America” but live-action and with adult characters. For many, “Dumb and Dumber” is the quintessential road movie comedy. Heck, some consider it one of the funniest movies ever made. This is Jeff Daniels’ second film on this list, but in truth, this was largely a breakout role for Jim Carrey.

“Lost in America” (1985)

Early in his career, Albert Books trafficked in satire, usually successfully. “Lost in America” is definitely a pointed film. Brooks costars as half of a Yuppie couple who quit their job to explore America and “find themselves.” Of course, it doesn’t go well, mostly owing to the naivety and cravenness of these two middle-class Californians.

“Between Two Ferns: The Movie” (2019)

“Between Two Ferns” the internet video series is quite stationary. That is to say, all we ever see is a black room with two chairs and two ferns. It’s a sendup of cheaply-made public access shows, and an excuse for Zack Galifianakis to be a jerk to celebrities. For the Netflix movie based on the comedy shorts, though, Galifianakis and crew take to the road. The film is largely improvised, but the cast is so talented it remains quite funny and sustains a full narrative.

“National Lampoon’s Vacation” (1983)

The “Vacation” series features a few different trips, but the original movie involves a road trip. Specifically, a disastrous road trip to Wally World for the Griswold family. Chevy Chase may no longer be a comedy star, but “Vacation” is a reminder of what he could do at his best.

“Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” (1987)

John Candy is in “Vacation.” He has a much bigger role in “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.” The John Hughes comedy is one of the few Thanksgiving movies ever made, and we personally credit any success in this film to the dynamic duo of Candy and Steve Martin, who are both talented comedic performers.

“Nebraska” (2013)

Will Forte usually acts in very silly comedies. For “Nebraska,” he had to get a bit more serious. Alexander Payne’s film is a comedy-drama mixture that is both funny and somber in equal measures. Forte plays a man on a road trip with his father, played by Bruce Dern, who is dealing with the effects of aging but remains dynamic and forceful. Dern was nominated for an Oscar, but unlike Art Carney did not win.

“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (1998)

This is one of the weirdest road trips we can recall. Considering this was based on a book by Hunter S. Thompson, that makes sense. Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro are on a road trip to Las Vegas, and they are packing a ton of drugs for the excursion. When we say these two are on a road trip, we mean it’s a road trip . “Fear and Loathing” is full of bizarre, psychedelic imagery, and definitely does its best to capture the ethos of Thompson’s book.

Chris Morgan is a Detroit-based culture writer who has somehow managed to justify getting his BA in Film Studies. He has written about sports and entertainment across various internet platforms for years and is also the author of three books about '90s television.

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10 Hilarious Road Trip Movies to Watch Before Your Next Vacation

Road trips are one of the most exciting ways to explore the world, discover new places, and make unforgettable memories. But let’s be honest: long hours on the road can also be tiresome and even dull at times. That’s where movies come in handy! 

Pack Your Bags, but First, Pop the Popcorn!

In this list, we’ll look at ten comedies that will not only entertain you but will get you in the mood to hit the road. From classic road trip flicks to comedies that mix the laughs with the tears, these films will tickle your funny bone and inspire you to see where the road takes you.

1. Midnight Run (1988)

Have you ever wanted to see a road trip comedy starring Robert DeNiro as a tough-as-nails bounty hunter? That’s a rather specific dream; luckily, 1988’s  Midnight Run  is precisely that. 

DeNiro plays Jack Walsh, a tough-talking bounty hunter tasked with bringing Charles Grodin’s character, an embezzling accountant named Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas, back to Los Angeles to face trial. However, as a general rule in every road trip flick, things rarely go smoothly for these two.

2. Zombieland (2009)

Funnily scary (or scarily funny,)  Zombieland  isn’t afraid to mix the laughs with the gasps. This 2009 horror-comedy stars Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, and Abigail Breslin as lone survivors in an America ravaged by a zombie apocalypse. The four embark on a “family” trip, in search of a new place to call their home.

Thanks to its witty dialogue, gratuitous zombie gore, and even an unforgettable cameo by Bill Murray himself,  Zombieland  is the perfect companion for an apocalyptic road trip. Just be sure to pack enough Twinkies for the ride!

3. The Blues Brothers (1980)

It’s rare to come across a road trip film that’s also one of the best musical comedies ever made. That might be why  The Blues Brothers  is the only flick I can think of that fits that description. This wild comedy sees legends Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as Elwood and Jake Blues, two brothers on a divine mission to save their childhood orphanage from debt.

This musical journey takes us through almost all of Illinois, with a particular focus on the Windy City itself. Of course, the film’s highlight is the crazy car chase near the end, when the Brothers escape through the streets of Chicago. Dozens of police cars and a squad of National Socialists aren’t enough to stop the   Blues Brothers, though.

4. Sideways (2004)

Wine lovers rejoice!  Sideways  is a movie that captures the elegance and beauty of the Santa Ynez Valley, complete with its wineries and unforgettable vistas. It’s also a hilarious film to watch if I might add. 

Sideways  stars Paul Giamatti as a writer and wine enthusiast who travels to California’s wine country with his womanizing friend, Jack. Of course, things get a bit rocky for the pair once they meet two women that challenge their beliefs in love, women, and wine. 

If you prefer your comedies to have witty banter instead of gross-out shenanigans, then  Sideways  is the movie for you.

5. Dumb and Dumber (1994)

A trip across the country with the dumbest comedy duo ever conceived? What could possibly go wrong?  Dumb and Dumber  follows the misadventures of Harry and Lloyd, two dimwits on a mission to return a lost briefcase to its rightful owner. However, these two geniuses ignore the fact that the briefcase contains ransom money for a kidnapping plot.

Starring Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, and a dog van,  Dumb and Dumber  remains a classic of gross-out humor from the Farrelly brothers, the ones responsible for classics such as  Shallow Hal  and  There’s Something About Mary . The film spawned a couple of sequels – and even an animated TV show – but none are as funny as the original. You just can’t go wrong with the classics – or with 90’s Jim Carrey in general.

6. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987)

Road trips take many shapes and forms. Sometimes, there isn’t even a “road” in the road trips. That’s something that  Planes, Trains and Automobiles  illustrates, complete with how hectic improvised travel can be.

The film pairs Steve Martin and John Candy – two unlikely travel companions that do everything possible to be home for Thanksgiving, including riding the aforementioned planes, trains, and automobiles. Over everything else, this is a rather heartwarming film that teaches us the importance of finding common ground with those that irritate us. 

Also, it’s a great PSA for keeping your eyes peeled on the road, no matter how catchy  Mess Around  by Ray Charles   might be.

7. Due Date (2010)

2010’s  Due Date  combines the stress of a road trip with a stranger with the anxiety of childbirth into one memorable wild ride. The odd couple at the center of the show is Peter (Robert Downey Jr.,) a soon-to-be father whose life gets thrown upside down by an eccentric aspiring actor, Ethan, played by Zach Galifianakis. 

The film takes us on a crazy journey from Atlanta to Los Angeles – with a bizarre detour to Mexico for good measure. Can these two oddballs find some common ground as they discover more about themselves in this life-changing journey? Probably not. Still, it’s pretty funny to watch them try.

8. The Hangover (2009)

Before  Due Date , Todd Phillips reached the pop culture zenith with  The Hangover , a comedy of errors that follows a group of friends at a wild bachelor’s party in Las Vegas. However, when the groom mysteriously vanishes after a night of partying, the “Wolf Pack” will have to piece together the events that transcurred the previous night, all while dealing with colossal hangovers.

More than anything,  The Hangover  combines unforgettable moments that have become landmarks in modern comedy. I mean, who could forget the tiger in the bathroom? While this might not be the most “varied” road trip out there, it’s still a great advertisement of what  not  to do when visiting Las Vegas. Or any city in general.

9. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

The epitome of the modern road movie,  Little Miss Sunshine  is an indie darling that never fails to make us laugh – and cry. The story follows a dysfunctional family embarking on a cross-country road trip to take their daughter to a beauty pageant. Along the way, we get to see the secret struggles of the Hoover family as they finally learn to come together as a family – on their own terms.

Perhaps one of the best parts about  Little Miss Sunshine  is its talented all-star cast, featuring heavyweights such as Toni Collette and Steve Carell. Coincidentally, Abigail Breslin stars as the lovable Olive Hoover. A few years later, she would also star in  Zombieland , making her a certified road trip comedy expert in our books.

10. National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

If there were ever a movie that captures the spirit – and the chaos – of the classic all-American road trip, that would be  National Lampoon’s Vacation . The first entry in this legendary comedy series came out in 1983, and it introduced the world to the chaotic misadventures of the Griswold family.

The first movie follows the Griswolds in a misguided attempt by Clark, the family’s patriarch, to bring his family closer together. What ensues is one of the most hectic comedies ever made, introducing a bizarre cast of characters and some morally questionable situations with every passing mile.

If you’re planning to embark on a road trip of your own soon,  Vacation  might be the perfect guidebook for what to avoid on such occasions. Also, you might want to call Walley World before you visit – they may be closed for repairs.

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Demi Michele

Demi Michele is a seasoned traveler, turned freelance writer. Having explored most states and ventured internationally, her love for outdoor cafes, new cuisines, and cultural immersion shines through her wide range of articles. Based in Texas with her family and two Scottish Terriers, Demi turns her adventures into captivating travel narratives to share with readers.

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The 25 Best Road Trip Movies Ever

More than just an excuse to get from point A to point B, a road trip — in real life or in fiction — has the potential to be a uniquely rewarding undertaking. It’s an experience that stresses the process, whether that process is a few hours with a destination in mind or weeks and months spent wandering. Road trip movies literalize the journey that characters are on, often serving as an allegory for the entire narrative that reminds us the destination is rarely as important as the experience of getting there.

Road trip movies encompass a wide range of genres, from slapstick comedies to prestige dramas and everything in between. Whether you’re after a slice of life representation of a road trip or a thrilling adventure, there’s a film for you. Without further ado, here are 25 road trip movies that capture the spirit of the journey and that will inspire you to hit the open road — or at least hit play on another film on the list.

Almost Famous (2000)

Destination:  The concert tour stops for Stillwater, the band that 15-year old William Miller (Patrick Fugit) has finagled his way into profiling for Rolling Stone.

Journey:  Self-discovery and the usual markings of a coming of age tale, with an added emphasis on the healing power of music, the destructive force of fame, and, as Kate Hudson’s Penny Lane articulates, the hope of finding a home, and the feelings of security and love that comes with it, no matter where you are.

Death Proof (2007)

Destination:  For Abernathy (Rosario Dawson), Kim (Tracie Thoms), and Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the plan is to reunite with their friend Zoe Bell, playing herself.

Journey:  What starts as test driving a 1970 Dodge Challenger then turns into trying to survive an attack from the homicidal Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) in this modern exploitation thriller that, as any Tarantino fan with taste will tell you, is one of his best .

Duel (1971)

Destination:  Salesman David Mann (Dennis Weaver) is driving through the Mojave desert for work.

Journey:  In Steven Spielberg’s directorial feature debut, his everyman(n) protagonist is a mild-mannered husband and father who must unleash his survival instincts when he is targeted seemingly at random by a maniacal truck driver who tries to kill him. Come for the thrills, stay for the lesson that from the very beginning Spielberg had an incredible eye for tension and suspense.

Dumb and Dumber (1994)

Destination:  Aspen, Colorado, so that Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) can return a suitcase of money they didn’t realize was left at an airport not on accident, but on purpose as ransom money.

Journey:  The expected hijinks and humor that, as dumb and childish as it might be, is still funnier than it has any right to be.

Easy Rider (1969)

Destination:  Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Journey:  An exploration of a changing American landscape as bikers Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) make their way cross-country with money earned smuggling cocaine. This iconic counterculture film addresses social tension, the generational divide, and all things associated with the hippie lifestyle.

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Destination:  From New York to Chicago and back again.

Journey:  For folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), life is more of a series of events that happen to him rather than events that he takes an active role in. Llewyn is grieving after the suicide of his musical partner and his travels to Chicago and back to New York are part of his search for meaning and a way out of his mundane cyclical existence.

It Happened One Night (1934)

Destination:  New York City, where heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) plans to reunite with a fiance her father disapproves of.

Journey:  Ellie is joined by recently fired reporter Peter Warne (Clarke Gable) who seeks to win his way back into his newspaper by getting the scoop on her story, but as one would expect from this pre-code romantic comedy , their business deal relationship quickly blossoms into something not quite platonic.

Joy Ride (2001)

Destination:  College student Lewis (Paul Walker) is driving home for the summer break when he has to bail his brother, Fuller (Steve Zahn), out of jail in Utah, and then carry on to Colorado to pick up childhood friend and fellow student Venna (Leelee Sobieski).

Journey:  In this horror movie from director John Dahl from a script by J.J. Abrams and Clay Tarver that is an homage to Spielberg’s Duel , Lewis and Fuller pull a prank on a truck driver over a CB radio in Lewis’ car. It turns out they messed with the wrong truck driver as their road trip home quickly turns into a quest for survival when their prank target repeatedly tries to kill them for revenge.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Destination: The Little Miss Sunshine child beauty pageant in Redondo Beach, California.

Journey:  While on the way to a beauty pageant that Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin) hopes to compete in, the idiosyncratic Hoover family must learn to put aside their differences and support each other as they each deal with personal struggles on their road trip from New Mexico to California.

Logan (2017)

Destination:  A refuge for mutants in North Dakota named Eden.

Journey:  An aging Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) sees the end in sight as mutants have become a dying breed in the year 2029. When he meets a young girl, Laura (Dafne Keen) who possesses similar powers, he feels compelled to protect her and this revitalizes Logan’s ability to care for those around him in a way that he hasn’t experienced in a long time.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Destination:  “The green place,” a utopia amidst the desert wasteland that has taken over the rest of the world.

Journey: In this action-packed adventure , loner Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) is captured by Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and when he escapes his instinct is to leave and make his way through the desert on his own. He is convinced by Furiosa (Charlize Theron) to accompany her and help protect the women she helped escape from Immortan Joe as they journey through the barren landscape trying to survive and eventually find somewhere livable.

Magic Mike XXL (2015)

Destination:  A Fourth of July stripping convention in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where Mike Lane (Channing Tatum) will join his former co-workers for one last hurrah after getting out of the stripping business several years ago.

Journey:  Free from the overly serious constraints of the first film, this sequel revels in positive representations of masculinity , the beauty of friendships, and the joy that comes from simply caring for one another. Told through a series of vignettes, Magic Mike XXL embodies the road trip spirit of camaraderie, rolling with the punches, and the power of the right song playing on the radio at the right time.

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

Destination:  Through the Pacific Northwest, to Idaho, and beyond in search of Mike’s (River Phoenix) mother.

Journey:  In this reimagining of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV” and “Henry V” , Mike is joined by best friend Scott (Keanu Reeves), a fellow homeless young man who gets by as a sex worker. As they try to track down Mike’s mom by visiting his other family members, the two men grow closer, but their relationship is complicated by Scott’s affluent family and their other relationships.

Paris, Texas (1984)

Destination:  A reunion with the family that Travis (Harry Dean Stanton), an amnesiac who mysteriously wanders out of the desert, had forgotten.

Journey: Wim Wenders’ most acclaimed film addresses the modern family, masculinity, and the desire for connection and a shared sense of humanity in the face of loss and decay.

Stagecoach (1939)

Destination:  The titular stagecoach is carrying passengers from Arizona territory to Lordsburg, New Mexico in 1880.

Journey:   Stagecoach follows nine strangers who begin the film on separate paths and become united during their shared experiences on the road. Despite having some heinous depictions of Native Americans, this western from director John Ford starring John Wayne in his breakout role is a masterclass in filmmaking.

Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

Destination: Whatever point John L. Sullivan (Joel McCrae), a director who seeks to represent the real world on screen, feels he has properly connected with middle America.

Journey:  Going from a successful comedic filmmaker to a hobo with an aspiring actress (Veronica Lake) at his side, Sullivan believes the best thing he can do as a filmmaker is to capture the harsh reality that so many endure in order to make his masterpiece, but when he experiences trouble firsthand, he has to reconsider his aims.

The Cannonball Run (1981)

Destination:  California, the location of the finish line for an anything goes, illegal, cross country race that begins in Connecticut.

Journey:  The contestants in this race are determined to win by any means necessary in this action-comedy based on a real event that occurred several times in the 1970s, the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. The plot tends to fall by the wayside, but there’s plenty of fun to be had in watching a cast that includes Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, Dom DeLuise, Farrah Fawcett, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Jackie Chan duke it out.

The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

Destination:  A trip through Mexico for Roy (Edmond O’Brien) and Gilbert (Frank Lovejoy) where they intend to go fishing.

Journey:  Things are complicated with the two men pick up a hitchhiker who turns out to be a murderer and escaped convict. The fishing trip then turns into a journey of survival as the two men try to escape together.

Thelma & Louise (1991)

Destination:  Mexico, to get away from the cops after Louise (Susan Sarandon) shoots a man who attempted to rape Thelma (Geena Davis).

Journey:  This landmark feminist film explores the roles of women in society, female friendships, and self-reliance as the two women make their way through America while being chased by the police.

To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar  (1995)

Destination:  Los Angeles, so that Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes), Vida Boheme (Patrick Swayze), and Chi-Chi Rodriguez (John Leguizamo) can all attend a drag queen pageant.

Journey:  Along the way, their car breaks down in a small town and while the drag queens do have to contend with homophobic and racist locals, they also begin to bond with many of the townsfolk, particularly Carol Ann (Stockard Channing), a housewife who befriends them.

True Romance (1993)

Destination:  Los Angeles, where Clarence and Alabama Worley (Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette) flee to from Detroit after Clarence kills Alabama’s pimp.

Journey:  Clarence and Alabama’s whirlwind romance and quick marriage would typically raise some red flags, but here it seems that these two were meant to find each other. Quentin Tarantino’s screenplay was famously darker than the final product from director Tony Scott, but this change works as the earnest commitment of their relationship balances the madness of the film. True Romance is certainly over the top, and it’s violent, but above all else, it’s so cool.

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Destination:  Through Mexico to a secluded beach on the coast.

Journey:  Teenagers Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) are on a journey of self-discovery one summer when they are joined on a beach trip by Tenoch’s cousin’s wife Luisa (Maribel Verdú). As the three grow closer, they contend with jealousy and desire against a complex social and economic landscape in Mexico.

Vagabond (1985)

Destination:  This reverse mystery begins with the death of a young woman (Sandrine Bonnaire) who had wandered the French countryside. The film then follows the story of how she ended up there.

Journey:  Agnès Varda’s acclaimed drama is a rumination on modern existence and the misery of isolation. As one would expect from Varda’s humanistic approach to storytelling, it’s also a mindful consideration of those with no place to call home in the societies that surround them.

Wild Strawberries (1957)

Destination:  To Lund from Stockholm so that an aging and irritable professor, Isak Borg (Victor Sjöström), can receive a doctorate from a university there.

Journey:  Along the way, Isak reevaluates his life when a series of encounters with other people on the road trigger memories from his past. By interrogating his own life and his actions, Isak begins to open up to the world around him in an effort to find peace.

Zombieland (2009)

Destination:  The Pacific Playland amusement park in Los Angeles, a place rumored to be free of zombies.

Journey:  When the apocalypse hits and every day is a matter of life and death to the point that people have stopped referring to each other by name and instead go by the cities they’re from to prevent becoming attached to people, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) must learn that without human connection, he might survive, but he won’t really live.

If those 25 aren’t enough, here are 15 more that would have been on this list if it was longer:  Badlands, Flirting with Disaster, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Bonnie and Clyde, Crossroads, Midnight Special, Harold & Kumar go to White Castle, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Into The Wild, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Interstate 60, The Blues Brothers, and Sideways. 

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30 Best Movies About Road Trips To Inspire Your Next Adventure

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Take the opportunity to soul search, reconnect, meet kindred spirits, or heal old wounds with the best movies about road trips.

Nothing beats a hilarious and cult-classic road trip film, including the Road Trip film series itself, National Lampoon’s Family Vacation , and Planes, Trains & Automobiles .

However, “classic” doesn’t always equate to the most appropriate, and many of the best road trip movies have been releasing across the past decade.

Below, explore movies on road trips about families, reconnection, and finding yourself.

Some of these films will showcase one last chance to say goodbye or make amends before it is too late. Have those tissues ready .

But, many of the top movies about road trips are also hilariously ridiculous and filled with wild and nearly implausible adventures.

So, which films about road trips do we recommend for daring world travelers and those looking to think more deeply about the connections we make?

Which will inspire you to live life to the fullest? Let’s get started, and don’t forget to let us know your favorite road trip movies in the comments.

If you are enjoying these road trip movies, you may wish to read these road trip books .

Grab the best books and movies on road trips here:

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What We Recommend

30 Top Movies About Road Trips

By Tori Curran

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983)

What better place to start than one of the most well-loved family road trip movies: National Lampoon’s Vacation ?

America’s favorite comedic family, The Griswolds, embarks on a cross-country road trip from Chicago to the Wally’s World amusement park in California.

Despite their best intentions to spend more quality time together as a family, anything and everything that can go wrong does.

Vandals, dirty campgrounds, a crash that leaves them stranded, and feisty Aunt Edna plague their trip; yet, they press on.

When the family finally arrives at Wally’s World, they are in for another mishap. Can the Griswold’s family vacation be salvaged?

Kodachrome (2017)

Matt – on the verge of losing his record company job – learns that his estranged father, Ben, is terminally ill.

Ben is a famous photographer and wants his son to drive him to Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kansas, the last shop that develops Kodachrome film.

His final wish is to develop his film roles before he dies.

Matt agrees, and they begin their trip along with Ben’s nurse, Zooey. They take backroads so that Ben can film the scenery.

While a tad predictable, the father-son dynamic is solid. As an ailing Ben grows sicker, Matt’s fondness for his father starts to grow, and he does all that he can to see his father’s dying wish fulfilled.

For heart-rendering movies on road trips, have the tissues ready.

Nomadland (2020)

One of the most poignant movies about road trips and the American nomad, Nomadland won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress.

Frances McDormand stars as Fern, who loses her job at the US Gypsum plant.

After also losing her husband, she sells the majority of her belongings to buy a van and drive across the US looking for work.

Fern works seasonally at an Amazon fulfillment center and finds side gigs at campgrounds and roadside attractions.

At the heart of the film, though, are the other lost souls that Fern meets along her journey, embodying the collective feelings of both loneliness and freedom of those who choose a nomadic lifestyle.

Green Book (2018)

Green Book is inspired by the true story of a tour of the South by an African American pianist and his chauffeur.

Don Shirley hires Frank Vallelonga, an Italian American bouncer known as Tony Lip, as a chauffeur and bodyguard during an eight-week concert tour of the Midwest and Deep South in 1962.

Initially, Don finds Tony unrefined, and Tony considers Don pretentious. Despite differences, they develop a friendship while facing the realities of the Jim Crow South.

Green Book joined the ranks of Academy Award-winning films about road trips with Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor.

We’re the Millers (2013)

When David, a small-time pot dealer, is robbed of his stash, he is forced into clearing his debt by smuggling drugs across the Mexican border.

In an effort to evade customs, he creates a fake, unsuspecting family by hiring a stripper, a 19-year-old runaway, and his awkward 18-year-old neighbor.

When “The Millers” reach the drug compound in their RV, they discover the small stash is actually two tons worth.

The extra weight causes the RV to break down, and a risky law enforcement encounter almost gets them caught.

What else can possibly go wrong in one of the best comedy and crime road trip movies on this list?

Bob Munro is looking forward to some quality time with his dysfunctional family in Hawaii.

But when his boss forces him to attend a meeting in Colorado, he disguises the change of plans as a family RV road trip. 

Of course, dozens of comedic mishaps ensue: Bob damages the parking brake, crashes the RV into various objects, and eradicates a couple of raccoons.

The Munros also encounter another traveling family who they begin to think is stalking them,

Eventually, the family begins to enjoy their trip, but the secret meeting in Colorado is still looming on the horizon.

Disasters in road trip movies like this are a pretty common and popular theme that you can’t help but eat up.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (2017)

For more wholesome and family-friendly movies about road trips, watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul .

This road trip film is based on the ninth book in the Wimpy Kid children’s book series and is surprisingly enjoyable, even for adults.

The Heffley children – wimpy kid Greg and his older brother Rodrick – are less than thrilled about a family road trip to a relative’s 90th birthday.

When the boys realize that an expo featuring their favorite internet star is taking place not too far from their destination, they take matters into their own hands.

Winning a pig at a carnival and a rival family stealing the Heffley’s belongings round out the hijinks.

While the trip is far from perfect, at the heart of it lies a family who just needs time to reconnect.

Watch even more movies based on fantastic books .

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

One of the best road trip movies of all time, you’ll fall in love with Little Miss Sunshine and the quirky Hoover family.

Olive is an aspiring beauty queen being coached by her grandfather, who was recently kicked out of his retirement home for doing drugs.

Learning Olive qualifies for the “Little Miss Sunshine” pageant, the family – including her parents, a struggling uncle, and half brother who has taken a vow of silence – road trips from New Mexico to California to support Olive.

Both personal and road trip setbacks plague the family, but they press on to the pageant, only to realize that Olive, a pretty regular girl, doesn’t stand a chance.

Sideways (2004)

Featured on our list of movies about wine , Sideways follows two friends on a pre-wedding road trip through California’s Santa Ynez Valley wine country.

Miles, a struggling writer and wine enthusiast, and Jack, soon to be wed, embark on a single-guy’s last hoorah.

Miles has a weekend of fine wine and dining planned, but Jack is looking for a fling.

He finds it in Stephanie while her friend Maya seems to take an interest in Miles. Things get complicated when Miles lets it slip that Jack is engaged.

We especially love the idea of taking their picturesque wine country road trip ourselves!

Sideways also makes for a great wine book read before or after the movie.

Road Trip (2000)

Follow a band of college buddies as they road trip from Ithaca, New York to Austin, Texas to intercept an illicit video accidentally mailed to one of their girlfriends.

Josh slips up and cheats on his long-distance girlfriend, Tiffany, recording the act on his camcorder.

When his buddy accidentally mails the evidence instead of a recorded love letter, the pals hit the road to catch the tape in the mail before it’s delivered.

Then, they must make it back to Ithaca for a midterm to avoid flunking their class.

This is, of course, one of the most famous movies on road trips ever made – and you either love it or despise it.

Road Trip: Beer Pong (2009)

Also known as Road Trip 2, this sequel to the first Road Trip film follows three college buddies en route to a beer pong tournament.

Andy is convinced by his friends to stop worrying about his long-distance girlfriend, Katy, and have some fun.

He and his friends decide to hit the road and follow Jenna – Andy’s ex-girlfriend who is now a beer pong model – and enter the tournament.

What can go wrong when a bus full of gorgeous Christina girls drops you off in your girlfriend’s hometown, while you’re on the road chasing an ex?

Reminiscent of other college comedies, like American Pie, know that the road trip film series is hilarious but quite inappropriate.

Road to Paloma (2014)

TW: sexual assault

An alternative to the many vacation-style movies on road trips, The Road to Paloma has a much darker plot.

After murdering his mother’s rapist, a Native American named Wolf flees on his motorcycle across the American West.

He plans to head to his sister’s property and spread his mother’s ashes peacefully. However, the FBI threatens his plans.

Wolf soon meets up with a drifter named Cash and learns that vigilante justice most often comes at a price. Will Wolf ever find redemption?

The Leisure Seeker (2017)

For years, John and Ella Spencer have enjoyed family road trips in their RV, nicknamed the Leisure Seeker.

Now, John, a retired teacher, is suffering from dementia, and Ella is ill herself.

Against their doctors’ advice, they embark on one final road trip in their beloved RV from their home in Massachusetts to the Hemingway House in the Florida Keys.

As is true with many couples, close quarters and ailments bring out both the best and the worst of John and Ella.

For drama-comedy road trip movies, The Leisure Seeker will stay with you for quite some time.

Unpregnant (2020)

TW: abortion

A poignant road trip movie, seventeen-year-old Veronica learns that she is pregnant but cannot get an abortion in her home state of Missouri without her parents’ permission.

She convinces her former best friend Bailey to take a road trip with her to New Mexico for the procedure.

Amidst a series of unfortunate and often hilarious circumstances, including getting picked up by a pair of pro-lifers, Veronica and Bailey begin to open up to each other again and repair their fractured friendship.

Everybody’s Fine (2009)

Eight months after losing his wife, Frank Goode is looking forward to a visit from his children.

When each cancels last minute, he sets out on a cross-country road trip to visit each of them individually.

Frank learns quickly that his children’s lives aren’t as fine as they appear to be.

More lies and deceit surface when Frank begins to piece together a secret that three of the siblings have been keeping regarding the fourth.

For the best road trip movies about redemption and connection, Frank’s experience won’t let you down.

Tommy Boy (1995)

Tommy works as an executive for his father’s auto-parts conglomerate; a position he didn’t earn and doesn’t work hard at.

When his father suddenly passes on his own wedding day and the bank reneges on a loan, the company’s future is in jeopardy.

Tommy devises a plan and sets out with the company’s accountant on a cross-country sales trip.

But, when they catch his late father’s wife entangled with the man she called her son, they realize they’ve been roped into a con artist’s game plan.

Chris Farley, David Spade, and Dan Aykroyd deliver in one of our favorite comedy movies about road trips.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Based on Hunter S. Thompson’s novel of the same name, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a cult classic, dark comedy film following Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo’s drug-fueled road trip to Las Vegas.

In a rented red convertible, the two men hit the road with a suitcase full of narcotics in order so that Dr. Gonzo can cover a motorcycle race for a magazine.

Going through their stash at an alarming rate, they behave abhorrently, trash their hotel room, and run up an alarming room service tab.

This road trip film fantastically portrays not only an excessive drug binge but the shortcomings of the 1960s and the American Dream.

Rain Man (1988)

Rain Man isn’t just one of the best road trip movies, it’s one of the best films of all time.

Car dealer Charlie Babbit returns home to Cincinnati following the death of his father.

There, he learns that he has an older, autistic brother named Raymond and that their father has left almost all of his fortune for Raymond’s care.

Motivated by money, Charlie checks Raymond out of his institution to head back to Los Angeles. The cross-country road trip will change both of their lives forever.

The slow progression of the road trip due to Raymond’s strict routines gives Charlie time to understand and appreciate his brother’s complexities.

Wristcutters (2006)

TW: suicide

After breaking up with his girlfriend, Zia kills himself and wakes up in a purgatory filled with other suicide victims.

He befriends Eugene, a Russian rocker. After learning that his ex-girlfriend, Desiree, also took her own life after Zia’s death, the two friends embark on a road trip to find her in the afterlife.

Along the way, they also encounter a hitchhiker and a commune leader looking for his dog who’s been abducted by a cult leader.

Eccentric and funny, Wristcutters is one of the most unique movies about road trips and the meaning of life.

Two for the Road (1967)

Mark, a wealthy architect, and Joanna Wallace road trip through France in their convertible to celebrate the completion of a building project.

Tensions between the two are clear, though, and as they drive towards Saint Trope; Mark and Joanna reminisce about past memories and indiscretions.

Scenes from the past are juxtaposed with the couple’s discussions of previous events that have occurred along the same road.

Both have been unfaithful and unhappy, but what does the future hold for them?

If you’re looking for an old-time road trip film, you know Audrey Hepburn delivers.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

Neal Page is a control freak and advertising executive on a business trip in New York City, trying to get home to Chicago for Thanksgiving.

When his flight is delayed, he meets an annoying shower curtain ring salesman also traveling to Chicago.

A diverted flight and broken down train further complicate their journey home.

Del and Neal are reunited at a rental car facility, and despite their frustrations, commit to the trek to Chicago together. A surprise ending will bring the film full circle.

Planes Trains & Automobiles is another one of those cult-classic road trip movies on this list.

She’s in Portland (2020)

Wes, a thirty-something-year-old family man, is hoping to reconnect with his college friend Luke. While feeling envious of each other’s lives, they each feel trapped in their own.

Wes convinces Luke to join him on a business road trip up the coast of California to find Luke’s “one that got away.”

At the heart of this road trip film, though, is a genuine perspective of work, marriage, and life’s commitments in your thirties.

The backdrop of Highway 1 isn’t bad to look at either!

The Fundamentals of Caring (2016)

Ben is a writer from Seattle avoiding his wife’s attempts to serve him with divorce papers. Following another tragedy, he becomes the caregiver for Trevor, a disabled teen.

Trevor is enamored with roadside attractions. Ben convinces Trevor’s mother to allow them to take a road trip to see the world’s deepest pit. Trevor also wants to see his estranged father.

Along the way, they pick up a hitchhiker named Dot and a pregnant woman named Peaches.

The most unlikely connections make this one of our favorite road trip movies that make you think about friendships and caring for others.

Watch even more great friendship movies .

Braking for Whales (2019)

The death of their mother brings an estranged brother and sister together.

To gain their inheritance, the siblings must honor their mother’s final request: to have her remains placed into the body of a whale.

En route to a Texas aquarium to follow through on their mother’s absurd wish, Star and Brandon encounter more than just adventure.

They are forced to face one another and their own demons, including Brandon’s sexuality and Star’s child that she’s all but abandoned.

This is one of many road trip movies about healing and self-discovery, but the unique angle and potential to be relatable make it stand out.

Bad Trip (2021)

Part buddy comedy, part hidden camera prank show, Bad Trip sets the stage for a hilarious and outrageous cross country road trip.

Two friends, Chris and Bud, embark on a trip from Florida to New York City to catch Chris’s long-time crush.

They’ve all but stolen Bud’s sister’s car while she’s in jail to make the trip, but she manages to escape from jail to run after them.

All the while, real people are pulled into their raunchy and hilarious pranks. At the end of the movie, don’t miss their reactions when they find out they’ve been part of a prank movie.

Johnson Family Vacation (2004)

Nate Johnson longs to make amends with his gorgeous wife from whom he’s separated and spend more time with his children.

Miraculously, he manages to convince them all to join him on a cross-country drive to a family reunion.

On their way from California to Missouri, they encounter a myriad of hiccups, including an eccentric hitch-hiker, a semi-truck trying to run them off the road, and getting arrested for littering.

Johnson Family Vacation is where family adventure road trip movies meet stories of healing relationships and family ties.

Supernova (2020)

Sam and Tusker have been partners for 20 years.

After Tusker is diagnosed with early-onset dementia, the couple travels across England in their RV visiting family, friends, and memorable places from their past together.

One of the most poignant and beautiful movies about road trips, Supernova reminds us that all we truly have of someone else is time.

With talks of suicide and mourning the loss of a loved one, it’s sure to tug at the heartstrings of anyone in a loving relationship.

The Guilt Trip (2012)

Andy is about to set out on the adventure road trip of a lifetime.

Before he does, he makes a visit to his overbearing mother, Joyce, and learns about Andrew, a man she was previously in love with and whom Andy was named after.

Against his better judgment, Andy invites his mother on the road trip, concealing his intentions to bring her out to California to see Andrew.

Along their journey – which includes Joyce calling Andy’s ex-girlfriend and a steak-eating contest – Andy realizes that he has more in common with his aggravating mother than he thought.

They begin to enjoy their time together until Joyce learns why Andy actually invited her.

Deceit is a common theme for familial movies on road trips – and the outcome can go one of two ways.

Come as You Are (2019)

Three disabled men, Scotty, Matt, and Mo, take a road trip from Colorado to Montreal to lose their virginities at a brothel servicing special needs clients.

They are accompanied by a jaded travel nurse who drives and assists them.

This isn’t another comical, sex-motivated road trip, though. The film delicately presents the needs of the disabled community and offers us an opportunity to be empathetic and compassionate.

The one caveat of this inclusive road trip film is that all three main actors are able-bodied themselves.

Come As You Are is a remake of the acclaimed Belgian film, Hasta la Vista , which is based on the real-life of Asta Philpot.

The Trip to Spain (2017)

For more movies about road trips abroad, catch Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon – English and Welch actor comedians – who star as fictionalized versions of themselves on a culinary road trip through Spain.

Nostalgic of a trip he took as a young man, Steve convinces Rob to accompany him on a road trip from the Northern to Southern coast of Spain. 

In addition to sampling epic Spanish fare, the men will talk about their respective lives, relationships, fatherhood, and midlife crises, all with an heir of witty British satire.

The Trip to Spain is part of Coogan and Brydon’s satirical culinary film series including The Trip and The Trip to Italy .

Where To Read More About & Watch These Movies On Road Trips:

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Thank you to TUL contributor, Tori Curran from Explore With Tori

Tori (pronouns: she/her) is a children’s librarian and mom to two boys living in New York. She’s an avid traveler, nature enthusiast, and writer, encouraging families to get outside and start exploring the world. When she’s not hiking or traveling, you can find her lost in a historical fiction book, watching Bravo reruns, or obsessively decluttering her home.

What are your favorite films about road trips?

Which movies about road trips do you love and re-watch over and over again? Let us know in the comments!

What To Watch Next:

Movies Around The World Hiking Movies Top Audiobooks For Road Trips

Tori Curran

Tori (pronouns: she/her) is a mom to two boys, living in New York but adventuring everywhere, usually with a toddler on her back. She's an avid traveler, nature junkie, and writer, encouraging families to get outside and start exploring the world. When she's not hiking or traveling, you can find her lost in a book, watching Bravo reruns, or obsessively decluttering her home. Tori owns the family and adventure blog, Explore with Tori .

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10 Best Road Trip Movies of All Time

Road trips are a way out of our stressful lives. The peregrinations with friends and family can soothe our souls. This deliverance to redemption has inspired motion pictures since the time we can remember. Losing ourselves in the lap of mother nature and the warmth of solitude can be an orgasmic and life-changing experience. Over the years, the genre has gained popularity. The films have inspired youths and teens to embark on journeys of self-discovery and an aberration from banality. These movies not only provide us with the visual splendor of nature, but also have strong plots to give us moving stories. The dramatization of road-trips has seen an exponential growth attracting the biggest names in the industry.

The genre has created a niche for itself with a very small amount of target audience. As a result, most of the movies on the genre aren’t commercial and often dwell in the shadows of the crowd-pleasers. The following is the list of top road trip movies ever made. You can watch some of these best road trip movies on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime.

10. Zombieland (2009)

Not your typical road-trip movie, this innovative amalgamation of the zombie-humor and road-trip genre remains one of a kind. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin as the quadripartite who survive a zombie apocalypse. The story follows Columbus (Eisenberg) and his journey, where he meets other survives to free themselves of this perdition. Critical reception was mostly positive, with praise directed towards the writing, wicked humor and the performance of the main cast. Its comparisons with the 2004 movie ‘Shaun of the Dead’   were mostly positive, with the film being credited as the revival of the zombie genre.

Read More: Best Intelligent Movies Ever Made

9. Nebraska (2013)

The black and white comedy-drama canvasses the journey of a father and son duo attempting to win a million-dollar sweep-stake prize for a long trip to Nebraska. Shooting the movie without color was a bold step, which eventually came off with the film garnering overwhelming love from critics and the audiences. The Alexander Payne helmed film was nominated for six Academy awards, without winning any. The performances, especially that of Bruce Dern and June Squibb were acclaimed as the worn-out pair, struggling with life and their marriage. Even though the film is stretched at almost two hours, the moving father-son relationship and humorous condiments of the story make the film a pleasurable watch.

Read More: Best Gangster Movies of All Time

8. Sideways (2004)

Any film that Paul Giamatti features in turns out be a good one. ‘Sideways’ is no aberration. An adaptation of Rex Pickett’s novel of the same name, the engrossing comedy follows two men in their forties, Miles Raymond (Giamatti)  a depressed teacher and unsuccessful writer and Jack Cole (Thomas Haden) a past-his-prime actor, who take a week-long road trip to Santa Barbara wine country to celebrate Jack’s wedding. The recipient of four Oscar nominations and a win (Best Adapted Screenplay), the film was a critical and commercial success, raking in an impressive $107 million worldwide. The title of the movie refers to the technique used for wine bottles to age properly by keeping them sideways. It also implies in life where people must go “sideways” to keep growing and change their lives.

Read More: Best Women Directed Movies of All Time

7. The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

This biopic road-trip movie is based on the written memoirs of a 23 year-old Ernesto Guevara, who today is known by the sobriquet Che Guevara. As well as being a road movie, the film is a coming-of age film, initially focusing on his youthful shenanigans and hedonisms, then unraveling Guevara discovers himself transformed by his observations on the life of the impoverished denizen peasantry. Trysting with destitution, being ostracized and the ongoing fascism, Che firsthand experiences the problems faced by the oppressed social classes. The film was met with critical acclaim, receiving a standing ovation at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Watch this one for self-discovery and the birth of one of the greatest revolutionary leaders of history.

Read More: Best Inspirational Movies of All Time

6.  Easy Rider (1969)

I hadn’t heard of the film until two days ago when I concocted the idea to do an article on road-trip movies. I found this during my research and instantly, the film became one of my favorites. Starring the ever-green Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper and newcomer Peter Fonda, the film  explores the societal landscape, issues, and tensions in the United States during the 1960s, such as the rise and fall of the hippie  movement, drug use, and communal lifestyle. Extra-ordinarily, the film administered use of real drugs in all the scenes including them. The aesthetic vistas and the gory violence along with extensive use of drugs make the film a landmark  counterculture film, and a “touchstone for a generation.”

Read More: Best Psychopath Movies of All Time

5. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

A drug-addicted grandfather, recently kicked out of a retirement home for snorting heroin (Yeah!), an overworked mother , who can’t seem to be at “peace”, a stay at home father with  Type A personality , an uncle who attempted suicide, a Nietzsche -reading teenage brother who has taken a vow of silence until he can accomplish his dream of becoming a test pilot. This is what 9 year-old Olive Hooper has for a family. The 101 minute long movie follows the journey of the Hooper family, and their endeavors to admit Olive in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant, a unfulfilled dream of her late grandfather. The film received four Oscar nominations and won two, also going to gross a $100 million world-wide. A must watch!

Read More: Best Murder Mystery Movies of All Time

4. The Straight Story (1999)

The film is directed by David Lynch. No, don’t put on your detective hats Sherlocks! This movie stands apart from his byzantine works. Dropping his usual style of aesthetic use of violence and sex and his baffling narratives, he keeps it simple and the result is a heart-touching film. based on the true story of Alvin Straight’s 1994 journey across Iowa and Wisconsin on a lawn-mower. Alvin (Richard Winsforth) is an elderly World War II veteran who lives with his daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek), a kind woman with a mental disability. When he hears that his estranged brother Lyle (Harry Stanton) has suffered a stroke, embarks on a journey to meet him. Not being fit enough to receive a DL, he hitches a trailer to his tractor, having a top speed of 5 mph, covering a distance of 240 miles. The film received widespread acclaim from critics and inundating love from the audiences. Winsforth received an Oscar nomination for his role, becoming the oldest recipient.

Read More: Best Teen Movies of All Time

3.  Rain Man (1988)

Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman star in this road-trip comedy, shadowing the life of the young and abrasive Charlie Babbitt, and how he discovers his estranged brother, in whose name his father avowed his fortune, Raymond, an autistic savant. The film was met with universal acclaim, with Hoffman and the sophisticated screenplay getting special praise.The film won four Academy awards out of eight nominations. Hoffman’s character is based on a real person, a close friend of the writer Barry Morrow. The film is considered one of the best ever made, not only in the road-trip genre, but all the genres!

Read More: Best Stalker Movies of All Time

2. Into the Wild (2007)

Based on a true story and the novel of the same name, the film is the first major feature directed by Sean Penn. It follows the final four months of Chris McCandeless’ life, his fatal Alaska sojourn being the object of his obsession. The movie is a tale of profound irony, as Chris’ only desire, to step int the wild and live in the Alaskan wilderness, being his ultimate demise. Deftly handled and splendidly shot, the film received much praise from the industry, going on to win an Academy award as well. It also spring boarded the career of Emile Hirsch, who assumes the titular role. This saddening yet exciting tale of the great man is surely one of the best features in the genre.

Read More: Best Thriller Movies of All Time

1. Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

The best road trip movie ever made. Period. Having said that, ‘Y Tu Mamá También’ is also so much more. It is sexy and funny and hip and stylish, but above all, it is affecting and melancholic. In the end, you will be surprised by how a single film could manage to evoke so many emotions. But the ultimate shock will come when you will realize how can the guy who directed this can go on to direct an awe-inspiring space movie .

Read More: 100 Best Movies of All Time

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6 road-trip movies to watch for travel inspiration

T he joy of traveling is not limited to the end destination but is also very much about the journey, and that is the essence that makes road-trip movies so special. Different filmmakers tend to approach the concept in their own way, so there are a variety of road-trip movies that focus on different aspects of the journey.

Some movies focus on bonding and exploration, while others showcase it as a more cathartic experience linked to self-realization and healing. Most of these films also incorporate an element of comedy that makes for a fun watch.

No matter what the approach is, road-trip movies in general tend to encourage viewers to embark on their own adventure. Viewers who are looking for a sign from the universe to push them to plan a trip of their own will find at least one reason, if not multiple, after watching a good road-trip movie.

Of course, many road-trip movies have been released to date, but the best ones combine derisable dream destinations with interesting narratives and heartfelt performances to leave a lasting impression.

The best road-trip movies that celebrate the joy of travelling and exploration

1) heartlands (2002).

Directed by Damien O'Donnell, this road-trip movie focuses on an amicable newsagent named Colin, played by Michael Sheen . He finds out that his wife is cheating on him with the captain of the darts team he plays for. After he is cut from the team, he resolves to travel to Blackpool with the hope that he will be able to win back his wife.

Sheen does a wonderful job portraying Colin. It is interesting to see how the character changes after his interactions and experiences on the road. The movie is not exactly fast-paced, but it is still witty and enjoyable all the same.

2) Into the Wild (2007)

This popular movie is based on the life of Christopher McCandless. Emile Hirsch plays the role of Christopher in this movie directed by Sean Penn . It gives viewers an insight into the experiences and challenges that Christopher faced as he hitchhiked his way all the way to Alaska.

Hirsch skillfully captures the emotions and mannerisms of Christopher who was fascinated with the nomadic lifestyle. More than anything else, this is one of those movies that makes viewers want to be more spontaneous and adventurous.

3) The Bucket List (2007)

Two experienced actors, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman , come together in this movie directed by Rob Reiner. The story focuses on Edward Perriman Cole (Nicholson) and Carter Chambers (Freeman), both of whom are terminally ill patients. They take a road trip wherein they try and do things from a wishlist before the Grim Reaper comes calling.

The best thing about this movie is the chemistry between the leads. Their characters are endearing, funny, and most of all, relatable. It is heart-warming to watch them bond and support each other during their trip.

4) Land Ho! (2014)

This road-trip movie is about two ex-brothers-in-laws, played by Paul Eenhoorn and Earl Lynn Nelson, who take a trip to Iceland together and try all the hip things that all the young people rave about.

Directed by Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz, this movie focuses on healing and friendship. It is funny and realistic, and the effortless candor between Eenhoorn and Nelson adds to the narrative.

5) The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)

This movie marks the directorial debut of both Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz. The story is centered around Zak (Zack Gottsagen) who has Down syndrome. He runs away from a state-run care facility to pursue his dream of becoming a professional wrestler. On his journey, he meets up with an outlaw named Tyler ( Shia LaBeouf ) who ends up becoming his friend.

This movie shines thanks to its strong narrative and spectacular performance by Gottsagen and LaBeouf's. The movie as a whole is bound to leave an impact on the viewer.

6) Nomadland (2020)

In this road-trip movie directed by Chloé Zhao, Frances McDormand plays the role of the protagonist. She is Fern who embraces a life on the road after she loses her job. As she travels, she grows as a person and gains a new perspective on life from her interactions with other nomads she meets on the road.

Even when she isn't saying anything, McDormand has a commanding aura, making it difficult for the viewer to look away. Her emotions and body language are always on-point, and she effortlessly carries the narrative. Quiet but thought-provoking, this one is a must-watch road-trip movie.

These road-trip movies will not only entertain movie lovers but will encourage them to pack their bags and set out on the next adventure. They are heartfelt and beautiful stories that inspire one to live life to the fullest.

'Drive-Away Dolls': Release Date, Cast, Trailer, and Everything We Know About Ethan Coen's New Comedy

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What's the release date of 'drive-away dolls', will 'drive-away dolls' be in theaters or on streaming, is there a trailer for 'drive-away dolls', who's in the cast of 'drive-away dolls', what is 'drive-away dolls' about, who's making 'drive-away dolls', when and where was 'drive-away dolls' filmed.

The Coen Brothers have been a staple of American independent cinema since the early 1980s. Together, both Joel and Ethan Coen have expanded, lampooned, and perfected gangster films, film noir, and even Westerns. They were critical darlings, every actor’s favorite director, and winners of several Academy Awards including Best Picture for their dark western, No Country For Old Men . When the two decided to split up, most movie aficionados didn’t know what to do with themselves. But at last year’s award season, fans rejoiced to see the triumphant and independent return of Joel Coen with The Tragedy of Macbeth starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand . Now it is Ethan Coen’s turn to show how good he is on his own with his new film, Drive-Away Dolls .

For anybody wondering about the details of Ethan Coen’s newest film, you’ve come to the right place. Read on for everything we know so far about Drive-Away Dolls .

Editor's Note: This piece was updated on February 20, 2024.

Drive-Away Dolls

Jamie regrets her breakup with her girlfriend, while Marian needs to relax. In search of a fresh start, they embark on an unexpected road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals.

Drive-Away Dolls will be distributed to US audiences by Focus Features, arriving on February 23, 2024 . The movie was previously scheduled to be released on September 22, 2023 , but was delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

As of right now, the only way you'll be able to see Drive-Away Dolls on February 23, is on the big screen. The film will eventually be made available to stream on the Universal-owned streaming service Peacock , but no specific date has been given yet as to when that will be.

The trailer for Drive-Away Dolls was initially released exclusively in theaters in front of showings of Wes Anderson 's Asteroid City . The trailer was released online shortly after, on June 23, 2023. The trailer, which is in part set to Joyce Harris and the Daylighters ' "I Got My Mojo Working," doubles down on the hijinks the film is sure to be full of and also teases the film's villains played by some very familiar faces.

The second trailer for Drive-Away Dolls was released by Focus Features on February 6, 2024.

In the week leading up to the release of Drive-Away Dolls , Focus Features showcased a handful of clips from the comedy on their YouTube channel.

Ethan Coen has acquired a cast of some of the best actors in Hollywood. Margaret Qualley , Geraldine Viswanathan , Beanie Feldstein , Pedro Pascal , Colman Domingo , Bill Camp , Matt Damon , Joey Slotnick , and C.J. Wilson are all set to star as Jamie, Marian, Sukie, Santos, Chief, Curlie, Senator Channel, Arliss, and Flint respectively.

Qualley got her start starring alongside Justin Theroux on the underrated HBO drama, The Leftovers . She later starred in the detective period piece The Nice Guys alongside Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe . In 2019, she achieved great success in both film and TV when she won an Emmy nomination for her role as the famous Broadway dancer Ann Reinking in FX’s miniseries, Fosse/Verdon . The same year, she also starred alongside Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in Quentin Tarantino ’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood . She recently received her second Emmy nomination for her lead role in Netflix’s Maid and had a small, but memorable role in Yorgos Lanthimos ' Oscar-nominated comedy Poor Things . Viswanathan is most famous for her role in the anthology comedy series Miracle Workers alongside Daniel Radcliffe . She has also starred in movies like Blockers , The Broken Hearts Gallery , and Rumble .

Feldstein first received critical acclaim for her role as the meek but lovable best friend Julie in the Oscar-nominated film, Lady Bird . She later starred as the lead in Booksmart which followed two high school girls set on having their first night of wild fun before they graduate. Pascal is most famous for his work on television. He first gained mainstream attention for his work on Game of Thrones and later for his role as a DA agent on a mission to catch or kill drug lord, Pablo Escobar, on the show Narcos . He currently stars in the Star Wars spinoff series, The Mandalorian , as well as HBO’s newest acclaimed drama, The Last of Us . Domingo stars in another hit HBO drama, Euphoria , where he plays Rue’s sponsor. He has also starred in films like If Beale Street Could Talk , Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom , and Zola . Camp is best known for his role as the janitor and chess tutor in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit alongside Anya Taylor Joy . He has also worked on several critically acclaimed films like Lincoln , Joker , and Vice . Damon has worked with several brilliant directors including Gus Van Sant , Clint Eastwood , and Martin Scorsese . He previously worked with Ethan Coen on the western remake True Grit , appearing alongside Hailee Steinfeld and Jeff Bridges . Slotnick has appeared in several TV series like Nip/Tuck , Family Guy , and The Office .

Here is Focus Features’ Official Synopsis for Drive-Away Dolls :

This comedy caper follows Jamie, an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.

The director of Drive-Away Dolls is Ethan Coen. Along with his brother, Ethan Coen made his debut with 1984’s Blood Simple . This neo-noir thriller follows a Texas bartender who finds himself wrapped up in a murder plot when his boss discovers he has been having an affair with his wife. The film put the brothers on the map and they followed this dark crime drama up with a zany comedy about an infertile couple‘s attempt to steal a child, Raising Arizona , showing their range. They won their first Oscar for what is probably their most famous film, Fargo , a midwestern noir about a man’s failed attempt to stage his wife’s kidnapping. Though Joel and Ethan collaborated equally on writing and directing, Ethan didn’t receive his first official directing credit until their 2004 crime comedy, The Ladykillers . Since then, the two directed the Oscar-winning Cormac McCarthy adaptation, No Country For Old Men , as well as Inside Llewyn Davis , which turned Oscar Isaac into a formidable Hollywood star. Their last collaboration together was on the Netflix anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs , starring Tim Blake Nelson , Brendan Gleeson , and Liam Neeson .

Ethan Coen is also co-writing Drive-Away Dolls , alongside his wife, Tricia Cooke . Though this is Tricia Cooke’s first time writing a feature, she is no stranger to the industry or to the world of the Coen Brothers. This husband and wife team began working together in 1990 when Cooke served as editor on his film Miller’s Crossing , which starred Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney and followed a power struggle between two rival gangs. Cooke served as the editor on several of the Coen brothers’ films like Barton Fink , The Man Who Wasn’t There , and O Brother Where Art Thou? . She has also worked with other directors including Mary Harron on the film, The Notorious Bettie Page , which told the life story of the famous pin-up girl. Coen and Cooke are also producing the film with Tim Bevan , Eric Fellner , and Robert Graf . Music for the film is by Carter Burwell and Ari Wegner ( The Power of the Dog ) is the cinematographer. Drive-Away Dolls is produced by Working Title Productions.

Drive-Away Dolls kicked off production in August 2022, filming in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Parts of the movie were also filmed in Hopewell Township, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, and it's now in the post-production stage.

• Pedro Pascal