The 30 Best 80s Movies That Are Still Totally Bodacious Today

The key to appreciating Purple Rain beyond its obvious surface pleasures is to take it in as a spin on a 1930s musical. Think of it set in an old time vaudeville theater, and the story of Minneapolis’s First Avenue concert venue with its house bands that practically live there starts to make more sense. But, hey, no one has really loved this movie for its story (or, let’s face it, its acting.) It’s Prince’s score, and the outstanding performances by The Revolution (and Morris Day and the Time) that have cemented this as an 80s musical classic. The final medley of “I Would Die 4 U” into “Baby I’m A Star” is why they invented cameras and lenses. Prince was a charisma machine, and, sure, the scenes with his feuding parents don’t quite work, but any close-up of his eyes reminds you that this was a man who owned any room he entered.

Back to the Future (1985)

“Great Scott!” “Think, McFly, think!” “1.21 gigawatts!” Boy, there sure are a lot of out-of-context lines burned into our collective unconscious thanks to Robert Zemeckis’s classic 80s movie, this family-friendly sci-fi adventure. Michael J. Fox is the lovable teen who rides a DeLorean souped-up with a Flux Capacitor burning Libyan plutonium and ends up in 1955 … and accidentally paradoxes himself out of existence unless he can get his father to take his mother to the Enchantment Under The Sea dance. Along the way he invents rock ’n’ roll, freezes the clock tower, and kills a baby pine tree, forever changing the name of a shopping mall. It’s not only one of the best 80s teen movies, but a big, enjoyable hit that still works with audiences of all ages.

Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

Considering that Madonna was one of the biggest pop stars of the 80s (and 90s, and onward) it’s fun to look back at her first film and see how scrappy and downtown it was. Shot and set in New York’s underground art scene (the cameos from Rockets Redglare to Arto Lindsay to Annie Golden and many more are incredible!), this madcap swapped-identity comedy from Susan Seidelman is one of the most breezy, fun, and romantic movies of the 80s. Rosanna Arquette is a bored New Jersey hausfrau who takes a trip to Oz after stalking the freewheeling Susan (Madonna) whose sartorially-innovative lifestyle includes eating Cheez Doodles and crossing state lines with stolen earrings from ancient Egypt. Don’t worry too much about the plot, but do look on in wonder at Santo Loquasto’s production and costume design, which made its mark on pop culture and in music videos for years. Whenever anyone says there aren’t good 80s movies, point them this way.

Ran (1985)

Japanese master Akira Kurosawa was basically blind by the time he directed this adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear, but he’d been painting the storyboards for a decade. The result is a film that’s epic in scope, ranging from battle scenes of brutal realism to dreamlike sequences of natural splendor. (Rarely can one legitimately cite “wind” as a character in a movie.) The Lear story is switched here to three sons, and when things get dicey between them, things turn bloody. Battling factions fly bright, primary-colored flags, making this one of the more sumptuous displays in filmmaking, even if people are killing one another horribly. Tatsuya Nakadai, who starred in five of Kurosawa’s films as well as Japanese classics The Face of Another, Kwaidan, and Portrait of Hell, is mesmerizing as the 16th-century feudal lord slowly losing touch with reality as he transitions between this world and the next.

Aliens (1986)

Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley wasn’t the very first science fiction hero to wear a mech suit, but she was certainly the one that made the most lasting impression. While Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien is surely the best horror movie in space, James Cameron’s Aliens can make a good case for itself as the best action-adventure movie in space. The premise here (and every forthcoming Alien movie) is basically the same—“The Company” is stupid enough to think it can trap, contain, and exploit the power of these vicious interplanetary beasties, and it doesn’t care how many of their people die trying to get the job done. Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, and more co-star as Xenomorph fodder, and things get truly gross by the end, making it one of the more popular 80s movies. Weaver’s badassery turned a corner for women in gun-toting action roles in a way that felt natural, and racing through air conditioning vents has never been the same.

Blue Velvet (1986)

Before the invention of the internet, it took special flames like a David Lynch movie to draw all the freaky moths together. Blue Velvet, which drinks from a similar well as Lynch’s magnum opus Twin Peaks, is a hyper-stylized psycho-sexual thriller blending kitschy comedy with brutal violence and dark impulses. Kyle MacLachlan is a college student visiting his small-town home who discovers a severed ear crawling with ants amid the manicured lawn. Clearly, the picturesque locale (is this set in the 1950s? It’s hard to say) is hiding a layer of human cruelty, and as the mystery widens we meet the gas-huffing Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) and the imprisoned lounge singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rosselini). In between scenes of film noir-style suspense are moments of surrealist comedy and inexplicable moments of dread. Yet for all the weirdness, this is one of Lynch’s more straightforward projects. A good on-ramp, or maybe the end of the road, depending on your tastes.

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Michael Caine and Diane Wiest both won Oscars in this sprawling masterpiece of interpersonal dynamics loosely based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters. At its center is Mia Farrow, in peak form as a caring wife, mother, daughter, and sister trying to keep a widening group of psychologically spiraling people together. Farthest in orbit is her ex-husband, played by Woody Allen, who won another Oscar for his screenplay. This movie, perhaps more than anything else he’s done, has its legacy felt in a generation of comedies rooted in complex human interaction. Barbara Hershey, Carrie Fisher, Maureen O’Sullivan (Farrow’s mother), and Julie Kavner round out the tremendous cast. Max Von Sydow’s monologue as a grumpy painter flipping channels on television is perhaps the funniest scene from any 80s comedy movie.

Moonstruck (1987)