16 Epic Adventure Movies To Watch Right Now:
Adventure movies have always been a staple of Hollywood studios since the beginning of cinema. Directors like David Lean, Robert Zemeckis, Howard Hawks and Ridley Scott, to name a few, have made a name for themselves making adventure films.
More often than not, such films have a basis in reality. They’re either based on first-person accounts or adapted to fictionalized versions of events that actually took place. Such films give the directors a chance to explore the wild and hence contain great photography.
Adventures are always exciting because there’s always that bit of fear, anticipation and curiosity that make the journey exciting and unpredictable. In cinema, the adventure could take a lot of forms.
It could probably vary in tone with some depicting journeys filled with fun and laughs while others could be an exploration into outer space seeking questions beyond the comprehensible powers of the human intellect.
Cinematographers relish going out of the studios and setting their cameras in the great unknowns, capturing the wild haunting beauty of the outdoors. One can say that nature, in essence, becomes the central character in many such films.
They chronicle the efforts of man pitted against the harshness of nature. Such films showcase the resilience of the human spirit, where men and women are tested to the limits of their endurance. It’s not to say that they don’t contain human drama.
The Avengers:
If you’re looking for a good action movie, go back to the very beginning and relive the Avengers’ first mission. Captain America, Black Widow, Hulk, Iron Man, Hawkeye and Thor all agree to unite and save the world from Loki’s evil schemes. We don’t know about you, but we’ve got a hunch this little team might go on to do great things together.
The Way Back:
The film is based on The Long Walk by Stephen King awomir Rawicz. When the Soviets forcefully extract a confession from his wife that he’s a spy, Janusz finds himself in a remote Siberian labor camp. Faced with brutal conditions inside and out, Janusz is determined to escape.
A blizzard provides him with the perfect opportunity, and he and a small group of fellow prisoners Mr. Smith, an American engineer Khabarov, an actor Valkarrell, a hardened Russian criminal Tomasz, a Polish artist Voss, a Latvian priest; Kazik, a Pole suffering from night blindness and Zoran, a Yugoslav make a break for it.
Escape, however, is the easy part, for Janusz and his companions face a 4,000 mile trek on foot through the frozen landscape before they can truly be free.
First Man:
‘First Man’ is one of the most thrilling movies in recent times, given the dramatic journey it depicts of mankind’s mission to reach the moon – a feat no one had attempted before.
Gritty, realistic and outright emotional and pathbreaking, ‘First Man’ has been regarded as one of the best space movies since ‘Gravity’ and has received critical acclaim.
Featuring Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy in the leading roles, the extraordinary journey of this Apollo 11 astronaut will take you by surprise and would reveal many things unheard of about this daring mission to the moon. Damien Chazelle is truly an amazing talent.
National Treasure:
In this fun blockbuster, a treasure hunter finds a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence and sets out to find the treasure it leads to before it gets into the wrong hands.
Nicolas Cage is perfect in the role of treasure hunter, Benjamin Franklin Gates, and the slew of action scenes and impressive stunts will make you want to check out some other legal documents in case there might be a treasure map on it.
Life Of Pi:
This adventure film is based on Yann Martel’s 2001 novel of the same name. After deciding to move to Canada, PI’s parents board a Japanese freighter with their sons and the animals they own.
A terrible storm sinks the ship, leaving the Patels’ teenage son, Pi, as the only human survivor. After the storm, Pi awakens in the lifeboat with the zebra and is joined by a resourceful orangutan.
A spotted hyena emerges from under a tarpaulin covering half of the lifeboat and snaps at Pi, forcing him to retreat to the end of the boat. The hyena kills the zebra and later the orangutan.
Richard Parker emerges from under the tarpaulin, killing the hyena before retreating back to cover for several days.
As days turn into weeks and weeks drag into months, Pi and the tiger must learn to trust each other if both are to survive. The film also is a parable about human needs and desires and also comments on human depravity.
The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe:
What began as a WWII story turns out to be one of the best childhood adventure movies we’ve experienced so far. The movie begins with four kids Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy who are traveling the countryside, away from their mother and from the perils of war.
Lucy, whilst playing hide-and-seek, discovers a wardrobe which leads them into a mysterious world of Narnia and later, lures her siblings in, to fight the evil White Witch and to support the war for righteousness led by a great lion named Aslan.
The captivating visuals and fight scenes, the in-depth characterization and the breathtaking performances turn this film into a delightful cinematic experience.
King Kong:
In this version, a director takes his crew to an uncharted island to film a movie, but the shoot takes a turn for the worse when a giant gorilla kidnaps the lead actress. Peter Jackson’s take on the classic story has visual effects to make you feel dizzy for days.
While this movie was released over a decade ago, the monsters and overall production quality still hold up and make for an emotional, electrifying, action-packed adventure that will make you think twice about going to uncharted islands.
The Grey:
The film is based on the book Ghost Walker by Ian MacKenzie Jeffers. John Ottway is a marksman for an oil company in Alaska, killing grey wolves that threaten the drillers.
On his last day on the job, he sees a wolf pursuing a driller and shoots it, listening to the wolf’s final breath. That evening, Ottway writes a letter to his wife, Ana, explaining his plans to complete suicide, but does not follow through.
The next day, he accompanies the workers flying home but the plane carrying them crashes due to a sudden storm. The only way to survive is to trek across the wilderness.
As they walk toward civilization, Ottway and his companions must battle mortal injuries, the icy elements, and a pack of hungry gray wolves.
Jumanji:
Perhaps the flagship movie featuring Robin Williams, and arguably one of his most famous works, ‘Jumanji’ begins with a boy named Alan Parrish, the son of a wealthy shoemaker in New Hampshire who finds a board game titled “Jumanji”.
As he begins playing his game by rolling the dice along with one of his friends Sarah, a weird phenomenon starts happening and the message displayed on the board game comes to life in the form of wild animals, thunderous clouds, torrential rains and creepy tree shafts.
After Alan reappears 26 years later to play his last game because he wants to be out of the loop, he has to get everything back together, and reconcile with his friend and later, girlfriend Sarah, along with a bunch of kids who were living in his old house, who started playing the game years after Alan was trapped in it.
Funny, adventurous to the core and intriguing, ‘Jumanji’ had a lot of fans back in the day. Watch out for a young and promising Kirsten Dunst.
Black Panther:
One of the best superhero movies to date, Black Panther takes the Marvel Universe to a whole new level, introducing you to the technologically advanced and meticulously hidden African country of Wakanda.
T’Challa, aka Black Panther, is about to be crowned king after the death of his father, but must face a threat that will test his strength both as Black Panther and as regent. Amazing visual effects and breathtaking fight scenes make this stand-alone Marvel movie a gem you shouldn’t miss.
Black Sea:
Soon after losing his salvage job, former naval officer Robinson assembles a misfit crew of unemployed British and Russian sailors for a risky mission. They’re to find a sunken Nazi U-boat, rumored to contain a fortune in gold. They travel to the Port of Sevastopol and acquire an antiquated Foxtrot-class submarine.
Promising each man an equal share, Robinson leads the mixed British and Russian crew to comb the depths of the Black Sea. They do succeed in finding the sunken gold and salvaging it from the U-boat.
But, greed takes hold of a crew already divided along language and cultural lines. And, they’re also facing treachery at the hands of Robinson’s former bosses, as also the Russian Navy.
Prometheus:
Officially, the fifth installment of the ‘Alien’ franchise, ‘Prometheus’ has an aura of its own and maintains a different identity as compared to the other movies of the franchise.
Turning out to be one of the most profitable ventures of the franchise, the movie begins with the crew of a ship named Prometheus that has landed on a barren, distant moon in the late 21st century, trying to explore the origins of humankind based on a star map, before they could realize the trap and the fact that mankind itself could be in a grave danger.
‘Prometheus’ not only maintains the thrill-seeking audiences’ edge-of-the-seat experience, but it also certainly makes the audiences explore the grandeur of uncharted moons and planets. With spellbinding performances, terrifying alien creatures and the watertight screenplay, ‘Prometheus’ is a stunning masterpiece.
Wanted:
In this ambitious thriller, James McAvoy plays an office worker recruited by a mysterious organization of assassins that obey to no less than… fate itself.
It’s that serious, yes, but the movie is also fun, fast-paced and all around badass. Not only that, but it’s also quite clever. We bet it will surprise you even more than expected.
Everest:
The film is inspired by true events. Baltasar Kormákur directed the film, about the 1996 disastrous expedition to scale Mount Everest, which was scripted by Simon Beaufoy and Mark Medoff.
On the morning of May 10, 1996, climbers from two expeditions, including Rob Hall, who popularized commercial Everest missions, lead Adventure Consultants; Scott Fischer is the chief guide for its rival, Mountain Madness.
Rob’s clients include Beck Weathers, an experienced climber; Doug Hansen, a former mailman pursuing his dream; climbing veteran Yasuko Namba, who hopes to complete her final Seven Summits ascent and Outside magazine journalist Jon Krakauer started their final ascent toward the summit of Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth.
With little warning, a violent storm strikes the mountain, engulfing the adventurers in one of the fiercest blizzards ever encountered by man. Challenged by the harshest conditions imaginable, the teams must endure blistering winds and freezing temperatures in an epic battle to survive against nearly impossible odds.
127 Hours:
Touted as one of the best adventure biopics of all time, ‘127 Hours’ is the gripping real-life tale of a young explorer Aron who ventures solo into Utah’s Canyonlands when his right hand is stuck under a boulder and to his utter dismay, he is unable to move his hand and can’t even call for help, for he is in one of the remotest places.
As his resources run thinner, he resorts to one of the most desperate measures in the end to “let go” of his hand.
Without spoiling it any further, ‘127 Hours’ has Danny Boyle‘s signature flavor in it coupled with James Franco‘s intense performance which took us for a thrill ride. And on top of everything, you’d get to see the real Aron Ralston in the end.
The Mummy:
In this Egyptian adventure, an American soldier serving in the French legion in 1925 manages to free a mummy that unleashes chaos in its wake.
One of the best adventure movies of the 1990s, everything in The Mummy is reminiscent of the Golden Age of Hollywood, with fantastic visuals that haven’t aged a day, perfect chemistry between its lead actors, and breathtaking action scenes that would make the Avengers blush.
