To quote the immortal words of Steppenwolf from their iconic song 'Born to Be Wild': "Get your motor runnin', head out on the highway, lookin' for adventure – and what♈ever comes our way." Truly, nothing feels thrilling and promising than hitting the open road. The long tradition of road trip movies have made the genre one of the most appealing to storytellers and audiences alike. But which movies are actually the greatest road trip movies 💝of all time?
While not all road trip movies take place in America, it is a uniquely American genre. The United States' diverse cities and landscapesꦡ means characters can wind up in completely different worlds quite easily. From the crowded streets of New York to the vast, open deserts of California, there's a universe of possibilities wherever you turn. But again: Road trips aren't limited to the continental United States, as some of the greatest filmmakers from around the world have put their cameras behind wheels.
From the profane to the profound, here are the 33 grea🧔test road trip movies ever made.
33. Road Trip (2000)
Before college kids had Snapchat, illicit messages were sent out by snail mail. Stamps and all. Which is how college student Josh (Breckin Meyer) gets on the road with his buddies to race from the University of Ithaca in New York to the University of Austin in Texas (not Ma♉ssachusetts) to retrieve a sex tape before his long-distance girlfriend can play it. Lewd and crude, Road Trip is still one of the defining teen sex comedies of the new millennium, riding shotgun with the likes of American Pie and Wet Hot American Summer.
32. Detroit Rock City (1999)
If you want a road trip movie that rocks 'n rolls all night (and parties every day), hop into Detroit Rock City. Edward Furlong, Sam Huntington, Giuse꧙ppe Andrews, and Jamese DeBello star as four rebellious Ohio teenagers in 1978 who fight tooth and nail to see their rock idols, KISS, at a concert in Detroit, Michigan. Beginning with breaking one of their own out of a Catholic boarding school to entering male stripping contests, Detroit Rock City licks it up as a sordid good time. All hail the God of Thunder!
31. Paul (2011)
Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunite for a nerdy joyride in Paul, directed by Greg Mottola. After attending the hallowed mecca of geekdom, the San Diego Comic-Con in southern California, Graeme (𓆉Pegg) and Clive (Frost) meet a talking space alien (voiced by Seth Rogen) while traveling across the American southwest. The two British sci-fi buffs help their friend escape the clutches of government agents in this road-trekkin' love letter to sci-fi pop culture, right down to a cameo appearance from the queen of sci-fi, Sigourney Weaver.
30. Forces of Nature (1998)
After a freak accident grounds his flight from New York City, high-strung book blurbs writer Ben (Ben Affleck, and yes, Ben Affleck plays a guy named Ben) rac✃es to his wedding in Savannah, Georgia in the company of free-spirited woman Sarah (Sandra Bullock). While sparks fly between these polar opposite souls, Ben keeps committed to his fiance, and Sarah is determined to get her own life on track. Forces of Nature is a smarter meet-cute rom-com than it seems, along with a surprisingly dreamlike atmosphere and feel. It's almost like it floats on air.
18. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987)
It should be so easy to get from New York City to Chicago. Unfortunately, a freak blizzard and the Thanksgiving travel rush creates all kinds of problems for high-strung adꦚ executive Neal Page (Steve Martin). Determined to make it home in time for Thanksgiving, Neal gets on every mode of transport imaginable (hence, the title) only to get sidetracked by a yapping road companion, shower curtain ring salesman Del (John Candy). While Planes, Trains, and Automobiles gets a lot of mileage out of Martin and Candy's mismatchedღ pairing, there's a lot of heart in the movie – enough to go around for everyone.
9. Will & Harper (2024)
In this moving and po꧋tentially life-saving Netflix documentary, movie star Will Ferrell accompanies Harper Steele – his friend and creative partner of over 20 years – on a road trip across the United States. Coming after Harper's transition during the COVID-19 pandemic, their adventure together through a politically divisive America invites Will to better understand his own best friend, bearing witness to the pitfalls that lie in any social situation for the trans community. From biker bars to stock car races, Will & Harper reveals the light and darkness woven in everyday America, and how critical it is to have friends on the ride with you.
8. Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Based on Hunter S. Thompson's legendary novel, itself based on his trips to Las Vegas circa March and April 1971, Fear &am💦p; Loathing in Las Vegas treks across the city of sin for the remnants of the American dream. Dispatched by a magazine to cover a dirt bike race, reporter Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo (Benicio del Toro), traverse Las Vegas while high on virtually everything you could name as they muse over the epic failure of the 1960s counterculture movement. Impeccably directed by Terry Gilliam, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas is a madcap monument to America's disorienting excess.
7. Paris, Texas (1984)
German filmmaker Wim Wenders brings audiences to the vast deserts of America in Pa🧔ris, Texas, his neo-noir Western from 1984. Harry Dean Stanton plays a disheveled traveler, and amnesiac, Travis, who is awkwardly reunited w😼ith his brother (Dean Stockwell) and his own son (Hunter Carson). The brothers hit the road in search of Travis' own missing wife (Natassja Kinski). Amid a desolate America characterized by flickering neon signs and vast swaths of land, Wenders explores whether the American family is still capable of supporting troubled men.
6. Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
Set against a politically tumultuous late 20th century Mexico, hormonal teenagers Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) – whose own girlfriends have left for their own vacation in Italy –🦂 road trip through Mexico along with an older, vo💜luptuous woman named Luisa (Maribel Verdú). While its explicit depictions of sex and nudity gave the movie buzz, Y Tu Mamá También earned proper critical acclaim for its heart-wrenching look at friendship and yearning, as an elaborate metaphor for a changing Mexico. Combined with director Alfonso Cuarón's depictions of Mexico's lush landscapes, Y Tu Mamá También is a movie where desire is on everyone's minds.
5. Pierrot Le Fou (1965)
Regarded as one of Jean-Luc Godard's greatest movies of all time, this French New Wave classic follows an unhappily married man (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who leaves his life behꦅind in Paris and commits a crime spree all the way to the Mediterranean Sea with ex-girlfriend Marianne (Anna Karina), a beautiful young woman being hunted by politically far-right hitmen. Noted for Godard's abundant social commentary, 💖fourth-wall breaking moments, and garish pop art visuals, Pierrot Le Fou stands the test of time to feel as fresh as it was in 1965.
4. Midnight Run (1988)
A simple job turns out more complicated than anyone anticipates in Martin Brest's hit 1988 action-comedy Midnight Run. Bounty hunter Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) is hired to locate a mob accountant (Charles Grodin) in New York City and bring him to Los Angeles. Things get more difficult when Jack finds that the accountant, who has a grating personality, is also wanted by the FBI and the mob. Buoyed by De Niro and Grodin's onscreen chemistry, Midnight🐟 Run is sim🌱ply one hell of a ride that shouldn't be missed.
3. Thelma & Louise (1991)
Its iconic final shot is one for the ages. Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis co-star in Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise, playing the titular pair whose innocent road trip turns deadly after they kill an attempted rapist. While on the lam, Thelma and Louise become closer and find the independence they so desperately craved out of their otherwise mundane, dead-end lives. A towering movie in the feminist film canon, Thelma &💧; Louise endures like its somewhat ambiguous ending: frozen in 🍎time, and lasting forever.
2. Easy Rider (1969)
The American New Wave went full throttle with Easy Rider, directed by and starring Dennis Hopper. The movie follows two outlaw motorcyclists, played by Hopper and Peter Fonda, who celebrate a successful smuggling job by getting on their tricked-out choppers and riding east to New Orleans to spend Mardi Gras living it up. Along the way, they find themselves in the thick of the cultural hippie movement. A landmark release in the American cinema canon, Easy Rider influenced our 🍎very vision of the open road as the last ജplace on Earth to feel like we were born to be wild.
1. Sideways (2004)
A🌠lexander Payne explores the pangs of early onset middle age crises in his roaring comedy-drama Sideways. Paul Giamatti stars as Miles, a frustrated English teacher and aspiring novelist who invites his closest friend, middling TV actor Jack (Thomas Haden Church) on a week-long vacation trying out different wineries in California. While Miles is content to sip and critique wine, Jack is itching for more hedonistic goals. As the two friends clash over their wants and needs, their time together becomes a surprisingly poignant tale about needing direction. Sideways may not look t🦄he part, but it stands as one of the greatest road trip movies of all time.
Eric Francisco is a freelance entertainment journalist and graduate of Rutgers University. If a movie or TV show has superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, or John Cena, he's your guy to make sense of it. A former senior writer at Inverse, his byline has also appeared at Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue. You can find him screaming at Dev෴ils hockey games or dodging enemy fire๊ in Call of Duty: Warzone.
