The 20 best Road Trip Movies

Few modes of travel have inspired filmmakers quite like the road trip. The best road trip movies often hit several different beats; they can be funny, sad, whimsical, even violent (we're looking at you, Bonnie & Clyde), but they all share an appreciation for self-discovery on the open road. Here, we've chosen 20 of our favorites.



It Happened One Night (1934)

Two of early Hollywood's biggest stars—Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert—teamed up for this Frank Capra-directed film. The pair is thrown together after Colbert's Ellie, a socialite who has run away from her family, and Gable's Peter meet on a bus; they end up on a cross-country road trip, high jinks ensue, and the leads, of course, fall in love. The film notably won five major Academy Awards (including best picture, director, actor, and actress), but it's maybe best-known for the scene in which Colbert flashes a little leg while hitchhiking. —Amy Plitt




The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Dorothy travels to Oz not by car but by farm house—and only by following the Yellow Brick Road to the Emerald City will she find her way back to Kansas. Not all that different from a traveler hitting the open road, Dorothy makes pit stops (Munchkinland) and picks up a trio of hitchhikers (the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion) while encountering terrifying road blocks (flying monkeys?) along the way. —Juliana Shallcross




Bonnie & Clyde (1967)

Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty star as the titular outlaw duo in Arthur Penn's classic film, which represented a departure from its Hollywood films predecessors in tone, style, and its depiction of violence. The tagline—"They're young…they're in love…and they kill people"—basically sums up the film: Bonnie and Clyde embark on a cross-country spree, committing crimes and murdering bystanders with abandon, until the film's climactic final showdown. —A.P.




Pierrot le Fou (1965)

Jean-Luc Godard's 1966 film—the title roughly translates to "Pierrot, the madman"—follows Ferdinand (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and Marianne (Anna Karina) as go on a law-breaking run across France. Despite the film's surreal, occasionally violent tone, it also showcases the beautiful imagery of Paris and the French countryside, captured by cinematographer Raoul Coutard. —A.P.




Easy Rider (1969)

After a successful drug deal in Southern California, longhairs Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) jump on their Harleys and head east to New Orleans in search of the ‘real America.’ Hopper’s directorial debut was a seminal moment in American cinema: It was a surprise hit that explored the late ’60s counterculture movement (communes, marijuana, and LSD all make memorable cameos) and helped set off the era of New Hollywood, a period when auteurs were given a new kind of creative freedom. —Calder Quinn




Five Easy Pieces (1970)

After his breakout performance in 1969's Easy Rider, Jack Nicholson took his first leading role in another road trip movie, Five Easy Pieces. Nicholson plays Bobby Dupea, an oil rigger and former piano prodigy living in California with his waitress girlfriend, Rayette. After receiving news of his father's failing health, Bobby and Rayette drive up to Washington state, encountering oddball hitchhikers, sleazy motels, and a poor diner waitress who gets one of the most famous verbal lashings of all time. Ultimately, the film is a poignant and subtle portrayal of the alienation and loneliness of Bobby, a man who can't accept his blue-collar existence. —Caitlin Morton




National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)

Vacation was the world’s introduction to the Griswold family, led by accident-prone dad-in-chief Clark (Chevy Chase). The film spoofs the tried-and-true American tradition of the family road trip, taking the Griswold car through at least two real-life national parks—Death Valley and Grand Canyon—on their way to the fictional amusement park, Walley World. Add in an unforgettable cameo from Christie Brinkley and a hit theme song in “Holiday Road,” and you have a movie every vacationer should watch once in her lifetime. —Will Levith




Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985)

Tim Burton's directorial debut was also the first time most people became acquainted with Paul Reubens' exuberant man-child, who takes off on a wild trip across the United States to find his beloved red bicycle. Pee-Wee travels to the Alamo (which, as we come to learn, does not have a basement), encounters scary characters—most memorably Large Marge—and is eventually reunited with his beloved two-wheeler. —A.P.




The Sure Thing (1985)

Walter Gibson (John Cusack) hops in a car to drive cross-country in search of that adolescent male Mount Everest—a "sure thing." One of his fellow passengers is Alison (Daphne Zuniga), a classmate who’s rejected Walter’s advances in the past. Initially this makes for tough going, but their mutual distaste morphs into attraction as they make their way west. This earnest teen-comedy, directed by Rob Reiner, shows how the close confines of a car can sometimes be a fertile (and hilarious) breeding ground for romance. —C.Q.




Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987)

Set around Thanksgiving, Planes uses the travel rush in the days leading up to the holiday as a more-than-worthy comedic vehicle. Steve Martin goofs as Neal Page, who faces a series of travel nightmares on his trip from New York City to Chicago in advance of Turkey Day. After his flight is cancelled due to inclement weather, Page ends up sharing his trip home with salesman Del Griffith, played by the late, great John Candy. The actors' chemistry is hard to deny…especially when they’re sleeping in the same bed together on the road. —W.L.




Dumb & Dumber (1994)

In this Farrelly brothers comedy, friends Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) abandon their dreams of opening a worm pet store in their hometown, Providence, Rhode Island to return a lost briefcase to its owner in Colorado. Driving Harry’s sheepdog-styled truck, the daft duo finally make it to Aspen—but not before driving almost a third of the way across the country in the wrong direction. Along the way they encounter a scary character named Seabass, unwittingly place a traffic cop in an uncomfortable position, trade in Harry’s beloved dog-themed automobile for a 50cc scooter, and—despite their intellectual constraints—eventually complete their task. —C.Q.




The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

Before To Wong Foo , there was another band of drag queens on a road trip, this time through Australia. Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp, and Hugo Weaving star as two drag queens and a trans woman crossing the Outback in a tour bus (she’s the titular Priscilla). The stark, remote Aussie landscape was the perfect complement to the gang’s outrageous style—and, more importantly, for their conversations about life, love, and identity. Priscilla was more than just a fun movie: It positively depicted LGBT characters onscreen and helped bring Australian cinema to the rest of the world. —Lilit Marcus




Tommy Boy (1995)

Chris Farley and David Spade were one of the best comedic duos of the 1990s, and no film proves that better than Tommy Boy. Farley plays the titular Tommy, a bumbling but likeable college grad who is forced to save the family auto-parts business after his father passes away. He hits the road with his father's prissy and antagonistic assistant, Richard (Spade), in an effort to sell half a million brake pads. They inevitably hit some hilarious snags along the way, involving deer, chicken wings, the slow destruction of Richard's car, and a beautifully wicked Rob Lowe. —C.M.




The Daytrippers (1996)

Although the road trip itself doesn’t cover too much ground (Long Island to New York City), this still belongs on the list, mainly because it features Hope Davis, Parker Posey, and Liev Schreiber all at their mid-90s, quirky-indie-film best. Davis discovers evidence that her husband is cheating, and sets out to confront him, literally bringing her family along for the ride. It’s hilarious, and does a great job of capturing the complexities of family. —Jayna Maleri




Smoke Signals (1998)

Some road trip movies are about friends traveling together, but the protagonists of Smoke Signals, based on a short story by Sherman Alexie, might be more accurately described as "frenemies." Thomas and Victor are two young men growing up on a Native American reservation in Idaho who set off to retrieve Victor’s father’s ashes. The long, lonely stretches of road give them time to talk, spar, watch Dances With Wolves for the thousandth time (that one’s just Thomas), and unravel what it means to be Native in America. By the end, they may not necessarily be friends, but they understand each other in a way few others could. —L.M.




O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)

The Coen brothers's take on Homer's Odyssey —perhaps the ultimate road trip— O Brother, Where Art Thou? substitutes 1930s rural Mississippi for ancient Greece and features George Clooney, John Goodman, and Holly Hunter, all of whom have become repertory players in the filmmakers' universe. Also worth noting: The film has one of the best soundtracks ever recorded. —J.M.




The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)

In this biopic, Ernesto Guevara (Gael García Bernal)—before he became famous worldwide as ‘Che’—takes off across South America on an 8,000-mile journey of discovery. As he and his friend travel by motorcycle (and raft, and truck...) from Argentina to Peru, they encounter a land of great beauty, but also vast inequality, impressions that would help form Che’s future principles as a freedom fighter and champion of the oppressed. —C.Q.




The Trip (2010)

Not quite a buddy comedy—you get the sense that the characters played by British comedians Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan may not even like each other very much—this meandering 2010 film is hilarious nevertheless. Brydon and Coogan road-trip through England to dine in fancy restaurants, all the while one-upping each other’s jokes and pondering the meaning of life, death, and relationships. Come for the beautiful shots of the English countryside, but stay for the goofy jokes—particularly the brilliant bit riffing on Michael Caine and Sean Connery's accents. —AP




Nebraska (2013)

Alexander Payne’s Nebraska is no road trip noir—even though it appears that way initially. Filmed in black and white (with shades of melancholy), the 2013 indie follows the slow decline of elderly Woody Grant (Bruce Dern), whom we first see walking a busy stretch of highway in Billings, Montana, desperate to get to Lincoln, Nebraska to pick up his $1 million sweepstakes winnings. His son, David (Will Forte), and wife, Kate (June Squibb), try to convince him the sweeps are a scam. But cantankerous Woody—a lifelong alcoholic with borderline dementia— wants his million bucks. So David agrees to drive him to Lincoln, leading us on a heartbreaking trip past the corn fields of middle America with a detour through the Grant family’s past. —Laura Dannen Redman




Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Quirky character studies and tales of self-discovery are great, but sometimes you just want non-stop, adrenaline-pumping action. That's certainly what you get with Mad Max: Fury Road, the latest installment in George Miller's apocalyptic franchise. This time around, Max (Tom Hardy) gets captured by the tyrannical Immortan Joe, ruler of a desert fortress; he eventually escapes and teams with Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a warrior at the wheel of a big rig on a freedom mission. It's one giant chase scene through the red deserts of Namibia's Skeleton Coast , meant to stand in for post-apocalyptic Australia. —C.M.